Leadership & Change MGT Module
Leadership & Change MGT Module
1. INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP
An organization has the greatest chance of being successful when all of the employees work toward
achieving its goals. Since leadership involves the exercise of influence by one person over others, the
supervisors/managers is a critical determinant of organizational success. The idea of leadership
irrespective of different terms used as directing, executing, supervising, ordering, commanding, etc. is to
put into effect the decisions, plan and programs, that have previously been worked out for achieving the
goals of the group.
Leadership: is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the leader‘s goal.
Leader: is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.
Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and
work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation. Leadership is the
ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence and zeal. Leadership is
the potential to influence behaviour of others. It is also defined as the capacity to influence a
group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to
motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the visions.
According to Keith Davis, ―Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives
enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards
goals.‖
Leading is the process of establishing direction and influencing others to follow that direction. It is
the process by which one person influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of others.
Leaders set a direction for the rest of us; they help us see what lies ahead; they help us visualize
what we might achieve; they encourage us and inspire us. Without leadership a group of human
being quickly degenerates into argument and conflict, because we see things in different ways and
lean toward different solutions. Leadership helps to point us in the same direction and harness our
efforts jointly. Leader‘s ability to get other people to do something significant that might not
otherwise do.
Leadership is a dynamic relationship based on mutual influence and common purpose between
leaders and collaborators in which both are moved to higher levels of motivation and moral
development as they affect real, intended change. (Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, 1996).
Leadership is the process of influencing employees to work toward the achievement of objectives.
Leaders apply various forms of influence-from subtle persuasion to more assertiveness- to ensure
that followers have the motivation and role clarity to achieve specified goals.
Leaders also arrange the work environment-such as allocating resources and altering communication
patterns-so that employees can achieve corporate objectives more easily.
Provide meaningful direction.
Motivate workers through meeting their expectation.
Issuing of orders that are clear, complete, and practicable.
Take responsibility for the direction and actions of a team.
Accepting responsibility for mistakes/wrong decisions.
Being flexible: prepared to adapt goals in the light of changing situations.
Characteristics of Leadership
1. It is an inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing and guiding workers towards
attainment of goals.
2. It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person who includes intelligence, maturity and
personality.
3. It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with each other.
4. A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behaviour of the group towards accomplishment of
organizational goals.
5. Leadership is situation bound. There is no best style of leadership. It all depends upon tackling with
the situations.
Leadership and management are not the same. People tend to use the terms manager and leader
interchangeably. However, that usage is not correct. Management and leadership are related but different
concepts. Leadership is one of the five management functions (planning, organizing, staffing, leading,
and controlling). Someone can be a manger without being a true leader. There are managers –you may
know of some-who are not leaders because they do not have the ability to influence others. There are also
good leaders who are not managers. The informal leader, an employee group member, is a case in point.
The leader of the work group may emerge informally as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to
influence people to achieve the goals of the organization, without using his or her formal authority to do
so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership.
According to John P.Kotter in his book, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from management
(1990), managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Without leading as well as managing,
today‘s organizations face the threat of extinction. Management is the process of setting and achieving the
goals of the organization through the function of management. A manager is hired by the organization
and is given formal authority to direct the activity of others in fulfilling organization goal. Thus, leading
is a major part of a manager‘s job. Yet a manager must also plan, organize, staff, and control. Generally
speaking, leadership deals with the interpersonal aspects of a manager‘s job, whereas planning,
organizing, and controlling deal with the administrative aspects. Leadership deals with change,
inspiration, motivation, and influence. Management deals more with carrying out the organization‘s goals
and maintains equilibrium.
Management produces a degree of predictability and order. Leadership produces change. Kotter believes
that most organizations are under lead and over managed. He sees both strong leadership and strong
management as necessary for optimal organizational effectiveness,
Leadership and management are both important, but they seek to do different things. About 40 years ago
Kurt Lewin put it this way. Every organization structures itself to accomplish its goals in a way that is in
tune with or responsive to its environment. Once the efficiency of the organization is established, people
go about simply maintaining the system, assuming that the environment will stay the same. Management,
then, is the main focus because it keeps the organization going well with little change. But the thing is:
the environment for any organization is always changing. There are always shifts in consumer tastes,
social attitudes, society‘s culture, technology, historic events, and so on. The world is not static as we
assume. Organizations tend not to spot these changes quickly, often because of a "management
orientation" which is focused more on "looking in" instead of "looking out". Over time, the organization
can become less and less in tune with or responsive to its environment, creating more and more
management problems. Times like this require organizations to think more in terms of leadership. Leaders
begin to ask questions like, "What is really going on here? How do we become relevant again? How do
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we fulfill our goals in these new times? What will prompt people to think that what we do is
meaningful?" Leaders seek to bring their organization more in line with the realities of their environment,
which often necessitates changing the very structures, resources and relationships of their organization
which they have worked so long and so hard to manage. And yet, as they do, leaders can bring renewed
vitality to their people.
The key point in differentiating between leadership and management is the idea that employees willingly
follow leaders because they want to, not because they have to. Leaders may not possess the formal power
to reward or sanction performance. However, employees give the leader power by complying with what
he or she requests. On the other hand, managers may have to rely on formal authority to get employees to
accomplish goals.
Managers plan, organize, staff, lead and control. They may or may not be effective in influencing their
subordinates or team members to set and achieve goals. Leaders, on the other hand are involved in single
function of management that is leading. Leadership involves creating and sharing visions, generating
strategies to bring visions to realize. Therefore, leaders and managers are not necessarily the same; it is
mainly leading performs only one aspect of management functions. Mangers can be leader because they
can perform leading function. But may not be effective leaders since they may not have enough ability to
influence others.
In addition to the above explanations, the following table summarizes some of differences between
management and leadership.
MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP
Requires five functions: planning, organizing, A major part of a manager‘s job
staffing, leading and controlling
Emerge formally. Managers need formal The leader of the work group may emerge
authority to be effective. informally as the choice of the group.
Deals with both the interpersonal and Deals with the interpersonal aspect of a
administrative aspect of a manager‘s job. manager‘s job.
Managers deals more with carrying out the Deals with change, inspiration, motivation and
organization‘s goals and maintain equilibrium influence
Managers may have to rely on formal authority Leaders may not possess the formal power
to get employees to accomplish goals.
Groups are often more loyal to a leader than a Groups are often more loyal to a leader than a
manager manager
Managers focus of system and structures Focus on people
Managers relies on control Leaders inspires trust
Effective leadership is the process of achieving desired results through people‘s willing participation. The
heart of this definition is: desired results (goals), through people, and willing participation-people
willingly follow leaders because they want them.
When leaders are effective, the influence they exert over others helps a group or organization achieve its
performance goals when leaders are ineffective, their influence does not contribute to, and often detracts
from, goal attainment.
Beyond facilitating the attainment of performance goals, effective leadership increases an organization‘s
ability to meet all the contemporary challenges-including the need to obtain a competitive advantage, the
need to foster ethical behavior, and the need to manage a diverse workforce fairly and equitably.
Warren Bennis, who devoted decades to researching leadership issues, concludes that virtually all leaders
of effective groups share four characteristics in common:
1. They provide direction and meaning to the people they are leading. This means they remind
people what is important and why what they are doing makes important difference.
2. They generate trust.
3. They favor action and risk taking. That is, they are proactive and willing to risk failing in order to
succeed.
4. They are surveyors of hope. In both tangible and symbolic ways they reinforce the notion that
success will be attained.
Some of the qualities effective leaders possess are the following:
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Passion: An effective leader is a person with a passion for a cause that is larger than they are. Someone
with a dream and a vision that will better society or at least some portion of it. Without passion, a leader
will not make the necessary courageous and difficult decisions and carry them into action. This is not to
imply that all decisions are of this nature. But you can be sure, some of them will be. The leader without a
passion for a cause will duck.
Holder of Values: Leadership implies values. A leader must have values that are life-giving to society. It
is the only kind of leadership we need. This then also implies values that are embedded in respect for
others. So, often we think of people skills or caring about people as being ―warm and fuzzy.‖ A leader
can be of varying ‗warmth and fuzziness,‖ but a leader has to respect others. You can‘t lead without it.
Otherwise we are back to manipulation. Respect means also that one can deal with diversity a critical
need for a leader in today‘s world probably always has been, although diversity may have been more
subtle in the homogenous societies of the past.
Vision: This is a bit different than passion, but in other ways it isn‘t separable. If one doesn‘t care about a
subject, an issue, a system, and then one won‘t spend the time thinking about how it could or should be
different. Yet, one could have strong feelings about something and not good ideas, particularly if she
didn‘t spend a good deal of time studying the topic. Thus a leader has to have some ideas about change,
about how the future could be different. Vision then is based on two components that leaders also need:
creativity and intellectual drive.
Creativity: One has to try to think out of the box to have good visions and to come up with effective
strategies that will help advance the vision. The need for a sense of humor, It‘s a creative skill that is in
great need by leaders.
Intellectual Drive and Knowledge: A leader has to be a student. In general it is hard for a leader to be
around enough other leaders to pick this up just through discussion. A leader has to be a reader and a
learner.
Communicator: None of the above assets will work for a leader if she can‘t speak or write in a way to
convince others that they should follow along, join the team, and get on board. All the above gets to the
old adage that a leader knows how to do the right thing and a manager knows how to do things right. But
a leader has to be a manager, too.
Planner/Organizer: Someone who can see what needs to be done and help the team plan and organize
the getting it done. Management is getting things done through people. While a writer or other visionary
person may be very influential, even seminal for the cause of change, this is not quite my definition of a
leader. A leader means to me, someone who is taking action, trying to get others to do something they
want to see done.
Ability to understand human behavior. A leader should be able to understand employees needs and
problems so as to make them work with willingness and enthusiasm.
Social skill. An effective leader should and know the strengths and weaknesses of people working with
him/her. If he/she is helpful friendly, encourages other to succeed, and appreciates the group members‘
viewpoints, people will certainly cooperate with him/her and work their / oral best towards the
achievement of the organizational goals.
Teaching ability (being model). The best way to lead is guiding practically. A leader should not be in a
position to push his subordinates from behind.
Readiness to accept responsibility / criticisms and to take appropriate corrective measures – An
effective leader or manager should understand that error is human but repeat is a mistake. What so over a
leader tries to be systematic, mistakes are created but he should be able to take remedial measures and
take control over the situation.
Emotional stability and fairness – The effective leader poses resolutions indiscriminately after
gathering sufficient information and investigating the possible causes. Moreover, he is relatively fuae
from bias and prejudice and takes consistent actions.
Effective leaders are characterised by the followings:
A. Honest: This gives them credibility, resulting in the trust and confidence of their people,
B. Keep their promises and follow through on their commitment.
E. It is common wisdom that behind every leader are a team that executes the vision and many
strategic support and expert oversight they receive that keep them and their organizations on
the right path.
1.5 The Foundation of Leadership
Trust is a belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc .
What are the key dimensions that underlie the concept of trust? Recent evidence has identified
five.
a. Integrity
b. Competence
c. Consistency
d. Loyalty
e. Openness
situations.
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4. Loyalty is the willingness to protect and save face for another person.
5. Openness. Can you rely on the person to give you the full truth?
Types of Trust
There are three types of trust in organizational relationships: deterrence-based knowledge-based,
and identification-based.
1. Deterrence-Based Trust:
This form of trust is based on fear of reprisal if the trust is violated.
Deterrence-based trust will work only to the degree that punishment is possible,
consequences are clear, and the punishment is actually imposed if the trust is violated.
2. Knowledge-Based Trust
Most organizational relationships are rooted in knowledge-based trust. It exists when you
have adequate information about someone to understand them well enough to be able to
accurately predict their behaviour.
3. Identification-Based Trust
This is the type of trust that managers ideally seek in teams. Team members are so
comfortable and trusting of each other that they can anticipate each other and freely act in
each other‘s absence.
Leadership style is the behavior exhibited by a leader during supervision and working with subordinates.
A manager‘s personal leadership style-that is, the specific ways in which a manager chooses to influence
other people- shapes the way that manager approaches planning, organizing, and controlling. Evidences
suggest that leadership styles vary not only among individuals but also among countries or cultures. There
are different leadership styles.
We can classify leadership as negative and positive. Positive leadership styles give emphasis to praise and
recognition, monetary rewards, increase in security, and addition of responsibility to make the work done
by other people. Negative leadership style on the other hand emphasizes penalties, loss of job, suspension,
and public reprimands/critics.
Based on the extent of sharing decision making authority with subordinates there are four leadership
styles. These are autocratic, democratic, laissez fair and situational. They are commonly known and/or
practiced.
Effective when . . .
Time is limited and a call arises for urgent leadership.
Individuals/group lack skill and knowledge.
The group does not know each other.
Ineffective when . . .
Developing a strong sense of team is the goal.
The group members have some degree of skill/knowledge.
The group wants an element of spontaneity in its work.
B. Democratic or participative leadership style
Democratic leadership style is characterized by participation of the group and utilization of its
opinions. A manager with this style usually shares decision making authority with the group and
encourages participation and supports the task efforts of subordinates.
- The leader gives full decision making authority to the group and shows little interest in the
work process or its results;
- Leader exercise little control over the group/ subordinates;
- Individuals may have little interest in their work;
- Morale and team work are generally low.
Free rein leadership style can apply in organizations with highly skilled and well-trained
professional.
Effective when . . .
A high degree of skill and motivation is shown in your group or when an employee is able to analyse
the situation and determine what needs to be done, as well as how to do it.
A sense of team exists.
The situation might call for the leader to be at other places doing other things.
Ineffective when . . .
A low sense of team/interdependence exists.
Group members have a low degree of skill and knowledge.
The group expects to be told what to do.
A good leader uses all three styles, depending on what forces are involved between the followers, the
leader, and the situation.
Bradford and Lippit (1945) have Classified Leaders into Four Types
1. Hard Boiled Autocrat. Here, the person on is a rigid disciplinarian and hand out orders, which he
expects to be obeyed immediately.
2. Benevolent Autocrat. Here, the person dominates all the employees but he himself rarely recognises
his autocracy.
3. Laissez-Faire leaders. Here, the person busies himself with paper work, sets no goals and makes no
decision and generally thinks of himself as a ―good fellow‖
4. Democratic supervision. Here, the decision is made by the group on a shared basis.
D. Situational leadership style
Leaders can utilize the combination of the above three styles depending on the situation.
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The manager need not restrict his choice from among a limited class of style or approaches. The style
a manger chooses may depend upon the following situations;
Forces in the manager such as his value system, his confidence in subordinates.
Forces in subordinates and Forces in the situation, example, type of organization, the nature of
the problems, the pressure of time, etc.
The ―belief‖ that great leaders are not made but born with unique characteristics which allow them to
overcome obstacles, and lead their nation successfully.
Are some people born to lead? If we look at the great leaders of the past such as Alexander the great,
Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Queen Elizabeth I, and Abraham Lincoln, we find that they do seem to differ
from ordinary human beings in several aspects.
These leaders are cited as naturally great leaders, born with a set of personal qualities that made them
effective leaders.
Leaders are born and not made and possess certain traits which were inherited.
Earlier leadership was considered as a quality associated mostly with the males, and therefore the
theory was named as the great man theory.
But later with the emergence of many great women leaders as well, the theory was recognized as the
great person theory.
The great man theory of leadership states that some people born with the necessary attributes that
set them apart from others and that these traits are responsible for their assuming positions of power
and authority.
Assumptions
Great man theory assumes that the capacity for leadership is inherent-that great leaders are born not made.
These theory often portray great leaders are heroic, mythic and destined to rise to leadership when
needed. This theory believes that, leaders are exceptional people, born with innate qualities, destined to
lead.
The term ―great man‖ was used because leadership was thought of primarily as male quality. The gender
issues were not on the table when the great man theory was proposed. Moreover, most leaders and
researchers were also male, and concerns about andocentric bias were a long way from being realized.
In the 1920‘s and 1930‘s leadership researchers focused on trying to identify the traits that differentiate
leaders from non-leaders. Researchers wanted to identify a set of characteristics, or traits that
distinguished leaders from followers or effective from ineffective leaders. Trait theory claims that people
are born with inherited traits. Some traits are particularly suited to leadership. People who make good
leaders have the right (sufficient) combination of traits.
The people are either born or are made with certain qualities that will make them in leadership roles.
Personality traits that change over the long term (several years) does being put in a leadership position
result in a person developing leadership traits.
Individuals who possess the traits associated with effective leadership may be more likely to become
effective leaders than those who do not.
But many individuals who possess the appropriate traits may never become leaders, and many leaders
who possess them are not effective.
Leadership trait theory assumes that there are distinctive physical and psychological characteristics
accounting for leadership effectiveness. This approach also assumed that a finite number of individual
traits-intellectual, emotional, physical, and other traits- of effective leaders could be found. This
leadership theory focused on ‗what‘ an effective leader is, not on ‗how‘ to effectively lead.
The table below lists the main leadership traits and skills identified by Stogdill in 1974.
Traits Skill
- Clever (intelligent)
- Adaptable to situations -
Persistent - Conceptually skilled
- Socially skilled
Set of traits and characteristics were identified to assist in selecting the right people to become leaders.
The list of traits was to be used as a prerequisite for promotion of candidates to leadership positions. Only
candidates possessing all the identified traits were tobe given leadership positions. The trait approach to
understanding leadership supports the use of tests and interviews in the selection of managers and/or
leaders. The interviewers typically attempt to match the traits and characteristics of the applicant to the
position. For example, most interviewers attempt to evaluate how well the applicant works with people.
Decades of research (beginning in the 1930s) and hundreds of studies indicate that certain personal
characteristics do appear to be associated with effective leadership (see below for a list of these).
o Intelligence: it assumed that leaders generally are lightly more intelligent than the average of their
followers. The leader‘s above-average cognitive ability to process enormous amount of
information. Help leaders understand complex issues and solve problems. Intellectual breadth able
the leader to understand a wide range of areas, rather than having a narrow (and narrow-minded)
area of expertise.
o Inner motivation and achievement drives: leaders have a strong drive to accomplish goals.
When they achieve one thing, they seek out another.
o Supervisory ability: getting the job done through others.
o Emotional stability and composure: calm, confident and predictable, particularly when under
stress.
o Integrity and honesty: helps leaders behave ethically and earn their subordinates trust and
confidence.
o Social traits: such as cooperativeness skill
o Admitting error; owning up to mistakes, rather than putting energy into covering up.
o Good interpersonal skills: able to communicate and persuade others without resort to negative or
coercive tactics.
Shortcoming or Criticisms of Trait Theory: even though traits identified by some studies differentiated
effective leaders from ineffective leaders, research finding are still contradictory for a number of reasons.
These are:
By the late 1940‘s most leadership research had changed from trait theory and focused on what the leader
did. They attempt to identify the differences in the behavior of effective leaders vs. ineffective leaders.
Behavioral leadership style assumes that there are distinctive styles that effective leaders use
consistently, that is, that good leadership is rooted in behavior. Behavioral theory is a big leap from trait
theory, in that it assumed that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. There are
no born leaders. Leaders can be trained, and trait that leaders must have can be thought and developed.
According to situational theories, assume that the appropriate leadership style varies from situation to
situation. Contingency theories do not deny the importance of the leader‘s characteristics or the leader‘s
behavior. Both must be taken into account in the context of the situation.
In this section we discuss some of the most popular contingency leadership theories.
style should be based on certain situations.
We discuss four situational theories below: the Fiedler contingency model, Hersey and Blanchard‘s
situational leadership theory, path-goal theory, and substitutes for leadership.
In 1951, Fiedler began to develop the first situational leadership theory. He called the theory
―Contingency theory of Leader Effectiveness.‖ Fiedler believed that one‘s leadership style a reflection of
one‘s personality (trait theory-oriented) and is basically constant. Managers cannot change their style, nor
can they adopt different styles in different kinds of situation. According to Fiedler performance of groups
is dependent on the interaction between leadership style and situational favorableness. If there is no
match, Fiedler recommends that the leader change the situation, rather than the leadership style.
Determining Leadership Style: Fiedler hypothesized that personal characteristics can influence
leader effectiveness. He used the term leader style to a manager‘s characteristic approach to
leadership and identified two basic leader styles: relationship-oriented and task-oriented. All
managers can be described as having one style or the other.
To determine whether one‘s leadership style is task-oriented or relationship-oriented, the leader
fills in the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) scales.This is followed by determining the
favorableness of the leader‘s situation.
Determining Situational Favorableness: situational favorableness refers to the degree to which
a situation enables the leader to exert influence over the followers. Fiedler identified three
situational characteristics that are important determinants of how favorable a situation is for
leading. The three variables, in order of importance are:
1. Leader-member relations: is the relationship good or poor? Do the followers trust, respect,
accept, and have confidence in the leader? Is it a friendly, tension-free situation? Leaders with
good relation have more influence. The better the relations, the more favorable the situation.
2. Task structure: is the task structured or unstructured? Do employees perform routine,
unambiguous, standard tasks that are easily understood? Leaders in a structured situation have
more influence. The more structured the jobs are the more favorable the situation.
3. Position power: is position power strong or weak? Does the leader have the power to assign
work, reward and punish, hire and fire, and give praises and promotions? The leader with
position power has more influence. The more power, the more favorable the situation.
B. LEADERSHIP CONTINUUM
Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schemdit stated that leadership behavior is on a continuum from
autocrat (or boss-centered) to democrat (or employee centered) leadership. Their model focuses on who
makes the decisions. They identify seven major styles based on the use of boss-centered versus
employee centered. As one moves away from the autocratic extreme, the amount of subordinates
participation and involvement in decision making increases.
- The manager: what is the leader‘s preferred style, based on experience, expectation, values,
background, knowledge, feeling of security, and confidence in the subordinates?
- The subordinates: what is the subordinates‘ preferred style for the leader, based on
experience, expectation, and son on? Generally, the more willing and able the subordinates
are to participate, the more freedom to participate should be given.
- The situation: what are the environmental considerations, such as the organization‘s size,
structure, climate, goals, and technology? Upper-level managers also influence leadership
styles.
Autocratic/Telling Style: the leader makes the decisions and announces them, expecting subordinates
to carry out without question. In an emergency, a telling style may be most appropriate and would
normally be considered justified by the group (as long as the general climate of that group is
supportive and mature).
Sellingor Persuasive Style: the leader takes the decisions for the group without discussion and
consultation but he believes that people will be better motivated if they are persuaded that the
decisions are good ones. So the leader does a lot of explanations to overcome any possible resistance
and to persuade that the decisions are good.
The selling style would tend to fit situations in which the group leader alone possesses all the
information on which the decision must be based and which at the same time calls for a very high
level of commitment and enthusiasm on the part of group members if the task is to be carried through
successfully.
The leader presents his/her decision and invites subordinates to ask questions about the decision. Here
also the leader makes the decision without discussion and consultation with subordinates.
The leader presents tentative decision subject to change. The leader confers with the group members
after taking decisions and asks their feelings and their suggestion. If the subordinates‘ advices are
appropriate and can enhance the decision, the leader may change his tentative decision.
Consultative style: leader presents problem, gets suggestions, and makes decision. The leader confers
with the group members before taking decision and, in fact, considers their advice and their feelings
when framing decision. The leader may not always accept the subordinates‘ advice but they
(subordinates) are likely to feel that they can have some influence. Under this leadership style the
decision and the full responsibility for it remain with the leader.
The consulting style is likely to be most appropriate when there is time in which to reach a considered
decision and when the information on which the decision needs to be based lies among the members
of the group.
The leader defines the decision limits and asks groups to make decision within the limit.
Employee readiness or maturity refers to the employee‘s or work team‘s ability and willingness to
accomplish a specific task and take responsibility for directing his/her/its own behavior. People tend to
have varying degrees of maturity, depending on the specific task, function, or objective that a leader is
attempting to accomplish through their efforts. Ability refers to the extent that the follower‘s has the
skills and knowledge to perform the task without the leader‘s guidance. Willingness refers to the
follower‘s self-motivation and commitments to perform the assigned task.
SLT says that if a follower is unable and unwilling to do a task, the leader needs to give clear and specific
directions (in other words, be highly directive).
If a follower is unable and willing, the leader needs to display high task orientation to compensate for the
follower‘s lack of ability, and high relationship orientation to get the follower to ―buy into‖ the leader‘s
desires (in other words, ―sell‖ the task).
If the follower is able and unwilling, the leader needs to adopt a supportive and participative style.
Finally, if the employee is both able and willing, the leader does not need to do much (in other words, a
laissez-faire approach will work)
For the most part, this model (situational leadership model) takes the two dimensional leadership styles
and the four quadrants, and develops four leadership stylesbased on amount of directive and supportive
behavior provided, which they call telling, selling, participating, and delegating. Hersey and Blanchard
went beyond the behavioral theory by developing a model that tells the leader which style to use in a
given situation.
Telling: telling has high task behavior and low support behavior. The leader provides clear
instructions and specific directions. This style is appropriate when followers‘ readiness/maturity
level is low.
Path-Goal Theory is a contingency model of leadership that extracts key elements from the Ohio State
leadership research on initiating structure and consideration and from the expectancy theory of
motivation.
The essence of the theory is that it is the leader‘s job to assist followers attain their goals and to provide
the necessary direction and/or support to ensure that their individual goals are compatible with the overall
goals of the group or organization. The term path-goal derives from the belief that effective leaders both
clarify the path to help their followers achieve their work goals and make the journey along the path
easier by reducing roadblocks and pitfalls.
The focus of transformational leadership is on top-level managers, primarily chief executive officers of
large organizations. Transformational leadership is about change, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Transformational leaders are agents of change. They develop a vision for the organization or work unit,
inspire and collectively bond employees to that vision, give them a ―can do‖ attitude that makes the vision
achievable.
The transformational leader recognizes the need to change the organization in order to keep up with the
rapid changes in the environment and to keep ahead of the global competition, which is becoming more
competitive all the time. So transformational leaders are change agents.
The transformational leader visualizes the changed organization and motivates people to make it
become a reality. They are visionary leaders. Visions are the most important part of the transformational
leader.
Transformational leaders shape a strategic vision of a realistic and attractive future that bonds employees
together and focuses their energy toward a super-ordinate organizational goal. Strategic vision reflects a
The transformational leader guides people as they make the vision become a reality. To realize the vision
the transformational leader will do the following:
a) Communicating the Vision: transformational leader communicate meaning and elevate the
importance of the visionary goal to employees. Transformational leaders makes subordinates
aware of how important their jobs are for the organization and how necessary it is for them to
perform those jobs as best they can so that the organization can attain its vision and goals.
b) Modeling the Vision: transformational leaders not only talk about the vision; they enact it. They
―walk the talk‖ by stepping outside the executive suite and going things that symbolize the vision.
To succeed as a leader, you need to act consistently with your statements. If you don‘t walk the
talk, you lose your credibility. The greater the consistency between the leader‘s words and actions,
the more employees will believe and follow the leader. Walking the talk also builds employee
trust because trust is partly determined by the consistency of the person‘s actions.
c) Building Commitment to the Vision: transforming a vision into a reality requires employee
commitment. Transformational leaders motivate their subordinates to work for the good of the
organization as a whole. Their words, symbols, and stories build a contagious enthusiasm that
energizes people to adopt the vision as their own. Leaders demonstrate a ―can do‖ attitude by
enacting their vision and staying on course. Their persistence and consistency reflect an image of
honesty, trust, and integrity. Transformational leaders build commitment by involving employees
in the process of shaping the organizations vision.
Transformational leaders also aware their subordinate by telling them growth of the organization
is growth of employees. Transformational leaders make their subordinates aware of their own
need for personal growth, development and accomplishment. Employees make aware of their own
need through numerous workshops and training sessions, empowerment of employees throughout
the company, the development of fast-track career programs, and increase reliance on self-
managed work teams.
Transactional leadership has been contrasted with transformational leadership. The transactional
leadership is based on the principle of ―you do this work for me and I will give this reward to you.‖
Transactional leadership focuses more on middle and first-line managers who help the transformational
leader take their unit through the three acts.
Transactional leader motivates subordinates by rewarding them for high performance and reprimand or
punish low performers. Such mangers use reward and coercive powers to encourage high performance.
They link job performance with valued rewards. Transactional leadership can improve organizational
efficiency.
Servant leadership emphasizes the leader‘s duty to serve his/her follower. Leadership thus arises out of a
desire to serve rather than a desire to lead. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first.
The concept of ―servant leadership‖ requires us to encourage others toward a life and career of service
and to assume the position of being the ―servant of the servants.‖
Servant leadership is a very social leadership style. It places the needs of others in high regard. Servant
leaders address the responsibilities and relationships in society, organizations, and companies.
Robert Greenleaf, founder of the Center for Servant Leadership describes it as follows:
―The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve
first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person
who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material
possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first
and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of
the infinite variety of human nature.
The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people‘s
highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow
as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MGMT MODULE Page 24
themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they
benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?‖
―Servant-Leadership is a practical philosophy which supports people who choose to serve first, and then
lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions. Servant-leaders may or may not hold
formal leadership positions. Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and
the ethical use of power and empowerment.‖
The emphasis on serving a higher purpose has made this model popular within the religious institutions.
Empathy- people need to be accepted & recognized for their special & unique spirits.
Stewardship- assumes first and foremost a commitment to serving the needs of others
Commitment to the growth of people- servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic
value beyond their tangible contributions as workers
Building community- the servant leader focuses on building a community with their team by
demonstrating their own unlimited liability
Human Skill. It is the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork.
No leader can escape from human skill.
It is the major part of the leadership behaviour.
Human skills are people skills which enable the leader to work effectively with subordinates, peers,
and superiors. It is the leader's expertise in interacting with others in a way that will enhance the
successful completion of the task at hand. Consequently, leaders with higher levels of interpersonal
skills are better able to adapt their own ideas to other people‘s ideas, especially when this will aid
in achieving organizational goals more quickly and efficiently. These leaders are more sensitive
and empathetic to what motivates others, create an atmosphere of trust for their followers, and take
others‘ needs and motivations into account when deciding what to do to achieve organizational
perspective on issues as well as the openness to hear and appreciate inputs of others on their
Create an atmosphere of trust where employees/followers can feel comfortable and empowered to
all the three levels of management – Lower,
Middle and Senior Examples of Human Skills: Some human skills that are generally considered
important are effective communication (both verbal and written), motivating others and creation of
a positive attitude, development of cooperation and team spirit etc.
Conceptual Skill.
It is the ability of the leader to coordinate all organizational activities.
It is very important for leader in formulating long-range plans, broad policies and relating the business
enterprise to the industry and economy.
As a leader grows higher in organizational ladder, the expectations from him are to provide strategic
direction, create the vision and motivate the folks to dedicatedly pursue the organizational goals.
These are Conceptual skills that allow the leader to think through and work with ideas. Leaders with
higher levels of conceptual skills are good at thinking through the ideas that form an organization and
Leadership Competencies
From a foundation of Values and Ethics, leaders deliver results through strategic thinking, engagement,
and management excellence.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
What is change? What is organizational change? Change means making things different. When an
organization makes things in it different, an organization change is occurred. Thus, Organizational
change is the movement of an organization away from its present state and toward some desired future
state to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. Organizational change is the alteration of an
organization‘s structure, culture, technology, or people.
Many internal and external changes attack the modern organizations and make change inevitable. Today
organizations are operating in the ever changing environment.
Organizations and their managers need to be able to control their activities and make their operations
routine and predictable. At the same time, however, organizations have to be responsive to the need to
change. A modern manager is change conscious and operates in the constantly changing environment.
In general there are two main forces drive organizations toward change: internal and external forces.
A. Customer demand: customers are more sophisticated and demanding; knowledgeable about their own
needs; customers often change over time. Customers are exerting ever greater pressure on their supplier.
They will no longer accept poor service or low quality.
Since the early 1980s, in the United States and other developed countries, the dominant force in the seller-
customer relationship has shifted. Sellers no longer have the upper hand; customers do. Customers now
tell suppliers what they want, when they want it, how they want it, and what they will pay. This new
situation is unsetting to companies that have known life only in the mass market.
B. Intense Competition: competition is intensifying, and becoming more global. More organizations are
compelled to attain the standards of quality and cost achieved by the pacemakers in the industry. The
company that could get to market with an acceptable product or service at the best price would get a sale.
C. Technology: Technology changes have increased the rate of speed at which change takes place.
Technology is a commonly used method of increasing productivity to gain competitive leverage. The rate
of technological change is greater today than any time in the past and technological changes are
responsible for changing the nature of jobs performed at all levels in the organization.
D. Reduction of Government Regulations: governments are reducing interference in the market place
and regulating business activities. Government barriers have fallen dramatically in the last years to
further facilitate the globalization of markets and the activities of companies within them. Deregulation,
reduction of trade barriers, privatization, free market economy, economic integration, and other related
issues are the result of reduction of government regulations; and all these factors leads organizations
toward change.
E. Social Change: related to diversity of work force within the organization, cultural changes, education
level, etc.
a) Changes in the managerial personnel: these changes include the retirement of the old managers,
transfer and promotion of mangers and placement of old and static managers by a more versatile,
dynamic and young lots. Changes also include increasing training of the existing personnel so as to make
them fit to function in their perspective places effectively. With change each manager generally brings
his/her own ideas and the way of working in the organization. So, a change in the managerial personnel
is, thus, a constant pressure for change.
d) Certain other forces: like changes in machinery, equipment, methods, and procedures, working
standard, changes in authority and responsibility.
Most of the managers fail to consider the potential domino effects. Such an oversight might lead to the
problems of coordination and control. Before any significant change is made, the possible consequences
of that change must be evaluated and examined to see whether undesirable chain reactions occur.
To improve efficiency and effectiveness it is vital that mangers develop the skills necessary to manage
change effectively. Most people go from side to side four distinct stages in the change process.
Change can affect organizational structure, culture, strategies, controlling system, and way of managing.
So, organizations should assess the need for change properly.
Assessing the need for change calls for two important activities:
- Recognize that there are problems that require change. The real problem/s, not the symptom.
- Identify the sources of the problem/s.
2nd Decide On the Change to Make
Decide what the organization‘s ideal future would be. Decide where they would like their
organization to be in the future: decide what kinds of goods and services it should making, what its
business-level strategy should be, how structure should be change and develop strategy.
What can change agents change? Change agents can change the options essentially fall into four
categories: structure, technology, physical setting, and people.
Plan how to attain organization‘s ideal future state.
Identifying sources of resistance for change and how to overcome them.
3rd Implementing the Change
Under this stem the managers introduce and manage the change. The manager should decide whether
change will occur from the top down or from the bottom up.
Top down change: when the change is required to implement quickly top-down approach is
appropriate. It is revolutionary in nature. The top manger will identify the need for change, decide
what to do, and then move quickly to implement the changes throughout the organization. Usually
mangers use this approach for restructuring and downsizing the organization.
Evaluate how successful the change effort has been in improving organizational performance. Managers
can evaluate change effect using measures such as improvements in market share and profits, in the
ability of managers to meet their goal. We can also use benchmarking-the process of comparing one
company‘s performance on specific dimensions with the high performing organizations.
Unfreezing
In Lewin‘s model, unfreezing is the managerial responsibility of preparing a situation for change.
Many changes are never tried or they fail simply because situations are not properly unfrozen to begin
with.
Large systems seem particularly susceptible to what is sometimes called the boiled frog phenomenon.
This refers to the notion that a live frog will immediately jump out when placed in a pan of hot water.
When placed in cold water that is then heated very slowly, however, the frog will stay in the water until
the water boils the frog to death.
Organizations, too, can fall victim to similar circumstances. When managers fail to monitor their
environments, recognize the important trends, or sense the need to change, their organizations may slowly
suffer and lose their competitive edge.
In contrast, the best organizations are led by people who are always on the alert and understand the
importance of “unfreezing” in the change process.
Changing
The changing stage involves taking action to modify a situation by changing things, such as the people,
tasks, structure, or technology of the organization.
Refreezing
The final stage in the planned change process is refreezing.
Resistance to change in organizations means employee behavior that block the change process. Change,
no matter how beneficial, is generally resisted and is always difficult to implement. Basically people
resist change for several reasons, and your task as a manager is to try to identify those reasons and
manage them appropriately, to reduce or eliminate the negative effects and to correct misperceptions.
In every change effort there is resistance to change. In spite of the change good ideas, many people will
see them in a different light. They believe that the change is not in their own best interest or the
company‘s. They then act on the belief, doing whatever they can to stop the change from happening. At
the last, they try to make the change as minimal as possible.
Before making changes, mangers should anticipate how employees will react to or resist change.
Resistance to change involves the variables of intensity, source, and focus, and explains why people
resist change. Ken Hultman identifies these three variables as the major variables of resistance to change.
A. Intensity: resistance to change doesn‘t necessary surface in standard ways. Resistance intensity can
be varying from strong to week or somewhere in between. Resistance can be overt, implicit,
immediate, or deferred.
It is easier for management to deal with resistance when it is overt and immediate. For instance, a
change is proposed and employees quickly respond by voicing complaints, engaging a work
slowdown, threatening to go on strike, or the like. The greater challenge is managing resistance that
is implicit or deferred. Implicit resistance efforts are more subtle- loss of loyalty to the organization,
loss of motivation to work, increased errors or mistakes, increased absenteeism due to ―sickness‖ –
and hence more difficult to recognize.
Managers should anticipate the intensity of resistance to change and effectively paln to overcome it.
B. Sources: there are three major sources of resistance: facts, beliefs, and values.
Facts: the facts (statements that identify reality) of change are often circulated through the
grapevine inaccurately. People tend to use facts selectively (i.e. the problem of selective
perception) to prove their point. Facts used correctly help overcome fear of the unknown.
Beliefs: facts can be proved; beliefs cannot. They are subjective. Our beliefs are our opinions that
lead us to think and feel that a change is correct or incorrect, good or bad.
Values: values are what people believe are worth pursuing or doing. Values are accepted
principles. What we value are important us. Values are priorities. Our values meet our needs and
affect our behavior.
C. Focus: there are three major focuses of resistance: self, others, and the work environment.
Self: it is natural for people to want to know, ―what‘s in it for me? What will I gain or loss?‖
when the fact of change have a negative effect on an employee‘s economic well-being, such as
lower pay or longer hours without additional compensation, employees tend to resist the
change.
Other: after considering what is in it for them, or when they are not affected by the change,
people tend to consider how the change will affect their friends, peers (peer pressure), and
colleagues. If employees analyze the facts and believe the change will affect others negatively,
they may be resisting the change.
Work environment: the work environment includes the job itself and the physical setting and
the climate. People like to be in control of their environment, and they resist changes that take
away their control. Employees‘ analysis of the facts about the current versus the changed work
environment will affect their resistance to the change.
For analytical purposes, we have categorized them as individual and organizational sources.
Individual Resistance
Individual sources of resistance to change reside in basic human characteristics such as
perceptions, personalities, and needs.
Habit. To cope with life‘s complexities, we rely on habits or programmed responses. But when
confronted with change, this tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of
resistance.
Security. People with a high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens
their feelings of safety.
Economic factors. Changes in job tasks or established work routines can arouse economic fears
if people are concerned that they will not be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their
previous standards, especially when pay is closely tied to productivity.
Fear of the unknown. Change substitute‘s ambiguity and uncertainty for the known.
This is also referred to as the ―status quo bias,‖ in which individuals assume that their current
state is better than whatever the changed state might be.
Selective information processing. Individuals are guilty of selectively processing information in
order to keep their perceptions intact. They hear what they want to hear, and they ignore
information that challenges the world they have created.
Organizational Resistance
Organizations, by their very nature, are conservative. They actively resist change. You do not
have to look far to see evidence of this phenomenon. Government agencies want to continue
doing what they have been doing for years, whether the need for their service changes or remains
the same. Organized religions are deeply entrenched in their history.
Attempts to change church doctrine require great persistence and patience. Educational
institutions, which exist to open minds and challenge established ways of thinking, are
themselves extremely resistant to change. Six major sources of organizational resistance to
change have been identified.
Structural inertia. Organizations have built-in mechanisms—such as their selection
processes and formal regulations—to produce stability. When an organization is confronted
with change, this structural inertia acts as a counterbalance to sustain stability.
Generally people resist change for a variety of reasons, some of which include:
Maintain the status quo: people like things the way they are now, view the change as an
inconvenience, or don‘t agree that a change is needed,
Uncertainty: people tend to fear the unknown and wonder how the change will affect them,
Learning anxiety: the prospect of learning something new itself produces anxiety, and
Fear: people often fear they may lose their jobs, the friends they work with may change, that they
will not be successful with learning new ways, or that they may lose control over how they do
their jobs.
The major methods managers can use to overcome resistance to change are the following:
Planned organizational change is the intentional attempt by an organization to alter its status quo (present
position) and move to the desired one. Planned change is an essential element to growth. Planned
changes are made by the organization with the purpose of achieving something that might otherwise be
unattainable, or accomplishable with great difficulty. Through planned changes organizations reach new
frontiers and progress move rapidly toward given set of goals and objectives. Through planned change,
organizations can decide in advance why change is necessary, for what purpose, what to change and how
to achieve the desired change.
There are several popular approaches to managing change. This section introduces five of the leading
approaches to organizational change: Lewin‘s three step model, action research, appreciate inquiry,
parallel learning structures, and lessiers change model.
i) Unfreezing: the focus of this stage is to create the motivation to change. It refers to making
individuals aware individuals (employees) the present behavior is inappropriate, irrelevant and
inadequate. Unfreezing introducing information that shows discrepancies between desired
performance and actual performance. Unfreezing is the first part of the change process
whereby the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces.
This may occur by increasing the driving forces, reducing restraining forces, or having a
combination of both.
Driving forces push organizations toward a new state of affairs. One side of the Lewin‘s model
represents the driving forces as shown on graph below. Section 3.2 of this handout described some
of the driving forces in the external and internal environment. Restraining forces maintain the
status quo. These restraining forces are commonly called ―resistance to change‖ because they
appear as employee behavior that block the change process.
Action research refers to a change process based on systematic collection of data and then selection of a
change action based on what the analyzed data indicates. Action research takes the view that meaningful
change is a combination of action oriented (changing attitude and behavior) and research oriented (testing
theory). Action research approach involves the following processes.
Establish Client-Consultant Relationship: action research usually assumes that change agent
originates outside the system (such as a consultant), so the process begins by forming the client-
consultant relationship. Consultants need to determine the client‘s readiness for change, including
whether people are motivated to participate in the process, are open to meaningful change, and
possess the ability to complete the process. Many change management consultants prefer to adopt
the role of process consultant rather than that of technical expert. Process consultation is a method
of helping them within the system solve their own problems by making them aware of
Step1: Define Change: clearly state what the change is. Decide what to change-is it a task, structure,
technological, or people change? Set the change objectives.
Step 2: Identify Possible Resistance to the Change: determine the intensity, source, and focus of
possible resistance to the change.
- Give facts: give the facts about the change and explain why it is necessary as far in advance of the
change as possible. Explain how the change will affect the employees. Relate the change to their
values.
- Involve employees: use as much employee involvement as you can. But use the appropriate
supervisory style for the situation.
- Provide support: allow employees to express their thoughts and feelings in a positive way.
Answer their questions openly and honestly. Make sure that they receive proper training in how to
implement the changed method.
Step 5: Control The Change: follow up to ensure that the change is implemented, reinforced, and
maintained. Make sure the objective is met. If not, take corrective action. For major changes, be sure to
change performance appraisals to reflect new jobs accurately.
Discovery: identifying the positive elements of the observed events or organization. This might
involve documenting positive customer experiences elsewhere in the organization. Or it might
include interviewing members of another organization to discover its fundamental strengths. As
participants discuss their findings, they shift into the dreaming stage.
Dreaming: participants envision what might be possible in an ideal organization. By directing
their attention to a theoretically ideal organization or situation, participants feel safer revealing
their hopes and aspirations than if they were discussing their own organization or predicament.
TYPES OF CHANGE
4.1. INTRODUCTION
We all approach change in different ways. That‘s partly because of our different personalities and it‘s
partly because of our individual histories. We see the world in different ways and also react to it in
different ways. The whole area of change management is one where these ideas have a particular
relevance and resonance.
If we conceptualize change in a particular way then perhaps we will try to manage it in a way that is
seemingly logical within our reality, whilst leaving no room for the idea that it‘s just our reality or
certainly just one way of looking at the world.
In this chapter we will look at different types of change about how organizations work and tools &
techniques of change.
Typically, the phrase ―organizational change‖ is about a significant change in the organization, such as
reorganization or adding a major new product or service. This is in contrast to smaller changes, such as
adopting a new computer procedure. Organizational change can seem like such a vague phenomena that it
is helpful if you can think of change in terms of various dimensions as described below.
Change can be intended to remedy current situations, for example, to improve the poor performance of a
product or the entire organization, reduce burnout in the workplace, help the organization to become
much more proactive and less reactive, or address large budget deficits. Remedial projects often seem
more focused and urgent because they are addressing a current, major problem. It is often easier to
determine the success of these projects because the problem is solved or not.
Change can also be developmental – to make a successful situation even more successful, for example,
expand the amount of customers served, or duplicate successful products or services.
Developmental projects can seem more general and vague than remedial, depending on how specific
goals are and how important it is for members of the organization to achieve those goals.
Some people might have different perceptions of what is a remedial change versus a developmental
change. They might see that if developmental changes are not made soon, there will be need for remedial
changes. Also, organizations may recognize current remedial issues and then establish a developmental
vision to address the issues. In those situations, projects are still remedial because they were conducted
primarily to address current issues
Unplanned change usually occurs because of a major, sudden surprise to the organization, which causes its
members to respond in a highly reactive and disorganized fashion. Unplanned change might occur when the Chief
Executive Officer suddenly leaves the organization, significant public relations problems occur, poor product
performance quickly results in loss of customers, or other disruptive situations arise. •/Eg. MoFED, Elino Famine
expense led to minimize other organizations additional budget./
Planned change occurs when leaders in the organization recognize the need for a major change and proactively
organize a plan to accomplish the change. Planned change occurs with successful implementation of a Strategic
Plan, plan for reorganization, or other implementation of a change of this magnitude. • /Eg. Implementation a plan
of Program budget in Ethiopia by MoFED/
Evolutionary change is gradual, incremental, and narrowly focused. Evolutionary change is not dramatic
or sudden but, rather, is a constant attempt to improve, adapt, and adjust strategy and structure
incrementally to accommodate to changes taking place in the environment. ―Evolutionary change
involves setting direction, allocating responsibilities, and establishing reasonable timelines for achieving
objectives. Such improvements might entail utilizing technology in a better way or reorganizing the
work process. Total quality management and organizational development are among the known
evolutionary changes.
What is quality?
Some definitions that have gained wide acceptance in various organizations: ―Quality is customer
satisfaction,‖ ―Quality is Fitness for Use.‖
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ) define
quality as: ―Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its
ability to satisfy given needs.‖
Why Quality?
Competition – Today‘s market demand high quality products at low cost. Having `high quality‘
reputation is not enough! Internal cost of maintaining the reputation should be less.
Changing customer – The new customer is not only commanding priority based on volume but is
more demanding about the ―quality system.‖
Changing product mix – The shift from low volume, high price to high volume, low price have
resulted in a need to reduce the internal cost of poor quality.
TQM: An integrated effort designed to improve quality performance at every level of the organization.
Now-a-days, customers demand products/services with greater durability and reliability at the most
economic price. This forces producers to strictly follow quality procedures right from design till shipment
and installation of the products. So that goal of any competitive industry is to provide a product or service
at the most economical costs, ensuring full customer satisfaction. This can be achieved through Total
Quality Management (TQM), because, quality is not a technical function, but a systemic process
extending throughout all phases of the business, e.g., marketing, design, development, engineering,
purchasing, production/operations.
As per Feigebaum, ―Total Quality Management is an effective system of integrating the quality
development, quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of various groups in an organization
so as to enable marketing, engineering, production and service at the most economical levels which allow
for full customer satisfaction‖.
Benefits of TQM:
The benefits of TQM can be classified into the following two categories:
Customer satisfaction oriented benefits: The benefits under this category are listed below:
Economic improvements oriented benefits: The benefits under this category are as follows:
Total quality management (TQM) or kaizen is a management technique that focuses on finding the ways
to continuously make incremental improvements to work procedures that drive down cost and drive up
quality of organization‘s products or services. TQM is a comprehensive, organization-wide effort to
improve the quality of products and services, applicable to all organizations
TQM requires the cooperation of managers in every function of an organization, and across functions, if it
is to be succeeded. The following steps are necessary for mangers to implement a successful TQM
program.
Revolutionary change is a radical shift in ways of doing things, new goals, and new structure for the
organization. Reengineering, restructuring, and quantum innovation are the three important instruments
for revolutionary change.
BPR is given force by the thinking that old ways of organizing work are no longer appropriate for
a competitive business environment
Fundamental Rethinking: ask basic questions about the company and how they operate. Like:
- Why do we do what we do?
- Why do we do it the way we do it?
Make people to look at the tacit rules and assumptions that underlie the way they conduct their
business. Often the rules turn to be obsolete, erroneous, or inappropriate.
Radical redesign: reengineering is about throwing the already existing system away and starting
with a clean slate and redesign how you do your work. Thus, reengineering is about business
reinvention not business improvement or modification.
Dramatic improvement: it is about achieving quantum performance growth. Reengineering is
not making marginal improvements to the business.
Business process: process is the core of the reengineering. Process is an organized group of
related activities that together create value to customers. It is about how work is done.
Why Reengineer?
The three Cs – customers, competition, and change- have created a new world for business, and it is
becoming increasingly apparent that organizations designed to operate in one environment cannot be
fixed to work well in another. These three forces, separately and in combination, are driving today‘s
A) Customers: customers have become much more sophisticated and demanding; much more
knowledgeable about their own needs; and are exerting ever greater pressure on their suppliers.
B) Competition: now, the competition is strong and many different in kind.
C) Change: whether in geopolitical realities, technology, or customer preferences, the pace of change
is extremely fast, that is, what was unthinkable yesterday is routine today.
The experience shows that there are three kinds of companies/organizations that have to undertake
reengineering.
First: companies that find themselves in deep trouble. E.g. costs are higher than business sales and
competitors; customers are dissatisfied about the product/services the company offer and openly rail
against it, etc. these companies have no choice, no time.
Second: organizations that are not yet in trouble, but whose management has the foresight to see
trouble coming. Even though they are in healthy financial condition –attractive profitability level-, but
management see that new competitors entering the market, changing, customers characteristics
changing regularly, change in economic development, the technological development, etc.
The following are some of the misconceptions about the nature of reengineering.
Reengineering is not downsizing: downsizing means getting rid of people and jobs to improve short
term financial results. Reengineering is about rethinking work from the ground up in order to
eliminate work that is not necessary and to find better ways of doing work. Reengineering eliminates
unnecessary work, not jobs or people. Reengineering may or may not affect the number of people
employed.
Reengineering is not restructuring: reengineering is centered on how work is done. While
restructuring focuses on how an organization is structured around an organizational chart or business
unit.
Restructuring or downsizing has relevance with reducing capacity to meet current, lower
demand as well reduce size to match the demand at time of fewer markets.
reengineering mean doing more with less
Downsizing reduce costs by getting rid of people and jobs,
reengineering reducing cost by eliminating non value-adding activities
Reengineering is not automation: reengineering focus is the customer not automation or
computerization. Automation is a reengineering tool to help you provide value to customers. So, first
reengineer, and then automate.
Reengineering is innovation, creating new system of work.
Automation is fixing the existing system to work faster.
Reengineering is not outsourcing: the purpose of outsourcing is driven by the theory that groups
outside the organization can perform some operations more efficiently. However, reengineering
makes no such assumption. It simply determines what work needs to be done and finds the best way
to accomplish it.
Stages to Reengineering:
There are numerous methodologies being proposed, but all share common elements. Typically the
reengineering project takes the form of several discrete phases. However, the following four stages are the
most common ones.
Once the process has been identified and selected in phase one, the next step understands, not analyzing,
these process. The goal of understanding the existing business process is to get a high level view of the
existing process in order to produce superior business process from a clean sheet of paper.
o Establish the desired outcomes: there are several steps involved to start at the end with the desired
outcomes. These are:
Identify the key customers and/or stakeholders: the design team begins by
brainstorming a list of external and internal customers/stakeholders.
Choose a way of learning about customers/stakeholders‘ needs and expectations.
Interview or survey customers/stakeholders to determine desired outcomes.
Now it‘s time to focus more specifically on the future. You need to take the desired outcomes you have
identified and translate them into concrete goals. And these goals need to be so high that they force the
design team to become innovative, to get out of the box. Such goals are called ―starched objectives.‖
o Setting stretched objectives: stretch objectives reach far beyond what process currently produces.
Stretched objectives are another name for performance measures. They are usually (but not
necessarily) stated in quantitative terms and should always be stated in a concrete way that is easily
measured.
Stretched objective should be related to the customers‘ problems because its purpose is to solve the
problems of the customers in the process. As a guideline, stretched objectives should require
performance improvements of 50 percent or more.
Here are the sub-steps involved in creating stretched objectives:
i) Review customers/stakeholders needs and expectation.
ii) Identify the needs and expectations that form the foundations of stretch objectives.
iii) Brainstorm possible stretched objectives: they can come from
Benchmarking the same processes performed by leading organizations.
Customer and stakeholders requests and preferences.
The organization‘s its own best performance of the process.
iv) Decide whether you are ready to move on to the next design step
o Breaking old assumptions
o Design from clean sheet: note that the task of redesigning does not have specific formal or
mechanical procedures. The purpose of designing the new process from a clean sheet is to help the
team come up with ideas that lead to a dramatically improved process. It‘s difficult if not impossible
to make a fundamental change if we start with our current process firmly fixed in our minds and ask
ourselves how to improve it. Generating alternative ideas from designing team, benchmarking, and
generating wacko ideas are some of the mechanisms to develop breakthrough ideas.
At this stage, implementing the new process design and installing new form of organization i.e. the
business system diamond will be realized. The business system diamond shows the features of new form
of reengineered organization. It illustrates that reengineering is making systematic organizational change
(a paradigm shift). It is not a fragmented change. In reengineered organization the four aspects shown on
the figure are interrelating.
Prepare implementation plan: it should be developed that spells out the work that needs to be done
with time frames, milestones, training, workforce issues, decision points, resource allocation, etc.
Pilot testing: it is an effective tool that allows the organization to
Evaluate the soundness of the proposed process in actual practice
Identify and correct trouble spot or problems with the new process
Refine performance measures and generate support for full scale implementation from
employees, outside stakeholders, public, etc.
Adjust goals and develop improvement plan
Implement and monitor the progress
c) The steps in process are performed in a natural order :-in reengineered process, work
d) Non value adding activities and hand offs in the process are eliminated
5.1 Introduction
Conflict is being taken as an inevitable aspect of modern life. For any organizations to perform
effectively, interdependent individuals and groups must establish working relationships across
organizational boundaries, between individuals and among groups.
Individuals or groups may depend on one another for information, assistance or coordinated action. Such
interdependence may foster cooperation or conflict. It is worth repeating here that the conflict-free
company has never existed and never will exist. Antagonisms, tensions, aggressions, stereotypes, negative
attitudes and the frustrations of perceived conflicting needs will always be present wherever men are
forced to live and work together. Therefore, this unit gives you highlights about nature of conflict, its
sources, and its management/resolution styles and so on.
Conflict is a process in which one party perceives that its interest are being opposed or negatively affected
by another party.
In organizations, a conflict exits whenever two or more parties are in disagreement. Conflict is inherent in
an organization system, and as the work force becomes more diverse, conflict can increase.
Conflict is defined as an incompatibility of goals or values between two or more parties in a relationship,
combined with attempts to control each other and antagonistic feelings toward each other. The
incompatibility or difference may exist in reality or may only be perceived by the parties involved.
Nonetheless, the opposing actions and the hostile emotions are very real hallmarks of human conflict.
Conflict has the potential for either a great deal of destruction or much creativity and positive social
change (Kriesberg, 1998). Therefore, it is essential to understand the basic processes of conflict so that we
can work to maximize productive outcomes and minimize destructive ones. Conflict occurs between
people in all kinds of human relationships and in all social settings. Because of the wide range of potential
differences among people, the absence of conflict usually signals the absence of meaningful interaction.
Conflict by itself is neither good nor bad. However, the manner in which conflict is handled determines
whether it is constructive or destructive (Deutsch & Coleman, 2000).
Conflict has the potential for either a great deal of destruction or much creativity and positive social
change. However, people often think of conflict as fighting and view it as disruptive. Conflict, however,
The question today is not whether conflict is good or bad rather, how to manage conflict to benefit the
organization. Therefore, it is essential to understand the basic processes of conflict so that we can work to
maximize productive outcomes and minimize destructive ones.
Decreased productivity.
Relevant information not being shared.
Unpleasant emotional experiences.
Environmental stress.
Excessive consumption of time.
Decision-making process disrupted.
Poor work relationships.
Misallocation of resources.
Impaired organizational commitments.
It is possible to identify four types of conflict that might occur in organizations. Conflict can occur on
several levels in an organization. These are:
1st: Intrapersonal Conflict: conflict between an individual‘s values, goals, and needs are intrapersonal
conflicts. Intrapersonal conflicts arise when acting in accordance with one value, goal, or need makes it
impossible to fulfill some other value, goal, or need.
- Approach-approach conflict occurs when a person has to make a choice between two equally
attractive alternatives. For example, employed parents routinely experienced approach-approach
conflicts between their dual roles of parent and employee.
- Avoidance –avoidance conflict occurs when a person has to make a choice between two equally
unattractive alternatives. For example, chief executive officer may decide between to decrease
employees‘ salary or to fire few employees to stay in the market.
2nd Interpersonal Conflict: occurs when two people have incompatible needs, goals, or approaches in
their relationship. Interpersonal conflict is likely occurring when individuals are competing for the same
resources, such as promotions, work facilities, or work assignments. Interpersonal conflict is also likely in
groups that are heterogeneous. Heterogeneous could be either diversity of the work force or people
representing different functions (for example cross functional team).
3rd Inter Group Conflicts: are conflicts between two or more groups in the same organization.
Intergroup conflict occurs when there are differences in values, goals, or needs between two or more
groups in the organization. Competition for scarce resources is a common source of intergroup conflict.
Intergroup conflicts in organizations also often arise between line employees and staff employees. Line
and staff conflict is conflict arising from the role and perceptual differences between the two groups.
4th Inter-Organizational Conflicts: are conflicts between two or more organizations. An example of
inter-organizational conflict is corporate takeover attempt whereby one organization tries to take control
over another organization. Such conflict may also arise because of competition and controlling resources
among organizations.
The current view is that in certain circumstances there can be benefits in stimulating a degree of conflict
within an organization. Conflict is important especially if the conflict in the organization is too low.
Stimulating competition: it is probably the list risky strategy to stimulate conflict. Many
organizations may have measures of this type in place. A fairly common one is the use of
incentives, such as awards, and bonuses for outstanding performance.
Conflict situations are an important aspect of the workplace. A conflict is a situation when the interests,
needs, goals or values of involved parties interfere with one another. A conflict is a common phenomenon
in the workplace. Different stakeholders may have different priorities; conflicts may involve team
members, departments, projects, organization and client, boss and subordinate, organization needs vs.
personal needs. Often, a conflict is a result of perception. Is conflict a bad thing? Not necessarily. Often, a
conflict presents opportunities for improvement. Therefore, it is important to understand (and apply)
various conflict resolution techniques.
Some people enter a conflict with a win-win orientation while others have a win-lose orientation.
Win-win orientation: is the belief that the parties will find a mutually beneficial solution to their
disagreement. Win-win orientation is a systematic attempt to maximize the goals of both parties.
Win-lose orientation: they adopt the belief that conflicting parties are drawing from a fixed pie,
so the more one party receives, the less the other party will receive. Conflict tends to escalate
when the parties develop win-loss orientation because they rely on more assertive influence tactics
to gain advantage. A win-loss orientation may occasionally be appropriate when the conflict really
is over a fixed resource, but few organizational conflicts are due to perfectly opposing interests
with fixed resources.
Lose-lose orientation: both parties loss due to the conflict.
Adopting a win-win or win-lose orientation influences our conflict management style, that is, how we act
toward the other person.
Problem solving: It is also known as problem confronting or win-win (collaboration). Problem solving
tries to find a mutually beneficial solution for both parties. Information sharing is an important feature of
this style because both parties collaborate to identify common ground and potential solutions that satisfy
both (or all) of them. Collaboration involves an attempt to work with the other person to find a win-win
For parties involved, the outcome of the conflict resolution is less stressful (however, the process of
finding and establishing a win-win solution may be very involved – see the caveats below)
Requires a commitment from all parties to look for a mutually acceptable solution
May require more effort and more time than some other methods. A win-win solution may not be
evident
For the same reason, collaborating may not be practical when timing is crucial and a quick
solution or fast response is required
Once one or more parties lose their trust in an opponent, the relationship falls back to other methods of
conflict resolution. Therefore, all involved parties must continue collaborative efforts to maintain a
collaborative relationship
Withdrawing: It is also known as avoiding. Avoiding tries to smooth over or avoid conflict
situations altogether. It represents a low concern for both self and the other party; in other words,
This is when a person does not pursue her/his own concerns or those of the opponent. He/she does not
address the conflict, sidesteps, postpones or simply withdraws.
When the opponent is forcing / attempts aggression, you may choose to withdraw and postpone
your response until you are in a more favorable circumstance for you to push back
Withdrawing is a low stress approach when the conflict is short
Gives the ability/time to focus on more important or more urgent issues instead
Gives you time to better prepare and collect information before you act
May lead to weakening or losing your position; not acting may be interpreted as an agreement.
Using withdrawing strategies without negatively affecting your own position requires certain skill
and experience
When multiple parties are involved, withdrawing may negatively affect your relationship with a
party that expects your action
Forcing: It is also known as competing. Forcing tries to win the conflict at the other‘s expense. This
style, which has the strongest win-lose orientation, relies on some of the ―hard‖ influence tactics to get
one‘s own way.
In certain situations when all other, less forceful methods, don‘t work or are ineffective
When you need to stand up for your own rights, resist aggression and pressure
When a quick resolution is required and using force is justified (e.g. in a life-threatening situation,
to stop an aggression)
As a last resort to resolve a long-lasting conflict
May negatively affect your relationship with the opponent in the long run
May cause the opponent to react in the same way, even if the opponent did not intend to be
forceful originally
Cannot take advantage of the strong sides of the other side‘s position
Taking this approach may require a lot of energy and be exhausting to some individuals
Smoothing/Yielding: yielding involves giving in completely to the other side‘s wishes, or at least
cooperating with little or no attention to your own interests. This style involves making unilateral
concessions and unconditional promises, as well as offering help with no expectation of reciprocal help.
It is also known as accommodating. Smoothing is accommodating the concerns of other people first of
all, rather than one's own concerns.
When it is important to provide a temporary relief from the conflict or buy time until you are in a
better position to respond/push back
When the issue is not as important to you as it is to the other person
When you accept that you are wrong
When you have no choice or when continued competition would be detrimental
There is a risk to be abused, i.e. the opponent may constantly try to take advantage of your
tendency toward smoothing/accommodating. Therefore it is important to keep the right balance
and this requires some skill.
May negatively affect your confidence in your ability to respond to an aggressive opponent
It makes it more difficult to transition to a win-win solution in the future
Some of your supporters may not like your smoothing response and be turned off
Compromising: It involves looking for a position in which your losses are offset by equally valued gains.
Compromising looks for an expedient and mutually acceptable solution which partially satisfies both
parties.
It involves matching the other party‘s concessions, making conditional promises or threats, and actively
searching for a middle ground between the interests of the two parties.
When the goals are moderately important and not worth the use of more assertive or more
involving approaches, such as forcing or collaborating
To reach temporary settlement on complex issues
To reach expedient solutions on important issues
As a first step when the involved parties do not know each other well or haven‘t yet developed a
high level of mutual trust
When collaboration or forcing do not work
Faster issue resolution. Compromising may be more practical when time is a factor
Can provide a temporary solution while still looking for a win-win solution
Lowers the levels of tension and stress resulting from the conflict
May result in a situation when both parties are not satisfied with the outcome (a lose-lose
situation)
Does not contribute to building trust in the long run
May require close monitoring and control to ensure the agreements are met