Leadership Change Management Analysis

Longford is a small community of approximately 3,000 people situated 20 kilometres south of Launceston. Longford lies within the Northern Midlands local government area, and has a predominantly Anglo-Saxon community. Longford Medical Services (LMS) has an active patient population of 9,905 people residing in or around Longford and employs eleven General Practitioners (GPs). In the past, some GPs experienced difficulties managing clients with mental health issues. They frequently required longer consultations, creating delays for other LMS patients, which became difficult to accommodate. There were also long delays for appointments with private psychiatrists, Tasmanian Psychiatric Services, and other programs that must be accessed in Launceston. As in other small communities, transport options are limited. The MHNIP commenced in Longford in early 2009. This coincided with the closure of a residential psychiatric service (Howard Hill) in Longford. Medical services are delivered from two LMS premises. The main site is in Longford itself, and a smaller surgery is located in Perth, 8 kms away. In addition to medical services, a monthly hearing service is offered, and until recently a dietician was also available. The MHNIP nurse is employed directly by Longford Medical Services Pty Ltd. on a permanent part-time basis. Due to space restrictions, the MHNIP works from the Perth clinic, which is not ideal since the majority of clients live in or around Longford, and this location isolates the nurse from the main practice. The offer of home visits is used to increase access to the service. LMS is currently seeking funds to increase the number of consulting rooms at their Longford premises in order to co-locate the nurse in the future.

Change management

Leadership theories can be featured generally as being concerned with who leads, how they lead, under what circumstances they lead, as well as who follows the leader. One of the earliest approaches to studying leadership is the trait approach. This approach emphasises leaders attributes such as personality, motives, values and skills. Underlying the trait approach is the assumption that some people are natural leaders, endowed with certain traits not possessed by other people (Yukl, 2006). Deficiencies in trait theories led researchers in the early 1950s to begin studying the specific behaviours exhibited by leaders (French, 2007). The behavioural approach focuses on what leaders do rather than what traits they possess. This indicated a change from the assumption that leaders are born to the notion that leaders could be developed (Yukl, 2006). The attractiveness of the concept of leadership style clearly lies in the possibility of labeling and objectifying an otherwise confusing diversity of behaviours. As a response to the findings that leadership styles differ across contexts, theories taking into account situational factors have lately gained popularity (Yukl, 2006). This body of theory was developed to reconcile the differences among the findings within behavioural approaches to leadership. Situational approaches emphasise the importance of contextual factors influence on leadership processes. These theories that explain leadership effectiveness in terms of situational moderator variables are also called contingency theories of leadership (Yukl, 2006; Warnstam, 2008).

On a holistic level, the interpretation of environmental scanning ought to lead to the creation of a vision that is aligned with a best estimate of the future environment. The organization's vision represents an idealized representation of what the organization should strive to become. The subsequently developed strategy, however, should explicitly align ends (objectives), ways (concepts and methods), and means (resources) to ensure the organization's resources are committed in a manner that allow the organization to succeed in its current and future environments -- in short -- to enact the vision (Carter, Ulrich & Goldsmith, 2012). Strategic leaders must therefore ensure that they align the vision with their interpretation of the changing environment, and that the organization's strategy is aligned with this vision. Similarly, the structure, culture, personnel policies, and technology also need to be aligned with the vision and strategy in order to achieve the vision and maintain competitive advantage (Gerras et.al, 2010; Fuller & Green, 2005). Leadership in this study refers to: the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organization (LMS) of which they are members (House et al., 2002).

A "one-size-fits-all" approach is not effective for change management. Implementing an enterprise resource planning solution on LMS requires change management to be successful. Change management strategy elements include situational awareness, supporting structures and strategy analysis. Situational awareness entails:

Change characteristics - Begin by understanding the change that is being introduced. Changes can be formalized projects, strategic initiatives or even small adjustments to how the organization operates (Prosci, n.d).

Organizational attributes - Next, work to understand the people and groups being impacted by the change. The organizational attributes are related to the history and culture in the organization and describe the backdrop against which this particular change is being introduced (Prosci, n.d).

Impacted groups - The final step in building the situational awareness is developing a map of who in the organization is being impacted by the change and how they are being impacted. Outlining the impacted groups and showing how they will be impacted enables specific and customized plans later in the change management process (Prosci, n.d).

Supporting structure in change management strategy is made up of:

Team structure - The change management team structure identifies who will be doing the change management work. The most frequent team structures include 1) change management being a responsibility assigned to one of the project team members or 2) an external change management team supporting a project team. The key in developing the strategy is to be specific and make an informed decision when assigning the change management responsibility and resources (Prosci, n.d).

Sponsor coalition - The sponsor coalition describes the leaders and managers that need to be on-board for the change to be successful. The change characteristics will determine who must be part of the coalition. Each member of the sponsor coalition has the responsibility to build support and communicate the change with their respective audiences (Prosci, n.d).

Strategy analysis in change management strategy applied to LMS would involve

Risk assessment - The risk of not managing the people side of change on a particular change is related to the dimensions described in the situational awareness section. In developing the strategy, overall risk and specific risk factors are documented (Prosci, n.d).

Anticipated resistance - Many times, after a project is introduced and meets resistance, members of the team reflect that "they saw that reaction coming." In creating the change management strategy, identify where resistance can be expected. Leadership should note particular anticipated resistance points depending on how each group is related to the change (Prosci, n.d).

Special tactics - The final step of the change management strategy is the identification of any special tactics that will be required for this particular change initiative. The special tactics formalize many of the learnings from the strategy development related to the change and how it impacts different audiences in the organization. Throughout the change implementation, special tactics may need to be revisited and updated (Prosci, n.d).