Table of Contents
Change Leadership
Change leadership entails influencing others through personal advocacy, drive, and visions. It involves accessing resources to build a solid platform for change. Change leadership has its demands and requires different mindsets and an extra set of capabilities to lead the organization to a new place. Change leadership also requires different skills and abilities beyond the norm. One critical component of effective change leadership is the ability to establish a common understanding of the purpose and impact of the change (Cloud, 2010). Two features of effective change leadership include the creation of a vision and owning a vision.
So as to be able to adopt and embrace new visions and change, a leader is no supposed to delegate his/her roles in the process with the idea that, “it’s out of my hand now.” A leader is supposed to be passionate about the change and guide others at every opportunity until the change is complete. Owning a vision helps in figuring out what the future hold for the institution and how they will get there. Owning a vision is effective since it gives a leader a sense of self-drive. The other feature of the change leadership is the creation of visions. Creation of a vision entails creating a change story. By working through the steps of leadership, the leader is building joint ownership and commitment among a critical group that will help in driving the change (Cloud, 2010). Creating a vision helps the leaders in being committed and becoming more ambitious to drive required change.
Role of Ethics in Change Leadership and Decision Making
Ethical behavior is simply a reflection process and a communal practice which concerns the moral behavior of an individual based on an established and expressed standards of individual values. Ethical behavior enables individuals to feel an alignment between the values of the firm and their values. Ethics make increased productivity and teamwork in an organization. To make the aspect of change leadership possible and move beyond the general statement of ethics, right decisions have to be made (Thiel, Bagdasarov, Harkrider, Johnson, & Mumford, 2012). The importance of promoting the ethical dimension of change should be highlighted so as to ensure that leaders and their followers act in the interest of the company. Decision making is essential in deciding on certain organization positions, option or judgments after much consideration so as to drive change leadership.
Ethical Principles
Some of the best practices that bring about change leadership requires that an organization supports ethical decisions by applying a written ethics framework. The framework helps in the development of a common approach to engage and guide ethical decision making and practices in any organization. Some of the basic ethical principles to drive change leadership include respect for persons, justice, and beneficence (McShane & Von Glinow, 2011). Respect for persons entails treating each in an organization with respect and respecting each other’s opinions. With respect, there is more motivation and individuals are self-driven. For the purpose of change, leadership autonomy should be acknowledged. Beneficence entails treating each in an ethical manner, not only by respecting their decisions and protecting them from harm, but also by making efforts to secure their well-being (Cloud, 2010). Beneficence encourages the change leadership. The other principle that assists organization’s leadership and decision making is justice. Cases on injustices occur when some benefits to which an individual is entitled is denied without good reason. To help in change leadership, and proper decision making, justice, beneficence and respect to persons should be adhered to.
- Cloud, R. C. (2010). Epilogue: Change leadership and leadership development. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2010(149), 73-79.
- Thiel, C. E., Bagdasarov, Z., Harkrider, L., Johnson, J. F., & Mumford, M. D. (2012). Leader ethical decision-making in organizations: Strategies for sensemaking. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1), 49-64.
- McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2011). M: Organizational behavior. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.