1. Leading Change in Organization and Strategic Leadership by Executives
Session 11
31 December 2011
Civil Service College Dhaka
Presentation by
Dr. Muhammad G. Sarwar
Cell:

2. Leadership: Course Outline
Sl. no.
Topic Title
Season 1
Leadership Theories: an introduction 9 2
Managerial Work and Traits / Skills of Leadership 10 3
Leading Change in Organizations and Strategic Leadership by Executives 11 4
Developing Leadership Skills 12

3. Contents of 10th Session: Managerial Work and Traits / Skills of Leadership
Management Processes
Activity Patterns and Role of Managers
Nature of Leadership Traits and Skills
Leadership Traits and Skills: research findings
Leadership Traits and Effectiveness
Leadership Skills and Effectiveness
Leadership Competencies
Situational Relevance of Leadership Skills
Theories of Traits and Skills: implications for Managers

4. 4 Primary Process in Managing
Decision making
Influencing
Developing and maintaining relationship
Exchanging information

5. Taxonomy of Leadership Skill
Conceptual
Skill
Interpersonal Skill
Technical Skill

6. Skills needed at different levels
High CS IS
skr TS
Low LL Top

7. Contents of 11th Session: change in organization and role of executives
Change process in Organizations
Influencing Organization Culture
Implementing Change
How Leaders Influence Organizational Performance ?
Constraints on Executives
Conditions Affecting the Need for Strategic Leadership
Key Responsibilities for Top Executives

8. Change process in Organizations
Leading change is the most important and difficult leadership responsibility. It is the essence of leadership and everything else is secondary.
Effective leadership is needed to revitalize an organization and facilitate adaptation in a changing environment.

9. Change process in Organizations (contd.)
Resistance to change is a common phenomenon in any organization. Reasons for resistance to change are:
Lack of trust
Belief that change is not necessary
Belief that change is not feasible
Economic threats
High cost
Fear of personal failure
Loss of status and power
Threat to values and ideals
Resentment of interference

10. Stages in the Change Process
Lewin’s model proposed that the change process can be divided into 3 phases:
Unfreezing
Changing, and
Refreezing.
According to Lewin’s model change may be achieved by two types of actions:
Increase the driving forces toward change; and
Reduce restraining forces that create resistance to change

11. Approaches of Organizational Change
Attitude –centered approach involves changing attitudes and values with persuasive appeals, training programs, team-building activities, culture change program, etc.
Role-centered approach involves changing work roles by reorganizing workflow, redesigning jobs, modifying authority relationships, changing criteria for evaluation of work, changing reward system, etc.
Strategy-centered approach involves introduction of new products / services, entering new markets, initiation of internet sales, forming alliances with other organizations, modifying relationships with input suppliers, etc.

12. Approaches of Organizational Change (contd.)
Economic approach aims at improving financial performance with changes like downsizing, restructuring, adjustment in compensation and incentive package, etc.
Organizational approach seeks to improve human capacity, commitment, and creativity by increasing individual and organizational learning, strengthening cultural values, empowering people to initiate improvements.

13. Change in Organizational Culture
The culture of an organization is defined as shared underlying beliefs about the world and their place in it, human relationship, etc.
The underlying beliefs representing organizational culture are learned responses of problems of survival in the external environment and problems of internal integration.
A major function of culture is to help understand the environment and determine how to respond to it, thereby reducing confusion, uncertainty and anxiety.

14. Change in Organizational Culture (contd.)
Ways to Influence Organizational Culture:
Leadership behavior
Promoting values and vision
Role modeling
Reaction to crises
Designing management system and programs
Setting criteria for rewards
Designing organizational structure and facilities
Symbols, rituals, ceremonies, etc.

15. Cultural Change and Stages of Growth
It is much more difficult to change culture in a mature organization than to create it in a new organization.
In a mature organization, culture influences leaders more than leaders influence culture.
Cultural assumptions are difficult to change when they justify the past and a matter of pride.
Thus, a drastic cultural change is unlikely unless a major crisis threatens the survival of the organization.

16. Implementing Organizational Change
Responsibilities for implementing change:
The role of the top management is critical in implementation of change in the organization.
The role of top management is to formulate an integrating vision and strategy for change and build a coalition of supporters, then guide and coordinate the process of implementation.
Debate over Pace and Sequencing of Change:
Rapid introduction of change throughout the organization to prevent the buildup of resistance;
A more gradual introduction of change to different parts of the organization at different times.

17. Guidelines for Leading Change
Create a sense of urgency about the need for change
Communicate a clear vision of benefits to be gained
Identify whose support is essential and any resistance
Build a broad coalition to support the change
Fill key positions with competent change agents
Use task forces to guide the implementation of changes
Empower competent people to help implement change
Prepare people for change by explaining how it will affect them
Help people deal with stress and difficulties of changes
Opportunities for early success to build confidence
Monitor progress of change and make necessary adjustments
Keep all stakeholders informed about the progress of change
Demonstrate continued optimism and commitment to change

18. Determinants of Organizational Performance
According to FLT (Flexible Leadership Theory) three primary determinants of organizational performance are:
Adaptation to the environment and innovation,
Efficiency and process reliability (maintaining cost effectiveness and ensuring quality), and
Human resources and relation.

19. How Leaders can Influence Organizational Performance?
Leaders can influence organizational performance determinants with a combination of methods:
Leadership behavior,
Modifying programs, systems and structure,
Formulating competitive strategy.

20. Constraints on Executives
Executives faces various situational constraints toward influencing organizational performance:
Internal Constraints
Powerful inside coalitions,
Strong organizational culture and bureaucracy.
External Constraints
Nature of organization’s products/services and the type of markets in which the organization operates.
Existence of powerful external stakeholders such as a very few suppliers of raw materials,
Government regulations

21. Power Balance, Executive Tenure and Strategic Leadership
Power balance among different units of the organization also determines strategic leadership by the CEO.
A CEO’s strategic leadership is also affected by his/her duration in office.

22. Two Key Responsibilities of Top Executives
Monitoring the Environment, and
Developing Competitive strategy.

23. Monitoring the Environment
Typical questions for environment scanning:
What do clients/customers want?
What is the reaction of clients/customers to the organization’s current products/services?
Who are the primary competitors?
What strategies competitors are pursuing?
How will the organization be affected by new regulations?
How will new technologies affect the organization’s products/services and operation?
How will the organization be affected by changes in the economy?
How will the organization be affected by international events?
How will the organization be affected by changing demography?

24. Guidelines for Environment Scanning
Identify relevant information to gather
Use multiple sources of relevant information
Analyze what clients/customers need and want
Gather intelligence about the products/services of competitors
Relate environmental information to stragic plans.

25. Guidelines for Formulating Strategy
Determine organization’s long-term objectives and priorities
Assess current strengths and weakness
Identify core competitors
Evaluate the need foe a major change in strategy
Identify promising strategies
Evaluate the likely outcomes of strategy
Involve other executives in selecting strategy.

26. References
Gary Yukl, 2011, Leadership in Organizations, 7th edition, Pearson, chapter 10 and 13
Peter G. Northhouse, 2010, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 5th edition, Sage publication
Robert N. Lussier and Christopher F. Achua, 2007, Effective Leadership, 3rd edition, Cengage Learning.

27. Thanks