Abstract
Change is a topic of crucial concern to all organisations in the present
turbulent business environment. Leaders are constantly faced with the
challenge of determining whether environmental factors will exert pressure
which may cause harm or change to the organisation. Some of the major
challenges that accompany change include a) the constantly changing
environment has created an unpredictable future as the marketplace has lost
its predictability b) leaders that are not able to predict what type of change the
organisation is going to be faced with c) the uncertainty around the outcome
of change d) no clear relationship exists between the scale of the change and
the scale of its impact within an organisation and e) the risk of failure.
Therefore, in dealing with change the mindsets of the organisation’s leaders,
regarding the complexity of change, are the most critical factor.
In this context, the main topic expanded on in this study is that change in
organisations requires leadership and leadership in turn requires certain
competencies. Central to the concept of leadership and change is the
leadership-followership relationship as leaders have to lead people through
the change and the ensuing uncertainty. In order to do so successfully leaders
need to have a set of competencies that enable them to lead people through
change and uncertainty.
The purpose of this study was to develop a framework containing a set of
competencies required for the major change types. It compared the views of
managers and employees, in the financial services sector, on the importance
of those competencies as well as the degree to which managers display the
competencies. Ten leaders participated in the qualitative phase of the study
and 60 managers and 74 employees responded to the survey. The major
outcomes of the study included the competency framework as well as the
competencies where statistically significant differences between the
managers’ and employees’ views on, a) the degree to which the managers
display the competencies as well as b) the importance assigned to the
competencies, were found.
Dr. Anton Verwey