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Unit 12: Behavioural Implementation

when attempting to embrace accelerated change, reshaping their organisation’s culture is Notes
an activity that occupies considerable time for most leaders.
5. Creating a learning organisation: Leaders must also play a central role in creating a
learning organisation. Learning organisation is one that quickly adapts to change. The
five elements central to a learning organisation are:

(a) Inspiring and motivating people with a mission or purpose
(b) Empowering people at all levels throughout the organisation
(c) Accumulating and sharing internal knowledge
(d) Gathering external information

(e) Challenging the status quo to stimulate creativity
6. Instilling ethical behaviour: Ethics may be defined as a system of right and wrong. Business
ethics is the application of general ethical standards to commercial enterprises. A leader
plays a central role in instilling ethical behaviour in the organisation.
The ethical orientation of a leader is generally considered to be a key factor in promoting
ethical behaviour among employees. Leaders who exhibit high ethical standards become
role models for others in the organisation and raise its overall level of ethical behaviour.
In essence, ethical behaviour must start with the leader before the employees can be
expected to perform accordingly.

12.2.2 Leadership Approaches

Research has found that some leadership approaches are more effective than others for bringing
about change in organisation. Three types of leadership that can have a substantial impact are
transactional, transformational and charismatic leadership. These types of leadership are briefly
explained below:
1. Transactional Leadership: Transactional leaders clarify the role and task requirements of
subordinates, initiate structure, provide appropriate rewards, and try to be considerate to
and meet the social needs of subordinates. The transactional leader’s ability to satisfy
subordinates may improve productivity. Transactional leaders excel at management
functions. They are hardworking, tolerant, and fair minded. They take pride in keeping
things running smoothly and efficiently. Transactional leaders often stress the impersonal
aspects of performance, such as plans, schedules and budgets. They have a sense of
commitment to the organisation and conform to organisational norms and values. In
short, transactional leaders use the authority of their office to exchange rewards such as
pay and status for employees and generally seek to enhance an organisation’s performance
steadily, but not dramatically. In other words, transactional leadership is important to all
organisations, but leading change requires a different approach, viz. transformational
leadership.
2. Transformational Leadership: Transformational leaders have a special ability to bring
about innovation and change. They encourage the followers to question the status quo. They
have the ability to lead change in the organisation’s mission, strategy, structure and
culture as well as promote innovation in products and technologies. Transformational
leaders do not rely solely on tangible rules and incentives to control specific transactions
with followers. They focus on intangible qualities such as vision, shared values, and ideas
to build relationships and find common ground to enlist in the change process.

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