The Educational Level of Leadership and Effectiveness of Organizational Change - Thesis Example

?Running Head: Educational Level of Leadership Educational Level of Leadership [Institute’s Educational Level of Leadership Introduction Since centuries, business has remained a major component of human society, and until today, humans have been advancing in the field of business by carrying out enormous changes that has now resulted in the current state of global organizational settings (Poole, 2000). In specific, such a state is now inclining every organization to continue the process of change that is usually the responsibility of managers and directors at the leadership level. Although workforce plays a considerable role in the process of such changes, it has been an observation that leaders and managers are the major stakeholders who decide the direction and execution of change, and thus, their capability and adequacy are very imperative for the success of an organizational change. In this regard, leaders responsible for planning and implementation of the change must be able to understand different factors of change and in situations where such an understanding is absent, organizations have been experiencing failures in the process of change. For this reason, the proposed research will be focusing on one of the major factors of organizational change, educational level of leadership, and subsequently, importance of educational and understanding level in the workforce as well (Williams et al, 2002). In specific, changes in organizations are observable in various forms, such as technological change, structural change, strategic change, and thus, these initiatives require a huge amount of effort for the success; however, lack of importance of educational level results in contrary results. In this regard, proposed research will be an attempt to identify and analyze different processes and procedures associated with the organizational change that will provide beneficial outcomes to the business community. In addition, it is an observation that due to such a significant importance of organizational change, leaders do not only have the responsibility of carrying out the process of change in an organized manner. However, at the same time, they should continue the process of evaluation of management competency, and in other words, educational level of leadership, as well as the workforce that will be crucial to the success of changes in the organization (Poole, 2000). For this purpose, a primary area of focus for this research will be the relationship of an educated workforce from not only a competitive perspective for the organization, but also for those who find themselves on the receiving end of changes to their workplace. In addition, many leaders find themselves working with nothing more than a conceptualization of what the reorganizational development will look like, to developing and refining the concept into a plan of action and implementation. Moreover, leaders and managers experienced with organizational change may find it surprising of the failure rate of organizations that undertake change initiatives involving restructuring and reengineering efforts. ‘It is surprising that as much as eighty percent of organizations that undertake change initiatives fail at meeting their objectives’ (Black & Gregersen, 2008). This number is quite stunning. The challenge; however, is in determining reasons for this “failure” that will be the major part of the proposed research. In specific, without a solid foundation in understanding the approaches and ways of planning and analysis of change, and understanding application of the change-theory to an organization that is undergoing change, failure is a likely outcome (Williams et al, 2002). Thus, as with a company’s infrastructure involving its employees’ day-to-day function within its operations, and its relationship to competitiveness and profitability, a connection will be possible to the same employees and their educational level with their ability to work within the same constructs then add into the equation change management. In this regard, the aim of this research is to establish that while infrastructure and process, along with planning initiatives are core factors of change management, a critical component involving organizational transformation involves the educational background of those responsible for this change as well as those involved in it. Please explain it to your tutor that you will use educational level as you yourself indicated in the instructions that you want to focus on the impact of workforce education on organizational change, so educational level will be a better variable than the change in management education. Literature Review A brief review of the literature (Burnes, 2009) has indicated at the first part stand the organizational leadership including directors, decision-makers, etc who initiate the process of change, and on the other side remains the employees and workforce that follow the process of change. Particularly, in both ways, educational level plays a critical and the most imperative role in ensuring success of the organizational change. Such was the observation of a study (Jaskolka et al, 1984) that focused on recognizing factors that play the role in managerial success, and they identified that role characteristics and educational level are some of the factors that can be the efficient predictors for measuring organizational success. In specific, while focusing on organizational success, the experts categorized success in financial aspect and in status success, and educational level seemed to have an impact on both categories of success of the organization. In another study, experts (Pekkala & Kangasharju, 2001) observed owners and directors of few firms that were leading their companies, and observed that their educational level had a significant impact on their organizational success. In addition, results of the study indicated that even in an economic downturn, firms with educated leadership were more likely to survive in the market, as compared to the firms run by less-educated leadership and workforce. Results of this study is in line with the proposed thesis that organizations that have attained this realization of the importance of educational maturity has been achieving success continuously, and a huge number of organizations are confronting failures due to lack of importance on this factor of educational level that affect the effectiveness of organizational change evidently. Furthermore, experts of the study identified different forms of change in organizational settings such as geographic change, technological change, strategic change, policy changes, structural change, etc, and confirmed that all the forms require a specific level of educational understanding at both leadership, as well as workforce level. However, in this process, leadership plays a greater role in determining success level of organizational change, as compared with the educational level of workforce that usually follows the change process. While using example of downsizing alteration in the organization, experts (Cummings, 2008) in another research observed employees in an organization for a month and noted that safe employees showed mixed feelings at workplace, as they attained feelings of comfort due to their continuance in the organization, and simultaneously, they felt pain after going the process of change. In the similar study, researchers observed feelings of guilt in a number of workforces, as they felt guilty of going over the positions of their colleagues and friends. At this moment, experts indicated in the conclusion that leadership of the organizations can play a significant role in handling the process of downsizing change, and educational level is thus, a crucial factor that may cause optimistic, as well as contrary results. Analysis of another study (Carnall, 2007) has indicated that lack of educational understanding results in the factors of insecurity, distrust, and even anger that may not allow the organization to achieve the objectives of downsizing. In this regard, during a study, experts identified during observation of few employees, as well as directors in an organization that leadership should make efforts to bring the workforce to a particular educational level that may help them in accepting the process. In another study (Leban, Klein & Stone, 2010), experts observed employees a manufacturing company and compared results with company’s performance. Results realized the significance of educational level of leadership and workforce; however, at the same time, experts noted that it is very important to understand the term ‘educational level’ that requires a broad range of understanding rather a narrow approach of considering it in the only academic level. In this regard, review of the literature has identified the gap between researches (Cummings, 2008) that educational level does not refer only to the academic qualification of leadership and the workforce; however, it point towards the level of understanding of factors, components, and issues related to the organizational setting and change in it as well. From this aspect, it is obvious that leadership and the workforce will be having adequate academic qualification; however, in the organizational setting, it is not enough and thus, leadership and workforce should have sufficient understanding regarding different processes and procedures associated with the organization that allow them to confront the process of change in an efficient manner. In specific, this literature review has been fruitful in understanding basis of the proposed statement, and at the same time, in finding gaps that researcher will put efforts to fill during the proposed research. I have made required changes in your literature review; however, you yourself asked to identify gaps in the relevant researches besides indicating observations and points of the researches so do convince your tutor. Methodology Besides literature review, methodology plays an important role in determining success of the research. In this regard, researcher will now include a brief indication of selected methodology that will allow acquisition of data related to the research statement of the impact of educational level of leadership on the effectiveness of organizational change. In specific, the researcher will be carrying out secondary research methodology to acquire data from different books, journals, magazines, etc that will create a basis for the proposed research. In addition, secondary method will enable the researcher in analyzing already-identified factors that have been playing an important role in the process of change, specifically in the context of educational level. However, it is an understanding that ‘secondary research methodology’ will not be exactly in relation with the research statement, and thus, for this reason, ‘primary research methodology’ will be effective in allowing the research to be in exact direction of the identified research statement. For this purpose, the researcher has chosen the organization of current employment that will be an effective subject matter in analyzing different factors affecting the effectiveness of organizational change; however, to ensure anonymity, the researcher will be selecting a different department of the organization to guarantee confidentiality and constructive participation of the employees. In addition, it is an understanding that researcher already confronted various issues during reorganization at the workplace due to uneducated workforce, and thus, the same organization will facilitate the researcher in analyzing the same factors that will be very beneficial in achieving objectives of the proposed research. In this regard, during the primary methodology, the researcher will ensure confidentiality of data of the leadership and workforce that will eliminate any ethical issues possible during the proposed research. Moreover, the researcher will be using questionnaires to ensure privacy and confidentiality during the research, as it is an understanding that they may not be comfortable during other approaches, such as focus groups or interviews. Furthermore, the questionnaires will allow the subjects to participate in the research without indicating their names; however, asking only for their position to differentiate the results in the categories of leadership and workforce. Besides, the researcher will be analyzing the data qualitatively that will enable the proposed research to acquire a broad level of outcomes, in other words, understanding that will be beneficial in ensuring success in organizational success in the future globally. In addition, the researcher will compare results of the questionnaire with performance of the department during a specific period that will enable the critical understanding of impact of workforce education on organizational change. Lastly, the questionnaire will be in relation with the following research questions: Questions to the Leadership Do you categorize the workforce at the time of planning any organizational change? Do you plan organizational change on long-term or short-term basis? What factors do you consider to determine success of change in your organizational setting? How do you execute change, mention steps How much do you give significance to educational level of workforce for a successful change in the organization? How much do you give significance to educational level of leadership for a successful change in the organization? Questions to the Workforce What is your first response when you hear the term organizational change? What feelings do you get during the process of change in your organization? What factors do you feel are the most important in benefiting you during the change? What do you understand by the term ‘organizational change’? What do you understand by the term ‘educational level’? What role do you think educational level play in an organizational change? References Black, J. S., Gregersen, H. B. (2008). The Challenge of Leading Strategic Change. Wharton School Publishing. Burnes, B. (2009). Managing Change. Prentice Hall. Carnall, C. A. (2007). Managing Change in Organizations. Prentice Hall. Cummings, T. G. (2008). Organization Development & Change. Cengage Learning. Jaskolka, G., Beyer, J. M., Trice, H. M. (1984). “Measuring and predicting managerial success.” Journal of Vocational Behavior. Volume 26, Issue 2, pp. 189-205. Leban, Bill, Klein, Andy, & Stone, Romuald A. (2010). Managing Organizational Change. John Wiley & Sons. Pekkala, S. & Kangasharju, A. (2001). The Role of Education in Self-Employment Success. University of Kent Press. Poole, M. (2000). Organizational Change and Innovation Processes: Theory and Methods for research. Oxford University Press. Williams, A., Woodward, S., & Dobson, P. (2002). Managing Change Successfully: Using Theory and Experience to Implement Change. Cengage Learning EMEA. Read More