Clare Pelham was brought into a troubled institution to tackle their budgetary deficit. Her predecessors had failed despite various efforts. Pelham had to do something different in order to make a lasting change. The turnaround at Leonard Cheshire was because of the people centered leadership that brought about lasting and organizational change.
Leonard Cheshire was a successful charity in the UK. It supported people living with various disabilities and brain injuries. The charity employed 7500 people and accepted help from 3500 volunteers. The combined effort enabled them to provide more than 300 varying services. When Clare Pelham took over as CEO, the organization had a deficiency of 5.4 million. Previous CEO’s had not managed to bridge the gap despite cutting jobs and restricting the charity’s activities. Pelham had some experience within Cheshire as a volunteer though her professional career was in management in organizations such as these.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Pelham had identified what worked and what did not work during her previous tenure. She understood that the first image of change by trimming the work force did not work. It created a sense of apathy as the other employees lost their sense of job security. The second image on change limited the activities. This did not help to bridge the deficit as much as they wanted. Both these managers applied change tactics that had worked in other places. The type of change was supposed to stop the deficit (Burke, 2017). The context was in the persistent deficit problem that seemed too difficult to bridge. The phase of change was right on the back of the attempted changes by past leaders. Their involvement in more than one change may have contributed to the lack of success because none of the interventions were well thought out.
Claire Pelham incorporated change management by drawing ideas of change images from her experience as a volunteer. She combined her role as a volunteer with her skills as a manager. This helped her to understand the situation from the outside and from the inside. She then met with the senior managers who gave their individual insight on the organization’s problems. Pelham managed to portray the change management image of immediacy. She began investigations immediately she began working and she continued as time went by (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). She did not make the same mistakes that her predecessor made by going in without prior investigations. She was also not blinded by the past successes she may have encountered in the past. She examined the problems haunting the charity as unique and requiring a different approach.
The second change strategy she applied was to develop a solution by incorporating the views of the other leaders. One of the meetings she held had no agenda because she wanted her managers to create solutions to the problems they were experiencing. She knew that as a CEO she would have limited knowledge of the problem at the grass root level (Winnubst, 2017). The support of her mangers would give her a better understanding and increase her chances for success. This forum would also reset the organization culture and encourage openness within the ranks. The meeting then changed the nature of whistleblowing by recommending open reporting. This simply means that one could not report something about a colleague without being prepared to say the same thing in their presence (Kaufman, 2017). Pelham chose to encourage her colleagues to support each other by training and aiding those who had certain weaknesses. All these efforts were aimed at creating cohesion and fostering the charitable atmosphere within the organization.
The third thing that Pelham used to turn around the organization’s fortunes was to bring in all the staff into the bigger picture. She did this by targeting the biggest determinant of success. The staffs were made an integral part of the fundraising. They were brought into the scene by collection of ideas and generation of solutions that would make things right. Surprisingly, staff identified loopholes such as procurement and changes in service delivery as ways that the charity was bleeding money (Burke, 2017). This helped the charity to be able to make significant savings that assisted in bridging the gap. The staff also identified the interventions that were most beneficial to the disabled. Finally, Pelham took responsibility when things went wrong. She was able to protect her staff, which ensured that she got enough loyalty. Pelham’s initiatives turned around the company’s fortunes until it began to operate on a surplus instead of a deficit.
Pelham’s change initiative can be replicated in other forums by applying people centered leadership. The changes can be applied to all sectors by ensuring that the leader instills a culture of empathy (Leppäaho, Plakoyiannaki, & Dimitratos, 2016). This will create a sense of ownership and togetherness within the business. Such an environment creates determination and hard work because it is the ideal working environment.
Collecting feedback from employees can also help to generate ideas on problem solving. Pelham’s administration also demonstrated how other leaders can handle the transition in leadership. She did this by acknowledging everyone’s contribution and importance. She also gave her staff a platform to air their views without directing or structuring their topics of conversation. This helped her to address underlying problems that may not have been a part of her initial plan (Leppäaho, Plakoyiannaki, & Dimitratos, 2016). Leaders can make permanent and significant change by appreciating the efforts of others while handling their problems. This was what worked for Pelham. Finally, approaching a problem from its roots will yield a more sustainable solution than tackling the fruits alone.
References
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Kaufman, H. (2017). The limits of organizational change. Routledge.
Leppäaho, T., Plakoyiannaki, E., & Dimitratos, P. (2016). The case study in family business: An analysis of current research practices and recommendations. Family Business Review, 29(2), 159-173.
Winnubst, J. (2017). Organizational structure, social support, and burnout. In Professional burnout (pp. 151-162). Routledge.
