Hoda Jannesar ahmadi; Ali Shirazi; Fariborz Rahimnia; Alireza Khorakian
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The need for change in today's organizations in the one hand and 70% rate of failure in implementing the organizational change programs on the other caused many scholars to search on reasons for success and failure of organizational change. Although it is generally stated that effective ...
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INTRODUCTION
The need for change in today's organizations in the one hand and 70% rate of failure in implementing the organizational change programs on the other caused many scholars to search on reasons for success and failure of organizational change. Although it is generally stated that effective leadership is the key to successful change, many scholars have pointed out the lack of empirical research in this regard. Burke (2008) suggests that the impact of leadership on organizational change is not refined in the literature and there exists little scientific evidence on leadership influence. Similarly, Higgs and Rowland (2005) stated that only a few studies generally described the leader's initiatives in the process of change, and the literature in this field suffers from the lack of empirical research. Ford and Ford (2012) also pointed out the lack of definitive research on the association of leaders’ initiatives with change success. Since many studies have emphasized the role of leadership in organizational change success, the present research is accordingly to identify the leaders’ initiatives in successfully implementing the change programs.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Today's organizations are constantly changing. Although both practitioners and scholars are concerned about the change in organizations (Blackman & Kennedy, 2011), managing the organizational change is not a simple process and few organizations are successful in implementing it. Aarons et al. (2015) suggest that leadership plays an important role in effectively implementing innovation and change. In addition, precise evidence on the role of leaders in the change success is now increasing (Higgs, 2003). In Yukl's (2010) opinion, the most important task of leaders is to achieve organizational success. Hence, the ability to effectively leading the organizational change is considered as one of the desirable skills for managers of current organizations (Szabla et al., 2014). Leaders and managers of organizations should be aware of the environmental trends, crises, and developments in place of their work. They should be flexible and adaptable in creating, predicting, encouraging, and responding positively to change. Without leadership, planned organizational change will never be realized (Dumas and Beinecke, 2018).