oa Leiderschap in verandering

Leadership in change

Janka Stoker, Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 18, October 2005, pp. 260-279.

In the process of organizational change, executives are an important factor for failure or success. Managers not only manage the change process, often they themselves are an object of change. This demands a double role of executives. Organizations put a lot of effort in defining the desired executive role, but very often this doesn't exceed the level of jargon and sloganizing. Research shows that there are considerable discrepancies between perceptions of executives and employees. Executives feel they live up to expectations, whereas employees perceive little change in leadership. Moreover, this study shows that the desired leadership is not always the most effective. The article gives possible explanations for these outcomes and describes how the two roles of executives in change processes interrelate. Playing the two roles demands of executives that they first change themselves, in order to subsequently be able to manage others. Therefore they need to gain insight to their own functioning.