Critically discuss which leadership style is most appropriate in a

changing environment, whereas organizations and individuals

are required to adapt and be ready to learn? Support your
analysis with examples from a business setting

Faith Wambui Njau

Learning and Development through Change Management & Leadership
LJMU-7501-UNIHR
January 16,2024
As the years and seasons change, business environments never remain the same and
they need to adapt to changes around them such as technological advances, increased
competition and other external pressures of survival.

These business critical changes have to be implemented by the organization by

defining, planning, equipping and training its employees. This process is defined as
change management Dahl, M.S (2011).

Week five (5) topic; Learning and development through Change Management and
Leadership aided in outlining various leadership styles. In this essay, I am tasked with
critically discussing the most appropriate leadership style in a changing environment.

From the topic overview and the weekly reading provided for referencing, the most
appropriate leadership style in a changing environment would be the adaptive
leadership or the contingency management.

Adaptive leadership theory was introduced by leadership experts, Harvard professors,

and authors Marty Linsky and Ronald Heifetz. They described adaptive leadership or
contingency management as an active form of leadership based on mutual influence,
growth and learning.

These leaders concentrate on adding value and producing outcomes, not doing
activities. They are proactive, envisioning opportunities and finding resources and then
taking advantage of them. This brought out the term ‘ambidexterity’ , the capacity to
discover new capabilities while maximizing existing ones.

They collect differing views before making important decisions. An example would be in
the hospitality industry. This industry requires the installation of point of sale systems to
run efficiently and effectively. Before installation of the POS system, the organization
needs to carry out tests in order to find out if the system is user friendly to the service
staff on the ground before utilizing the system. This aids in reducing pilferage and
voiding mistakes during the initialization stages.
They are able to study their environments, generate alternatives for action, experiment
with them often taking reasonable risks. Following on with the example of the
installation of the point of sale systems in a restaurant setting, there are employees who
might be opposed to the idea of installing new point of sale machines for the fear of the
unknown. This fear of the unknown raises resistance to change within the current
capabilities of the employees on the ground and future demands of the employees. An
adaptive leader would experiment and not rush into making decisions that might be
detrimental to the employees.

They are open to new ideas and are lifetime learners. This would mean the creation of
partnerships with the employees. Partnerships work by sharing ownership, authority and
accountability. By sharing ownership to changes happening in an organization with the
employees, an employee feels part and parcel of the organization. This reduces the risk
of employees creating questions about the unknown and focussing more on the
potential benefit of the change being implemented.

Adaptive leaders develop their organizations capabilities to learn and evolve.Change

can erode an organization's reliability and accountability leading to frustrations and
confusion. Employees may start caring less, behaving more passively, exerting less
effort and sabotaging.

Heifetz & Lauder (1997) offered six principles for adaptive leadership that seem to be
effective in change management. Situation analysis by working hard while maintaining a
perceptive of the whole situation.

Identifying the adaptive challenge by finding out what needs to be changed. Individual’s
attitudes such as laziness can increase the risk for change. Employee’s attitudes may
also facilitate an effective adoption to change or increase the risk of failure.
Regulating distress by placing people in a “holding environment”. During the change
implementation period, all employees together with their supervisors are let to deliberate
and answer questions of the unknown as a team by participation.

Maintain disciplined focus to the challenges at hand by counteracting distractions.

Different expectations reveal obstacles to adopting change. Employees have different
standards and expectations regarding their work. These expectations have to be laid
down to the employees so as they may fully understand the change process.

Delegate the work back to the people who know how to do it, making them a part of the
transformation.This facilitates teamwork which increases their expertise and value by
facilitating knowledge transfer.

Allowing adaptive leaders to emerge from lower levels in the organization. This creates
a learning organization which involves an environment where knowledge process,
creativity and teamwork have a collective meaning and value.

In conclusion, though there are various types of leadership as discussed in the topic of
the week, an adaptive leader is the most appropriate in a changing environment. He or
she might also reduce employee stress by involving them in the changing process and
cushion them in their lives outside of work leading to the reduction of uncertainty and
struggle with the effectiveness of the change process.
References
Dahl, M. S. (2011) Organizational change and employee stress. Management Science,
57(2),240-256.
Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (1997). The Work of Leadership. Harvard Business
Review, 75, 124-134.
London, M (2001) Leadership Development-Paths To Self-insight and Professional
Growth