ADAPTIVE INSTRUCTION MARKET RESEARCH
How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation
By Moo Jun Hao & Dr. Rashad Yazdanifard
Based on the paper published in Global Journal of Management and Business Research: Administration and Management, Volume 15 Issue 9 Version 1.0 Year 2015
Review Summary by Varsha Roy
Market Research Analyst, Adaptive Instruction
I am Varsha Roy. I am a Software Engineer with 6 years of IT experience from Mumbai. I currently work as a Freelance Book Blogger and own a page on Instagram and a website called Inside A Book. I am also a blogger with Harper Collins India and Hay House India. I also write detailed and well researched blog posts and summaries of research papers for Adaptive Instruction.
This is a summary of the research article ‘How effective leadership can facilitate change in organizations through improvement and innovation’ by Moo Jun Hao & Dr Rashid Yazdanifard of Southern New Hampshire University, Malaysia. It explains how effective leadership brings about positive changes that help the organization to be relevant and grow in the changing business environment.
Due to rapid economic growth and the internet, there has been an increase in the competitiveness in the business environment in recent years. To sustain their business, companies face the need to adapt to the changing business trends. Effective leadership is the most crucial element for businesses to survive in the changing times. Leaders in an organization help direct the organization by setting goals and build strategies to achieve those goals as well as influence and motivate employees to work effectively in line with the company’s objectives. The article discusses how a leader can lead the organization through change and thereby achieve success. The gist of the article is as below:
How does a leader lead the organization to change?
An organization can gain an advantage in the market only if it effectively and efficiently implements and adapts to the changes in the market. A leader can motivate and influence the employees in the organization and thus apply changes effectively in the organization.
Here are the ways a leader influences:
- Building Trust: An effective leader builds trust with his employees. Gaining the trust of group members is essential to bring about the changes in the organization because people will follow someone only if they trust him to lead them to the correct path. This binds them together and improves the commitment of the employees.
- Organizational Culture: An effective leader builds on the trust of the employees to develop a positive organizational culture. Employees and leaders need to trust each other to shape a positive culture. A positive organizational culture influences the behaviour and attitude of the employees as it gives them a sense of belonging and inspires loyalty and commitment. It reduces the turnover rate as it provides a pleasant environment to work, encourages healthy competition and resolves any internal issues they may face. Thus, a strong organizational culture helps in overall improvement in performance of an organization.
- Learning: A good leader encourages continuous learning in employees for improvement in the performance of the organization. A leader undergoes learning himself to set an example for his employees. Learning makes both the leaders and employees effective in their work and also help facilitate the implementation of changes. If a leader and organization stop learning, then their skills and knowledge will not be relevant in the competitive market and this can cause the organization to fail.
- Teamwork, Communication and Leading: Leaders encourage collaboration and communication among employees to facilitate change by innovation and improvement in employees. By collaborating and communicating with each other, employees know of new ways to think and also learn and improve from others. Leaders also direct the employees to achieve the organization’s vision and mission. They ensure that the employees are on the right path to achieve the goals according to the strategies formed by the leaders.
Leadership vs Traditional Management:
Leadership is unlike the traditional management where the upper management sets the plan for the employees to follow. Leadership focuses on guiding the employees to achieve the organizational goals. The leader works together with the employee to produce desired outcomes, unlike the traditional management where the upper management is more focused on planning and does not work together. Also, leadership helps organizations change as per the trends of the market unlike the traditional approach where there is no change in management to deal with it. However, there are cons to leadership as well as it depends on the employee’s behaviour and attitudes which vary. Some employees may easily adapt to the changes while some may resist it. Some might accept the ways of their leaders and learn from their actions while some may be jealous and will refuse to cooperate.
Conclusion:
Thus, the article effectively showcases how leadership is effective in managing change and change is the only way an organization can survive in a changing business environment. By building trust, developing a positive organizational culture, encouraging learning and through teamwork, communication and leading, a leader helps the organization deal with change and if there is no leadership there will be no change and a company will not be able to survive in the complex business environment.