Change Leadership Paper
Strat. Change 18: 45–58 (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.838
Strategic Change
Change leadership: case study of a global energy company
Malcolm Higgs* and Deborah Rowland
Southampton University School of Management, UK
Organizations operating on a global basis have wrestled with the dilemma of achieving a balance between global standardization and local differentiation. Similar dilemmas arise from a review of the literature around the challenges of implementing change successfully. There is, however, agreement that leaders play a significant role in resolving these dilemmas in the process of implementing strategic change within global organizations. This paper explores the …show more content…
— Leader D This appears to provide some evidence to support the assertion within the literature of the value of such an approach (e.g. Malnight, 1995; Dickman and Müller-Camen, 2006). On the other hand, an alternative approach entailed bringing local issues into account in achieving the overall goals. For example: I and my team signalled genuine and authentic interest in listening and understanding what was really going on in the operating units, taking that into account for global direction and then encouraging the whole organization to be supportive to each other. — Leader G This provides endorsement of the potential value of adoption of a more involving and enabling leadership approach (e.g. Gill, 2001; Higgs, 2003; Kramer, 2005). A third approach encountered mirrored the global values and local implementation identified in the literature (e.g. Pettigrew, 1979; Schein, 1985; Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1999). For example: We had given ourselves certain values and principles and I wanted to make sure that everyone in the room and everyone in the organization understands that we stick to that and we live by that. — Leader H In terms of leadership behaviors it did appear that those which explicitly emphasized involvement and engagement tended to lead to higher levels of both engagement and change success (e.g. Gill, 2001; Higgs, 2003; Higgs and Rowland, 2005; Stacey and Griffin, 2005). For example: I found it very important to create something everyone felt was theirs, they had a say, it was something that 120 people shared. — Leader
Strategic Change
Change leadership: case study of a global energy company
Malcolm Higgs* and Deborah Rowland
Southampton University School of Management, UK
Organizations operating on a global basis have wrestled with the dilemma of achieving a balance between global standardization and local differentiation. Similar dilemmas arise from a review of the literature around the challenges of implementing change successfully. There is, however, agreement that leaders play a significant role in resolving these dilemmas in the process of implementing strategic change within global organizations. This paper explores the …show more content…
— Leader D This appears to provide some evidence to support the assertion within the literature of the value of such an approach (e.g. Malnight, 1995; Dickman and Müller-Camen, 2006). On the other hand, an alternative approach entailed bringing local issues into account in achieving the overall goals. For example: I and my team signalled genuine and authentic interest in listening and understanding what was really going on in the operating units, taking that into account for global direction and then encouraging the whole organization to be supportive to each other. — Leader G This provides endorsement of the potential value of adoption of a more involving and enabling leadership approach (e.g. Gill, 2001; Higgs, 2003; Kramer, 2005). A third approach encountered mirrored the global values and local implementation identified in the literature (e.g. Pettigrew, 1979; Schein, 1985; Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1999). For example: We had given ourselves certain values and principles and I wanted to make sure that everyone in the room and everyone in the organization understands that we stick to that and we live by that. — Leader H In terms of leadership behaviors it did appear that those which explicitly emphasized involvement and engagement tended to lead to higher levels of both engagement and change success (e.g. Gill, 2001; Higgs, 2003; Higgs and Rowland, 2005; Stacey and Griffin, 2005). For example: I found it very important to create something everyone felt was theirs, they had a say, it was something that 120 people shared. — Leader