The Role of Leadership in Shaping Organizational Culture
Introduction
Leadership is instrumental in shaping an organizations culture: it provides the solutions to challenges and paves the way for success. Setting the right tone, bringing people together to work as a team, and maintaining positivity are essential. So too is the need to manage change and ensure that productivity and engagement are monitored. This paper discusses the case of Dr. Marsh and the challenges he faces in his organization. It describes the leadership style that would best help in his situation, the change model that could be used to guide change, how he can infuse positive social change into the organizations culture, and how to mitigate obstacles. Finally, it concludes with a description of the key concepts that should be included in his vision statement.
Dr. Marshs Challenges and Their Influence on Organizational Culture
Dr. Marsh faces three challenges specifically: the first is that he needs to introduce a culture of engagement; the second is that he needs to establish an effective process for performance management; the third is that he needs to create a leadership structure that fits in with the management of hundreds of virtual contractors. Because his workers are from all over the world, there are many different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds among his virtual workers. It is difficult for team members to build trust and work together. Because they are not legally employees but rather contractors, he has the additional challenge of leading them without treating them as employees. In short, he must get the contractors to buy into the vision he presents them and motivate them to work together while at the same time establishing a structure of leadership and a tool for monitoring performance that will foster self-actualization among the contract workers that he is tasked with leading.
Leadership Style to Influence Culture
When change is required, the best leadership style for guiding change is transformational leadership. Transformational leaders are adept at presenting a vision to followers; they communicate that vision and motivate followers to buy into it using sound logic and reasoning skills. The focus on using reason and logic to show why the change is needed is helpful because people want a reason for believing in change. If they feel the change is simply arbitrary and unfounded, they will not agree to it. But if they are given a good reason for why the change is needed, and if they are presented with a clear vision that gives them a goal to work towards, they are more likely to accept the basis for the change and take efforts to achieve the vision. At the same time, the transformational leader will provide support to followers so that they can overcome whatever obstacles they face and implement the change. The transformational leader will use an effective support network to help bolster the change and keep teams moving in the right direction (Warrick, 2011).
Transformational leadership style emphasizes excellent communication skills, emphasis on vision, articulation using logical arguments for change, supportive encouragement to facilitate buy-in, and the importance of developing a support network in which other workers can act as ambassadors for change to promote the vision of the leader among peers (Atkin-Plunk & Armstrong, 2013). The transformational leadership style is oriented towards promoting change. This is a style of leadership that would best be of utility to Dr. Marsh as he attempts to address the challenges and obstacles that he faces in his organization.
Change Model
A change model is a model of managing change, like a template, that allows a leader to take the necessary steps that will support change and facilitate the...
…(Gerhart & Fang, 2015).Key Concepts in Vision Statement
The key concepts in the vision statement should be focused on the goals of the organization, the pathway towards success, and the role that inclusivity, communication, better relationships, teamwork, and respect for persons can play into accomplishing the tasks that will lead to success. The vision statement should include a logical reason for the urgency for change. It should also include a concept that emphasizes the need for accountability and team work. The more that workers are self-actualizing and motivated to work together by interacting on the message board, the more they will build supportive relationships that lead to positive outcomes. The vision statement should indicate what the end goal is and why it has value. It should also link to the principles and values of the organization so that workers can understand what the organization is really about, why it matters, and what they can do to support that.
Conclusion
Changing the culture of an organization is not easy, but with the right change model and leadership style the steps can be taken to promote and facilitate change. For Dr. Marsh, the leadership style that shoud be used is transformational leadership. This style focuses on communicating a vision, accepting feedback, getting others to feel involved, promoting buy-in, providing support for change, and celebrating small victories so as to promote progress. The transformational leader uses logic and reason to support the need for change. He should also emphasize the role that diversity, inclusivity and humor can play in advancing change and breaking down barriers to change. In a diverse workplace, the more human and connected everyone feels the more likely they are to come together on the same page in spite of their ethnic and cultural differences. The 8 Step Model of change can help the…
References
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Warrick, D. D. (2011). The urgent need for skilled transformational leaders: Integratingtransformational leadership and organization development. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 8(5), 11-26.
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