leading Change Literature Review Essay

Introduction

Change is inevitable in the modern world. It is usually a multi-step process necessitated by technological change, expanding market opportunities and growth in international economics and is driven by strong leaders and excellent management. The process involves 8 steps including creation of a sense of urgency, create a guide, establish a strategy and vision, good communication on the new vision, broad-base action, and establish short run goals, consolidation, anchor new techniques in the culture (Spiro, 2011, p. 27). Leading change requires that the leader to focus on the future, be innovative, create cooperation in the team and ensure there is willingness to sacrifice.

Literature review

1. Team work

Team work is the most important aspect of leading change. A coalition should be formed that shares a vision, is well motivated, and with right mix of committed members who trust each other (Spiro, 2011, p. 27). The team is led by a visionary leader who embraces team work, expertise, common goal and trust. Seventy eight percent of people in management embrace change and teamwork but few of them are effective leaders. Communication barriers between management and lower ranking employees should be removed to facilitate effective transition (Spiro, 2011, p. 33). The worldwide study by IBM on future enterprise found that majority of organizations at an overwhelming high rate has embraced change and this is expected to rise tremendously in the future.

1. Style of change

People differ a lot in their change habits. The Discovery Learning conducted a survey on the styles of changes in 1996 and 2001 and found that 51 percent of managers interviewed are pragmatists, 23 percent are conservers and 26 percent are originators (Quinn, 2011, p. 49). Conservers advocate for change to occur within the existing structure while originators want a different setup. Understanding these, variations in a team enhance teamwork and minimize complaints, misunderstandings and saboteurs.

1. Cerebrating short run wins

According to Spiro (2011), short run wins should be emphasized. These should be clearly visible, unambiguous and closely associated to the desired change and this motivates the team and challenges the critics to the change (Quinn, 2011, p. 50). However, most managers make the mistake of cerebrating small achievements excessively thereby creating a false satisfaction. The projects should be decentralized to improve the success rate and eliminate interdependence.

1. Change of culture

The leader should focus on changing the culture in the organization after all the other goals have been attained (Spiro, 2011, p. 58). Culture is difficult to change because it entails practices that have been acquired over a long duration of time by many people and therefore adaptability is crucial for its success.

Challenge(s) for management

Management faces complacency and low sense of urgency to change (Quinn, 2011, p. 59). The failure to recognize existing challenges in the organization and having a misguided sense of success make the employees not to advocate for change. Companies set low targets and fail to compare their results with those of well performing competitors, while others fail to get external feedback and rely only on internal feedbacks. The leader must therefore be able to create a crisis to eliminate complacency and show the need for urgency in attainment of the change (Shea &Solomon, 2013, p. 49).

.Christian perspective

Jesus was the most effective leader of change the world over and the leadership styles of Paul and Timothy, in the book of Acts and first and second Timothy respectively, emphasize the need for teamwork in times of turbulence while servant leadership is advocated for in Philippians 2: 1-11. According to Osmer, (2008) there are biblical qualities of a good team leader including practicing of Sabbath, empowering team members, create trust; establish viable vision and model people expectations. . In addition, God has bestowed capability upon human beings to be truthful and good which are desired for leading change, Nathan’s life in 2 Samuel is perfect illustration. It is therefore clear that Christianity supports change through effective leadership (Shea &Solomon, 2013, p. 23).

Conclusion

Leading change require more of management of the team involved than the transition itself. The entire team should be willing to cooperate to the process and be centered on trust, hard work and willingness to sacrifice (Dawson, 2010, p. 61). Change poses challenges to the management such as complacence and lack of a sense of urgency. The Christian doctrines and the Bible support it.

References

Dawson, C. (2010). Leading culture change. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Business Books.

Osmer, R. (2008). Practical theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.

Quinn, R. (2011). Building the Bridge As You Walk On It. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Shea, G., & Solomon, C. (2013). Leading Successful Change. New York: Wharton Digital Press.

Spiro, J. (2011). Leading change step-by-step. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.