Transformational Leadership and Change

Introduction

Leadership has been a subject, which has had much focus when considering management literature, over the past years. This paper purposes to bring forth the aspect of leadership, in which case, it focuses primarily on transformational leadership, with the aim of enhancing change. Buchanan and Huczynski (2017) define leadership as a process that involves the influence of the activities performed by an organized group in a bid to embracing goal setting, as well as goal achievement (Cartel et al., 2013). The essence of having a leader-follower is basically to promote the aspect of interaction of individuals with varied levels of both power control and motivation and this includes skills, whilst pursuing a common or joint purpose. This form of interaction takes two different forms, including transactional and transformational. However, this paper will primarily focus on transformational leadership, which is defined as the process in which leaders bring forth a radical change on to the outlook, as well as behaviour of their followers (Oreg & Berson, 2011). In this regard, it occurs, in an instance where an individual or more person engage with others in a way in which leaders and followers purpose to raise each other to higher motivation, and morality levels. A transformational leader motivates his or her followers to encourage them to do more than they are expected to do initially (Avolio et al., 2013). Overall, under transformational leadership, this paper will focus on three key issues, which include socialization, behavior modification, and ethical issues. In this regard, it will purpose to critically analyses the utility and potential negative consequences of socialization and behavior modification techniques. Moreover, it will focus on the ethical issues, which transformational managers have to look into, in utilizing the socialization and behavior modification technique (Mason et al., 2014).

Socialization

Socialization refers to a process in which people purpose to acquire dominant beliefs, behaviors, motives, as well as values of their culture, and in due time, it gradually becomes similar to those of other members of the said cultural group. In this regard, it is evident that socialization is a continued change, which reinforced constant change, which is constantly growing. For instance, if an organization has embraces a major change, then there must be the socializing aspect. It should be noted that standing up against culture is surely important, as it assists in evolving a give culture (Albrechtsen & Hovden, 2010). There are five hard examples of socialization and they include the following: (1) primary socialization, which happens when the follows learn significant values, norms, as well as behaviors, which ought to be displayed in a bid to live in accordance with a specific culture. (2) Secondary socialization, which occurs when the followers learn appropriate behaviors, which ought to be displayed within a small group that is still regarded as part of the larger society. (3) Developmental socialization involves a learning process in which the primary focus is on the development of significant social skills (Freeman et al., 2009). (4) Anticipatory socialization, which is a process in which an individual practices, or rather, rehearses for the sake of future social relationships. Finally, (5) resocialization is a socialization process that involved the rejection of previous behavioral patterns and thus, replacing them or accepting new ones, in order for the followers to be able to shift easily (Hill et al., 2011).

The dark side of culture and culture as cult

The cult is largely thought of as utopian or religious group with a charismatic leader. However, it should be noted that not all cult leaders are charismatic. Some cult leaders exhibit strange behaviour and put on bizarre clothes. However, most behaviours of the cult are extreme normal cultural behaviour that is inherited from childhood. For instance, conforming to peer group influence. Deilman denotes that the passion that drives people to cult include a desire to feel secure and protected

Culture and cults

Cults are reflected mirrors through which people are able to observe more coherently the wider culture aspect. People become cultured when they conform to norms, ideas, values and the society shared perception. There are practical benefits of confirming and disadvantages of failing to conform. No group or nation is one fixed culture, however a special combination of interrelated cultures. In Britain today, the streetwise homeless have different culture from that of a farmer, a nurse or accountant. All the British people tend to share some aspects of culture that are very different from that of African, South American and Asian culture. In summary, every nation's has a different flavor.

There are three dirty factors that cite cult phenomena characteristics

Depending on a leader

Cult leaders suppress criticism and demand loyalty. Cult leaders believe power must be absolute to them. They normally claim that they are being guided and directed by the divine doctrines. Cult exclusively serves their leaders and for that reason, it does everything possible to destroy the family ties and any form of conventional and secure anchor that may be existing in a person’s life. The impact of this is to strengthen the bond between the person and the cult.

Avoiding dissent

Cults employs various indoctrination methods in order to keep the cult members committed. Information that may raise eyebrows is destroyed or burned. Ideals of the cult are promoted endlessly. Members are always kept in a busy state to distract them from sensing their transforming state and the truth about what is actually happening. This type of behaviour can also be observed in the normal way of life when people involve themselves in activities that may back up prejudices. For instance, people may read a newspaper that widely agrees with their political views and prejudices however this may limit the perspective of the readers if they fail to research and study them.

Denigration

The cult tends to disregard outsiders including those that come from other cult and even the family members. This has its roots in the old times when a natural caution when approaching strangers were seen as appropriate. The cult message alters this survey template. It cites that everyone in a cult is safe but others are damned. This implies that anyone in the cult is superior to the outsiders. This view can equally imply that the outsiders are evil but cult members are good and right. Everything is observed in white and black.

Utility of socialization techniques

Various transformational; leaders in organizations acknowledge and recognize the vital importance of initial experiences, for their followers and as such, they consequently realize the pressing need to manage, facilitate, and also support the manner in which newcomers transit into contributing members of the group/organization. In this regard, it is significant to take note of the fact that over time, this kind of realization by use of socialization skills has enabled an evolution from a narrowly focused presentation of information (new follower orientation) to a broader focused form of learning, as well as coaching experiences (onboarding) (Ramsay & Wagner, 2009). The newly hired leaders getting into a new company normally find the process of socialization to be a highly demanding experience. The stake and expectations are high while the knowledge of the newcomers about the organisation is low. The literature that relates to new leaders socialisation generally is aims at managerial control, assimilation and succession planning. The focus is on the succession events related to performance or outcome, contributing promptly with early victory and having total influence over the situation, and the new faces abiding by the ways of the organization.

According to Warrick (2014), this perspective tends to assume that new leaders have the mandate to master systems of the organisation thereby hindering the important development of high standard interdependent relationship needed to effectively perform with various members from the team of management. Research indicates that approximately 40 per cent of the leaders taking up the organisation role fail to produce results during their first eighteen months of service (Deschamps et al., 2016). Different calculations of indirect and direct failure costs range from 500 thousand pounds to 3 million pounds. For every incident. A lot of organisations acknowledges the essence of initial experience on the job while hiring new workers. Consequently, they tend to realize the essence of actively facilitating, supporting and managing how new leaders transition into contributing organisation members. For a long time, there has been a significant evolution of this realization from a narrowly focused presentation of information to a broad and highly advance coaching and learning experiences (Hargis et al., 2011). For organisation leaders, the process of socialization is often less structured and quite complex. The major purpose of new leaders in the process of socialization is to hire and introduce new workers to the organisation, the procedures, and the people; enhance integration into different teams within the organization; develop the sense of collective identity to the newcomers, and to enhance the feeling of belonging to the company. For newcomers, the organisations socialization difficulties stem from the tension that arises between the beliefs purporting that leaders have the responsibility of knowing what to do in terms of their assigned organizational roles (Ghasebeh et al., 2015). This kind of gap that exist between reality and beliefs leads to attrition in higher rank of the executive and higher level of failure. Additionally, socialization scholarly literature is fragmented and focuses narrowly on performance, organizational and relegating systemic factors to the background. Therefore, there is an essence for more understanding of the organisation socialization for the new leaders hired in the company.

Negative consequences of socialization techniques

It is vital to take note of the fact that new transnational leaders, entering an organization may find all aspects of socialization process to be demanding, owing to the fact that it carries high expectations, there are high stakes, and as such, it is evident that the knowledge of the new transformational leaders is definitely low. However, it should also be acknowledged that literature that relates to socialization of new transformational leaders often majors on succession planning, assimilation, as well as managerial control. This kind of foci tends to be on the succession relationship of events, which amounts to outcomes/performance (Ghasebeh et al., 2015) Organisational socialisation calls upon the newly hired workers to communicate new coworkers and the management. The introvert group may not be ready to communicate comfortably to connect up with the group during this process, since it may seem to be overwhelming. For instance, during lunch hours on the first day, an introvert may find it hard to answer questions concerning the information they acquired during the process of organisation socialization. This is a major challenge because asking questions can enable new workers to learn and understand the company better, in terms of their jobs, procedure and policies. Answering such questions can enable their coworkers to know them better on a professional and personal level. During the process of organisation socialisation, seasoned employees may dispute the resistance of new hires to openly communicate. As a result, management and employees may decide to form opinions about the hired worker before he starts to demonstrate his skills and knowledge in various fields (Ghasebeh et al., 2015). Employees may wrongfully regard the new hires as unfriendly, incompetent and visionless. The new hires may be assumed and ignored by both management and the employees, which in turn can make them to receive less essential task. Additionally, if the newly hired workers are introvert and poorly treated by the management and employees, it is likely to have a lasting impact on their encounter with the organisation. The new workers may feel disappointed with the working environment and the tasks assigned to them. The new hires may also be denied any form of promotion and management may equally ignore their ideas.

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Behaviour modification

Behaviour modification is an essential tool used by most managers to improve the effectiveness of the organisation. This technique is employed to eliminate or modify the undesirable behaviour of the employees and replace them with behaviours that are more compatible with the objectives of the organisation. The behaviour modification technique focuses on the person's overt behaviour and this enables the manager to observe and handle the behaviours outward manifestation (Ghasebeh et al., 2015)

Application of behaviours

Programmed instruction is the widely used application of behaviour modification technique in most business organisations. It is majorly based on strategic learning using operational principles. The manager receives prompt feedback regarding the correctness of the response. The accurate responses enable the manager to continue while inaccurate response signals that the process is rerouting until an accurate response demonstrate that the subject has been learnt and understood.

The utility of behaviour modification technique

Behaviour modification can be used by different organisations to meet the goals of the company. The manager employs positive reinforcement to counter various bad behaviours that may obstruct the company from realizing its statement. Behaviour modification for instance in many years has been employed by the manager to improve job attendance. Utilities of behaviour modification technique are discussed below.

It improves attendance

One key problem with the reinforcements or rewards used by the organisations today is that they do not conform to the objectives of the organisations. Behaviour which does not result in the company's goals is usually left unrewarded. Many current policies and managers reward workers for failing to commit to work. People are like to engage themselves in classical behaviour in an event they are rewarded for failing to work. Two organisations faced with challenges of high level of absenteeism applied the technique of behaviour modification in order to solve their problem. These two organisation employed the principle of positively rewarding specific behaviour. The first organisation, the hardware store strategies on a plan whereby punctuality and perfect attendance were rewarded with monthly prizes. Every worker who attained a particular percentage of job attendance was awarded with big prizes. In this case, the organisation employed a positive reinforcement technique to counter the bad behaviour. As a result, the level of absenteeism significantly reduced.

It improves quality.

The organisation has equally applied behaviour modification in order to enhance quality control. Two organisation demonstrated that behaviour modification can be used to control quality especially when the quality produced fails to meet the expected standards. Rather than stressing on attitudes and ability levels, their operant model recommended rearrangement of environmental contingencies and controlling the behaviour. Procedures of systematic conditioning managed to hold the desired behaviour for long periods compared to the poorly planned procedures of punishment and reward that is commonly applied in work organisation.

It enhances managerial effectiveness

Management of behaviour contingency has been one approach used to improve general effectiveness. Behaviour contingency management is a model of problem-solving that has been designed for the purpose of teaching first lines supervisors in organisational setting strategies of behavioural change. This model is composed of five steps that are used to identify problematic behaviours that are performance related (Ghasebeh et al., 2015)They include frequency measurement of these behaviours over a period of time; functional analysis performed to identify the behaviours contingent consequences and the cue for controlling antecedents; employing intervention scheme to decelerate ineffective behaviour and accelerate effective behaviour; and conducting an assessment to certain performance improvement. Luthans and Otteman recently conducted research measuring effectiveness on management behaviour. The result denoted that the production rate of supervisors trained using behaviour contingency management significantly increased as compared to the controlled supervisor’s production rate.

Consequences of behaviour modification techniques

There are four types of consequences of behaviour modification

Positive reinforcement: This consequence often occurs when a consequence that has been introduced and maintains or increases the frequency of a particular behaviour. This happens for instance, when receiving rewards and praises after completion of a given task.

Punishment: This happens when a consequence reduces the frequency or rate of behaviours future probability.

Negative reinforcement: It occurs when a consequence goes unpunished. It can rather happen when avoidance or removal of a consequence maintains or increases the frequency of occurrence of a particular behaviour. Supervisors and managers employ negative reinforcement when they find it needless to criticize workers with an improvement in substandard performance.

Extinction: This type of consequence of behaviour modification happens when the started behaviour diminishes because there is no consequence that will follow it. For example, research demonstrates that performance tends to decrease when the supervisors or the manager cease to congratulate employees when they do good work.

Behaviour modification constitutes threats to personal autonomy classical concept. It is argued that the application of behaviour modification on workers is dehumanizing, mechanical and dictatorial. Workers are constantly conditioned or manipulated in different ways. It is argued that the common method of rewarding employees is equivalent to bribery. Therefore, it disputes the claim that individuals work for a specific reason with a great passion to succeed without being showered with rewards. Additionally, in behaviour modification workers are molded and manipulated into another concept of the human being regarded as an ideal person. However, behaviorists may dispute this by arguing that it is impossible to shape someone into a perfect person (Hechanova et al.,2013).

Argyris poses the moral question of learning individual’s development and growth. He argues that a lot of foci should be put on growth since it builds and strengthens the individual to influence, understand, redesign and control his or her surroundings. Learning should be aimed at assisting individuals to think and keep the open question on what effect they have on other people and how they can modify the effects if they wish to. Under behaviour modification, a lot of emphases is not put on development and growth but rather on making the person be aware of what the reinforcers expect from him or her (Ghasebeh et al., 2015)

Ethical issues

Behaviour modification is a technique used for shaping how employees behave in the workplace. A lot of managers tend to practice behaviour modification through the application of positive reinforcement in order to reward the people who excel in the workplace. For instance, year-end bonuses may be given to some work in order to raise them beyond and above. Suspensions and warnings are examples of behaviour modification in terms of negative reinforcement. This modification may discourage or encourage workers in the workplace (Boga & Ensari, 2009).

Ethical issues in behaviour modification

Managers are ethical in employing behaviour modification to the workers in order to achieve company's desired results. Behaviour modification is unethical because it encroaches the rights of the employees from thinking freely. Ethical issues of behaviour modification come into focus when considering the possible negative consequences of behaviour modification on other workers in the organisation and the ability of the managers to apply negative and positive reinforcement objectively. Some of these ethical issues are discussed below.

Influence

Influencing vicious competition or selfishness among the workers is a serious ethical issue in behaviour modification. This bad influence is commonly applied by managers in using the negative reinforcement technique. In any event, the employees notice the managers haranguing and scolding the fellow workers they are most likely to copy and practice such behaviours to their colleagues in the workplace regarding such behaviour as workplace tradition. Positive reinforcements can significantly contribute to competitiveness based on counter-production, creating a selfishness culture as opposed to one of teamwork and altruism (Boga & Ensari, 2009).

Control

The ethics of controlling individuals may prove to be the most overarching ethical issue of behaviour modification in n organisation. When managers perform behaviour modification, they tend to encourage or compel workers to behave in a manner that they may not be comfortable with. In some cases, the managers may fail to observe any ethical issue with kind of modification they employ. For instance, coercing an employee with specialized skills in a given field to perform a task that he is not familiar with might cause stress and depression to the person even if the organisation stand a chance to benefit in the long run. Behaviour modification encourages employee to give their best willingly to benefit the organisation (Boga & Ensari, 2009).

Rights and duties

Whether the action infringes employees’ rights or imposed duties: Behaviour modification violates the rights and duties of the employees to freely think by themselves and by having limited choices. Notably, behaviour modification does not violate any duty of the employer when incentives are applied however it violates the duties when benefits and wages deduction are applied as a form of punishment (Hechanova et al.,2013).

Fairness

Even the well-meaning managers sometimes make a decision based upon discrimination or favoritism. A manager can sometimes reward an employee with a rise in rank without considering other competent employees who are better qualified. In such cases, other employees who applied for the same position might feel discriminated and this can affect the performance of the employees hence undermining the organisation from realizing its objectives. It is therefore important for the employer to carefully make a decision based on fairness and competence (Mason et al., 2012).

Conclusion

Socialization and behaviours modification technique approaches contain many implications that have not been fully explored in organisations. However, advocates must have in mind that reinforcers are strange for every person. Although gifts and pay maybe the obvious and overall reward, there are other forms of reward that can make people respond in different ways. What works out as a positive reinforcer for a given person may not work out for a different person. The motivation of workers at all level with a similar set of reward and pay has been done by any organisation for a very long time and therefore it is advisable that a different approach of reinforcement be applied (McKnight, 2013). When a varied list is used, there is a likelihood that every work can get something that is appealing to him or her. Socialisation and behaviour modification technique can be applied to a larger variety of areas such as human resource management, job design, and personal development among others. There is a big number of piecemeal application, however, few attempts have been made to apply socialization and behaviour modification technique. It is hard to judge the utility of socialization and behaviour modification in organisations application since it has had remarkable success in controlled environments, however, it is untested and untried in the uncontrolled environment of the company (Brown & May, 2012). The few successful application of behaviour modification in the organisation has been selectively applied in a problematic environmental situation. Behaviour modification and socialization have proven to succeed in realizing the mission statement of the organisation and there is a high need to prove its validity through empirical research. It has been reported that the greatest utility of behaviour modification relies on areas with the programmable and routinized task. Behaviour modifications and socialization technique are tools that enhance organizational goals but not a panacea.

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