Dimensions of Leadership and the Challenges Inherent in Implementing Change

Assessment Two: Literature Review & Case Analysis
Assessment Two
Change management is among the most challenging prospects in organisations. That is because people do not accept changes readily. Instead, individuals resort to strategies that can impede the changes to secure their positions, even if that happens at the expense of the organisation’s success. IBM’s case is an indication of what aspects of organisational change should be emphasised to create efficiency in the process. In this assessment, the focus is put on analyses of leadership dimensions and their impacts on change, the challenges inherent in implementing change and measuring the progress and success of various change programs.
Section One (LO 4)
* Dimensions of Leadership and their Relationship to Organisational Change in four aspect
Different dimensions of leadership influence the change processes differently in operational settings. The first impactful dimension is attributes. Leaders need to manifest expertise, experience, and wisdom. This dimension emphasises leadership characteristics in aspects such as strong self-image, belief in oneself, high energy levels, a love of people, functional competence, knowledge of the organisation, and a strong drive (Pavlica, Jarosová, & Kaiser, 2013). This dimension of leadership understands the operational environment as a constantly changing prospect. Organisational stakeholders must be prepared for change at any time. To accommodate change efficiently, this dimension of leadership encourages leaders to employ their innate abilities and skills to explore what motivates people, assess the needs of customers and suppliers, and define strategies that leaders can employ to influence changes in higher levels of management. Through attributes, change becomes a matter that leaders can instil.
The second dimension of leadership that can influence change processes is function. Business organisations are systems with multiple divisions constituted to deliver results. As such, leaders must always stand to solve problems arising through various functional units. The problem-solving ability in this dimension is the mastery of intellectual strength to effectively perform a challenging task through different organisational units to foster common results. The dimension accommodates change as one of the key factors that define an individual’s ability to operate in dynamic elements of an organisation. In this dimension, leaders must view an organisational setting as a puzzle environment in which people keep seeking solutions. The efficiency by which individuals seek solutions depends on their appreciation of change itself.
The third dimension of leadership accommodates motivation. This dimension manifests itself as the underlying patterns of how people view themselves, other people, and the world around them. The other areas of emphasis in this dimension include leaders’ patterns of behaviours and interactions, intrinsic motivators, and tacit assumptions (Jiménez, 2018). In a change process, this dimension focuses on prospects that include the extent to which the above manifestations can aid or hinder an individual from working effectively. The dimension also assesses aspects such as patterns of inappropriate behaviours, predictable errors in judgment, and decision-making biases that can hinder their efficiency in aspects where insightful changes are needed.
The fourth dimension of leadership encompasses roles. This dimension stems from the understanding that change is a process that depends highly on people and less on the available technologies. Leaders must assess the commitment both to themselves and to others. Leaders employ their roles to envision the future. Through their roles, leaders can motivate employees into understanding the needs for change. Through the dimension of roles, leaders also energise and motivate other stakeholders in the change process. To achieve the best outcomes in a change process, leaders must develop settings that are suitable for change adoption, both for themselves and other people. People should work towards a change individually and collectively. Leaders who isolate their employees in the change process or those who do not offer the necessary resources are more likely to impede the protracted changes. In a changing business environment, the four dimensions above can work individually. However, the efficiency of their outcomes increases when they work interdependently.
* Challenges Inherent in Implementing Change
1
Multiple challenges are inherent in implementing changes, thereby warranting insight at every step of the change process. First among the challenges is the lack of leadership in the change process. Leaders play a vital role in formulating, implementing, and evaluating changes within their organisations (Vardaman, 2013). Leaders are characteristically insightful in understanding the kinds of changes needed in an organisation. Besides being insightful and allowing for the right changes, leaders also put mechanisms in place to ensure that the evaluation and contingency strategies are conducted effectively. Lacking proper leadership is a challenge that can inhibit the efficient implementation of changes.
2
Leadership styles are also inherent factors when determining challenges to various leadership prospects. Presently, varying leadership is among the most supreme styles in leading organisations through the change processes. Vardaman (2013) notes in varying leadership that a leader’s personal ground, employee attributes, and organisational structure and culture are vital to influencing changes. Varying leaders understand the dynamism within business operational environments. The effectiveness of transformational leaders stems from their anticipation of the changes, development of strategies to accept the change, and motivating people to partake in the entire change process. Varying leaders emphasise transformation by accommodating all organisational elements. A lack of transformational leaders in an organisation during a change process implies a lack of insight into why the change is needed (Andrews, McConnell, & Wescott, 2010). Some of them stemming from a lack of transformational leaders are demotivated employees, poor resource allocation, and inefficient communication of the changes. Transformational leaders define the scope of changes in organisations.
* Illustration from IBM
* IBM’s GM at the time of the organisation’s transition gives an insight into the application of various leadership dimensions in the course of the change process. Superficially, the GM is described as a young, charismatic leader who embraced ideas for positive change. The first dimension that the GM fits is the manifestation of awareness for oneself and others.
* (i) In a show of the dimension of attributes, the GM understood change as a process that accommodated inputs from all the stakeholders. In the course of the change, he accompanied his awareness for every person by assigning them duties and teams that befitted their participation in the entire change process. The GM also manifested an unrivalled ability to solve problems. He was “a young and charismatic leader,” attributes that eased his transformation agenda. Primarily, the problem was to revert IBM into a profit-making organisation.
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To address effectiveness in managing challenges, the GM addressed the change-associated problems, including disagreements within teams and lack of alignment between departments and the organisational goals, for instance, he formed a team to assess the vital change indicators and report back to him. As a problem-solving leader, the GM addressed the issues individually. The GM used different dimensions of leadership depending on the challenges that the organisation faced through the transition.
Section Two (LO 5)
* Outcomes of the Change Process at IBM
The change process that IBM underwent in the early 1990s bore multiple outcomes within the organisation. Primary among the outcomes was th...