Paper Example. An Evidence-Based Critical Evaluation of Change Leadership Practice in an Organization

The capability of any leader to influence other employees in an organization is the foundation for a successful change process. Change is inevitable, especially in the current conditions of open-ended futures due to market shifts that have created a lot of uncertainties. Therefore, the necessity for good leaders and leadership is on the rise as they are the means for actualizing an organization's future goals. According to Griffin and Moorhead (2006), a leader's influence on others is of greater importance compared to the characteristics of the leader. To successfully enact change, a leader has to focus on three major change issues; the first is the change of perceptions by recognizing that the modern workplace environment and conditions are not conducive, and they can be improved. Secondly is the change in attitudes meaning that change should result in better working conditions, and lastly, is the change in behavior of the leader, which encourages others to emulate them and work harder to achieve the organization's objective.

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Due to the changing micro and macro-environmental factors such as; new technology and information, international competition as well as socio-economic changes, LVV Company needed to adopt new systems, management practices, and organizational structures. However, the change process requires dedicated, capable, and credible leadership as it is always challenging and long-term. Besides, the management in charge of the change must be strategic to ensure that the process is controlled and systematically planned. The objective of the case study is to assess key leadership issues that emerged at the LVV Company during their change and restructuring process, identify the main approaches used in the process, and give suggestions of different techniques as well as recommendations for sustainable change.

Key Change Leadership Issues Evaluated

Communication

For Emma to accomplish her targets, she realized she had to connect the communication gap between the administrative center and the territorial workplaces. When leading the change processes, one realizes that it can be a challenging task. It has frequently been noted that management services depend on the strategy used, as individuals tend to oppose changes in the workplace if the method used is not friendly to them. The public keeps off any approach that is likely to add to their financial burden or their social weight.

Communication is the action between and among people, whereby information is relayed, reacted to, and a response conveyed back. An essential tool used to demonstrate any public activity and running of any business. An organization needs to take an attempt at open communication and change of culture to exceed expectations in its exercises. As indicated by Emma, there was a tremendous communication gap between the administrative center and the local workplaces.

To ensure there is minimum resistance, communication is the best approach used to inform people of the planned changes even before it starts. It is essential as individuals are notified of the timelines of the change, its impact on them, and what is expected of them during the process. Additional information is also necessary on how the changes will impact on their work environment and the plans the organization has to ensure it will continue to empower them to adapt to the change. Also, leaders are required to be a source of affirmation in the workplace. Leaders are expected to be able to foresee the long-term benefits of accomplishing the changes and ensure that all individuals receive information on how to implement, and why to implement the change.

By communicating early in the change process, a lot of cynicism and vulnerability diminished, while at the same time limiting unnecessary rumors even before they begin spreading all over the organization. Communication is, for the most part, is the foundation for any significant activity of change. Communication goes hand in hand with an important change. Information is utilized daily by leaders and managers in the work environment to make decisions. The leadership team uses communication to create action plans when inspiring individuals, and when illuminating talks about the future. Therefore, communication is a package on the timing, message content, and its' technique.

Leaders should, therefore, put more emphasis on communication as it is a crucial element to actualizing change and making it a triumph. The more detailed and open communication begins, the better the trust element is likely to be among the people involved in the transition. Moreover, communication is a vital apparatus for developing a typical comprehension of an organization's objectives and course. The importance of communication is to pass on important information between leaders and workers as they address accompanying concerns on the change process, such as which departments of the organizations engage with change as well as the targets and timelines.

Teamwork

The subsequent management issue Emma concentrated on was accumulating the right individuals around her and setting up a strong team. Her supervisory crew would need to make sense of what direction to go, what items to utilize, which market to contend with, and which customers to serve. For a leader to accomplish his/her ideal change in the organization, collaboration is a fundamental component.

According to the literature, the team, a leader, choose should have been comprised of an adequate number of members, each of them with relevant and complementary skills, a specific purpose, and a common goal or goals (Fajana, 2002). There should be an established, particular strategy to attain the team's goal with a clear sense of mutual accountability of all members (Dianna, 2006)). For great teamwork to achieve, the team ought to be aware that discovering time, engaging in training to add onto skills as well as creating common and shared values, especially during the initial stages of the collaborations, is very important.

Having a powerful team involves deliberately planning for it. When formulating a team, it is imperative to consider the general elements of the group. Effective teams mainly comprise of an assortment of beneficial people with experience, have critical thinking abilities, and are available to attend to issues with adequate information (La Fasto, 2001). The power of colleagues to give and get input is extremely crucial as it brings up how viable the group is. A significant team initiative relies on their skills.

A competent leader is grounded around the goal, can guarantee a cooperative working environment, fabricates the confidence of colleagues, sets the needs, and shows adequate "know-how" and can oversee execution through criticism. While there is no most ideal approach to configuration, creating, and bolstering exceptionally successful teams, one needs to get the best group to work adequately.

Trust

Thirdly, not long after her first presentation, Emma declared that she needed to begin a program to assemble trust and bring the individuals of LVV together. She realized she was to converse with individuals interminably and subsequently must be open to other people's opinions and suggestions. Authoritative change is pervasive inside the private companies just as the public arena. Privately owned businesses are under expanding examination from renewed proprietor groups setting increasingly aggressive targets for income ever and return on investments. Not at all like previously, where privately owned businesses confronted generally agreeable and unsurprising business sector situations, the local markets are now taking up opportunities to take on the worldwide competition. Managements that faced market restrictions previously because of innovative limitations have become worldwide competitors through the outsourcing of various services from different organizations (Economist, 2003).

The primary concern is how relational trust, inside organizations, impact authoritative change, and learning. Trust is fundamental to organizations in empowering the coordination of activities, risk-taking, and preparation of skills into beneficial input. Trust turns out to be much more progressively necessary for organizations that are changing as organizations face vulnerability with an expanding requirement for coordination and communication related to the exchange and learning of new abilities.

This sets out the reason that the idea of trust has brilliant potential in promoting our understanding regarding why a few organizations oversee advances and change while others fumble. We contend, in any case, that this potential is generally undiscovered and that current conceptualizations have neglected to connect the build of trust to massive results. In this manner, while we realize that trust builds work fulfillment, we don't recognize whether trust improves an organization's capacity to change and adjustments (Dirks and Ferrin, 2001; McEvily, Perrone, and Zaheer, 2003).

Leadership Approaches and Change Framework Used

Kotter's change management theory

This theory is among the most famous as well as accepted organizational theories among scholars. The idea was developed by John Kotter, a professor at the Harvard School of Business and also an author of some books focusing on the change process in organizations. The theory, which is composed of eight phases, attempts to explain people's reactions to change based on each stage. The hypothesis was utilized by the LVV leadership team in the accompanying stages to carry change to the organization.

Increase urgency - Emma made it extremely obvious from her first days at LVV that there needed to be urgency in trying to achieve change in terms of thorough enhanced open communication among the people in the company. The phase involves communicating and pushing for ideas that were unbelievable in the trucking business. It is an essential phase as it aids in persuading people to work harder towards the attainment of targets.

Build the team - This phase requires the leader in charge of the change process to choose individuals for his/her team who have a blend of abilities, information, and responsibility. Emma accumulated all the ideal individuals around her and built up a strong group. This was regarding their ability aptitudes and duty to push her plans. She required innovativeness and creativity to actualize the team.

Get the vision correct - This stage involves formulating the right vision by utilizing not only fair techniques but as well as incorporating common and shared values, passion for seeing the organization grow as well as the quality of services and products. Emma thought she realized what LVV required. They came up short on an unclear vision of where to remain in the market. Emma's issue at this stage was that there should have been a vision. Together with her management team and the local directors of LVV, she would build up this vision.

Communication - Communication in the organization with regard to changes expected and the requirements needed is also an essential phase of the theory. As indicated by her, the organization was impeding communication between the management and representatives; in this way, making doubt. So LVV should have been progressively centered around the individuals to enhance that.

Get things moving - According to Kotter, initiating change requires a leader to get support, minimize barriers that could hinder the process, and be open to suggestions and criticism. Coordinating growth to this extent would have been risky and challenging.