Importance of Leading Effective Change Within an Organization - Critical Thinking Example

Changes occur daily, but almost every organization undergoes a significant transformation at least once if not often. The changes range from use of new software to a complete restructuring of an organization. In the process, the ability of the management to respond to the change effects is fundamental hence the need to put in place effective leadership (Abdul Rashid, Sambasivan & Abdul Rahman, 2004). This helps in coping with the after change effects and give direction to the overall change, which is crucial to the organization success. Effective change in an organization defines leadership roles, communication during the change process, collaboration, and how the employees can manage fears.

Where there is effective change, the organization places trust in leadership to allow the employees look to the leaders and give direction to the upcoming change process. Organization change with lack of proper leadership structure can lead to chaos or distrust among the employees. Ineffective leadership emanates to negative response from the workforce and instability. Leadership has the responsibility for demonstrating the need for change, and formulation of common goals. Communication with other employees openly is essential in building trust (Sadri & Tran, 2014). There is a need to listen to their concerns and be accountable for the change that is expected to occur. Effective leadership will establish proper communication channels, which in the long term will build a sustainable relationship with the organization stakeholders.

Sometimes, resistance to change process is inevitable. Nevertheless, effective leadership will attempt to assess the emotions of the employees towards the change and communicate the fears linked to the change. The transition can be confusing, but when there is a role model mentality, and all parts of the organization operations are acknowledged, there will be minimal to zero resistance towards the change process. Similarly, effective leadership will supervise teamwork between departments and ensure that all processes, training, and preparation are linked to the overall goal of change. With solid teamwork in place, a better relationship will be built hence facilitating a faster response to challenges along the leadership role while managing change (Grieves, 2010).

Benefits of creating and accepting diversity within the organization

In many occasions when employees think of diversity, they usually focus on factors like age, race, or cultural background but there are far more to the creation of diversity in the working environment than hiring employees who fit into the various age brackets and forming that perfect working environment (Cummings, 2014). Even though we cannot share common attribute with others, it is evident that at the end of the day everyone will bring different things to the table, hence the importance of diversity. Hiring employees with different personalities at different stages of their career helps in fostering creativity and comes with a wide range of perspectives and ideas.

Diversity in the organization provides a wide range of selection in relation to talents, expertise, and skills that can be beneficial to the organization success and work performance. It is for this reason that the organization management should seek to hire those with appropriate skills to fit with other employees in the organization (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). A variety of skills and expertise in a team means that they can learn from each other. This will improve employee performance and productivity among the employees. Another benefit associated with diversity in an organization is the high level of innovation. Since employees will be working with people from diverse background, skills, and working approaches, creative concepts will be born among themselves, providing ideas to improve their performance. Whereas an employee can be excellent at formulating new ideas, another may have the required experience to implement it.

Concept of organizational culture and its impact in the workplace

Organization culture involves a set of common assumptions, ethics, and beliefs, which controls how employees behave. The common values and beliefs have to influence people in the organization and control how they dress, behave, and undertake their responsibilities in the organization. Organizations have created and maintained cultures to provide guidelines and boundaries to control the behaviors of their employees. This means that the cultural dimension is fundamental in almost all aspects of organizational life. Even if the management thinks that culture can be too soft or complex to bother about, it has played a significant impact on the success of different organizations across the globe. Senior organizations are often in one way or another managing their culture, underscoring what is essential and what is less important and outlining how the corporate world should be managed.

Organization culture provides a blueprint of how the employees should behave in the organization, depending on the type of culture created. This can have a positive or negative impact on the organization through the employee performance. Organization culture where employees make decisions in the growth process enhances employee commitment. Their individual goals and aspirations are aligned with those of the organization thereby making them feel responsible for the overall success of the organization. When the organization appreciates their efforts through better remuneration and recognition, they have increased job satisfaction. In the organization settings where the top management is taskmasters, the low-level employees grow to fear and distrust. Since there is no recognition and involvement in the organization management, they fail to understand the implications of their responsibilities and hence are not committed to achieving them. In this case, therefore, the organization culture to a higher degree determines employees morale and thus their performance in the organization. It is the interest of the organization to, therefore, eliminate negative factors that derail employee performance to foster positive work environment and a conducive working environment for all.

Part II: Scenario

The change process is one thing that is certain in almost all organization. The rate at which it occurs is expected to increase even further in the coming years with issues like the economic downtown. There has been a reduction in sales revenue, increased turn over and financial loss. The organization, for this reason, cannot find a sustainable balance between meeting the needs of their customers and making healthy margins. There is a slow advancement against the set strategy and an incapacity to profitably deliver on the organization's value proposition. The plan is to increase sales volume by 20 percent in the next year, and this means that there is a need for change, which calls for an overhaul of the internal communication approaches to persuade the employees of the importance and the relevance of the organizations aim and strategic goals.

To introduce the project effectively to the staff, there is a need first to ensure that the message is simple but deep in its meaning. Delivering the message in a simple manner will influence strategy, behavior at all levels of management and decision-making process. What is important is that the relevance of the project is displayed in a manner that takes care about the organization and the job they do. The message should be connected with the project in context, which becomes a tool to help connect the daily efforts with the organization vision. The second approach is to develop behavior that is attached to the market and the consumer insights. This will help the employees get in touch with the market realities. Internal campaigns will be developed based on customer insights thereby bringing the strategy to life. The content of the project will be packaged in a way that it can be shared with other departments in the organization. Another approach to delivering the change message is to utilize the discipline of a framework. This is because not every message is created equal hence the need to give priority and sequence them based on their purpose in the organization. The Inspire/Educate/Reinforce outline can be used to map and deliver the message.

Leadership skills to implement the change

Surviving and thriving in any industry calls proper navigation of change process. It is however unfortunate that 75 percent of change projects fail due to poor leadership. Internally, the major reasons for the failure in change process are lack of motivation in the organization, low trust in the existing leadership, reduced productivity and lack of confidence in future. From the external business environment, failure in the leadership will affect trust among employees thereby reducing stock prices. Failed leadership can be reassigned or removed, but their failures will follow them unless they restructure their leadership approaches. Leaders who restructure their organizations are hunted and respected (Needle, 2010). Changes cannot crumble their organizations; rather they identify new ways of leveraging the changes. Besides the tangible wins, there exists the aspect of psychological lift that comes with successive change implementation. Just like a win in sports, employees grow more confident in their talent and improve their performance. Navigating change, therefore, needs critical skills that leaders must develop.

Leaders should listen to the front line employees to understand what exactly needs to be done. The front line employees understand the score since they interact with the customers and colleagues on a daily basis. For that reason, they understand what is going might be wrong, what frustrates the customers and what the competitors do to take businesses. Leaders who make the front line active contributors to creating a path ensures that everything is brought on board and works together towards achieving change. As a leader, there is also a need to play the politics of change and have an understanding that each agenda and figure how to manipulate politics to reduce uncertainties and making efforts to allow people feel respected and part of the process. Understanding the politics of change saves time and protects the status quo, inspiring team members to bring their top game and become partners rather than opponents.

Leaders of change should understand the organizational priorities and have the ability to persevere. They should win employee trust since transformational change always traverses organizational boundaries and for this reason, has to create a rapport with important people located within the organizational boundaries and learn what is fundamental to the success of the organization. Leaders will develop intersections, develop a common culture, and understand people (Holbeche, 2016). Overcoming change resistance requires high level of perseverance, a purpose that they firmly believe in to anchor the change project and guide their decision-making process.

Importance of diversity towards the goal

The goal is to increase sales revenue by 20 percent in the next year, and it is important to have a diverse organization. Diverse employees bring together different perspectives and experiences in sales and evoke alternative solutions. If effectively managed, employee strengths and insights will be harnessed to increase the sales volumes and the overall profitability of the organization. Amalgamation of these diverse skills will set stage for creativity (Hrebiniak, 2013). Besides an increased sales revenue, employees will experience personal...