REVIEW OF AN ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHANGE EVENT

Review of an Organisational Leadership Change Event



Review of an Organisational Leadership Change Event

Introduction

Change management, in fact, is becoming synonymous with management itself. But you can scarcely apply radical change to a process without affecting its parts. Since the constituents of management are individual managers, it follows that a new kind of manager is required to enable the revolution to succeed.

That's an uncomfortable reality for the old kind, who by definition constitute the great majority of practising managers. A somewhat sad account in the Wall Street Journal tells of a 54-year old middle manager whose career, as he knows, has peaked; who has already experienced one lay-off and another near miss; who now drives himself long and hard to keep up with younger colleagues; who has changed specialism three times in 15 years - from production management to marketing, to purchasing, to finance; and who, despite all that effort and flexibility, earns the same as in 1989 (Cooper, 2005).

Starting from this perspective, this chapter first briefly examines major challenges facing contemporary organisations, then reviews a number of alternative ways of looking at leadership in organisations, and finally considers some specific leadership requirements presented by change and globalization, the two largest organisational challenges of this century.

Organisational Challenges

Some management researchers and authors see the 21st century in terms of conflicts between groups with competing interests. For example, some point to the growing gap between affluent and poor groups as a source of continued unrest and possible challenge for organisations. While disparities in wealth have always been present, technological changes have made differences more visible than ever, possibly fueling new levels of unrest (Starbuck, 2005). Other conflicts may exist between organisations and nations, as large for-profit and nonprofit entities extend presence and influence across national boundaries, often tying employees more tightly to the organisations than to their home country. Indeed, the revenues of Fortune 500 companies are larger than numerous national budgets (Cooper, 2005). The influence of these organisations may be further augmented by continued globalization of markets and the outsourcing of work and services in other parts of the world (Kotter, 2007). International Business Machines (IBM) considers that the challenge of change and globalization require leadership that can

* adopt new technologies and alter business processes and employee/manager roles to make effective use of technologies;

* develop new perspectives about the nature of the business objectives and goals of the organisation;

* develop perspectives about the nature of the calling of the organisation and its role in society. Social responsibility is not just an “add-on.” Successful organisations must have a vision for the role and contribution to making the world a better place (Kotter, 2007);

* make products and services attractive to customers in different cultures; and

* work effectively with members of different cultures as fellow employees, providers of outsourced services, or as venture partners (Kotter, 2007).

Guiding change may be the ultimate test of a leader, since evidence suggests that few organisations will survive over the long term without ...