Critically analyze the role of senior managers as barriers to organizational change and explore how this can be addressed.
The purpose of this essay is to critically address the role of senior managers as barriers to organizational change and explore how this can be deal with. In the first part of the essay the organizational change, organizational behavior and organizational culture will be defined and then the responsibilities of senior managers in the organization will be explained. The paper will then go on to look at the roles of senior managers that impact as a barrier on organizational change. Kotter and Schlesinger cited in Niccolò Machiavelli (1513) that to initiate a new order of things is most challenging, dangerous and carry the chances of high rate of unsuccessfulness. In today's dynamic world, organizational leaders must be attentive about the context in which their organizations are situated, being particularly considerate to changes in the general and task environments.
Also, in order to survive and prosper, they must be knowledgeable about how to implement or resist changes for their organization. Unfortunately, effective organizational changes are rare (Gilmore et al., 1997; Burnes, 2004; By, 2005; Meaney and Pung, 2008). According to Burnes (2009) Management is about the present, it is about the maintaining the status quo and it is about objectivity and aloofness. Leadership is about the future, it is about change and it is about values and emotions. However, whilst management and leadership may be different, this does not mean that managers and leaders are or should be different people. Most management and leadership roles require a mixture of transactional and transformational skills.
As George (1995) stated an organization is defined as a collection of people who work together to achieve a wide variety of goals. According to Gordon (1993) organizational behavior...