Organizational Change

Organizational Change  

There is constant change in public administration. Both public and non-profit organizations rapidly change in order to improve their service and to upscale their organizational goals. Both the internal and external factors, such as changing organizational hierarchy and applying new policies, can challenge and influence the workplace. When the changes emerge, people in the organization can adapt themselves by developing the situational creativity and flexibility that will help them thrive during the change. However, the process of changing and adapting always puts people out of their comfort zone, which is a feeling that people feel secure because their activities and behaviors become routine, thus minimizing stress and risk in one’s life. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone lead to two results: greater success or increased risk of failure.

Example of Jackie: 

Rose O. Sherman (2017), is a professor of nursing and director of nursing leadership institute at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing in Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, who wrote Transcending Your Comfort Zone in the journal American Nurse Today. She told the story about Jackie,  who works in a coronary care unit She received an offer from her senior leadership regarding a new position. The role sounded interesting and would have capitalized on many of Jackie’s nursing strengths. Moreover, taking this new position may have benefitted Jackie’s career growth. However, she struggled to make the decision because she felt comfortable in her current role. Jackie experienced a sense of uncertainty regarding her future employability because this position would have taken her out of her comfort zone.

Who can help people like Jackie comfortably walk out of her comfort zone and be success?

Nobody will feel comfortable to work in a new environment without guidance, which usually comes from leaders. Overall job productivity requires a sense of mentorship among the organization’s leaders and a desire among the employees to enhance their skill sets. However, adaptive leadership can be a good answer for this situation. Adaptive leaders will help and encourage people to adapt to deal with the problem, changes, and challenges by mobilizing people to tackle tough problems and thrive (Northouse, 2016)

How adaptive leadership can help the followers and organization when challenges and changes are emerging?

In this article, the solution will be based on the model of Adaptive Leadership by Heifetz and his associates, who offer adaptive leadership’s major components of a visual representation and how they fit together which include situational challenges, leader behaviors, and adaptive work. (Northouse, 2016)

First, the adaptive leaders will take a step back from the challenge to see the situation broadly. For example, in Jackie’s case, her senior supervisor may step back and see how Jackie feels about a new position by estimating her readiness.

Second, the leader needs to identify the adaptive challenge to find the appropriate solution for their followers. In Jackie’s situation, the leader may identify an issue like Jackie’s, fearing to leave her comfort zone, as a technical challenge. The solution may be to use his or her authority to set up a plan to help her become a  success in the new position. For example, the leader can try to assign a new positional workload that would challenge her and then estimate her abilities. The leader would then let her know that she has performed accomplishments that advance beyond her current position. This will make employees like Jackie gain more confidence in the face of change. 

Although there is a model framework for adaptive leadership, the bottom line to apply this theory to real-life situations is that the leader needs to maintain their special skills, which is to get to know what the challenges are. As Dr. Spencer Johnson (2002) who wrote the book Who Moved My Cheese, said that when people notice the small changes early, it will help them to adapt to the bigger upcoming changes. Then, the leader will act as director to focus on the process that engages their followers to do adaptive work (Northouse, 2016).

What do both leaders and followers need to do to successfully get through the Challenge situation together? 

When changes come, both the leader and the follower need to step out of their comfort zone with a feeling that they are not overly concerned about failure. Sherman (2017) suggests people should “feel the fear and do it anyway” because it is normal to fear to be a failure as a normal human. However, she emphasizes that “failure is part of the leadership growth experience” (p.22) that nobody can provide but face it in their own experience. Hence, leaders and followers can work as a team to move out of the comfort zone steadily by taking small steps. Leaders can control the environment to allow leaders and followers to exchange opinions and begin new things by practicing.  They can also “protect leadership voices from below” by listening to the different opinions from the small groups of the organization (Northouse, 2016)

Reference: 

Johnson, S. (2002). Who Moved My Cheese? An amazing way to deal with change in your work and your life. New York: Putnam

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Sherman, R. O. (2017). Transcending your comfort zone. American Nurse Today, 12(9), 22-23.