Transformational leadership and staff resistance to organizational technology change

¶ … Leadership Scenario

Organizations must succeed and flourish in an environment signified by ambiguity and volatility as a result of continuous technological, social, political and economic changes. Firms can find themselves in dynamic settings that call for incessant acclimatization. In this case, a new technology is being introduced to the team. However, I have noted that several personnel are hesitant and unwilling to adapt their practice and adopt the new technology. In these sorts of frameworks, teams and organizations as a whole necessitate an effective leadership to provide guiding principles so as to sustain their achievements and growth (Cossin and Caballero, 2013). Robbins and Judge (2013) define leadership to be the capability or proficiency of influencing a group in the direction of achieving or attaining a purpose or a set of objectives.

Organizations require an imperative transformation so as to redesign themselves. Considering this, firms need to restore their organizational cultures to influence the required changes. The transformational leadership theory is deemed fitting for this particular organizational change as it can aid in advancing both leaders and supporters to greater levels of motivation and principles. Being a new element in the organization, transformational leadership will enable all personnel to adapt to the new workplace setting that will include the new technology. Transformational leaders are pertinent in the present day workplace for the reason that they are flexible and inventive. Being tractable and innovative at the same time will facilitate the manner in which the employees can espouse the change and at the same time implement it in the most effective manner (Robbins and Judge, 2013). This paper will use transformational leadership theory and theories linked to organizational change to analyze what might delineate staff resistance. These theories will offer support on how the team can be supported to work towards the set targets using a leadership development plan.

Transformational Leadership Theory

Transformational leadership is defined as a style of leadership in which relations and communications between interested parties are structured around a mutual purpose in such a manner that motivate, transform, and improve the activities and ethical objectives of followers (Simola et al., 2012). More so, transformational leadership is a style of leadership that strives for positive transformations in the followers and attains sought-after changes through the strategy and structure of the organization (Simola et al., 2012).

As primarily outlined by Burns (1978), transformational leadership progresses both leaders and supporters to better levels of motivation and principles. On the other hand, transactional leadership takes into consideration swapping of substantial or mental recompense in exchange for the followers\' responsiveness with the leader\'s appeals, with no sense of any greater purpose. Bass and Avolio (1994) assert that transformational leadership incorporates four main factors, which encompass idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulus and individualized examination. Idealized influence refers to the conducts involving a transformational mentor who motivates his or her followers\' belief, esteem, respect, as well as, their yearnings to imitate the leader.

Inspirational motivation and idealized influence are typically united to create leadership that is charismatic-inspirational. Inspirational motivation alludes to transformational leaders sharing a convincing visualization or objective with their followers and continually inspiring them to reach for the objective while furthering their self-assurance and encouraging them that obstacles faced can be overcome (Bass and Avolio, 1994). Third of all, intellectual stimulation alludes to transformational leaders stimulating their followers\' ingenuity and innovativeness by questioning conventions and coming up with new methods and elucidations to difficulties. Lastly, individualized consideration alludes to the individual consideration that transformational leaders take into account with respect to their followers, where the leader functions as a tutor and mentor in distinguishing and developing the followers (Bass and Avolio, 1994).

Transformational leaders are pertinent in the present-day workplace for the reason that they are flexible and inventive. Even though it is imperative to have leaders with the ability to outline tasks and handle interrelationships, it is all the more significant to have leaders who can drive organizations into prospects they have not yet conceived. This indicates the importance of transformational leadership in the technological and service sectors as it is the quintessence of generating and sustaining a competitive edge over rivals (Braun et al., 2012).

Organizational Change and Staff Resistance

Instigating technological change into an organization presents a dissimilar set of challenges to management than does the work of proficient project supervision. Regularly, nonetheless, the managers liable for marshaling a technical innovation into routine use are better positioned by education and experience to guide that innovation\'s development than to manage its execution (Leonard-Barton and Kraus, 1985). The change challenge that faces teams and other departments when new technology ingenuities are presented is to involve the most affected staff, precisely those who often feel relatively endangered by these sorts of initiatives. They have these emotive responses because they often have inadequate information regarding the scope of the change, the training consequences, and the prospective impact on role changes (Hornstein, 2008).

By outlining and carrying out a change process, an organization can better delineate and document the activities that ought to be organized in the course of the transition stage. Shifting through these phases will facilitate efficacious, long-standing, and viable results. These phases develop as an organization progresses through the changeover stage in which the necessary transformational changes are presented, verified, comprehended and espoused. This is done in a way that facilitates people to unleash their prevailing behaviors and outlooks, in addition to developing any new skills necessitated to maintain anticipated business results. It is very common for organizations to lose concentration or generate new initiatives devoid of ever finishing the change process for a particular program or plan. It is vital to the accomplishment of a transformation program that the organization distinguishes this fact and is willing to endure through the practice and not lose concentration as the organizational change initiative is executed. Dedication to finishing the change process is imperative to an efficacious result (Mitre, 2016).

Leaders within the organizations have to understand how to manage change. There are several aspects to consider in managing change, for instance, how do organizations detect when they ought to change, the cues the company should look for and the likes. All organizations face several different forces for change, which are internal, emanating from within the organization, and external, which emanates outside the organization. Some of the internal forces include low morale and motivation, inter-departmental conflicts, which lead to low productivity. In contrast, external forces encompass market changes, industrial developments, demographic structures and social and political aspects (UNITAR, 2010).

Organizational change delineates employee and staff resistance. In accordance to Folger and Skarlicki (1999), organizational change can give rise to skepticism and resistance in employees. These, at times, can make a change process challenging thus causing difficulties in executing and carrying out organizational improvements. Resistance is delineated as any conduct or behavior that helps to sustain the status quo in spite of pressure to transform the same (Zaltman and Duncan, 1977). Therefore, this behavior by staff seeks to challenge, interrupt, or overturn prevalent suppositions, dialogues, and power relations (Bolognese, 2002). For starters, staff resistance comes about because they have to learn something new. In this case, staff resistance emanates from the need to learn and carry out the new technology being introduced. More often than not, there is not a disparity regarding the benefits of the new practice, but rather a fright of the unfamiliar future and their capability to adapt to it. According to Bolognese (2002), majority of the people are unwilling and unenthusiastic to leave what is familiar behind. Most people are mistrustful regarding the unfamiliar, as they are naturally concerned regarding how they will transform from the old to the new, particularly if it encompasses learning something new and risking failure (Bolognese, 2002).

Employee resistance within the organization also stems from their fear that the organization is not ready for the recommended change and that the skills required to implement such change are not accessible. In addition, they may worry about the organizational chaos that may be instigated by the change in the positions prevailing in the organization (Kamel, 2012). In particular, employees resist change if they deem it to threaten their level of authority and influence (deJager, 2001).

In conclusion, as pointed out by Bolognese (2002), more often than not, managers perceive resistance as a matter that cannot be overlooked. In particular, personnel who resist are perceived as defiant and barriers the organization must overcome so as to attain the new goals and objectives. Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that in some occurrences, employee resistance might play a constructive and beneficial role in organizational change. Perceptive and well-planned debate, disparagement, or incongruity do not necessarily liken to destructive resistance. Rather, it may be envisioned to produce better understanding as well as added options and solutions. The notion that any individual who questions the need for change has a defiance problem is purely erroneous. This is not only for the reason that it marks down preceding achievements, but also generates susceptibility to unselective and ill-advised change (Bolognese, 2002).

Leadership Development Plan

Leadership development is delineated as a strategic investment in a planned and well-thought out practice that provides individuals with the prospects, training, and experiences to grow into effective leaders within their organizations. It is an incorporated way to developing their understanding, knowledge and skills to facilitate themselves and their teams, departments or organizations as a whole to prosper. In the contemporary, leadership is applicable to all and sundry within the organization irrespective of their position, title or ranking. It is imperative for leadership development to connect directly to the strategic goals and challenges faced by the organization. This planning encompasses a practice in which leaders within the organizational setting conjure up a sought out future and develop the practices, processes, and operations that will facilitate the achievement of such a future (Lawson, 2008).

A leadership development plan that is strategic should encompass a number of elements. The plan has to have a vision, which is a visualization regarding how leaders would idyllically wish the organization to be. This vision ought to be inspirational. In this case, my vision as a leader is to have a preferred future in which the members of the team all embrace, comprehend and apply the new technology in operation. A second element is the mission. A mission statement delineates the purpose of an organization or departments and teams within it. Generally, it describes what the team is there to do and it emanates from the vision. It also offers the extensive framework for goals and objectives (Lawson, 2008).

A third element of the plan is values. In delineation, values are the mutual set of comprehensively entrenched beliefs, ethics, and significances that act as guiding principles to individual and organizational behavior. The values of a team and an organization as a whole should guide their identification, selection, training and development. Goals and objectives are imperative to the development plan. Goals are more detailed than the mission whereas objectives are most distinctive in scope. Objectives are declaration of outcomes that delineate particular conditions that must be met within a certain period of time (Lawson, 2008). Strengths and weaknesses are also encompassed within the development plan as they delineate the downsides and strong suits of an organization\'s internal capabilities or resources (Lawson, 2008). Lastly, the development plan should outline critical success factors. These are minimal areas of high importance, which the organization has to manage in order to be successful. They are the individualities, circumstances, and variables that, when properly upheld and managed, can most constructively influence an organization\'s success (Lawson, 2008).

The following is a developed leadership development plan that outlines what I will do, and how I will support staff to achieve the set targets.

Time period: January 2017 -- August 2017

Leadership Development Focus: Enhance employee espousal of new technology and support required to achieve the set targets for projects.

Goals /Objectives

1. Train employees on new technology

2. Communicate the importance of technology to individual employees, the team and organization as a whole.

3. Alleviate technology resistance within organization.

4. Ensure set targets are achieved on time.

Top Strengths

1. Functional and industry specialty

1. Financial expertise

1. Solving problems and making decisions

Top Development Needs

1. Instigate technical understanding

1. Increase employee motivation

1. Decrease staff resistance

Development Actions:

1. Collect information on staff participation in the new technology identified. The resources needed will be an employee survey. The evaluation will be done through questionnaires on whether the employees consider the technology to be necessary and their willingness to embrace it.

Timeline: January 1 -- January 3

1. Meeting all staff members to elucidate the new technology to be carried out, the reasons for implementation and the benefits the organization ought to gain. This will encompass ascertaining what needs the team is trying to satisfy and how the new technology is fitting into all of it. A weak communications system in the organization is deemed to be one of the hindrances to the means of executing the change (Zaltman& Duncan, 1977). Therefore, proper communication will be undertaken throughout the team to ensure that the sentiments and perspectives of the personnel will be taken into consideration. In accordance to Kamel (2012), the incapacity to pick up the significance of the change may be a consequence of the frail harmonization between the individuals liable for the change and those who execute it. The lack of trust between the leaders and personnel gives rise to misunderstanding and does not aid personnel to comprehend the need for the change. Taking this into consideration, I will ensure that the meetings between the members of staff are clear and conducive enough to generate trust amongst all personnel. The change to be implemented will be open to all members so as to have a free relationship and association.