In any organization, the aspects of change are one of the most difficult activities. In most cases, the employees tend to resist change as they are not sure of how it would impact them. However, with the trending activities in the business world, it is essential for the organization to be flexible. The only way of enhancing flexibility is through enforcing change. Dr. Kooter establishes a simple 8 step process for the purpose of administering change in an origination. In that light, he believed that managers could use that process for enhancing successful change process. The eight steps include the following: Create urgency, Form a powerful coalition, Create a vision for change, Communicate the vision, Remove obstacles, Create short-term wins, Build on the change and Anchor the change.
Kotter's Eight-Stage Change Process
The first step is to create urgency in which the leader must explain to the organization the importance of having immediate change. In that light, the leader will have informed the people of the purpose of change. It is not appropriate for the leader to enforce the change process without the idea of the stakeholders including employees (John, 2012). The second step is forming a powerful collation in which the leader must try to mobilize people who will ensure that the change process is effective. The leader cannot be able to conduct all the change process alone. It is important to mobilize a team that comprises of people within that organization. The employee must feel like part of the change process for it to be successful since it will interfere with their roles.
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The third step is creating a vision for change in which it must be short, precise and clear. It is advisable that it has an emotional attached to it as well as the creative element. The change process can be emotional since it entails leaving the previous roles in which a person might be used to perform. As such, the leader must ensure that the employees feel it. The fourth process is to communicate the vision to the team. In that case, all the details about the change process should be communicated. Also, all the people within that organization must understand the role that they need to play (John, 2012). The fifth step is to remove obstacles. There is a different type of obstacles in which the leader must try to remove. The obstacle can be physical or emotional. This is where the team needs to step in and work together to ensure that such obstacles are overcome to move forward.
The sixth step in Kooter's model is tried and creates short-term wins. The small win will motive the team to put more efforts to ensure that other goal and achieved. Without fulfilling such small goals, the team is likely to be discouraged. The seventh step is to try and build on the change. It means repeating the above process for sometimes for it to be effective. It is not likely that at the first attempt all the goals and objectives for that change process will be administered. The last step is to ensure the change process sticks. That means you need to include the change in the culture and norms of the organization. Such actions will ensure that new employee finds it in the system. As much as the current employee might find difficulties to adjust, they will have gone through all the process of change.
Differences and similarities between management and leadership
It is important for people to understand the difference and similarities between management and leadership. One of the differences is that the work of a manager is to maintain some of the activities, the process of procedures within an organization and ensure that people are used to them (John, 2012). On the other hand, the work of a leader to develop meaning that he/she will need to be innovative to ensure that the process or the procedures are developed further. Another difference that needs to be understood is that fact that managers focus on system and structures rather than the people. In that case, the managers will ensure that all the system and structured are in place to the success of the organization. On the other hand, the leader tends to focus more on the people. In that case, he/she will ensure that the employees are assigned the right task and responsibility, or they are motivated. Another difference is the fact that manager tends to imitate others while the leader must be innovative (Rainey, 2014). For instance, the manager can try to copy what other managers in the world and doing to move their organization forward. However, the leaders must ensure that he/she tries to come up with other means of countering competition within that organizations. Regarding similarities, both managers and leaders must ensure that poses certain skills that will ensure the organization becomes successful. For example, both manager and leaders must pose the communication skills which will entail passing information within and outside of that organization.
Theories of management and leadership
The theories of management can be grouped into different categories. Also, it is important to differentiate between management theories and that of leadership. One of the leading theories is the trait theory which tries to differentiate managers from leaders. In that case, it explains that a leader is an inborn thing and cannot be trained. A person is born with certain traits that make him or her good leader.
Behavioral theory is another type of leadership and management core value theories which is based on the fact that leaders are made and not born. In that light, it explains that any person can become a leader but not a manager. For a manager, the person needs to be well trained since their roles and much complicated (Rainey, 2014). The transactional theory is focused on the issue of rewards in which leaders are known to motivate their teams while managers use their power to increase productivity. Also, punishment is also used when the team does not perform as expected.
Impact of politics and policy on public management and leadership
Politics and policy play an important role in the business environment. In fact, they are one of the major factors that influence the external environment of business. In most cases, the policies that are made by the politicians will either impact that business negatively or positively. Public management and leadership will try to influence some part of the political arena to ensure that some of the rules favor them. Since business must be conducted according to the law, they need to make sure that they abide by those rules and regulations. Many businesses have collapsed due to failure to abide by those roles. Since they form parts of the external environment, the public management and leaders cannot be able to control the policies made, but they can only influence (Rainey, 2014). As much as the constitution provides an opportunity for the business community to be involved in the decision-making process relating to a certain law, they still play a small part.
Another impact of politics and policy on public management and leadership is that the type of policy made will also influence the type of leadership style employed a by a manager. All the decision that the manager or leader makes must be control or be within the rules and regulations formed. In that case, it limits the leader or the manager from expanding regarding ideas.
Difference between management and leadership practices in the public sector vs. the private sector
One of the major differences between the practices is that the public sector is mostly controlled by the government. The politicians play a major role in influencing the type of management and leadership practices in that sector. In fact, the politicians are included in the type of decision made by the public sector leaders. Any wrong decision that they make the will have to be scrutiny as a way of evaluating the basic of their decisions. On the other hand, the public sector leaders are controlled by the values and cultures of that given organization. The board of directors and the stakeholders play an important role regarding their leadership practices. However, in the private sector, the management leadership style is not limited in any way as long as they are making profits (Rainey, 2014).
Another major difference is that the management and leadership practices in the public sector must be to serve the citizens and not mostly for the profitability aspects. As such, they are influenced by the actions that they make on how their decision will impact the public positively. On the other hand, the management and leadership practices in the private sector must be solely to make profits. As such, the leaders are allowed to be innovative and to employ different leadership styles to make profits.
Legal and ethical concerns for public administrators
In the public administrations, the ethical and legal concerns are major focuses on the activities if the public. It is important to note that all their roles are about serving the public interest. For instance, one of their ethical considerations relates to equity regarding the distribution of resources. The public also has a right to question them ethical consideration in various aspect and even take legal measures if they fail their rights and infringement.
Managing and leading change
Kooter has provided 8 steps in which managers can use to enforce change in their organization. It is certain that the process of managing change in any organization can be challenging. However, the manager must understand his or her employees well before administering the change process. Kooter's 8 step process provides detailed descriptions on how the managers can successfully implement the change process (Rainey, 2014). Managers must also understand that different employee reacts to change in different ways. As such, he/she should not base their reactions regarding the events that took place in a similar organization. As much as the manager can follow those 8 steps process, he/she needs to be more innovative in other ways to ensure that the employees are managed effectively as the change process is taking place. The success of the failure of the change process depends on the decision made by the manager.
References
Hal G. Rainey 2014, Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 5th Edition.
John P. Kotter 2012, Leading Change, With a New Preface:
