The CEO s role in leading transformation

Transcription

1 The CEO s role in leading transformation In the ever changing world, organizations must continually adapt to change in order to maintain their competitive edge. They have undergone radical transformations to improve their performance and are continuously challenged by new market environment. Therefore, the research on how to implement a transformation and maximize its effectiveness has been a major subject for years. People in an organization are one of the determining factors on a transformation. It is the people that initiate, implement, control, advocate, or oppose the transformation. During the transformation, it is reasonable to assume that the roles of people in the organization are different given that they are located in different organizational levels or functional areas. Also, their reactions to transformation are diverse due to different personalities, life experiences or self interests. Particularly, the authors of this article focused their attention on one important person in the organization, the CEO; and tried to identify the CEO s role in the transformation. Their research findings indicated that a successful role for a CEO in the transformation can be defined as four key functions: "making transformation meaningful, role-modeling, building a strong and committed top team, and relentlessly pursuing impacts. The authors argue that CEOs, as leaders of an organization, should shoulder the responsibility for not only instilling this energy into employees but also helping them generate this energy by themselves. They recommend that a major approach adopted to fulfill the responsibility is to deliver a powerful transformation story, which aims

2 to raise employees awareness of the impact of the transformation both on the organization and on them- in other words, to make transformation meaningful. Specifically, the CEO s willingness and ability to make things personal, to engage others openly, and to spotlight success as they emerge determine how well he or she can utilize the approach. As previously stated, organizational transformation is an ongoing process, which is complex and time-consuming. Their research shows resistance to change is easily developed unless employees prepare themselves emotionally for change, because old culture and norms they are familiar with are challenged by transformations. It is understandable that CEOs are expected to become the driving force toward acceptance of transformations given by their unique position in an organization. Their awareness in the strategic level can help employees understand the cause of change, instilling endless energy into employees so that they are able to keep getting rid of the old routine and fundamentally rethink and reshape the business during the prolonged process. It is inevitable that CEOs are widely considered as the role model for their employees because they are in the very unique position of power. One of the results of a survey the authors conducted within Fortune 500 indicates that the attitude and behavior of leaders towards transformations are visible to all and largely influence their employees commitment to transformations. Consequently, employees count on the action of their CEO determining whether they believe in the transformation story. Based on these facts, the authors recommend CEOs to take two pieces of most

3 important advice: transforming themselves and taking symbolic action. They used Mahatma Gandhi s famous edict, for things to change, first I must change, to illustrate the essence of transforming yourself. They explained that CEOs should behave in a very responsible, consistent way to advocate the transformation in themselves and the organization. In order to achieve personal transformation, they recommend that CEOs can take advantage of 360-degree feedback on leadership behavior for two major reasons. Firstly, feedback helps to reduce the blind area, which represents aspects of the self (behaviors, thoughts, and feelings) not known to oneself but readily apparent to others. (Page 244) Secondly and more specifically, feedback plays an important role in associating personal transformation priorities with organizational objectives; revealing outcomes of ongoing transformations; leading to improvement in future transformation. When it comes to taking symbolic action, the authors interpret it as CEOs taking a series of actions to signify that they expect their employees to behave in ways appropriate to the transformation. For example, leaders encourage their employees to support these types of behavior in others. Consequently, the shock wave of transformation can be sent quickly throughout the organization. Organizational transformation is not simply a legend of one hero. As the author put it, the CEO s team can and should be a valuable asset in leading any transformation. They reasoned that many management theorists see the team-based organization as the wave of the future. Therefore, CEOs should dedicate themselves to building a strong and committed top team to help them realize organizational transformations.

4 Based on their empirical study, the authors believe there are two aspects CEOs should pay attention to when they try to build that team. First of all, they should be aware of the abilities of individual members of the team in order to identify the best team players. Besides, they should understand that time is necessary for team development since team members need time to integrate the goals of the individual and the team with the goals of the organization. Additionally, they can only achieve the integration if they spend time on the process of team interaction, that is, on how they work together and what they accomplish. (Page 289) At this point, it becomes obvious that clarified work schedule for team development is necessary, because it can not only help members create a sense of direction but also facilitate the CEOs to judge whether the team is on the right track. In addition to team efforts, the authors believe a CEO s personal energy is crucial to make the organizational energy meaningful as well. The main reason is that their energy allows them to act promptly when decisive turning points of the transformation come. Also, their personal involvement gets CEOs prepared and willing to leave their executive suites and help to resolve difficult operational issues. Their research also shows actions without review are lacking in direction, and vulnerable to deviation from the original plan and organizational long-term goals. Therefore, CEOs personal energy should be utilized in conducting review forums to ensure that decision making stays grounded in the facts and short term improvement are coordinated with the long term growth. These forums aim to provide feedback and

5 help to identify opportunities for improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of change programs. Furthermore, they are a communication tool with that provide a communications channel and facilitate dialogue between CEOs and employees. (Page 402) To conclude, the major conclusion reached by the authors is that CEOs play the role of leading transformations in terms of generating powerful energy needed for a successful transformation. It assumes the organizational transformation is an ongoing process which can be regarded as a systematic project as well, involving a large amount of resources and human endeavors. If it fails, both material and spiritual efforts would go in vain. It is this assumption that makes CEOs role in transformation even more important. Though there is no single model to guarantee success. CEOs can explore the possibility of success by targeting leadership functions in the four aspects discussed above. At this point, the research conducted by the authors makes an original contribution to this field since it recommends a series of practical actions that CEOs should take to achieve successful organizational transformation. For this very reason, this article becomes illuminating for readers in high managerial levels. Reference Brown, Donald R, and Donald Harvey. An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development, (7th Edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.