Individual Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Individual - Essay Example A research based on the investigation of 288 companies identified the resistance from employees at various levels as the biggest factor that hindered the implementation of change (Creasey cited in Haslam and Pennington, n.d., p. 3). This is so because the personnel tend to gain benefits from the existing business model of the organization. They have their ways formulated in such a way that any change in the existing business model can be a potential threat to their profitability. A leader is responsible to quell the resistance among people towards the implementation of a change that is compulsory for the organizational growth. The process of transition comprises three entirely distinct processes, each of which upsets the organizational personnel in its own way. The three stages are â€Å"1) Saying Goodbye, 2) The Neutral Zone, and 3) Moving Forward† (Haslam and Pennington, n.d., p. 3). Employees have reason to resist the first stage. At least they know how to work in the old s ystem whether or not it works. Having worked in the old setup for quite some time, they develop a comfort level with the first stage. Lacking the set of competencies required by the new system, people tend to revert to the old system. The Neutral Zone, which is essentially the second stage, consumes most of the time and energy of people. Instead of taking the discomfort as a challenge and working their way towards the new comfort, people tend to go back to the same old ineffective but convenient ways of doing things. In organizations which have the culture of punishing employees for their mistakes, people hesitate to adopt the new system unless they are sure they will not make any mistake in the Moving Forward stage, which is the third stage. The need of security and safety causes people to resist change. It rests with the transformational leader to make the change implemented with minimum inconvenience. According to Herold et al (2008), not much study has been done to find the impa ct of transformational leadership on outcomes of the change. Personal outcomes are the fundamental specialty of transformational leadership (Givens, 2008, p. 4). â€Å"The vision, drive, passion and ability of leaders to inspire their followers into action largely make up †¦ charismatic leadership style [of the leaders]† (Parry and Proctor-Thomson, 2002). A transformational leader necessarily has five crucial qualities that make him an effective transformational leader. A leader must be a Visionary; A leader must be a person of Integrity and Honesty and have Values; A leader must know how to properly motivate others; and A leader must be able to lead change and finally, A leader must be able to lead a culture of change. (Cornelius & Associates, n.d.). Despite their individualistic identity and significance in organizational leadership, these qualities are largely interdependent. Changes in an organization can be fundamentally classified into two types, namely the planned and the emergent. Initiatives drives in an organization from top to bottom are termed as planned changes whereas emergent changes are those which develop from any level in the hierarchical structure of an organization. In either of the two types of changes, leader assumes a crucial role to play. In order for the planned change to be effective, it is imperative that the leader