Change Management - Does Leadership Style and Culture Matter When Managing Change in an Organisational Context?

Leadership has a very important role to play in managing change. For example, considering one of the most effective change management models, Kotter’s eight step change management model, the first step is creating a sense of urgency, followed by the second step of forming a powerful coalition. The second step can only be implemented by effective leadership, as it takes a responsible person to lead the change by ensuring commitment from people at different management levels (Kotter, 2012). It is the leader who convince people to be part of the change, influence them to overcome their resistance or doubts of the change through communication, interaction and engagement. Since change is a planned activity and a process, leadership has much role to play in ensuring the change goals are achieved (Ajmal et al. 2013).

Similarly, leadership is strongly associated with the corporate culture, as it is influenced by the process of articulating the vision and the setting of organisational expectations (Belias & Koustelios, 2014). Hence, the leadership style and nature have strong effect on how an organisation’s culture is shaped, and therefore have direct effect on how organisational change take place and affect the organisation’s culture. When it comes to the appropriate leadership styles/behaviours required for effective change management, an inspirational and supportive styles are desirable, argue Base & Bejinaru, 2013). Inspirational type of leadership is necessary because it motivates and influence people to become part of the change, as mentioned in the eight-step change model developed by Kotter (2012). Therefore, leadership is an important factor in facilitating change in an organisation.

Reference

Ajmal, S. Farooq, Z. Sajid, N. & Awan, S. (2013). Role of Leadership in Change Management Process. Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 111-124.

Base, C. & Bejinaru, R. (2013). LEADERSHIP APPROACHES REGARDING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE. The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration, 13(2), 146-152.

Belias, D. & Koustelios, A. (2014). THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE. European Scientific Journal, 10(7), 451-470.

Kotter, J.P. (2012). Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author. Boston, US: Harvard Business Press.