Global Leadership
MGMT5006 Global Leadership Week 9: Leading Global Change
Students can pick up a Unit Outline and a number card on the way into class
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Overview
Looking back to Week 8 – Leading Global Teams
Week 9 - Leading Global Change:
Organisational change – types, stimuli and change processes
Challenges for global leaders
Influence of culture on change within organisations
Leading successful global change
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Looking back to Week 8 Leading Global Teams
Last week we considered:
What are the characteristics of global teams?
Are there specific challenges that global team encounter?
What are the implications for managers and leaders of global teams?
We learned that:
Global teams are diverse and dispersed
Consisting of people from multiple countries and national cultures
Characterised by geographical distance, operating across multiple timezones
Diverse and dispersed teams offer opportunity and challenge for leaders and organisations
Questions for discussion (open)
Questions for discussion are:
1. What does the world in which I have to function as a leader look like?
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Linking to Week 9 Leading Global Change
The diversity and dispersion of teams within global organisations provides a unique context for leaders who are tasked with implementing change in their organisations.
This week we ask:
Is implementing change more difficult for global leaders?
How do aspects of culture influence change within organisations?
What are some ways that successful global leaders effect change?
Week 9 Leading Global Change
Leading Global Change – Key Ideas
Effecting change within organisations is a key function of leadership
More difficult for leaders operating in a global context
Aspects of culture appear to impact change
Culture influences:
how individuals/groups perceive change
how they are predisposed to change
how they react to change while it is happening (implementation)
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Leading Global Change – What is organisational change?
“movement of an organisation from one state of affairs to another” (open.lib.umn.edu)
May involve changes in company structure, strategy, policies, procedures, technology, or culture
Types of change: incremental vs transformative
Types of stimuli
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Types of change
Radical
Incremental
Bottom-up
Top-down
Origin of change
Scope of change
Tactical change
Transformational change
Evolutionary change
Revolutionary change
Stimuli influencing global change
Change within organisations can be initiated by external and internal stimuli
External: political, social, technological and economic stimuli outside of the organisation
Internal: policies, systems and procedures, management style, employee attitudes
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How does change occur?
In general, change is considered to be a process involving:
Unfreezing
Moving
Refreezing
Developing a new mindset
Overcoming inertia
Testing out new behaviours, values and attitudes
A new equilibrium
Reinforcement or rejection
Change Process Models
Kotter and Cohen’s model of change process (Kotter & Cohen 2002)
Increase urgency
Demonstrate the need for change; appeal and touch emotions
Build the guiding team
Powerful group; build and bond for a trusting, effective team
Get the vision right
Create a vision for the future
Communicate for buy-in
Empower action
Create short-term wins
Don't let up
Make change stick
Consider feelings when communicating the vision
Enable team members to contribute; reward efforts
Easy, visible and early successes
Continue until the vision is realised
Embed into organisational culture, employ storytelling, socialising
Challenges for Global Leaders
A more complex setting
Greater ambiguity and uncertainty
Large and far-flung organisations (dispersed)
Challenge in changing the mindset and behaviour of stakeholders with diverse cultural and organisational backgrounds (diverse)
Need to acknowledge local differences
Need to balance global / local tensions
But, global leaders have an opportunity to have a broad impact within organisations
Leading Global Change - impact of culture
Several cultural value dimensions influence organisational change
(see next slide)
Important to be aware of
BUT
Cultural values are generalisations
Not reflective of individual differences
remember...
Osland (2017),p. 185
What do you think?
Why is change more challenging in the global context?
Reflecting on your own cultural context, are you more or less disposed to change?
Can you identify a difference in communication style that might impact the roll out of organisational change?
Key factors influencing successful global change (Hiatt 2006 from Osland 2017)
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Awareness
Knowledge
Ability
Reinforcement
Desire
why is the change needed?
Wanting to support and participate in the change
Change processes
Implementing new skills and behaviours
Sustaining the change
Key factors influencing successful global change (Osland 2017)
| Leaders as catalysts, not controllers | Organisational design alignment to changes: policies, skills, structure |
| Clear and motivating vision | Accountability for results throughout organisation |
| Communicating the vision: simple and repeated message | Measurement and evaluation |
| Community and trust | Results-driven approach |
| Clear expectations and operationalization of visions | Persistence |
| Context for change: org. culture | Cultural contextualisation |
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Leading Global Change – Culture and contextualisation
Not all solutions and interventions are effective across an organisation’s global operations
“Rather than allow cultural difference to be an obstacle, they leverage cultural values that support the desired change” (Osland 2017, p214)
Contextualization
Modification of approach to fit the local context
Leveraging cultural values and beliefs to help change rather than hinder it
During planning, implementation, management
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An alternative approach: Dialogic Mindset
Bushe & Marshak (2016) suggest an alternative leadership approach for managing change in the global context
Global context is characteristed as VUCA:
V – Volatile
U – Uncertain
C – Complex
A – Ambiguous
Alternative approach is ‘Dialogic Mindset’
Underlying this is a philosophy of inquiry and learning, rather than command and control leadership
Links organisational performance with ongoing learning, inquiry and understanding
Dialogic processes involve engaging people in reflection, interaction and self-organising
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Dialogic Mindset
7 assumptions of a Leader’s Dialogic Mindset
1. Reality and relationships are socially constructed
2. Organizations are social networks of meaning making
3. Transformational leadership shapes meaning
4. Organizations are continuously changing
5. Groups and organizations are inherently self-organizing
6. Adaptive challenges are too complex
7. Leading emergent change requires mobilizing stakeholders to self-initiate action
The narratives that people hold determine how people react to leadership decisions
Multiple changes occurring at various speeds
Occurs when there is ambiguity and space for it to occur
Get them to self-initiate action
Impossible to analyse all the variables and know the correct answer in advance
Meaning and relationships are changed slowly through conversation
Importance of day to day interactions
Networks create common beliefs about what other people are thinking, feeling and wanting
Transformational leadership determines the narratives guiding people’s experience
A variety of planned changes may be in action at any point in time
Disruption is required for transformational adaptation and change
Emergent change processes: small changes and experiments
Monitor and embed the most promising initiatives