Leadership in Change Management

Introduction

Leadership is mainly the ability of an individual or the group of the individuals in the organisational workplace to influence and guide the followers to achieve the company’s goal. The leaders try to develop the employee management practice, create good corporate culture and develop organisational structure to make the operations successful (Bafadal, Nurabadi and Gunawan, 2018). The aim of the study is to analyse the role of leadership in change management as well as evaluate the ways that the leaders influence the internal environment of work. The essay also provides a scope to analyse the people’s reaction at the workplace during change where it is mandatory for the leader to understand the perspective of the employees in the workplace to adopt strategic changes. In the recent era of globalisation, the organisations try to implement new strategies for enhancing business creativity and technical innovation. The leaders also aim at maintaining business uniqueness by creative decision making practice and utilising latest technology. In order to manage such changes, the leaders need to understand the employees, create good internal working practice and lead the employees towards achieving the future success.

Role of leadership in organisational change

A leader works as change agent in the workplace who can manage the organisational process efficiently where the changed initiatives have compelled organisations to constantly review and revaluate the recent technological advancement and customers expectations to understand, adopt and implement the changes in the business model (Bafadal, Nurabadi and Gunawan, 2018). In order to adopt new strategic changes, the leader plays a crucial, as the corporate leader works as a coach and facilitator in the workplace. The leaders try to analyse the organisational resources and capabilities and review the technical infrastructure before adapting the new changes. They are so working as strategist, where the leaders have good decision making and problem solving skill (Watson-Gegeo, 2021). This further helps team to analyse the existing issues and explore new alternative solutions to run the business innovatively. They are the ultimate decision makers and team player where they instruct the management team and la them efficiently. There are several departments in the corporate firms, or example, Wal-Mart as a famous retail firm have the departments like production and manufacturing units, operations, finance, marketing and sales, customer handling and processing. The managers of each department are working collaboratively under proper supervision and instruction of the leader. Hereby, the leader is the main change agent looking forward to achieve the organisation aim efficiently.

For understanding the change management process, Kurt Lewin developed a change model involving three steps such as, unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Through the stages, it is possible to analyse the role of leaders in change management practice. In the unfreeze stage, the leaders determine the need of change, ensuring strong support from upper management, creating the need for change and managing the doubts and concerns (Watson-Gegeo, 2021). The leaders are hereby playing a great ole in identifying the need for change and clearing the doubts and concerns of the managers and employees, so that they can improve their understanding about the benefits of change. for example, Sainsbury’s as a famous retail firm in the UK focus on e-commerce services rather than store expansion strategy in the recent pandemic situation, so that remote working practice for the employees is possible and the company can serve the customers through online delivery services (Younas et al., 2020). Hence, the digitalisation process at Sainsbury’s is the major change of achieving the future business success. the leader of Sainsbury’s identify the need for such change where the organisation is looking for sustaining in the market in the recent COVID 19 era, through e-commerce business activities. The next stage as per the model is change, where the leaders and managers communicate with the employees, dispel rumours, empower the action by involving the people in the process (Schell, 2019). Hence, the main aim of the leaders is to engage the people in the change management practice and lead them collaboratively towards achieving the future success. In this regard, the last stage is refreeze, in which the leaders are successful in implementing the changes, developing the ways to sustain the changes and provide support and training to the employees for celebrating future success (Halkias et al., 2017). Hence, the leaders are playing a crucial role in managing the staff members during change management practice by providing continuous support, empowering the staff, arranging training programs for them and achieving the success collaboratively.

Ways that the leaders influence the internal environment

The leaders aim at influencing the internal environment of the business, so that it is possible to create god workplace, in which the employees can work efficiently. The leaders in this regard mainly focus on developing good structure of the organisation, creating corporate culture, strategic planning, system and procedure, working practice, people and process design. the organisational structure incudes presence of broad members and senior officer team at the top, and them the managers and employees in each department including finance, research and development, technology, production, operations and marketing and sales (Halkias et al., 2017). This hieratical structure of the organisation is effective to maintain workplace structure and help the employees to maintain seniority and seek assistance from the managers to work efficiently. The corporate cure and internal practice are effective to create good internal environment. The leaders try to manage transparency and accountability in the workplace as well as respect each staff and develop good corporate bonding and trust. This further helps to create friendly atmosphere, where the employees can work with freedom and harmony in the friendly environment. There is continuous support and guidance from the senior team members and the employees working practice are supervised and controlled well. The employment rules are implemented which include health and Safety at the Workplace Act 1974, Equality Act 2010 and Data protection Act 1998 (Younas et al., 2020).

The personal data and organisational information are kept under security. The workers are also working under safety measures, where the leaders continuously monitor the workplace activities though CCTV and developing Information and Communication Technology (Janićijević, 2017). This further enhances internal communication and cooperation to work as a team. Hence, the team working practice is also encouraged by the leader to develop strong internal environment. In addition to this, the organisational leader tries to develop partnership working practice in order to manage the efficacy and productivity of the staff (Kilinc, Bellibas and Polatcan, 2020). The leaders facilitates knowledge management practice by developing technical training and skill enhancement programs which further motivates the employees to maximise their abilities and contribute positively in the workplace. For examples, Sainsbury’s focus on managing employee portal and utilise ICT framework in the firm to enhance communication and guide the works for working proficiently. On the other hand, the organisation also utilise shared workspace, where more than one employee can work and serve the customers with the best quality products (Feinberg and Watson-Gregeo, 2021). Hence, the leader develops good technical infrastructure and follow the corporate culture and organisational practice with dignity and respect to lead the workers towards achieving the vision of Sainsbury’s, which is to strengthen their customer’s base by providing the best quality products at affordable price. Additionally, quality and diversity is managed well where each staff get equal opportunity to participate and be empowered in the organisational decision making practice. Fair treatment, remunerations, and performance related pay as well as employee values creation lead to effective people management practice under suitable leadership style.

Reaction of the people in the workplace to respond/react to change

During the change management practice, the people are reacting differently due to technological changes and digitisation of the business. There are resistance to change and internal conflicts, where the workers cannot understand about new working process through adopting attest technology. There is the fear of job loss due to lack of expertise and knowledge about latest technology. Hence, the workers are not willing to adopt the technological changes and internal conflicts may arise in the workplace (Holmes, 2017). The other issues associated with this will also arise such as mistrust, misunderstanding, and lack of bonding and poor communication with the leader. The leader in this regard must play a crucial role in developing strong team and arrange technical training programs for supporting the employees, so that the staff members can participate actively and be empowered during the change management practice (Holten, Hancock and Bøllingtoft, 2019). It would be beneficial of the leader to continuously motivate them, develop trust and meet commitment towards them during the change management process so that they can understand the need for change and adopt changes as a collaborative working practice.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, leaders are playing an important role in managing change and leading the employees towards achieving the company’s objectives. The employees are continuously supported and be encouraged to show their creativity in the workplace. Moreover, the leader are also efficient to create good corporate culture by managing equality and diversity and team developmental practice which further provides a scope to the employees to work as a team and share knowledge to maximise the organisational success. Hence, the change management practice can be conducted efficiently by effective roles of leadership, where the leaders should empower the employees, guide them with adequate resources and training program and develop collaborative working practice lead them towards achieving future success.

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Reference List

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