Leadership and change management

Abstract:

To equip the organisation for change is one of the most important motives for strategic business development. Leaders and team members have responsibility to participate in the development process and to promote the business to the key stakeholders and to the users. The manager's main responsibility is to make sure that the aim of the business and the way it is fulfilled contribute to the parent organisation's mission and goals. Networking and building alliances as well as promoting the business and making it visible are also important responsibilities. The team members have, besides their ordinary duties, important responsibilities to collaborate in business development, to make sure that their own professional development is proceeding and to contribute to promotion of the business. To involve staff in development and planning is a key factor to success; however, the timing for the involvement should be carefully chosen. It is particularly important in times of budget restrictions and other major changes to have an involved and engaged staff.

Key words

leaders' responsibility

team members' responsibility

change management

timing

organisational culture

attitudes

Nothing is permanent but change. (Heraclitus)

Business development means change. In the outside world things happen all the time that provide opportunities for and threats to the business. Some of these things we can influence and others not, but we must always react to them. Strategic business planning increases the ability to be proactive and to use the opportunities for the business's best interest. Changes are mostly regarded as positive - it is stimulating to learn new things, and development also means variation. Sometimes, however, changes make tough demands on both the leader and the employee. This happens especially when changes are initiated 'top-down' and imply budget restrictions that seriously affect the business and staff. A staff group which has undergone a number of such changes over a short period of time can easily lose heart and can engage in a non-constructive grumble that the manager sometimes, sadly enough, participates in.

To equip the organisation for changes is one of the most important motives for strategic business development. If this is to work, development must be an ongoing and proactive activity and not executed just in times of crises or as a routine answer to the management's demand for the annual business plan. Furthermore, by having the team members actively engaged in the development and planning, changes are easier to implement as they become a natural part of the business. A good business plan also makes it easier for the team members to take their own independent decisions and thus also facilitate the manager's ability to delegate work.

Working with strategic business development and planning requires that both managers and team members are aware of their respective responsibility in the process. To create an open and engaging organisational culture in the workplace is perhaps not easily done, but it is important in order to stimulate employees to seeing initiatives and responsibility as a natural part of their work. It is partly about the organisational climate and atmosphere and partly about the attitudes and values. Different attitudes can occasionaly cause clashes.

 'waiting to hear' versus 'keeping yourself informed';

 'to regret it didn't occur' versus 'working for what I want to happen';

 'to focus on what must not happen' versus 'to focus on the opportunities available';

 'responding' versus 'acting'.1

Repeated discussions in the staff group may be needed to identify and highlight the manager's and team members' responsibility and what it takes to make them all feel involved and to take responsibility. Often, the expectations about responsibility are not quite clear in the organisation and it is important that the manager's and the team members' views of their respective roles match. In the following I list some responsibilities that are particularly important in this context.

The manager's responsibility

One of the manager's main tasks is to ensure that the business is conducted in a way that meets the parent organisation's mission and goals while the resources are utilised optimally. An LIS manager is often in a mid-level position and represents the parent organisation's management of the staff group. The mid-level manager has a key, but a rather complex, role as an intermediary and interpreter of the top management's plans and decisions. This does not, however, mean uncritically embracing and implementing all plans and decisions; the head should also fight for the business - to get enough resources and the right resources as to competence, information resources and tools. The parent organisation's mission is the guiding star: to care for the staff and for the business are keys to success. Being able to delegate responsibility and tasks and to involve staff in the planning process is a precondition for success.

The manager also has an important role to ensure that the employees participate in the right networks and to create alliances with key persons and functions. Everyone has the responsibility to promote and market the business, but the head has a special responsibility for this, in particular when it comes to marketing the business to the parent organisation's management and other key stakeholders who are not direct users. Another important responsibility is to create opportunities for dialogue and flow of information between different groups and levels within the organisation and to provide chances for professional development.

Summary of the manager's responsibility

 To ensure that the aim of the business and the way it is fulfilled contribute to the parent organisation's mission and goals.

 To fight for getting sufficient resources as well as the right resources.

 To care for the staff.

 To delegate.

 To network and build alliances.

 To promote and to make the business visible, primarily to the parent organisation's management.

 To create opportunities for dialogue and an open flow of information.

Team members' responsibility

Team members have the responsibility to fulfil the tasks required to serve the organisation's best interests and to cooperate in the process of organisational development. They have a responsibility to keep themselves informed - not just be fed with information - about what is happening in the outside world that has relevance to the business. It means actively seeking it out (something that should be a well-known task for people working in LIS). I also believe that the employees themselves are ultimately responsible for their own professional development. Moreover, as mentioned above, marketing and promoting the business is an overall responsibility.

As to business development, the manager shoulders the ultimate responsibility, but the team members also have responsibilities and a role not only in the implementation but also as active participants in the planning process.

Summary of team members' responsibility

 To collaborate in business development and planning.

 To actively seek information on relevant factors in the business environment.

 To ensure that their own professional development is proceeding.

 To promote and market the business.

Involving staff

Consequently, it is important that the staff group is engaged and involved in business development. Often good ideas and initiatives come from staff and this should be welcomed and encouraged. The involvement can take different forms. One way is that the managerial body or the manager alone makes proposals for the general direction of the business. The main areas of the business are then discussed by working groups or the whole staff (depending on the size of the organisation), resulting in concrete strategic context. Another way is to start with open-minded discussions in workshops and then let working groups or the managerial body take care of the ideas and suggestions. In Chapter 8 I describe how to carry through such workshops. Discussions starting from scratch and questioning every part of the business may not be practical to organise every year, but it is very useful to carry out now and then, maybe every third to fifth year.

The timing of the involvement of staff is an important factor. Bad timing is when staff are busy with implementing new services (which might be all the time in a dynamic organisation). Which parts of the business...