Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Script for
Chapter 15. Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Let us first go through the objectives of this session
OBJECTIVES
● To understand the perspectives of change
● Understand what is management of change
● Theoretical Perspective to change
INTRODUCTION
Today all organizations are facing a world of constant change in every aspect of its
operations whether in production or service sector. Several factors including both external
and internal act as triggers of change in organizations. Way back in 1994, Peter Drucker
compared the magnitude of the current change with the Industrial Revolution around year
1800 and renaissance around year 1500. Imagine, we have seen even faster change since
then! The organizations that are able to understand the phenomenon of changing environment
and rapidly adapt to 'change' will be the ones who would survive and thrive organizational
need to proactively initiate changes in different dimensions of business life, business strategy,
organizational structure, culture, product/service, human resource and technology.
While the environment is changing rapidly, there is widespread understanding in the
corporate world as well as in the academic circles that the rate at which change is occurring
has accelerated its significance and need of its successful management in the recent years
The experience of organizations in the area of change management have been of mixed
outcomes whereas in some countries it has created an industry turn around but in some it has
resulted as failures (Porras and Robertson: 1987),
Change Management
It has been said that the driving force behind most of the changes seen in the past 200 years
has been both new technologies and the energy surplus from fossil fuels [Catton, 1980;
Kuusi, 1982].
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
A major change in the context of technology has been towards the so-called technological
convergence where several different technologies are combined in joint function [Blackman,
1998; Roco, 2002; Bainbridge 2005].
Relevant questions that an employee thinks of at the beginning stages of change relate to the
personal impact of change, the impact on the employee’s group of friends at work, and the
impact on the employee’s day-to-day responsibilities [Hiatt et al. 2012].
A major change in the context of technology has been towards the so-called technological
convergence where several different technologies are combined in joint function [Blackman,
1998; Roco, 2002; Bainbridge 2005].
Combination of different technologies, especially so called emerging technologies, connected
with information technology (IT) have the potential to change almost any field of business,
and the human life itself [Bainbridge 2005]. Emerging technologies include, for example,
cognitive technologies (artificial intelligence), nanotechnology, biotechnologies, IT and
advances in automation. If we presume that these emerging technologies are going to change
most facets of life and business, it is not far fetched to expect changes coming to most
organizations as well. If change is paramount for the survival of the organization itself, then
control of this coming change is as important.
The experience of organizations in the area of change management have been of mixed
outcomes whereas in some countries it has created an industry turn around but in some it has
resulted as failures (Porras and Robertson: 1987).
PERSPECTIVES OF CHANGE
Organizational change is a complex, uncertain and difficult process that requires careful
planning and thoughtful analysis. It is important to be equipped with appropriate
understanding of change perspectives before introducing any form of change in an
organization.
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
Studies/Gujarat University
Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Theoretical Perspective to change
The perspectives on organizational change usually practiced are contingency perspective,
institutional perspective, and resource dependence perspective. The organization change must
focus on both 'content - what to change, and process - how to manage the change'. These
perspectives were addressed both theoretically (Van de Ven and Poole:1995) and by research
(Rajagopalan and Spreitzer: 1997).
Content - What to Change: According to Drucker (1994), a theory of the business has three
parts - (i) assumptions about the external environment of the organization that is society,
customer, market and technology; (ii) assumptions about the organization's mission, purpose
and objectives; and (iii) assumptions about the organization's core competencies i.e. skill and
abilities required to accomplish mission.
Whetten (1989) proposed that a complete theory of change contains four elements - what,
how, why and who/where and when.
A recent study by Audia, Locke, and smith (2000) showed that greater past success led to
greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence
induced performance declines.
Their lab study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction
with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals,
and self- efficacy, and less seeking of information from critics. Porras and Robertson (1992)
provide example of the content for organization change as vision, technology, physical
setting, structure, and on-job-behavior.
Lewin (1947) concluded that to be successful, the change process need to follow a three-step
procedure (i) unfreezing, (ii) moving, and (iii) re-freezing. Schein (1987) expanded and
elaborated Lewin's work and termed them as stages and describes these stages as -
Stage 1: Unfreezing- involves creating motivation and readiness to change. According to
Schein (1987) there are three way of unfreezing an organization i.e. dis-confirmation,
induction of guilt and creation of psychological safety:
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Stage 2: Changing - involves cognitive restructuring.
According to Schein (1987) two processes are necessary to accomplish this stage i.e.
identification with a new model, mentor, leader or consultant begin to see things from that
other person's point of view, and scanning the environment for new, relevant information;
and Stage 3: Refreezing - involves integration of the change for organizational members.
According to Schein (1987) it has two parts i.e. personal and individual, and interpersonal.
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
If not managed properly, the implementation and management of change in any large-scale
organization is a complex process and likely to be problematic.
It is during the implementation of change programmes that occupational and employee
concerns normally begin to influence the transition process (Dawson: 1994) and therefore
need to be handled with utmost care.
Mabey and Salaman (1995) considered a number of perceptions about the management of
change that affect reaction to it.
Change and Team Leadership
According to John Kotter, there is a clear difference between change management and change
leadership, leadership being the foundation of successful change (Kotter, 2016).
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
These attributes of successful leadership seem to align with one of Peter Senge’s disciplines:
shared vision, a collective picture of future that we seek to create. This shared vision, i.e.
shared meaning, is the collective sense of what is essential, and why it is essential (Senge,
1990; Senge et al, 1994). If we see the organization as a whole, or parts of the organization,
as a community of like minded people with a shared vision, change leadership could come
almost naturally, as a part of day-to-day routines.
But implementing one clearly defined vision into all members of an organizational
community is very challenging, as it is about accepting someone else’s aspirations of future
as one’s own. Different starting points for creating a shared vision can be found in these five
stages (Senge et al, 1994):
1. Telling, where the management dictates what the vision is, and the organization has to
follow it.
Limits: Poor commitment that can be mistaken as a problem of communication.
2. Selling, where the management dictates what the vision is, but needs the organization
to “buy into it.”
Limits: As management is still seeking just compliance, employees will comply, but
not truly commit.
3. Testing, where the management has an idea of what the vision should be, but wants to
see the organization’s reactions to it, before proceeding.
Limits: Rests on people’s ability to understand current reality.
4. Consulting, the management has a vision, and wants input from the organization
before proceeding.
Limits: Limited by the assumption that organizational vision is still created from top
to down, whereas important elements of it are still put into practice on a local lower-
level.
5. Co-creating, the management and members of the organization build a shared vision.
Teams express their common purpose, seeking alignment if not agreement.
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Change and Organizations
Change at organizational level can mean various different things. It could possibly mean
change in vision or strategy or goals, creating a new team or layoffs in existing ones,
adopting new technologies, policies or mergers, etc. What is common between all of these
changes, is the managerial choice that is based on perceived current and expected reality.
Technology as a Facilitator of Change
Technology both makes change easier, and also in itself causes change. Consider hotel
industry jobs being in danger because of Airbnb, or Google’s self-driving cars threatening
one of the biggest employers in western world, trucking industry. Online marketing, from
Google AdWords and to social media marketing in Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook,
has become more applicable than traditional ways of finding customers. Improving
communication methods, i.e. evolving processes, combined with technological association,
i.e. innovation in technology, continually creates new possibilities for change, both in
business and in personal lives.
Technology increases efficiency and productivity. For example, let us consider
nanotechnology, that could impact manufacturing, energy production and storing, or, for
example, medicine. Change is to be expected.
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
You might be wondering why are we discussing about Leadership and change together?
According to Jack Welch, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision,
passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
To put it together, both change and leadership are about People, initiating change, making
things happen and creating new realities.
Moreover, a leader’s role is navigating change in an organisation. (David Dinwoodie, William
Pasmore, Laura Quinn, and Ron Rabin). Change is given top priority across all types of
organizations, but studies consistently show that more than half of planned change efforts
fail.
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
(Cabeza- Erikson, Edwards, and Van Brabant, 2008) Leaders are the one who control and
take charge of the operation of an organization and good leaders are able to set optimistic
goals and objectives while steering the operation of the company towards those goals through
effective strategies.
Leadership is a kind of power where one person has the ability to influence or change the
values, beliefs, behaviour and attitudes of another person (Ganta, and Manukonda, 2014). A
person with strong leadership ability will be a good example or role model to their
employees, because the leader who is able to effectively achieve some good result or
achievement gains the trust and admiration of their employees, and inadvertently changes
their values, beliefs, behaviour and attitudes, for mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery
(Grint, 2007). This statement is also supported by Northouse (2009), who states that leaders
who possess strong leadership have the strength to influence others to achieve the goals and
objectives of the organization. Other than these, there is some more ways to define a leader
that has strong leadership. A characteristic of effective leaders is that they give a clear
direction to their employees, and also lead their employees to commit to their jobs and to
work as a group to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives (Wasim, and Imran,
2010).
According to Jackson and Parry (2008), leadership is a process where leaders use their skills
and knowledge to lead and bring a group of employees in the desired direction that is
relevant to their organization’s goals and objectives.
Role of Leadership in Organizational Change
Most of us now agree that effective leadership is one of the most important contributors to the
overall organizational performance and change. Efficient leaders are those who have a store
of skills and knowledge gained from their experiences that allows them to manage effectively
the tasks of daily life. Effective leadership is always required to bring effective changes
(Kennedy, 2000).
Brookfield highlights the importance of culture while addressing the issue of organizational
change, he mentions some roadblocks which can affect the change management efforts,
which include the secrecy culture, the individualism culture and silence culture (Brookfield,
1995). The competent leadership can handle and manage such problems. According to
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
Gruban (2003) the competence is an ability to manage knowledge and other skills and
capabilities.
According to the different authors the leadership competences are strongly connected with
the successful organizational change, “the leadership competences have a great relation with
the organizational success and change” (Gruban 2003).
The Role of Human Resource Development as a Change Agent
Change agents are the persons who initiate and manage change in the [Link] are
specialized in theory and practice of managing changes (Varghese et al 2012). According to
Lawler and Boudreau, (2009) the HRD can support the introduction of new technology
through staff training of the operations of the new technology. A person responsible for
organizing and coordinating the overall change effort can be a change agent according to
Carter McNamara (2005).
He can either be an internal change agent who is frequently a sub set for organizational
leaders or an external change agent, who are most likely to be consultants or managers
brought in to invoke change. (Blewett 2000). The role of HRD as change agent might fail if it
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
does not strongly define the process and priorities of change effort as the role of HR in
driving changes varies among different organizations. (Kesler, 2000). Holbeche, (2008)
argues that during recruitment of staff when an organization needs to employ new employees,
the HR should be able to help this task to proceed smoothly without a hitch. This is because
they are able to hold the tasks related to change.
The role played by the HRD professional has equally changed with the change in the
organizational environment. Gilley, Quatro, Lynham, (2003) articulates that in the past the
prime responsibility of HRD professionals was to identify, select and evaluate training
programmes which could be external or internal and deal with the performance of the
employees through designing or customizing training intercessions (Gilley el al., 2003).
Therefore, training intervention was the main focus of HRD (Gilley, el al., 2003). However,
at present the HRD Professionals acts as Strategic adviser to help the decision makers on
issues related with HRD. (Du Plessis., 2009; Rennie, 2003; Walker & Stopper,2000). They
also play the role of an HR systems designer and developer by assisting the HR management
in designing and developing HR systems in an organization to increase its performance
(Rennie., 2003; Walker & Stopper., 2000).
They also act as organizational change agents by helping the management in designing and
implementing change strategies to transform the organization (KJ Singh 2013). Ulrich and
Brockbank (2005) advances that HR practitioners comprises both strategic partner and
change agent roles and therefore according to Caldwell, (2003) HRD Professionals may
performance a proactive role in change management as they are in a good position.
According to Green (2001) HRD professionals are uniquely positioned to take responsibility
for this role in the organization as it deals with the culture of a firm. According to (CIPD,
2005, Ulrich, 2005; Kenton & Yarnall, 2005; McLagan, 1996; Nijhof, 2004; Tjepkema et al.,
2000) HRD roles have been transformed to strategic business partner, internal consultant and
change agent.
According to Ketter (2006) Human Resource Development professionals need to create an
enabling environment for learning and comprehend the process of learning as change agents.
So - after a lengthy presentation of three seemingly different concepts of change, leadership,
and HRD, we are finally moving towards integrating them. Here is how it looks
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
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Change Management, Leadership And HRD
When HRD plays the role of change agent, they are able to successfully manage the change
because the HR knows how to deal with the human resource who are organizational valuable
assets and who are the movers of change.
Source: Compiled by the principal investigator based on sources cited earlier
Our discussion on various topics in this course until now have the following implications for
HRD strategies:
1. The HRD strategies should be aligned with the organizational strategies. There are
many organizations which spend on training, but the analysis required for
identification of the need for training is often missing. Training and developmental
effort that is not aligned with the strategic imperatives usually results in spending of
resources, employees being away from work, and coming back to work after
‘training’ that may change very little of the organizational reality.
2. HRD strategies should be specific to the organization’s learning requirement. This
learning requirement is informed by the capability required at the organizational level
and HRD, as an active partner, translates it into learning requirement at individual and
group levels.
3. HRD strategies are sensitive to the organizational concerns and constraints.
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
Studies/Gujarat University
Change Management, Leadership And HRD
The implications for the HRD systems will be as follows:
1. HRD systems should be set for creating and maintaining connectedness among the
senior management , HRD department, and the employees.
2. HRD systems should be able to build capability as well as trust.
3. HRD systems should partner with the senior management for developing performance
benchmarks as well as indicators and metrics for measuring actual performance
4. HRD should be an active partner in creating a culture of openness, learning and
sharing
5. HRD systems should be geared to measurement of its own effectiveness and
improvement.
Let us now summarise our session
SUMMARY
● The effects of change are felt up, down and around the organisation
● Change can be seen as positive or negative, exciting or demoralizing, vital or
unnecessary, easy or difficult or often, all of the above.
● The role of mid- and senior-level leaders in making change happen is critical.
● Managers of teams, projects, departments, and functions are in a unique and powerful
position.
● With effective change leadership, organizations will overcome the pitfalls of failed
change efforts and drive towards a stronger, more effective, and more prosperous
future.
● Effective leadership is essential in managing change and change is the only method to
sustain the organization in the current business environment.
● Organizational change can make an organization capable to better respond the future
trends, technological changes, social and economical changes, and can also provide a
competitive edge in this new age of sustainable development.
● HRD Professionals are able to propel change and create an enabling organisational
culture, through different change models which are adopted by the organizations.
HRD : Systems & Strategies /MOOC-2021/B.K School of Professional and Management
Studies/Gujarat University