Leadership and Change Assignment Sample

Introduction of Leadership and Change Assignment

Leadership refers to the set of mind sets, attitudes and behaviours which aligns individuals in a collective direction. This in turn enables them to work collaboratively and achieve the common goals & objectives. In other words, leadership is the capability of the person to influence and direct other people or followers of a firm or society. Leadership usually is a trait tied to title, job position or seniority of the person in hierarchy. However, it is a trait any person can possess or conquer and recognized as a developable skill which can be enhanced over time (Tummers and Bakker, 2021). Change is the event or incident which happens when something transfers from one situation or stage to another stage. In terms of business, change refers to the planned and structured procedure of making enough alterations or transformations to different aspects of a firm to enhance its performance, productivity, adapt to new situations and accomplish strategic goals. Whenever leaders or employees do a task in particular way, they get familiarised to them. They create methods and apply regularly to accomplish these tasks and any kind of variation in these methods known as change.

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Leadership and change both are the most important aspect of any organisation. Leaders offer clear visions and excellent direction to the people of the organisations. They encourage or motivate staff members and facilitate in making environment favourable so that employees enjoy their work, put lot of efforts and perform their tasks and activities accurately. A leader must be supportive, problem-solver and a good motivator that take organisation to the next step. Change management in the organisation is necessary in order to achieve the greater competitive advantages in the market. Change management is considered as discipline which directs how a company prepares, trains and supports workers to adopt the new changes and contribute towards the organisational success (Ackerman, 2023). Efficient change management process allows changes to be smoother and less expensive in terms of resources. If the organisation wants to achieve success in the upcoming changes then it is crucial to make sure clear communication in the workplace. Changes in the organisation have become important part and help to achieve higher success in the market. Ineffective leadership and change management makes it difficult for the organisations to survive in the dynamic business world.

The main aim of this essay is to explain about the leadership and change in relation with Premier Inn. It is a one of the largest hotel chains operates across United Kingdom and many other countries. This essay will describe the theories of leadership and change management along with its strengths and weaknesses. This essay will explain about the leader of the Premier Inn and impact of leadership theories on leader’s style. In last part, this report will also evaluate the impact of the leader on change management in terms of followers, organisations and performance.

Main Body

Identification and review of the leadership theories

• Transformational leadership theory - This leadership theory holds that relationship among leaders and employees can be useful for the organisation. Transformational theory of leadership stresses that efficient leaders motivate the employees to go beyond their abilities and perform their work in an excellent way. Transformational leaders create a vision for their staff members and encourage them to understand it. The morale of the workers is raised by the transformational leaders that assist them to perform the best in job.
• Situational leadership theory – This theoretical framework emphasises on the importance of context. It assumes that leader needs to adjust the changing context as well as situations in order to attain the goals and make judgements. The level of capability and commitment of staff members can impact how leaders choose the particular leading style. Situational leadership creates a connection with employees and develop teams to complete the projects.
• The trait theory – This theory is based on the concept that efficient leaders have specific personal qualities and behaviours. Leaders can be an effective in different types of circumstance because of their personal qualities (Goldstein et al, 2022). This leadership theory also promotes the belief that some individuals are naturally gifted as leaders when compared with the other people.
• Behavioural leadership theory – This leadership theory assumes that leader is characterised by their behaviour and attitude while performing the duties and tasks or directing the team members. It is a kind of charismatic thought that challenges the idea of one-size-fits-all leadership approach. It states that effectiveness of the leaders relies on unique situations at hand.

Transformational and trait leadership theories are selected for review and detail of theories explained below:

Transformational leadership theory

• Key concepts: Transformational leadership theory is one of the most beneficial leadership theories and it also considered as ideal management style for accomplishing change in the corporation. Intellectual stimulation, idealised influence, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration are the four key principles of transformational leadership. These leaders involve their employees in decision-making and provide purpose to the team. They also act as a role model to impact behaviours of the employees.
• Strengths: Transformational leaders have good motivational skills and uses to motivate the staff members. By effectively communicating the vision and purpose, they can clarify the objectives and give easy instructions on the steps required to achieve the goals. The other strength of the transformational leaders includes that they are highly supportive towards the employees. This strength helps to make build strong relationship with the employees.
• Weaknesses: Transformational leadership also possess some weaknesses. These leaders highly focus on motivation of employees that can cause lack of concentration on necessary tasks. It increases the internal confusion regarding who perform tasks and thereby reduces the level of productivity (Gardner et al, 2021). Transformational leaders do not use external rewards which sometimes create problems for the employees. They may begin to feel overworked and burn out which directly impacts their work.
• Practical applications – The CEO of Premier Inn has adopted and implemented the transformational theory. He discovered and clarified the mission & objectives of the organisation which helps in promoting the values and give specific objectives to team. He also develops communication channels to connect with the employees. By this approach, employees feel empowered which will reflect in their work.

Trait leadership theory

• Key concepts – Trait leadership theory rests on the concept that individual are different from each other according to their strengths as well as intensity of fundamental trait dimensions. According to theory, here are the three criteria which defined personality traits such as; individual differences, stability and consistency. The trait theory of leadership contemplates a few broad features which are physical, mental and social and combination of these features make an effective leader.
• Strengths – This leadership theory is concerned with traits and personalities of the leaders as well as who has these personalities. This approach is easy to apply and do not possess any vague descriptions. It provides a detailed knowledge and in-depth understanding about the leader element within the leadership procedure. It offers the benchmarks for finding out the leaders.
• Weaknesses – Trait theory fails to involve all kind of situations along with the other leadership related factor. It only pays attention on leaders and not on the other people or situation which make this approach less effective. Since traits are inherent, it becomes infrequent for training and growth purpose. Also, it may develop a false sense of superiority and determination, indicating that leadership is exclusive quality which only a few persons are born with.
• Practical applications – Dominic Paul, CEO of the Premier Inn has excellent leadership traits which make it possible for the hotel to improve technical innovation. He also has strong communication as well as critical thinking abilities that help in making better relationship with employees and perform tasks in a unique way.

Identification and change management theories

• Lewin’s change management model – This is one of the best change management models which have three steps such as unfreeze, change and refreeze. Unfreeze stage helps in evaluating how things work. It helps in understanding the requirements of changes in an appropriate way. Change is an implementation stage in which change managers put the change into action. Refreeze step facilitates to avoid going back to the old methods of performing work.
• Kotter’s 8 step change management model – This change model involves 8 steps which includes building the sense of emergency, making powerful coalition, developing and communicating vision, eliminate barriers, making short-term goals, building and instituting change. This model is formulated to facilitate leaders in applying organisational change in a successful manner. This theory pays attention on creating urgency to change things in the workplace.
• ADKAR model – ADKAR refers to the Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. The model was introduced to assist the leaders to manage and apply change effectively (Kanat-Maymon, Elimelech and Roth, 2020). It offers the clear understanding about the requirement of change and facilitates to find out any kind of obstacles along the way. ADKAR change model allows organisations to limit the resistance pertaining to the upcoming changes at workplace.
• Kübler-Ross change curve – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was developed this change model to understand the emotions and thoughts experienced by the people during the changes. It starts with rejection and ends with approval by taking into account the numerous steps in between. This change curve involve stages of grief such as; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Thus, organisation which is planning to implement changes at workplace or business processes can use this model to reduce the employee resistance towards the change.

Lewin’s and ADKAR’s change management models are chosen for the detailed review based on different factors.

Lewin’s change management model

• Key aspects – Lewin’s model based on the three stages which provide company a systematic framework to make changes. This application of change includes the current state of the company should be transformed into a planned situation, but it will not happen immediately but simultaneously. This model considers employees to be frozen or adapted to some type of behaviour. Workers should be released from their normal behaviour to apply the change successfully.
• Benefits – This change model involves the strategies that are easily understandable which further help to manage staff members. It is based on the human psychology which is greatest benefits of this model (Errida and Lotfi, 2021). By applying this model, the company can understand the employee attitudes towards the change. If the company apply this model appropriately then it facilitates to encourage long-lasting change.
• Challenges – Apart from strengths, this model also involves challenges that need to be considered by organisations. This model is argumentative instead of development and supportive of workers. Lewin’s model is quite time-consuming which can affect other business operations. It failed to address the iterative as well as complex procedure of change. It also does not account for the various types and levels of the change which may happen in different situations.
• Application in real-world – Premier Inn has integrated the latest technology in the hotel to direct correct entrance to the guests. The company made this change possible by implementing Lewin’s change model properly. The leader has introduced about the change to the employees with requirements and benefits. The leaders and managers also encouraged employees to provide suggestions and creative ideas regarding technical change. After that, managers organised the training programs so that they can learn about the technological tools band software. Training also facilitated to reduce the feelings of fear of failure among employees. This change model helped the company to integrate technology effectively in the company.

ADKAR model

• Key aspects – The ADKAR model has five key principles which are awareness about requirement of change, desire to support transition, knowledge on how to alteration, ability to apply needed skills and reinforcement to maintain change. This model is considered as guiding principle which addresses each aspect regarding change. Moreover, it is an outcome-oriented way that can be basically utilised to facilitate change through establishing clear milestones during the procedure which is further facilitate in driving sustainable impact.
• Benefits – This change management model is a bottom-up approach which pays attention on each member of the organisations so that they can support in change. It is goal-oriented that allows corporations to utilise it for different changes whether they are small or big (Peng et al, 2021). It concentrates on requirements of each person that increase the success chances while applying changes. It offers a simple structure for people who are involved in the change process.
• Challenges – The major challenge of this model is that it only concentrates on individual level of change but not on the organisational as well as environmental factors. It involves the issue of lack of alignment and flexibility that can impact the change process. It requires change managers to have in-depth understanding about human dynamics along with the ability of communication; motivation etc. and absence of these skills can impact the final outcome.
• Application in real-world – Premier Inn is experiencing the issues in making changes in business process and meeting the expectations of guests. The ADKAR model can be applied by the hotel to make changes in existing business process without any conflicts. Through utilising ADKAR model, Premier Inn build the awareness regarding need for change existing business process among all employees. The leaders communicated the plan by conducting group meeting and offered open discussion. They also provided essential training as well as knowledge to workers to facilitate change. Leaders also asked for feedbacks from the staff members that highly helped to make adjustments in plan and achieve change objectives.

Evaluation of a Leader in the tourism industry

Dominic Paul is the CEO of Premier Inn, a British limited service hotel chain, a largest hotel brand of the United Kingdom. Paul is leading its team in a proficient manner to enhance the performance of the company. The transformational style of the leader enables him to effectively motivate as well as inspire their workforce without micromanaging and by trusting and train employees to take authority to take right decision in their assigned jobs. The leadership style aids the CEO to provide employees more room to be creative as well as to get new solutions to old problems. This style of CEO assist in bringing innovation as well as empower and engage employees to create a meaningful change that aids to shape a company`s future success. For instance, implementation of transformational style by Paul aids in engage and empowered employees as a result able to enhance performance of the organization in the significant manner.

The transformational leadership style significantly enable the leader to influence other by efficiently giving attention to their requirements, improving their motivation as well as ethical framework for their decisions. It leads to make leader competent to create change within the people and organization correspondingly able to attain goals of the company effectively in the competitive industry. The leader by using transformational leadership positively impacts on satisfaction, productivity and attitude of individual. Effectiveness of the transformational style includes it assist the leader to align the employee with the core values as well as unified purposes of the organization (Siangchokyoo, Klinger and Campion, 2020). Transformational leader always emphasizes on using skills such as creativity, teamwork, flexibility to motivate their employees to attain the goals at the workplace. The transformational leader focuses on defining clear goals of that leads to fulfill the vision of the organization. When employees aware about organization vision, they work accordingly and give their best to attain this goals.

Thus transformational leader aids the employees to give their best by giving them better growth prospects for personal and professional development. In addition, the trait theory of leadership effectively impact the leader`s style, that inborn and innate qualities of the leader such as ability related to innovation, creativity, emotional intelligence aids in effectively motivate and leading the team in the right manner. The trait theory aids the transformational leader to use creativity and innovation skills to influence the employees as well as make them more productive as a result able to attain the vision and purpose of the organization. The use of trait theory enables the CEO to remain emotionally stable while dealing with challenging and dynamic situations. It helps the leader to overcome difficult situations by handling issues in effective manner without letting the emotion directs their decisions (Benmira and Agboola, 2021).

The transformational theory positively impacts leader`s approach of leadership as inspire positive change in the company. Referring to the theory transformational leader enhance employee motivation by providing the better work culture, reward, recognition as well as incentives according to their performance as a result makes the employee more productive. In addition, transformational leaders focus on professional development of its team by encouraging employees to develop their skills, taking new challenges as well as grow their professional anilities by providing training on timely basis. On the other hand, sue to transformational leadership sometime the decision-making process become delay as it involves inputs of each members of team as a result sometimes make the leader ineffective and taking rapid as well as timely decision, hampers achievements of company`s goals (Hallo et al, 2020). The transformational leadership requires continuous communication which leads to make difficult for the leader to manage the several responsibilities.

Therefore, sometime make hard for the leader to bring organizational changes within the organization where various employees resist to change. Moreover, the trait theory also plays significant role in leadership approach as it aids the leader to identify own strengths as well as weakness and set goals accordingly for the personal as well as professional growth as a result the leader able to cope up with the challenges that hinders in achievement of the organizational goals. The personal and professional development aids the leader to become more innovative as well as creative. For instance, the trait theory aids the leader to use their unique traits for purpose of creativity, innovation and motivate team members. Contrary to this, there are some of negative impacts of trait leadership on leader as it leads to increase emotional exhaustion among the leader which some time reason of bad decision.

Evaluation of the leader’s impact on change management

Premier Inn is a leading hotel brand that has numerous hotels in all over the world and offers their services to the customers. This hotel has achieved the strong position in the market because of their excellent management and leadership. Dominic Paul, CEO of Premier Inn highly emphasises on making transformations in the business processes which impact the business. The impact of the leader on followers, organisations and performance in both negative and positive way is described below:

• Followers – There is a considerable impact of the leadership style to change management have influenced the employees and subordinates. Transformational leadership adopted by the CEO plays a most important role in process of change. This leadership style is helpful in motivate the employees who show resistance towards the changes. On the other hand, trait theory has offered a clear structure to the leader which further helped to manage subordinates using their capabilities (Bagga, Gera and Haque, 2023). However, transformational leadership increases the reliance on the leaders which prevent the employees to adopt new ways and embrace changes. The Lewin’s change management has helped the CEO in persuading employees about the changes being initiated. It is helpful for the leader to reduce the resistance related to changes by expressing the benefits of technical changes in the practices.
• Furthermore, the ADKAR model affects the followers and subordinates positively. It encourages the followers to participate in change procedure in active manner and prepare themselves to adapt to changes. However, ineffective application of the change management theory can increase the turnover rate which impacts the overall change management process.
• Organisations: Both transformational and trait leadership theory has positive influence on the change management procedure of the corporation. Transformation leadership helps to improve the business performance and effectiveness of the organisation. It helps in developing the ripple effect which outlines the culture and final outcomes regarding change in the organisation. Leaders change the organisational culture which suits best to the changes circumstances so that leaders can execute the strategies effectively. On the other side, trait theory allows leader to aware of their strengths and abilities and use these abilities to implement changes (WHITBREAD, 2024). Lewin’s and ADKAR models of change management help the hotel to achieve the change related objectives through successfully application of the change. Premier Inn’s leader leverage Lewin’s change model to reduce the resistance and get positive response from employees towards the change.
• Apart from positive impacts, transformational leadership negatively impact the organisational practices like reduced competitive edge as well as performance. Trait leadership also creates conflicts among employees through not paying attention on employees. Further, conflicts among employees can reduce the trust of the employees towards their managers and company which leads high turnover rate. Moreover, without proper change management strategies, the company may face delay in the accomplishment of objectives and goals. Thus, it is crucial for the organisations to consider all aspects while applying the changes to achieve positive outcomes.
• Performance – It is necessary for the Premier Inn to maintain the performance of the hotel. Transformational theory of leadership provides assistance to the organisation in improving the performance of staff members through motivation and encouragement. By gaining the adequate amount of inspiration, employees do hard work and thereby facilitates the accomplishment of change related strategies. Premier Inn CEO also has adopted the trait theory which helped him to known their strengths and use it effectively to manage the employee’s emotions and feelings while applying technical changes (Premier Inn, 2024). Without any effective leadership, Premier Inn cannot improve the performance of the employees as well as business. The CEO of the Premier Inn has good motivational abilities and encourages their staff members in workload situations. It increases the engagement of the employees in their work and they put lot of efforts to achieve the common objectives regarding changes.

Furthermore, because of these leadership approaches, leaders are not able to focus on the important tasks. Sometimes, leadership approaches increase the exhaustion as well as turnover intentions. It may impact the change management initiatives and prevent hotel to achieve growth in the business.

CONCLUSION

As expressed, leadership is an action of leading, directing, guiding as well as motivating the group of people to attain the goals of the organization. In addition, change refers to a activity includes different modification such as work process, culture, use of technologies and so more. Leadership plays crucial role in bringing change within the organization. In the present study several leadership theories discussed such as transformational, trait, transactional and situational. Further, the report covered various change management theories such as Kurt`s Lewin, ADKAR model to effectively bring change within the organization by following different stages. For bringing change, it is important to effectively communicate and guide the employee aids in decline resistance from change. The report highlighted about transformational leadership style of the CEO, Dominic Paul of Premier Inn, the style enable the leader to motivate, inspire employees as well as bring innovation and creativity. In context of transformational and trait leadership, the leader face difficulty in making fast decision due to taking input of various employees and feeling emotionally exhausted.

Furthermore, this essay has evaluated the impact of transformational and trait leadership theory to change management on employees and subordinates. Both leadership theories and change management models provides a systematic method to make changes in the workplace. This essay has also identified that sometimes leadership styles negatively impacted the organisation, employees and performance. Ineffective change management strategies increased the ambiguous situations in the workplace and reduce the engagement of the employees towards the new process. Because of lack of faith, they have started to show resistance that affect overall change process. This problem has negative impact on the change management process and prevents the company to obtain desired results and goals.

Recommendations

• It is recommended that leader should focus on effective communication and active listening so that able to make rapid decision while considering the inputs of each team mates. Effective communication aids in decline chances of misunderstanding as a result aids in taking correct decision in timely manner.
• It is advices that CEO of the Premier Inn must focus on using strategy of work-life balance, it enable to overcome with the problem of emotional exhaustion. Correspondingly enable the leader to fulfill its responsibility in significant manner.
• It is recommended to the leader of the Premier Inn to focus on other leadership theories to manage change in an effective manner. Leader can adopt the situational leadership theory and apply it in appropriate way in order to tackle resistance towards the change. Through applying this theory, leader can easily change their style according to the situations and perform excellent.
• It is suggested to the company’s leader to organise the training and development programmes in the workplace after introducing about upcoming changes. It will offer chance to staff members to improve skills and abilities and get knowledge about new technology. Training sessions can foster a positive attitudes and behaviours towards the new process or new technologies and they will be prepared to embrace the changes. Staff members who are trained usually feel respected and supported in the organisation.

References

Books and journals

• Ackerman, L.S., 2023. Development, Transition, or Transformation: The Question of Change in Organizations. Organization Development Review, 55(1).
• Bagga, S.K., Gera, S. and Haque, S.N., 2023. The mediating role of organizational culture: Transformational leadership and change management in virtual teams. Asia Pacific Management Review, 28(2), pp.120-131.
• Benmira, S. and Agboola, M., 2021. Evolution of leadership theory. BMJ leader, pp.leader-2020.
• Errida, A. and Lotfi, B., 2021. The determinants of organizational change management success: Literature review and case study. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 13, p.18479790211016273.
• Gardner, W.L., and et al, 2021. Authentic leadership theory: The case for and against. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(6), p.101495.
• Goldstein, S.T., and et al, 2022. Hunter-gatherer technological organization and responses to Holocene climate change in coastal, lakeshore, and grassland ecologies of eastern Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 280, p.107390.
• Hallo, L., Nguyen, T., Gorod, A. and Tran, P., 2020. Effectiveness of leadership decision-making in complex systems. Systems, 8(1), p.5.
• Kanat-Maymon, Y., Elimelech, M. and Roth, G., 2020. Work motivations as antecedents and outcomes of leadership: Integrating self-determination theory and the full range leadership theory. European Management Journal, 38(4), pp.555-564.
• Peng, J., and et al, 2021. Transformational leadership and employees’ reactions to organizational change: evidence from a meta-analysis. The Journal of applied behavioral science, 57(3), pp.369-397.
• Siangchokyoo, N., Klinger, R.L. and Campion, E.D., 2020. Follower transformation as the linchpin of transformational leadership theory: A systematic review and future research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), p.101341.
• Tummers, L.G. and Bakker, A.B., 2021. Leadership and job demands-resources theory: A systematic review. Frontiers in psychology, 12, p.722080.

Online

• Premier Inn, 2024. Premier Inn adopts addressing technology what3words. Online Available through < https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/news/2019/what3words.html >
• WHITBREAD, 2024. Management. Online Available through < https://www.whitbread.co.uk/about-us/management/ >