First, Leaders Should Understand the Meaning of “Change”
A leader should think about the meaning of “change” with different perspectives: What is change? Why do we have to change? When to change? How to change? How to trigger change? The answers may differ from source to source, however, there is one thing that is constant is “change never stops”. Change equates with life, with our own personal, social, mental and physical development and with our ability to learn, to adapt, to play an active role in social and community activities. So, a leader should create his/her own style to adapt himself/herself and his/her organization to continuously changing environment.
“Change” can be broadly defined as “to make something different” or “to start something new, become/make different” (BusinessDictionary.com). However, in the context of organizational change, others have noted that any definition of change is potentially problematic (Kanter et al., 1991; Tichy, 1983). In a world that change is accepted as inevitable with incredible speed, ambiguity is a constant, organizations that reduce cycle time for production, supply, distribution, innovation etc. are believed to be the most competitive.
Organizational change is defined as “adoption of a new idea or a behavior by an organization” (Sengupta, 2006, 2). Organizational change is primarily structural in character and it is designed to bring about alterations in organizational structure, methods and processes.