Blog Title: Leadership and change management
Blog: https://joehania.wordpress.com/change/
Word count: 742 words
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Table of Content
1.
CHANGE IS INEVITABLE ........................................................................................................................... 3
2.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE ............................................................................................................................. 4
3.
CHANGE .................................................................................................................................................. 4
4.
CONFLICT ................................................................................................................................................ 4
5.
TRANSACTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ..................................................................... 5
6.
REFLECTIONS ........................................................................................................................................... 7
7.
REFERENCE .............................................................................................................................................. 7
8.
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................ 9
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1. Change is inevitable
Change is always happening in our lives.
In Singapore, “Policemen used to wear
shorts” a common phrase used locally to
candidly describe the changing times. The
way millennials prefer to text over phones
calls are also evident of the way we
communicate today (Howe 2016).
Companies that do not embrace the
changes in society has experience their
downfalls as we have seen with Kodak,
Nokia, Yahoo, Hitachi, Motorola, Borders,
Atari, Nortel, Enron, HMV, Tower
Records and Toys-R-Us (Aaslaid 2019).
Figure 2 reflects the drivers that generates these transformations. Changes that impacts
businesses can be planned or emergent. Therefore, change is inevitable, and resistance is futile
(Mullins 2010).
Grab adapted their ride-hailing business and added food delivery to their repertoire with the
changes in personal habits and increase in home-food delivery in 2018. However, exhorted by
the global lockdowns in 2020, it helped sustained their business as their ride-hailing demand
was impacted but their food delivery services were boosted (Kwang 2018).
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2. Resistance is Futile
Oppositions to change, could lead to
disapprovals and conflicts. Thus, leaders
apply their transformational or transitional
leadership style (TTLS) to mitigate. Figure 2
illustrates the reasons for resistance which
leaders need to identify before jumping into
the change implementations (Chrissy 2020).
3. Change
Organisations identify change agents to
implement planned change or align the
organisation to emergent changes. Numerous
change management models have been
developed but analysing all will reveal a
common element which is the capabilities of
the change agent and communications which
will determine the outcome (Lunenberg
2010).
4. Conflict
Conflicts will arise and this will test the leader’s capabilities. Collaboration is a win-win
resolution where it combines assertiveness and cooperation as seen in figure 3. The solutions
will satisfy everyone and minimize discords. Usually, all parties will contribute to a solution
thus leading to long-term resolution (Corvette 2013).
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5. Transactional and Transformational
Leaders provide direction, plans, and applying different leadership styles to influence and
compel their teams. The prognosis and success of the change is dependent on the success of the
change agents. As we have learnt in previous article charismatic leadership invokes creativity
and innovation. Elon Musk has displayed such traits and motivate his followers to be creative
to adapt to the changes (Wingard 2019). Table 1 illustrates 8 common and contemporary
leadership styles that are inherent in TTLS (Brian 2014).
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At Netflix, CEO Reed Hastings described as a transformational leader is committed to
performers and empowering them with transparency and autonomy. The organisational culture
advocates constructive criticism and positive feedbacks, with alternative solution to be given
anytime and anywhere. Building on feeling of ownership and responsibility, employees have
access to critical and financial information usually reserved for senior executives. Failures are
accepted and shared their assessment of what went wrong and the learning lessons (Hal 2020).
Figure 4 illustrates the traits of the TTLS.
Applying Lewin’s 3-step change model, Hasting’s transformational leadership traits such as
communicating his vision and inspiring his team to ‘unfreeze’ the current situation. He broke
conventional work norms and compelled the team to accept the changes through his open
communications and minimized the resistance. Subsequently, the ‘actual’ change occurs, and
Hastings intellectually stimulates and provision necessary resources for the team to implement
the changes. Finally, the workforce adapts to the changes, day by day. Employees will
eventually adjust to the new systems and starts to fit comfortably, into pre-unfreezing stage.
Contrarily, known leaders who have portrayed transactional leadership traits such as task
oriented, enforcing rules, incentivising, and reprimanding failures are Donald Trump (Trump
2020), Jeff Bezos (Frontine PBS 2020), and Steve Jobs (Jobs 2011). As reflected in Pixar
Studios, Steve Jobs’ chain of command was clear and explicit. Incentives and penalties were
instilled, whilst processes were judiciously monitored in every element of the change
management (Wall Street Journal 2012).
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6. Reflections
There is no perfect team but a perfect synergy. Putting it all together change will happen, and
the resistance will come from people showing signs from factors in figure 2. Whilst utilising a
change management model, a leader communicates to his team of the changes coming and
during the course itself. Both leadership styles can mitigate the resistance and successfully
achieve the goals, but both have their distinct benefits and pitfalls. In transformational
leadership, when there is a conflict, a win-win solution is pursued. Oppositely a transactional
leader may solve the conflicts - ‘my-way’ or as Donald Trump’s reality TV show would say:
‘You’re Fired’.
7. Reference
Aaslaid, K. (2019) 50 Examples of Corporations that failed to innovate. [Online]
Available at: < https://www.valuer.ai/blog/50-examples-of-corporations-that-failed-toinnovate-and-missed-their-chance > [Accessed 25 April 2021].
Brian, T. (2014) Leadership. NY: Amacom.
Chrissy, C.(2020) Managing Stakeholder Resistance to Change. [Online]
Available at: < https://www.batonglobal.com/post/managing-stakeholder-resistance-tochange> [Accessed 22 April 2021].
Corvette, B. (2013) Conflict Management. Harlow: Pearson.
Frontine PBS (2020) Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos. [Online]
Available at: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVVfJVj5z8s>
[Accessed 26 April 2021].
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Hal , K. (2020) 7 Leadership Lessons from Netflix CEO Reed Hasting's New Book. [Online]
Available at: < https://builtin.com/company-culture/netflix-book> [Accessed 7 April
2021].
Howe, N.(2016) Why Millennials Are Texting More And Talking Less. [Online]
Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2015/07/15/why-millennials-aretexting-more-and-talking-less/?sh=3f291b9c5975> [Accessed 25 April 2021].
Jobs, S. (2011) Steve Jobs passion in work. [Online]
Available at: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PznJqxon4zE> [Accessed 26 April
2021].
Kwang, K. (2018) Grab launches GrabFood in Singapore; to offer service soon in Southeast
Asia. [Online] Available at: <
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/grabfood-ubereats-launch-ubereatssingapore-no-minimum-order-10283298 > [Accessed 25 April 2021].
Lunenberg, F. (2010) Managing Change: The Role of the Change Agent. International Journal
of Management, Business, and administration, 13(1).
Mullins, L. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson.
Trump, D. (2020) Trump: Whats the deal?. [Online]
Available at:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYU2FJxsSeE> [Accessed 26 April
2021].
Wall Street Journal (2012) Steve Jobs Remembered by Larry Ellison and Pixar's Ed Catmull.
[Online] Available at: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Yk4k2tG4A>
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Wingard, J. (2019) Elon Musk And The Pitfalls Of Creative Leadership. [Online]
Available at: < https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2019/04/10/elon-musk-andthe-pitfalls-of-creative-leadership/?sh=5aa82e033f3e> [Accessed 25 April 2021].
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8. Appendices
Appendix 1- Comments from blog
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