Best Leadership and Change Management Practices

Question: Discuss about the Report for Best Leadership and Change Management Practices. Answer: Introduction Effective leadership creates harmony, shapes positive change, and enables an organization to optimize its productivity. Change management requires leadership alignment and clarity so that practitioners meet the predetermined strategic goals. Sustainable business development depends on effective change leaders who efficiently develop strategies for overcoming resistance to change and managing conflicts (Curwen Whalley, 2014). With the current digital business environment, firms need to employ the most innovative business leaders. Under the leadership of Morten Lundal, Maxis CEO, the company has gone beyond borders to get recognized internationally within and across all industries. This essay will provide research on the best leadership and change management practices used at Maxis Mobile company to maximize the company's overall productivity. Brief on the Companys Leader The chief executive officer (CEO) of Maxis company has been Morten Lundal since 2013. The CEO remains to be one of the most innovative leaders and recognizes that business success depends on how efficient and adjustable a leader is when it comes to utilizing all resources of a firm towards a unified direction. Under his leadership, Maxis invests in simple, personalized, and enriched technologies that make every stakeholder feel motivated to become creative and optimize their full potential for the benefit of the firm. Leadership and Change Management Issues in Maxis Political instabilities, technology advancements, changing customers tastes, globalization, and cultural transformations force Maxis telecommunication industry undergo change management. During the financial year ended 2012, Maxis company reported a drop in the net profit worth RM 0.67 billion compared with the previous year (Curwen Whalley, 2014). Changes in leadership and management were necessitated to create more efforts towards establishing a management structure that could meet the changing consumer demands in the market. In 2013, the company appointed two chief operating officers Nasution and Suren and reaped the old management to at least renew revenue growth (Said, Adham, Quoquab, 2013). Dealing with setbacks is the greatest change management issue that the company faces in its attempts to protecting the stakeholder's interest. The primary cause of these delays is poor leadership and change management strategies in which managers fail to communicate the company's targets c learly to the employees as well as failing to build strong coalitions when dealing with human resources by the practitioners. Literature Review on the Best Leadership and Change Management Practices Effective leaders keep management programs on the right track. Implementing a change in an organization acts as both a threat and an advantage to different people. Organizational change best practices ensure that changes in management conform to the business needs which should get aligned with behavioral and regulatory adjustments that accommodate the all business environment changes (Kotter, 2008). For most companies, the business policy recommends a leadership culture that follows an order of command involving all departments. With integration of leadership models, the management easily understands business culture dictates everything towards an overall success. Most company policies require that not only the executive officers but all employees should also emphasize these values in their behaviors and attitude while at work (Schaarschmidt Kilian, 2014). For ensuring a high code of discipline, companies should have well-laid consequences for the breach and mainly the most severe is losing the job. However, for example, Maxis only hires only the eligible personnel to ensure a prospective growth in the market. For avoiding confusion, the company's structure clearly states the responsible people in the different departments such that in the case of poor results of the firm, every departmental leader may be held liable to explain the cause (Booth, 2015). This proper job description enables the board of directors to implement the right changes in the right department so that a sustained productivity gets maintained by the company in the market. Practitioners should recognize that successful change management actions start at the most executive organizational level with a firmly committed team of managers supported by the CEO (Liden, Wayne, Liao, Meuser, 2014). However, of great importance, effective leadership values driving change at the individual level and uses all departments to engage employees at every level in implementing changes (Ebert Brinkkemper, 2014). Different telecom industries adopt different leadership and change management practices due to the conflicting points of view by the CEOs in various companies. Therefore, Maxis involves every layer of the directorate when making critical decisions regarding needs for change either over the executive or subordinate management. The role of effective leadership cannot get overestimated since change begins as a dream at the top most organizational level. Despite the fact that most companies think that executive involvement in change management leads to the success of the process, Maxis involves its leaders meaningfully (Chuang, Jackson, Jiang, 2016). The CEO together with the other executives goes to every department in the organization to find out whether the current management is working efficiently and listen to employees concerns. The company regularly makes changes to address the complaints raised by the workforce regarding a particular leader; this highly motivates the staff to get accountable and drive their efforts towards realized the optimal goals of Maxis. Kurt Lewins Force-Field Analysis Model Change management ensures that enterprises respond effectively to the business environment in which they operate. Despite the fact that resistance to change is evident, the management has to implement changes due to its dissatisfaction with the present performance. Kurt Lewin identified four forces that provide an overview of the modification challenges that need to be addressed by a business, splitting the factors into forces for and against change (Burnes Cooke, 2013). The below is a literature review of the applicability of Kuwin Lewins forces for Maxis Mobile company in designing effective leadership and change management strategies. To begin with, a diagram showing the forces for and forces against change in Maxis Mobile company is as below. Forces for change Forces against change Intensity of competition Status quo Job insecurity concerns Technological advancements region in the Threat over competition Presence of new CEO telecom Unclear reason for change Increased sales Sector Coping with the change Global economies of scale High cost implications The force field analysis assists the leadership of Maxis company to make informed decisions when planning and implementing change management programs in the firm. The directors of the enterprise use the model in analyzing the differences underlying the forces for and against change in the acting executive strength in managing the current situations in the environment (Shirey, 2013). The company faces stiff competition from the other telecom industries, example DiGi and Celcom and this calls for the application of Kurt Lewin's forces for change in leadership by replacing the less creative and innovative executives with the most technologically knowledgeable personnel on coping with the market changes. However, the-the argument for change faces opposition from the responsible officers due to fear of their job security; this then triggers them to take the right initiatives for gaining a competitive edge over the competitors through the application of new technologies to ensure that the broadband and internet services satisfy the customer needs. To add to the above, whenever the driving forces get stronger than the restraining forces, the equilibrium in the telecom sector also changes. Following the reduced profitability of Maxis Company in the financial period of 2012/2013, it was neutral for all the forces that change got required in the organization's executive management positions. The directors recommended recruitment of new CEO so that the company could cope with the social trends and modifications in the telecom market (Pescosolido Saavedra, 2012). The new executive officers were to take an action towards establishing functionality at all levels of the organization towards effective telecommunication and mobile service provision. There was no resistance to change from either party since every stakeholder in the industry understood the need for the proposed change in management. The new executive has been able to make the right steps to recover the lost market share to the global markets to its competitors and therefo re The administration of the Maxis tries to reduce the forces that strive to maintain status quo by tarnishing the existing mindset of the personnel. Maxis recognizes the need to adjust from an old technology to the application of new technologies so that solving market problems is made easier. With the speed of technological transformation, the telecom industry needs to adopt the use of sophisticated techniques in the provision of broadband and internet services to the customers (Shirey, 2013). The executive leadership takes the initiative to communicate to every member of Maxis the needs for change, and this develops positive attitudes, behaviors, and values towards change management. To prevent the company from backsliding to the use of outdated technologies, the IT department of the firm crystallizes the adaptation of the new technologies which intensify market competitiveness and gaining of global economies of scale in the telecommunication world. Theories for Best Leadership and Change Management Practices Leadeship theories explores the common leadership styles that managers should adopt in change management strategies (Miner, 2015). Based on the leadership styles adopted by different companies, some may be successful while other may not be able to succeed. The application of transformational leadership depends on the theories of leadership adopted by a firm namely the trait theory, behavioural, and contigency model. The following is a literature review of the best leadership theories and change management practices that the employers of different firms in different sectors consider suitable for the enterrprises success. Trait Theories This theory suggests that effective leaders share a number of common personality characteristics. Various attributes of employees determine to what extend the management implements change within an organization. In different sectors, the work team considers this theory an excellent strategy for brinnging leadership changes within the organization for this theory helps managers in identifying qualities and traits possessed by different personnel. Trait theories help the leaders in making good decisions that are likable to all the team members (Miner, 2015). For example, innovative, intelligent, courageous, and loyal employees have a great opportunity to get promoted in the place of work since they can be creative and innovate more ideas for effective management. Failure to understand the varrying characters of personnel in an organization makes the leades have difficulties when it comes to grouping the teams and bringing changes in their performance. Behavioural Theories The behavioural theories seek to answer the question, what does a good leader do?, as well as studying the behaviour of leaders while executing their roles in an organization. The individuals response to events occuring in the working environment results to behavior changes within an organizations management. Behavioural theories are cited on the personal, environmental, and behavioural traits of the workforce. Leaders apply behavioural needs to analyse the level of coorperation from the employees (Liden, Wayne, Liao, Meuser, 2014). Organizational practitioners apply democratic leadership approaches that involve consultation of all team members in various sectors so that they may make sound decisions addressing every stakeholders needs. If managers fail to understand the behaviours and attitudes of their workforce, grouping the personnel in the right department will be challenging and therefore resulting to losses. The theory assumes that the success of a leader in implementing mana gerial changes is grounded solely on how people behave while in the working area. Contigency Theories The fact that there is no perfect type of leader resulted to proposition that best leasdership styles depends on the situation facing the leader. Numerous theories merge together to predict which leadership style suits what circumstance (Liden, Wayne, Liao, Meuser, 2014). The integration of all leadership theory while formulating a company policy results to the perfection of decisions made by the practitioners when seeking to introduce change within management processes of an enterprise. Various industries requires leaders to make quick decisions on the best styles and approaches to adopt in the market so as to gain competitive advantage over the rivals. Basically, the objectives of a company dictates on what contigency based model to choose, path goal theory being the most suitable theory to bring transformation in leadeship. Application of one theory in leadership may not suit all the leaders, and this may lead to losing a considerable customer base in the market place. Power and Influence Theories Different leaders use power and influence to get things done, and monitor leadership styles emerging as a result of the followership. To bring leadership changes in an organization, many managers use the transactional leadership approach assuming that workers get motivated to perform better when they are rewarded for no other reason other than excellence. Various companies uses a leadership approach that seeks to build strong relationships and develop a motivating work environment on a daily basis so that they may gain influencial power (Miner, 2015). Establishing a conducive working environment with a companys workplace motivates employees to sacrifice all their efforts towards achieving excellence. However, failure to establish a conducive working environment for the workers in an organization will result to lack of coorperation and hence poor productivity. With stong coorperation between the managers and the workforce, it becomes easy to implement changes in the management program s of an enterprise. Conclusion Change is a planned and managed process whose benefits should get understood before its implementation in an organization's systems. Leadership and change management practices play a significant role in the conceptual scaffolding for implementing a transformation in an enterprise's processes. Change management allows a company access the impact of the change in the day to day operations of a business and ensures provides an accurate way to anticipating the challenges previously faced by an organization. Best leadership and change management are not only advantageous for an organization, but also beneficial for individuals involved in the program. Transition management creates the right perception to change by the staff and therefore, enabling them to remain committed to upgrading the company's image to the public. However, organizations who ignore change faces a lack of collaborative cooperation and communication between the management and the personnel, therefore, results in low pro ductivity. Therefore, it is important for all business organizations irrespective of the sector, to develop the best leadership and change management strategies for sustained development in the business environment. References Booth, S. A. (2015). Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises2015. Chicago: Routledge. Burnes, B., Cooke, B. (2013). Kurt Lewin's Field Theory: A review and Re-evaluation. International journal of management reviews, 408-425. 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