Managing Organizational Change: Leadership Strategies

Having the skills and savvy to manage the many challenges in today's workforce does not come automatically, nor does it always come easily. It is a fact that many employees resist change, and this makes the task of leadership more demanding. This paper reviews several current challenges that executives and managers must meet with competency in order to bring their organizations through a period of change. Three challenges in particular are addressed: assuring employees that change is a necessary event in order to remain profitable; giving employees the skills and leadership support they need to overcome doubts; and ensuring that managers know how to communicate the vision the company has set as its goal.

Botezat Elena — with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oradea — lists several obstacles that are often present when an organization resists change. First, the "goal of the change is not clear," and if workers are not certain of the direction leadership is taking them, they will usually put up resistance (Elena, 2012). Second, the "rewards of the change" do not necessarily coincide with the additional effort that must be invested to bring about the desired change. Third, because change is often "imposed by coercion," that is clearly a situation in which employees will resist in some fashion (Elena, 998). In a fourth scenario, Elena notes that change sometimes requires a substantial effort and commitment, and many employees are not sure they have the resources or resolve to carry it out (Elena, 998).

The reason that change does not go smoothly — rounding out the four scenarios Elena presents — is often because the skills involving "positive communication and motivation" are not employed successfully by management (998). There is a great difference between being a leader and being a manager, the author explains. A manager tries to get people to do "what needs to be done," but being a leader means having the skills and savvy to "convince people to want to do what needs to be done" (Elena, 999).

Looking closely at those two descriptions, one can clearly see that simply performing a manager's tasks — pushing people toward what he or she perceives needs to be done — is not going to make a transition to a "change of procedures and systems" a smooth one (Elena, 999). In fact, when a strategic change is being attempted, people need new skills and new knowledge. The task of a leader therefore goes beyond merely articulating the goal; workers actually need new training, and they will only accept it without stiff resistance if leadership communicates "a vision, a direction to align its people" so that they become invested participants in the change themselves (Elena, 1000).

Jennifer Wilson writes that because of advances in technology, changing business standards, and the realities brought to light by the global economy, leaders are facing huge challenges in navigating "ever-accelerating changes" (Wilson, 2014). Moreover, in the global economy, managers must take into consideration new cultural values that must be understood and responded to. As Elena pointed out, leaders of a company attempting to implement serious or strategic change must "strategically design, execute, and communicate their change strategy with the same focus and intent that they spend conceiving of the change" (Wilson, 38).

Along with communicating a vision for the desired change, management must "acknowledge those who have made the transition" successfully and provide strong encouragement "for those who are lagging" (Wilson, 39). There will inevitably be employees who are slower to accept and embrace change, so offering encouragement to those individuals is paramount for moving the whole organization into a new alignment. That point becomes even more pertinent when the cost of hiring and training a new employee is taken into consideration.