Benchmark-Leading a Continuously Changing Organization

You have just been hired as the chief executive officer (CEO) in a medium-sized organization.

The organization is not suffering financially, but neither is it doing as well as it could do. This is

largely because the organization is stagnated in old ideas having not kept pace with the changing

standards of the sector it serves. It does; however, have a handful of new employees who are

eager to see the organization modernize. The organization also has several long-time employees

who have remained with the company through the good times and the bad. The board of

directors feels a sense of loyalty and obligation to these steadfast individuals, but the board also

knows that moving some parts of the operation “off-shore” would be better for the organization.

In this assignment, you will discuss how you as a leader would direct this organization through

the changes that are necessary for its survival.

General Requirements:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• You are required to use APA style for this writing assignment.
• This assignment requires a minimum of 10 scholarly research sources (please select at

least 10 sources from the following list) related to this topic, and at least one in-text

citation from each source referenced to be included.

• Include an abstract, introduction, and conclusion section in your paper.

Directions:

Write a paper of 1,250 – 1,500 words that describes how you would lead the organization

described above. Include the following in your paper:

1. A discussion of the foundational leadership theories upon which you would draw to

lead this organization. (Benchmarks C1.1: Assess and synthesize historical

foundations of leadership theories and their applications.).

2. A discussion of the application of foundational leadership theories to diverse

populations and settings. How would you apply the appropriate theory to the above

scenario? (Benchmarks C1.3: Identify and apply foundational theories in diverse

settings.).

3. A discussion of how you would assess the effectiveness of those foundational

leadership theories and adapt them to the diverse populations and settings represented

in the above scenario. (Benchmarks C1.4: Assess the effects of leadership theories

and propose adaptations based on those assessments.).

4. A statement of how your leadership skills and style would be an asset or drawback to

your effectiveness as a leader in this environment. (Benchmarks C1.2: Assess and

recognize one’s own leadership skills and how those skills naturally become an asset

or a drawback to becoming an effective leader.)Available Scholarly Research Sources

(please use at minimum these 10 empirical sources)

Brewer, M. (2016). Exploring the potential of a capability framework as a vision and

“sensemaking” tool for leaders of interprofessional education. Journal of

Interprofessional Care, 30(5), 574–581. doi:10.1080/13561820.2016.1182969

Eisenbeiss, S. A., van Knippenberg, D., & Fahrbach, C. M. (2014). Doing well by doing good?

Analyzing the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and firm performance.

Journal of Business Ethics, 128(3), 635–651. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2124-9

Gulati, R., Mikhail, O., Morgan, R. O., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Vision statement quality and

organizational performance in U.S. Hospitals. Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(5),

335–350. doi:10.1097/00115514-201609000-00007

Hiekkataipale, M.-M., & Lämsä, A.-M. (2015). What should a manager like me do in a situation

like this? Strategies for handling ethical problems from the viewpoint of the logic of

appropriateness. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(3), 457–479. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-

2911-y

Kirkpatrick, S. A. (2017). Toward a grounded theory: A qualitative study of vision statement

development. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 18(1), 87.

Martin, D., Ankel, F., Hemphill, R., Heron, S., Khandelwal, S., Merritt, C., … Santen, S. (2018).

Creating a vision for education leadership. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine,

165–168. doi:10.5811/westjem.2017.11.35301

Mayfield, J., & Mayfield, M. (2017). Leadership communication: Reflecting, engaging, and

innovating. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(1), 3-11.

doi:10.1177/2329488416675446Mitra, A., Gaur, S. S., & Giacosa, E. (2019). Combining organizational change management and

organizational ambidexterity using data transformation. Management Decision, 57(8),

2069–2091. doi:10.1108/md-07-2018-0841

Paroby, D., & White, D. (2010). The role of shared vision and ethics in building an effective

learning organization. Southern Journal of Business & Ethics, 2, 133-142.

Zeni, T. A., Buckley, M. R., Mumford, M. D., & Griffith, J. A. (2016). Making “sense” of

ethical decision making. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(6), 838–855.

doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.09.002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leading a Continuously Changing Organization

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

Change will always happen; however, it is about an issue of time. In this context, I have been given the mandate as a chief executive officer (CEO) to lead a medium-sized corporation into change. Therefore, I am tasked to ensure that changes are implemented within the organization. The organization has outlined about three issues that I need to assess and address. First, I am expected to address the stagnated performances as well as the worsening financial situation of the organization. Secondly, I will also assess the issue of resistance, which is brought about by the various viewpoints between the long-serving and new employees regarding the provision of services and their performances.

Finally, I will assess the need to move the portion of the corporation operation oversea. Thus, I must make changes that will enable the firm to survive and flourish. Therefore, this research intends to convey how I will lead or manage this corporation through the difficulties that are important for its existence.

Leading a continuously changing organization

Leaders in every organization aim at ensuring that the organization becomes successful during its existence and into the foreseeable future. Besides, leaders attract internally motivated individuals and later on inspire them with new ways of thinking. Good leaders are always enthusiastic to test the status quo while believing and supporting their followers. Therefore, the results of great leaders are a new effect on the culture of cooperation.

The primary question that arises here is the reason why it is important to discuss or study organizational theories. When studying theories that linked to the organizational changes, the workers will have a good comprehension of the organizational; structure as well as the strategic change processes. These theories will enable individuals to study and, at the same time, analyze various situations that may affect the firm either internally or externally. In this context, this segment briefly shows two critical theories that are relevant in leading the corporation towards the change course.

Foundational theories

My first foundational theory is the total quality management theory abbreviated as (TQM). TQM is all about the structured approach to general administrative management. Hence, its main emphasis is to rally the quality of the organization’s output through the continuous enhancement of internal practices (Mayfield & Mayfield, 2016). TQM is dated back to the early 1920s with the experiment conducted by Elton Mayo Hawthorn. This experiment insinuated that if employees can take part in the policymaking process, then the output will be improved. As the CEO of the company I will incorporate TQM in my management practice to ensure all of the members within the organization take part in improving the process, products, services as well as the culture of the firm.

Consequently, Walter Shewhart came up with a technique for numerical examination to ascertain quality in 1930, which was then trailed by Edwards Deming’s work on statistical and examination and quality management. Moreover, in 1986, the Japanese established a quality management system that was in alignment with both the works of Deming’s and Shewhart. By 1980 TQM had already been known, and today it is well known to be a systematic approach in quality management within various organizations. The primary aim of TQM is the satisfaction of the clients through quality control. Therefore, I would facilitate various leaders to use the TQM theory to educate and keep their followers or employees up to date on various issues so that knowledge can be accumulated in the workplace (Eisenbeiss & Daniel, 2016).

The second theory is that of Lewin. In 1947, Kurt Lewin came up with his well-known. In this context, Lewin knew that changes will always have resistance and critics. Barriers in change management can be inform of long-serving dormant employees or various stagnant talents accompanied by ethical problems. This theory suggests a three level-based model can achieve organizational change by solving the ethic-related issues from when they arise to the resolution phase or the outcome of the strategic approaches applied to solve the problem. It also states the main strategies to counter prevailing ethical problems in compliance with the logic of appropriateness (Hiekkataipale & Lämsä, 2015). Therefore, for change to be effective, it is essential for driving or supporting forces to be more stringent than the restrictive force. As the CEO I would use the force field analysis to assess the willingness and enthusiasm and the need for change in both the corporation’s structure and the personal environment. As a result this creates a conducive environment for a balance between the two restraining forces.  Hence, both TQM and Lewin’s theory calls for the unity and teamwork of both the employers and the workers to ensure that change implementation becomes a success in an organization.

Application of foundational theories

In this context, I would outline some of the challenges faced during the change process. The challenges that I will address consists of the inactive state of the corporation, the main reason for taking the operations overseas, and the upsurge disagreement among the long-serving and new workers on their view towards what is required to be changed. Therefore, to be precise, this segment shows the importance of both TQM and Lewin’s three stages in addressing the three main challenges that I had outlined.

The first challenge was that of stagnated conditions of the corporation that came up due to lack of learning, adapting as well as improving which are the critical goal of both TQM and Lewin’s three model stages. Change management requires high-level assessment and continuous renewal of the corporation’s capabilities, structure and vision in order to be effective in the current business environment. Therefore to ensure a smooth transition of the organization I would ensure a continuous shift in the business models, skills requirement, talent acquisition and operational model (Mitra, Gaur, & Giacosa,2019).  I will ensure a continuous shift in the entire business model becomes to avoid disruption while enabling foundational innovation and efficiency. Hence, this will enable the management to come up with various methods of reducing the restraining forces and maximizing the driving forces of change. Besides, to overcome the stagnated company condition, I will make it my aim to build a culture that encourages continuous development and learning.

Also, there was the challenge of determining the motive for moving some operations oversea. With the era of digital transformation I will conduct a feasibility study on the possibilities of initiating digital operational models to ease the process of overseas communication and productivity before setting up a physical office.  Also with the use of TQM, which focuses on consumer satisfaction, I will be able able to ascertain whether the Organization will be beneficial to carry out some of its productions overseas. Hence, the decision will be made in terms of whether the consumers will be satisfied.

Furthermore, both TQM and Lewin’s model needs the leaders and employees to work as a team to determine the need for change. Working as a team consists of training, as well as communicating visions which are of great essence in preparing the organization employers and the leadership to implement and embrace change (Zeni, Buckley, Mumford, & Griffith, 2016). Besides, to reduce the tautness between the long-serving and the new employees, I will make use of teamwork as well as group learning between the parties to enable them to know each other. Through this, the long-serving employees can be able to demonstrate to the new employees on how things are done. Consequently, the new employees can as well come up with new innovative notions that may enable the organization to grow. Therefore, the main aim of TQM is to enable both the new and all employees to work together in harmony to make the organization grow.

The effectiveness of foundational theories

In my opinion the foundational theories will be of great essence to the organization for its growth into the foreseeable future (Gulati, Morgan, & Sittig, 2016). Foundational theories set a good start for the actualization of organizations’ visions. Vision builds the CEO’s hope and aspirations and encourages them to look for a business transformation and success in the future. (Gulati, Morgan, & Sittig, 2016). For instance TQM will significantly impact the corporation to advance in the change process due to the ideal of the management working together with the workers to grow, learn, and adapt to the various changes. TQM will also need the leaders to help the employees to learn, familiarize, and prosper during the process of change. Besides, TQM also requires the leaders to make use of teamwork during the process of problem-solving (Paroby & White, 2010). The significant gesture of TQM is establishing a thriving culture that attempts to satisfy consumers with various products and services. Hence, it will be my main objective to do things right for the first time to avoid extra cost and time wastages. Besides, to certify that there are quality service provisions, TQM will try to enhance learning organizations to improve, adapt, thrive and survive (Brewer, 2016).

Also, the three stages adopted by Lewin that are refreezing, unfreezing, and change need leaders to prepare, develop, and support their employees towards the change process. The change stage is the strategic implementation process. At this stage, the mistake is prone to take place, and the leaders will act by encouraging the employees to learn and improve some of their skills (Kirkpatrick, 2017). On the other hand, the unfreezing stage is all about the readiness and willingness to accept change. Hence, leaders need to advance and communicate change ideas of the workers to attain their set objectives. Finally, the refreezing stage focuses on adapting the things that have been learned into the culture of the organization (Martin & Emerg, 2019).

Leadership styles

As a leader my duty will be to try to change the present Organization into a corporation that is guided by a culture that pursues constant learning and improvements to succeed. It is of paramount importance for a leader to have a sense of personal understanding or awareness of his social foundations as these sets the basis for bureaucratic structure in an organization (Paroby & White, 2010). As a visionary leader I will develop quality vision statements that will help me think about the business plans, activities and decisions in the future.

Leadership communication will steer the organization into a transformational, creative and meaningful change. Leadership communication expression expresses thoughts that are conveyed in the form of dialogue, talk, seminars to cause specific actions that are capable of change, progress that is necessary for the Organization (Mayfield & Mayfield, 2016). In my journey on organizational change leadership communication will help me in interpreting the reality of the prolonged issues and set the basis for a wide range of perceptions amongst the employees. It will serve as both motivation and resources for the interest of the organization as I will be able to create and manage meaning in the different capacities. Moreover leadership communications are essential when trying to change the perception and narrative of employees within the organization. The main goal of leadership communication is to bring about transformation anchored on an understanding of the need for change. Through leadership communication I will actively empower and encourage the workers to attain the set goals and vision of the organization. Therefore, at the current state, the organization will need transformation, support as well as trust to support the culture of consistent learning, developing, and later on improvement to enable the firm to grow.

To sum up, during the process of change, many barriers will always try to restrict change. Therefore, a close assessment will always help me to ensure that leaders can do away with these barriers. Besides, before making these changes, I will help the managers first identify their strengths and faintness concerning their leadership styles while steering change. Finally, I would advise the CEO should use TQM and Lewin’s three-stage model to determine factors that may hinder change.

References

 

Brewer, M. (2016). Exploring the potential of a capability framework as a vision and sensemaking tool for leaders of interprofessional education. Journal of interprofessional care, 2-8.

Eisenbeiss, S., & Daniel, K. F. (2016). Diing well by doing good? Analyzing the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and firm performance. Aston university, 12-17.

Gulati, R. M., Morgan, R. O., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Vision statement quality and organizational performance in U.S. Hospitals. . Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(5),.

Hiekkataipale, M.-M., & Lämsä, A.-M. (2015). What should a manager like me do in a situation like this? Strategies for handling ethical problems from the viewpoint of the logic of appropriateness. Journal of Business Ethics, , 145(3.

Kirkpatrick, S. (2017). Toward a grounded theory: A qualitative study of vision statement development. journal of management policy and practice, 2-9.

Martin, D., & Emerg, W. (2019). Creating a vision for education leadership. New Pubmed, 3-8.

Mayfield, J., & Mayfield, M. (2016). Leadership communication: aaaareflecting , engaging and innovating. International journal of business communication, 2-7.

Mitra, A., Gaur, S. S., & Giacosa, E. (2019). ). Combining organizational change management and organizational ambidexterity using data transformation. Management Decision,, 57(8).

Mitra, A., Gaur, S. S., & Giacosa, E. (2019). Combining organizational change management and organizational ambidexterity using data transformation. Management Decision, 57(8).

Paroby, D., & White, D. (2010). The role of shared vision and ethics in buliding an effective learning organization. Southern journal of business and ethics.

Zeni, T. A., Buckley, M. R., Mumford, M. D., & Griffith, J. A. (2016). Making “sense” of ethical decision making. . The Leadership Quarterly, 27(6).