Understanding Resistance to Change: An Experiential Exercise

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-258
Author(s):  
Virajanand Varma

Organizational change remains one of the challenging concepts for students in leadership and organizational behavior classes to internalize if they have not experienced it directly. This exercise serves as a means for simulating the change process through a firsthand experience of change at a personal level. The assignment involves students choosing to experience a personal change (e.g., abstaining from a habit) for 3 weeks, maintaining a log of daily experiences, and writing a summary of the takeaways from their experience. Most of the students find it challenging to complete the task successfully (i.e., maintain total abstinence), which contributes to a lively follow-up discussion on successfully leading change and gives the students an opportunity to understand various challenges related to change implementation. This exercise can be used with a range of graduate and undergraduate courses in management curricula as well as in other leadership development programs.

Author(s):  
Thomas Diamante ◽  
Nicole J. Leavey

This chapter distills leadership development programs into their critical components in the context of the rapid digital onslaught. Alignment between individual behavior and organizational behavior is necessary in advance of the implementation of any developmental intervention. This alignment is viewed as a necessary but not sufficient condition for change. Development is examined as a by-product of a dialectic that is constructed purposefully with both the organization and the individual in mind. Delivered in many forms, the dialectic serves as the fulcrum that brings transformational power to leadership development programs. Leadership development is recognized as a process incorporating experiences that are crafted to compel behavioral, emotional, and intellectual transformation to drive competitive value.


2021 ◽  
pp. 216507992110017
Author(s):  
Crystal Spears-Jones ◽  
Ranell Myles ◽  
Tichelle Porch ◽  
Stephanie Parris ◽  
Michelle Ivy-Knudsen ◽  
...  

Background: Leading Change is one of five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) used in developing leaders in the federal government. Leadership development programs that incorporate multirater feedback and executive coaching are valuable in developing competencies to lead change. Methods: We examined the extent by which coaching influenced Leading Change competencies and identified effective tools and resources used to enhance the leadership capacity of first- and midlevel leaders at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Tuberculosis Prevention. Data included qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews that focused on leadership changes made by leaders in the Coaching and Leadership Initiative (CaLI), a leadership development program for Team Leads and Branch Chiefs. Findings: Ninety-six participants completed leadership coaching; 94 (98%) of whom completed one or more interviews. Of those 94 respondents, 74 (79%) reported improvements in their ability to lead change in 3 of 4 leading change competencies: creativity and innovation, flexibility, and resilience. All respondents indicated tools and resources that were effective in leading change: 49 (52%) participated in instructor-led activities during their CaLI experience; 33 (35%) experiential activities; 94 (100%) developmental relationships, assessment, and feedback; and 25 (27%) self-development. Conclusions/Application to Practice: First- and midlevel leaders in a public health agency benefitted from using leadership coaching in developing competencies to lead organizational change. Leadership development programs might benefit from examining Leading Change competencies and including instructor-led and experiential activities as an additional component of a comprehensive leadership development program.


Author(s):  
Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari ◽  
Jaya Yadav

Purpose Current volatile environments, business complexity, and leadership gaps are compelling organizations to deploy effective leadership development strategies. Fueled by competitive growth and people challenges, efforts continue to scale up but fail to create the desired leaders. This paper aims to address the missing links and calls for new ways of deploying leadership development strategy. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data on experiential feedback have been collected from participants and stakeholders of leadership development programs in Indian organizations. Findings An integrated six-step approach to leadership development has been proposed for scholars and practitioners. Practical implications From the practitioner’s perspective, this study contributes to the field of leadership development by challenging the relevance of current approaches. It also adds to the scholarly literature on leadership development in the context of the organization and the individual. Originality/value Current studies in the area of leadership development in the Indian context are scarce.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 745-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Cundiff ◽  
Sohee Ryuk ◽  
Katie Cech

One strategy for addressing gender disparities in STEM and leadership focuses on women-targeted diversity initiatives, such as women’s networking groups and women’s leadership development programs. Although well intentioned, targeting diversity initiatives specifically toward women instead of all employees may unwittingly make workplaces appear unwelcoming and biased to prospective employees. To test this notion, undergraduate women and men read a recruitment brochure for a company that framed its diversity initiatives as either targeting women employees or all employees. Both women and men felt less social fit and comfort with the company and were more concerned about being treated negatively and unfairly when diversity initiatives were framed as women-targeted rather than all-inclusive. These results held regardless of whether the company was portrayed as male-dominated or gender equitable (Study 1, N = 117). However, results were somewhat attenuated for women, but not men, when the women-targeted program was portrayed as initiated and led by women employees rather than upper management (Study 2, N = 152). Overall, our results suggest that diversity initiatives may more effectively convey identity safety to both women and men when framed in a way that includes all employees rather than targeting only women.


Author(s):  
Melanie Lee

This chapter is grounded in scholarly sources and personal narrative, and it concludes with recommended best practices about fostering more socially just higher education environments for college students. Specifically, the author focuses on the development of more equitable inclusion of students with disabilities in curricular and co-curricular leadership development programs. This chapter provides a context of major models of disability over time, a chronological scaffold of dominant student leadership models, and recommendations for educators inside and outside of classroom spaces. The intersection of models of disability and leadership models has not been explored. This chapter fills that gap in the literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 637-650
Author(s):  
Laura Paglis Dwyer

Purpose The purpose of this paper, on self-efficacy and leadership, has two objectives. First, it comprehensively reviews approximately 25 years of research on leadership self-efficacy (LSE), beginning with LSE measurement and related criticisms. Findings concerning LSE’s relationships with leader effectiveness criteria, as well as individual and contextual influences on LSE, are presented. Second, it examines the evidence on efficacy enhancement interventions and offers some preliminary recommendations for increasing LSE through leadership development programs. Design/methodology/approach The author conducted a comprehensive literature review of the existing research on LSE, covering the main contributors to this research stream and their findings. Findings The review revealed substantial diversity in LSE construct development and measurement approaches. Regarding LSE and leader effectiveness, many studies reported positive relationships with potential, performance and behavioral ratings of leaders. Collective (team) efficacy has emerged as a significant mediator between LSE and group performance. Influences on LSE include several of the Big Five personality traits, while contextual antecedents are under-researched, and potentially fruitful areas for further study. Executive coaching and mentoring, as well as cognitive modeling techniques and training in constructive thought patterns, received support for enhancing LSE in developing leaders. Originality/value This paper’s review and implications should be of substantial value to current and future LSE researchers, as it summarizes past research, synthesizes the findings to draw out common themes and consistent, corroborated findings, and identifies opportunities for future research. For practitioners, the reviewed research on interventions for increasing LSE through leadership development programs provides practical guidance.


Author(s):  
Catherine Mavriplis ◽  
Elizabeth Croft

Many engineering organizations are realizing the benefits of diversity for innovation in their product development and team dynamics. While women remain a minority in the classroom and the workplace when it comes to engineering, they have registered significant gains. Despite decades of increases in percentages of women at lower levels however, gender diversity at high levels remains woefully low. Without integrating diversity at all levels of an organization, the full benefits of diversity cannot be reached. Furthermore, highly trained and experienced workers become dissatisfied and/or eventually leave if they cannot see a path to career advancement. Leadership development programs for women have recently sprung up in a number of engineering organizations to reap the full benefits of these companies’ investments in a diverse workforce. At Pratt & Whitney Canada, in 2007, a committee was struck to develop a Women’s Leadership Initiative that has been vibrant ever since, registering successes such as promotion of several women to Vice President status. In 2011, the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering, BC and Yukon sponsored six introductory Leadership Development workshops developed by the Canadian Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Trades and Technology hosted at engineering workplaces across British Columbia. The presentation and paper will discuss the need for such programs, their essential ingredients and provide a preliminary assessment of their effectiveness.


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