Analyzing Leadership in a changing organization

This report will provide an analysis of leadership in a changing organization, based on an interview with a leader and corresponding theory. The main finding is that the changes in the Company were handled very professionally, but some improvements have to be made in order to become a true learning organization.

Analyzing Leadership in a changing organization Group assignment TEIO13 Group KRAM_2013 Mats Blok Roman Flatau Karine van Hal Alexander Schmidt

Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................ 2 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 2 Results ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Analysis and discussion .............................................................................................................. 7 Causes for change ................................................................................................................... 7 Process of change ................................................................................................................... 7 Handling resistance ................................................................................................................ 8 Visionary leadership ............................................................................................................. 10 Learning Organization........................................................................................................... 11 Conclusion and Reflection ........................................................................................................ 12 References ................................................................................................................................ 15

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Introduction A countless amount of developments and changes influence the company’s life; including short-term and long-term strategic decisions as well as everyday business. Those changes range from the economic crisis, e. g. in 2008, to changes in the staffing of a company. Due to Afsaneh Nahavandi those “[f]orces for change are both external (in the environment) and internal” (2012, p. 284). This paper provides an analysis of a changing organization, based on an interview with one of the leaders from that company. The information gained from this interview will be linked to corresponding literature to create an analysis on the way of implementing changes within this company. First, the methodology used is examined in detail; this also includes advantages and disadvantages of the chosen methodology. Second, the investigated company will be introduced and the results of the interview are constituted. Third, the results of the interview are analyzed and compared to the corresponding literature to provide answers to the research questions stated below. Finally, the conclusions of the analysis as well as a critical reflection will complete this paper. The overall goal of this paper is to get an understanding on how the interviewed leader is involved in all stages of the change and how the different actions and decisions relate to theory on leadership. To be able to answer this question, it is split up into the following subquestions which will be answered throughout the report to be able to answer the main question.    

Which causes can be pointed out that initiated the need for change? What is the current situation in the company regarding the entire change process? What where the main difficulties up to now regarding the implementation of the change? What was the goal of the leader with initiating the change and how should it, ideally, improve the company’s way of working?

These sub-questions will be answered in the analysis and discussion chapter of this paper, where different models and theories are linked to information gained from the interview of the leader. For each part of the analysis it will be further explained which sub-question will be answered in the corresponding paragraphs.

Methodology The approach used in this paper is an interview with a leading member of a small company founded about 20 years ago; it is a wish of the company and the interviewee to stay anonymous so they will be referred to as the Company and Mrs. Doe. This interview was conducted via Skype, an online telecommunication program which includes a video-chat which enables both participants of a Skype-conference to see each other. In advance to the interview, the questions were sent to Mrs. Doe in order to give her the chance to prepare for Page | 2

the interview. Since the mother tongue of Mrs. Doe is Dutch, the interview was conducted in Dutch, to avoid language barriers. The questions of the interview are formalized in an openended way to allow for further follow-up questions. They aim at getting information about causes for change, types of changes, resistance for change, how to approach change and the role of the leader and they are thereby closely related to Afsaneh Nahavandi´s idea about leading change (2012, pp. 283). Nine questions were formulated that serve as the foundation of the interview. They were extended with follow-up questions during the interview. The questions were formulated as follows:         

Can you describe the most important changes in your organization that have occurred recently? What caused these changes? What strategy was used to implement these changes in the organization and how was this strategy formed? Who were involved? How was this strategy communicated to employees? How did the employees cope with the changes? Which steps were taken to decrease potential resistance from employees? Have such changes occurred in your organization before? Were there any important lessons learned from the changes? Are there any things that should be handled differently in the future? How would you describe your personal leadership style?

During the interview, two people took notes of the interview, sometimes repeating information back to make sure the notes were complete and correct. Based on the notes taken during the interview, one final summary of the interview was written in English. Using two independent people to take notes lowers the risk of missing information and thereby increases the quality of the results of the interview. The results of the interview will be analyzed and compared with the appurtenant literature. The applied methodology has several advantages, but also includes some limitations. One of the main advantages of an interview is the possibility to directly intervene during the interview and thereby steer the interview. Also, an interview offers the chance to get more information compared to e. g. a written survey, as the oral and direct communication allows for deeper conversations and follow-up questions (Augsburg University 2013). On the other hand, the quality of an interview is strongly influenced by the willingness of the person who answers the questions. Furthermore, the possibility to steer an interview might lead to a biased result, as the interview influences the person answering the questions (Stier 1999 in: Augsburg University 2013). Also the translation of the spoken words into a written summary offers the possibility for misunderstandings or misinterpretations (Kromrey 1995 in: Augsburg University 2013). This risk was reduced by repeating information back to Mrs. Doe for confirmation. The translation process from Dutch to English could mean an Page | 3

additional risk of losing or changing the meaning of the information given by Mrs. Doe, although this risk is very small due to the high level of English amongst the group members. In the tradeoff of having language barriers when conducting the interview in English against undertaking the interview in Dutch and translate it into English afterwards, the second method will allow the interviewee to speak more freely. For this analysis conducting the interview in Dutch is the appropriate choice, since in order to ensure a high quality of the interview a high depth is necessary and allowing Mrs. Doe to speak in her mother tongue increases the possibility for her to feel comfortable during the interview and her willingness to answer the questions in a more extensive and detailed way.

Results In this section, the results of the interview that was held will be described. Rather than answering each question individually, the answers provided by the interviewee will be used to sketch a coherent picture of the organization, the changes that it has gone through in the past, and the current changes that are taking place in the organization. The Company started out as a very small organization, with 4 people on the payroll. Each person performed different tasks that had to be done, without a specific role in the organization. The organization works on an assignment-basis in which supply and demand is the basis for job acquisition, and can be viewed as a consultancy firm in the international collaboration sector. It mainly tries to get products that are made all over the world onto European markets. It also provides guidance and support in developing countries, by helping to improve communication, build capacities of local entrepreneurs, product development selection and local support. It performs market research, market analysis and helps people in developing countries create business plans. In 2005, the employees of the Company were assigned a specific role and were assigned tasks according to that role. Mrs. Doe explains that the main reason for this specification was the growth of the Company, which made the organization require structure, clear communication channels and a clear division of responsibility. Currently, the Company has 10 people on the payroll. However, Mrs. Doe mentions that the aforementioned structure requires discipline and should be monitored continuously. Since the Company works on a contract-basis, the priority has always been more on the external deadlines that were provided by clients than on the internal tasks. Then the world, and the Company with it, was struck by the economic crisis. This lead to significant changes in international collaboration and greatly affected the amount of assignments that the Company could acquire and their financial position. Mrs. Doe explained that alongside this, an internal question for direction and better communication started to become apparent. This internal search for direction and the need to expand the Company’s customer base due to the crisis worked together to create a need for change.

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The need for change at the Company was met by a change program that started this year, 2013. The Company still works on an assignment basis, but Mrs. Doe states that change and growth have been given a much higher priority. In order to realize change in the organization, the Company hired an external trainer. Together with this trainer and all employees, a ‘change week’ was planned. Five days where small groups focused completely on the changes that were needed, reevaluated the mission and vision of the company, created SWOT-analyses, analyzed feedback from clients and mainly, found a new direction for the company. This week of internal reflection resulted in three main change projects that were to be undertaken by the Company: 

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Strategy: This change project will focus on creating targets for each employee to work towards. Some of these targets will of course be turnover related, but there will also be targets regarding self-development of the employees. It became apparent that employees of the Company want to receive training and are eager to learn. In the past, there was one competence training per year for the group as a whole to attend. Next year however, the Company wants to use the personal targets to set individual training goals for each employee and create a more intensive selfdevelopment track. Time management: This strategy project resulted in the time management change project which focusses on creating a better flow in the organization, especially with time-related issues. As mentioned earlier, the Company has to adhere to externally set deadlines, which leaves little time for self-reflection and internal change. This project will try to smoothen out deadline stress and create time so that the Company can reprioritize. Next to the external focus the time management project tries to put more emphasis on these three internal change project to make sure they don’t get neglected by the main external focus. Sharing and learning: In the Company, work is done in small teams of 2-3 members, who focus on different sectors. There is an expert for each sector, but there is an overlap in knowledge and processes among some experts. This change project will try to ensure that knowledge and processes are shared among all employees, and tires to find ways to make a profit from this knowledge. One of the ways that this change will happen is through a weekly team meeting where gained knowledge is shared among employees.

These projects have been started this year, but they will continue on well into next year. In February 2014 the projects will be evaluated, there are currently meetings being held about the progress every couple of weeks. None of the projects have official milestones. Mrs. Doe is personally supervising the Strategy project and the Time management project. All of the projects are discussed frequently in the management team, so that the progress on them can be monitored. Mrs. Doe however, expresses that monitoring remains a difficult task in Page | 5

the Company. She explains that the intention is there to measure the effectiveness and the direction of the projects in a more formal way next year. In the future, the Company plans to keep on maintaining their change programs. Once targets are met, the organization will be evaluated carefully together with the trainer that was hired for the first change effort described above. This evaluation will then identify further needs for change or improvement. The Company plans on taking more steps towards becoming a so-called ‘learning organization’, and is not planning to just repeat the same steps over and over again. Mrs. Doe states that it is about evolving as an organization, and that learning is a vital necessity for growth. She explains that all decision-making on specific future change is done by the management team, but that team members and team leaders are involved in the process of identifying needs and problems. Of course some resistance to the change was there from some of the employees of the Company. Mrs. Doe describes her personal leadership style in handling this as the style of a ‘people manager’. She listens to people’s opinions and wishes regarding the direction and vision of the organization, and tries to incorporate them into her decisions. Mrs. Doe explains that her main tools to decrease resistance towards change are: 

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Involving people in the process: Due to the degree of involvement of the employees of the Company when change was discussed, the resistance towards change among employees was limited. Even though decision-making was done by the MT (as mentioned above), the ‘change week’ discussed earlier made sure that all employees of the Company were able to participate in creating a new vision and direction for the Company. In other words, the general outline of the change was created by the group; everyone supported this outline since it was chosen by the group. Communication: Mrs. Doe explains that there is always resistance to change, even in the management team. She handles this by communicating with the affected parties, and sharing ideas and the vision of the change with them. She stresses the importance and the desired result of a change in order to get people on board.

Furthermore, Mrs. Doe states that although she wishes to take resistance into account, she is not afraid to push when she feels a change is important and/or necessary. She does however recognize that it is important not to push people too hard or to force them to accept change, since this will only be counter-productive. Finally, she states that she would prefer to put the responsibility for change at the parties that are carrying it out, but she mentions there are some risks attached to this. Doing so will require more time and it is unsure if the employees of the Company will give the change the same priority that the management team had in mind.

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Analysis and discussion In this section, several aspects of ‘leading change’ will be discussed according to the subquestions stated in the introduction: 1) causes for change; 2) the process of change; 3) handling resistance; 4) visionary leadership; and 5) learning organization. Some theory about each aspect will be discussed first, and then this theory will be linked to the Company using the results of the interview with Mrs. Doe.

Causes for change This paragraph will focus on the sub-question regarding the needs that initiated the change projects. Due to a fast changing environment, a company has to react flexible to new circumstances as well as creating an ability to adapt to these changes (Nahavandi, 2012). Kotter and Schlesinger (2008) also mention that a company has to change in order to stay competitive. A change can be forced by two directions. One need for change can be arise internally and by the company itself. One example is a gap of performance describing “the difference between expected and actual performance” (Nahavandi, 2012, p. 285). Other examples for internal forces are a new leadership or a new mission. Next to this, a company can be forced to change by external forces as well, by environmental changes. These changes include economic and political issues, cultural and social aspects, demographic changes and even technological advances (Nahavandi, 2012). When the theory is linked to the causes for change within the company we can acknowledge several facts. First of all the implementation of the three different change projects were initiated internally as a need for a higher focus on internal development emerged. The main focus was on external deadlines; therefore internal deadlines were sometimes neglected with regard to the external ones. This can be linked to what is according to Nahavandi “the difference between expected and actual performance” (2012, p. 285) regarding internal deadlines. But this is not the only internal force that drove the need to start implementing these three change projects. According to Mrs. Doe, the company currently is in a state where they want to structure and enhance their internal processes even further by implementing new development plans and procedures. This also attests to a certain amount of leadership and new vision from a part of the base for starting these change projects. Next to the internal forces for change, there were also some external forces that made the organization go through changes. The forces in this case were economic and political issues. Mrs. Doe explained that the economic crisis (economical external force) lead to fewer assignments, which led to a loss-position of the organization. Something that greatly contributed to this position was the fact that the political views on international cooperation changed (partly as a result of the economic crisis), which can be identified as an political external force.

Process of change This paragraph will focus on the second sub-question which will explain where the company currently stands regarding the implementation of the change projects. According to Page | 7

Nahavandi (2012), there are several models that describe the process of change. The one that describes the process of planned change in most detail is the 6-step model (Nahavandi, 2012). This model includes six process steps. The first step is the recognition for the need of a change that can be influenced by internal as well as external forces mentioned above. The second step is the development of ideas for a change. This can be executed by the leader alone, through small groups or with the input of an outside source. Step two can increase the participation of team members as well as give an opportunity of creating involvement. Step three and step four describe the actual change by the adoption of one or more ideas and by the implementation of the change. The allocation of resources is the fifth process step. Depending on the change, the leader has to provide new resources or has to shift current resources according to the needs of the change. The last step is the evaluation of the implemented change including a review of the fulfillment of the goals of the change project. If these objectives are not achieved, the change process has to start with step one again. From the previous analysis on the causes for change, it can be concluded that the company already acknowledged the need for change and therefore has already passed step one of the 6-step model. As mentioned by Mrs. Doe, the company hired an external trainer to help them to figure out what changes needed to be made and how to proceed regarding these needs. This was done during a 5 day ‘change week’ that was held with all employees under supervision of the external trainer. During this week the changes that needed to be made according to all employees and management were identified and prioritized. Because there is a limited amount of resources available for dealing with all the changes that came up during the ‘change week’, the company decided to focus on the three most important ones; strategy, time management and sharing and learning. Because this was already done by the company, it can be concluded that step two was also extensively executed. The resources regarding these three change projects were divided, as mentioned above, and the changes were implemented throughout the entire organization, implying that step three and four are both also already passed. The resources needed for the change projects were transferred from external deadlines to having scheduled time in which the focus would be completely on internal deadlines regarding the three change projects. Having said that, it can be derived that step five of the 6-step model also has been executed. The final step of the model involves the feedback and evaluation of the scheduled changes. An evaluation meeting regarding the change projects is scheduled in February 2014. This means that the company still needs to execute the last step of the 6-step model before having successfully passed through all phases identified in the 6-step model.

Handling resistance This paragraph will point out some of the main difficulties encountered during the implementation of the change projects. An organizational change can often lead to human resistance. “Resistance is a normal part of the change process and not necessarily a reason for concern” (Horwitz & Klontz 2013, pp. 28). Zig Ziglar (1991) suggests that if there is no Page | 8

resistance to a change there might not be a significant connection to the affected humans. Even though leaders are aware of this fact, only a few actually put effort in assessing the reasons for resistance (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008). Nahavandi (2012) describes three general groups of factors that cause resistance: organizational factors; group factors and individual factors. One main cause for resistance in the group of organizational factors is inertia of the organization; the organization resist to changes with the aim of maintaining the status quo. Furthermore, the culture and the structure of an organization have a high influence on the ability to change, since a rigid structure, a strong hierarchy and short term change of leaders lead to a decrease of cooperation and willingness to change. Other causes for resistance are group issues. Judson (1991) asserts that high group cohesion leads to good communication, cooperation and a learning environment within the group, however it can also organize the group as a strong force that might be an obstacle for change (as cited in Nahavandi, 2012). The third group of factors that causes resistance consists of individual reasons. Examples are the fear of the employee of the unknown and of failure, job security, previous experiences and individual characteristics. Nahavandi (2012) mentions different solutions in order to deal with resistance during a change: 1) education and communication; 2) participation and involvement; 3) facilitation and support; 4) negotiation and agreements; 5) manipulation and cooptation; 6) explicit or implicit coercion. Depending on the circumstances, one or several of these solutions become more appropriate to use We will now turn to the resistance that was apparent in the Company. Mrs. Doe explained that some individual employees have doubts about change in general, they might project that they are supportive and willing of change without this actually being the case. This is a good example of the ‘individual factors’ that lead to resistance against change. No organizational factors were mentioned, but from the interview it becomes clear that this is not strange: the loss-position and other external forces had already led to internal questions about directions and an identification of a need to change in the organization as a whole. The fact that the Company is a small organization with an informal culture and a flat hierarchy also contributes to decreasing resistance to change from an organizational perspective. Group factors to resist change were also not very apparent in the Company, there is strong group cohesion, but there are no resisting leaders and once again, the internal need for change created an environment for change that the whole group could adhere to. Another reason why there was little resistance to change in the Company is the way that the change process was designed: employees were involved in the creation of the change project and were updated throughout in order to make everyone aware of the developments. From this, it can be concluded that the following two methods of dealing with resistance to change were used in the Company, even from the very start of the change project: Page | 9

1) education and communication: provide information 2) participation and involvement: engage employees. According to Nahavandi (2012, p.293), the first method should be used when there is not a lot of information, which leads to fear. It should be used in all stages of the change process, which has been the case at the Company. They have therefore experienced the main advantage of this method: employees are less likely to resist to the changes. The disadvantage of this method, that it is time-consuming when a lot of people are involved, could be avoided because of the size of the Company. The second method (participation and involvement) should be used when employees lack information or when they can influence the change project in a negative way (Nahavandi, 2012, p. 293). Because of the limited number of employees in the Company, the unwillingness of one employee to change could have a big impact. This justifies the use of the method of participation and involvement, which was executed by allowing all employees to participate in the ‘change week’, generate their own ideas and help create a new direction for the organization. The method has several advantages: it leads to a deeper commitment of employees, and leads to a broader base for ideas. Both of these advantages have been apparent at the Company. The disadvantages are twofold: first, there is the time it takes to engage all employees; this has been accepted by the organization as a necessary evil. Second, there is the threat of the implementation of an inappropriate change. The fact that all changes had to be approved by the management team of the Company greatly reduces this risk.

Visionary leadership The last two paragraphs focus on the final sub-question of the vision of the leader and how this should, in her eyes, improve the company as a whole. While leading a change in terms of crisis, it is important how a leader is interacting with his followers. A leader has to create a shared vision and has to inspire as well as motivate his followers. This visionary type of leadership includes enabling followers, celebrating success, encouraging the heart and creating role-models. Furthermore, a visionary way of leading focuses on flexibility, teamwork and cooperation. The outcome of visionary leadership is a reduction of resistance to change and inspiration of the followers (Nahavandi, 2012). Kouzes and Posner (1993) also point out that credibility and honesty are very important characteristics of visionary leadership (as cited in Nahavandi (2012)). In the Company, the importance of a shared vision was definitely recognized. Mrs. Doe explains that the employees were involved in creating a new direction for the company, as well as management taking all input and molding it into one clear vision that followers can relate to. The empowerment of followers was somewhat less emphasized though, as can be demonstrated by the statement of Mrs. Doe that she would like to give her employees more responsibility but that this would create a lot of risks. Empowerment would however engage Page | 10

the employees of the Company more in the change and the change projects, and it would also decrease their resistance to change (Nahavandi, 2012, p. 294). Visionary leadership also includes flexibility, as mentioned earlier. This is however not clearly demonstrated in the Company. Even though there are several projects, to our knowledge neither employees nor leaders can freely change the projects or their targets after they were decided upon by the management team as a whole. This shows that there could be a threat of ‘getting stuck’ in the agreed-upon projects. Mrs. Doe did mention however, that if she feels that in the future needs and wishes will be evaluated again and new projects will be set up. This decreases the aforementioned risk. It should however be noted that the change projects do not have official milestones, which gives some flexibility in achieving the goals in the first year. Finally, the last aspect of visionary leadership, teamwork and cooperation, is very well represented in the Company. The importance of teamwork is emphasized throughout the organization and there is a sense of shared responsibility for the change projects, partly established by the involvement of the employees during the creation of the projects.

Learning Organization A learning organization has the ability to learn and to create new ideas and innovations including cooperation and an efficient transfer of knowledge within the group. For a learning organization, a change is not a task, it is an “integral part of the culture and everyday processes” (Nahavandi, 2012, p. 299). Senge (2006) mentions several elements that are included in a learning organization. First, it is important to have a shared vision in the organization in order to receive commitment by setting a common identity and common goals. Furthermore, the team has to think as a system to understand interrelations and bonds that connect people internally as well as externally. Mental models that guide behaviours and decisions should be understood, and they should be moved into ones that are based on openness and cooperation. Another element is personal mastery that includes to clarify and to develop personal visions and goals as well as to expand personal skills and proficiency. Moreover, through team learning, a synergy and an ability to think as a group in order to be able to question assumptions and improve processes should be developed (as cited in Nahavandi (2012)). Nahavandi (2012) suggests actions to become a learning organization by being open to new ideas. Rather than trying to standardize everything, it can be better to develop local solutions. It is also important to provide time for a team to have the ability to learn and experiment. Considering leadership skills, a learning organization has to develop leaders to become participative and to engage followers. Mrs. Doe mentioned that the Company is planning on maintaining their change programs and turning the organization into a learning organization, where learning is emphasized both for individuals and for the group as a whole. This is a good example of the two aspects of a learning organization mentioned above: the personal mastery and the team learning. Personal mastery can be seen in the result that the employees want to receive training and Page | 11

are eager to learn. By setting personal targets for every employee in the year, individual skills and development of proficiency will be improved. By a weekly meeting of the experts of different sectors, knowledge of the team will be shared and new solutions will be generated by the experts. The outcomes are enhanced processes by improving the effect of team learning. With regard to the other aspects, a shared vision is in place, as mentioned in the previous section, but it is unclear if management is aware of the interrelations in the organization (system thinking) and the mental models that guide behaviours and decisions. It can be assumed that the limited size of the organization gives leaders an intuitive understanding of both of these aspects, but in order to create a true learning organization these two aspects should be investigated further. After all, “without understanding how the organization truly functions, it is hard to implement change.” (Nahavandi, 2012, p. 299, emphasis added). Moreover, it is vital to provide time for the team to have the ability to learn and experiment. In the results you can see that the implemented change has no official milestones in the beginning which might help the employees to adjust to the changes.

Conclusion and Reflection After discussing how the theory fits the practice in the Company, an answer is provided to the following main question; “How is the leader involved in all stages of the change process and what relations can be found between the leader’s actions and decisions and related leadership theory”. This main question was answered by breaking it up into the following four sub-question:    

Which causes can be pointed out that initiated the need for change? What is the current situation in the company regarding the entire change process? What where the main difficulties up to now regarding the implementation of the change? What was the goal of the leader with initiating the change and how should it, ideally, improve the company’s way of working?

The first second and third sub-questions are answered by respectively the first, second and third point discussed below, namely the causes for change, the change process and handling resistant. Finally the last sub-question is answered in both point four and point five below, namely visionary leadership and learning organization. 1. Causes for change: The theory mentions several internal and external causes for change, such as a changing environment, remaining competitive, new leadership or a gap of performance. At the Company, the causes for change were both internal and external. Internally, there was a need from the employees for a new direction, and a demand for structure and priority for internal deadlines. Externally, these causes

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2.

3.

4.

5.

were a change in the political environment and fewer assignments, which lead to a loss-position of the company. The process of change: This aspect describes the state of implementation of change in the organization. The Company has acknowledged the need for change (step 1 the 6-step model of implementing change (Nahavandi, 2012)), developed ideas for the change (step 2), adopted and implemented the changes (step 3 and 4) and allocated resources (step 5). In February, the evaluation of the changes will conclude the 6step model. It can be concluded that the company has gone through the 6-step model in a step-by-step way, making sure that every step receives enough attention. Handling resistance: Every change will invoke some resistance from the employees and the organization. Resistance in the Company was minimized using two methods: 1) education and communication: provide information; 2) participation and involvement: engage employees. These two methods resulted in a minimal amount of resistance and the continuous usage of these methods helped employees overcome reasons for resistance and embrace the change projects. The use of these two methods was justified by literature, since there was a situation where there was few information and employees could influence the projects in a negative way. Visionary leadership: A leader should create a shared vision, inspire and also motivate followers. This visionary leadership consists of several aspects. The shared vision aspect was definitely present in the Company, as well as teamwork and cooperation. Flexibility was however not clearly demonstrated in the Company. After the initial influence, it was unclear how much the employees could change the projects. The lack of milestones gives some flexibility in the beginning of the project though, by allowing employees to get used to the changes that have been made. Learning organization: In order to characterize an organization as a learning organization, it should possess several qualities. While we believe that the Company has a shared vision amongst the employees and personal mastery and team learning is important in the organization, it is unclear if management is aware of the interrelations in the organization (system thinking) and of the mental models that guide behaviours and decisions in the organization. We believe that it could be worthwhile for the organization to investigate these two aspects of a learning organization in further detail.

Finally, we think that the change in the Company was well organized and implemented, and handled very professionally. First of all, it was very important that an external trainer was hired so the Company could benefit from the knowledge of the trainer and his experience with change. Since there was also an internal need for direction, an external trainer could give an outsider perspective which greatly benefits the Company. Furthermore, we think that it was very important for the organization and the whole process of change that the employees were so involved in the process. By involving them from the start, they feel valued and part of the change. Their commitment to it will decrease resistance to the change Page | 13

drastically and will also allow the Company to take full advantage of the expertise and ideas of the employees. When the Company moves forward toward becoming a learning organization, it will be necessary to offer more development opportunities for the individual employees, since it is mentioned that they are eager to learn and it is part of the strategy to fulfill individual goals. It is also very important that management has a good sense of the interrelations in the company and the way that employees make their decisions. This knowledge, combined with the Company’s desire for growth and the fact that new change projects will be identified to further improve the organization will allow the Company to evolve and become a true learning organization.

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References Augsburg University (2013) Vor-& Nachteile von Interviews [online], Available: http://qsf.elearning.imb-uni-augsburg.de/node/560 [02.12.2013] Horwitz, E. J. and Klontz, B. T. (2013) Understanding and Dealing with Client Resistance to Change, Journal of Financial Planning, Nov. 2013, pp. 27-31 Kromrey, H. (2000) Empirische Sozialforschung, Stuttgart, UTB Nahavandi, A. (2012) The Art and Science of Leadership, England, Person New International Edition, Sixth Edition, Person Stier, W. (1999) Empirische Forschungsmethoden, Schweiz, 2. Auflage, Springer Verlag Ziglar, Zig (1991) Ziglaron Selling: The Ultimate Handbook for the Complete Sales Professional, Nashville, Tennessee, Oliver-Nelson

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