PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

Introduction

Transformational leadership can be described as a form of leadership style where the leader works in tandem with the employees. The leader identifies the areas that need to be improved in an organization and requests the employees to give their suggestions about it and together, they implement the change and vision for an organization. This form of leadership is inspiring to the employees because they feel that the leader values them and contribution in the organization is respected. It motivates them to work hard and ensure that they work towards achieving the goals that guide the organization’s performance. Transformation leadership also helps the employees to realize their full potential at the workplace as they are actively in the decision making of the organization’s operations. This study is aimed at understanding the process that a company undertakes when changing its leadership. Leadership change is necessary for organizations if the current leadership does not help the organization to meet its objectives. There are various leadership styles that can be adopted by organizations, but in this case, an organization’s change to transformational leadership will be analyzed.

Company Overview

The company chosen for this study is Ponally Communications Limited that provides services such as consultancy, brand creation, and advertising. The company has been in existence since 2008 and has served many clients across the country. It has a total employee of 180 who work in and out of the office. Since its establishment, authoritative leadership has been executed by the management of the company. This form of leadership solely allowed the management to make decisions for the company. The employees subjected to authoritative leadership do not have the opportunity to participate in making decisions and policies that the company can incorporate into their operations, and they are supposed to follow the policies and guidelines formulated by the leaders. After various consultations and feedback from the employees that was requested by the employer, the management decided to change the leadership style. The style adopted was supposed to be more employee-friendly, and this led to the decision to use change to transformational leadership. By adopting this form of leadership, the management of the company aims at including the employees in the creation of policies and strategies that can be used to improve the performance of the company.

The Wake-up Call

One of the main competitors of the company Creative Edge Consultants of the Ponally Communications and over the last few years it has experienced major growth that has helped it obtained a higher profit than Ponally. The management engaged in the consultation to understand what the company did that is different to amass the amount of profit. Upon consultation, it was established that the transformational style of leadership used at Creative Edge had significantly helped in the growth of the company. The employees were seen as business partners, and they were allowed to participate in decisions about the company. They would formulate policies that would be adopted by the company. It is because of this that teamwork was fostered, and the employees would research on the best strategies that can be implemented to ensure the success of the company. The employees would share the ideas on selected days in a meeting, and they would discuss and choose the best strategies for the company. Another wake-up call was the reassigning of most of the employees. When asked why they quit working for the company, some of them stated that they did not like the leadership, style and they did not feel challenged at the workplace. This forced them to seek for job alternatives where they felt that they would get the opportunity to grow and develop in their careers. The transformation was also brought about by some supervisors who were employed by the organization. After analyzing the leadership style at the company, they realized that the leadership needed to be changed, and they approached the decision maker of the organization. They explained the benefit of transitional leadership and because most of them had successfully initiated the style in their former workplaces, the management decided to give it a try.

Creating Vision and Commitment

The transformation of leadership style is aimed at improving employee participation in the company’s making of policies and guidelines. The employees will be encouraged to formulate and research ideas that can be incorporated into the company’s operations to enhance performance. The transition of leadership will, however, be systematic to help the management understand whether it should be fully incorporated. Systematic adoption of the leadership style will enable the management to consider the benefits that are associated with the new leadership style. If they do not deem it important or beneficial to the company, its practice can be suspended, and the company continues to implement the authoritative form of leadership (Anderson & Anderson, 2010). Analyzing the transition will also help the leaders to understand the aspects of authoritative leadership that they can also incorporate in transformational leadership style to make it more efficient. The transformational leadership will be intended to understand if the company can improve its performance and if the transformational style of leadership is indeed better in the management of employees. If it is established that the style is better as compared to authoritative leadership, it will be fully adopted by the company. The transformational leadership may be implemented by using it on a some employees for a particular duration. After the pilot program, the program selected will depend on the performance of employees of the different leadership styles. The change may also be implemented in the whole organization. This will ensure that all the employees are subjected to transformational leadership, and it will be beneficial in the analysis process as all the employees will have the opportunity to give their feedback.

Analyzing the impact

To understand if the transformation of leadership is necessary, the participants will be required to give their feedback about their experience. If all the employees are involved in the process, they will be requested to give their opinion about the leadership style they preferred. Transformational leadership is associated with improvement in the performance of the organization. The trend established in the achievements of the organization such as a rise in the profit level can also be used to analyze the impact of the transformation change. A rise in profits can mean that the program is successful while a decline indicates that the program does not benefit the company. If a change is not witnessed, the organization can prolong the duration of the pilot program for the transformation. By analyzing the transitional change, the management will understand the challenges that are involved with the change of leadership style (Anderson & Anderson, 2010).

Reference

Anderson, D., & Anderson, L. (2010). Beyond change management: How to achieve

            breakthrough results through conscious change leadership. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.