ARTICLE REVIEW: LEADERSHIP STYLES AND THEIR IMPACT ON IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL

CHANGE.

Reference Heading: Personal Heading

Title: Leadership styles and their influence Name: Samuel Gobena
on employees regarding the acceptance
of organizational change
Author: Thomas Thuijsman Date Submitted: January 16, 2019
University of Twente
P.O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede
The Netherlands
Source: 5th IBA Bachelor Thesis Conference, Course: Leadership and Change Management
Enschede, the Netherlands. MBA (612)
Date: July 2nd, 2015 Assignment 3: Article Review
Reviewed Article: Leadership styles and their impact on implementing organizational
change.
Introduction
The relationship of Leadership styles that managers can apply and acceptance of organizational
change is the ultimate goal of any organization to survive. Since the environmental turbulence
increases (due to globalization) constant change seems to be the only constant factor in business
(Drori, Meyer and Hwang, 2006). But, change is often feared by employees (Bower and Walton,
1973). Organizational change, the acceptance of this organizational change by employees, the
personality of employees and leadership styles to establish the effective implementation or
creating the least resistance among employees regarding organizational change and which
leadership styles proved to be the most effective.
Procedures and Findings
This conceptual paper provides employees make up a firm and are partly responsible for the firm
performance. Businesses would benefit from the knowledge of which leadership style to
implement change, so that the employees can accept organizational change better and faster and
stay as positive as possible towards the firm they work in. The propositions provide a deeper
insight into the process of organizational change. More specifically, organizations can influence
the acceptance of change of employees by using different leadership styles. Managers (strategic
planners) are responsible for implementing the organizational change. Two types of
Organizations; the organic and the mechanistic organization.

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ARTICLE REVIEW: LEADERSHIP STYLES AND THEIR IMPACT ON IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE.

The mechanistic approach is suitable for stable industries while the organic approach is more
appropriate to industries undergoing change. This study focusses on organic businesses which
undergo change more often. Four most basic characteristics of organizational change are
‘incremental change’ versus ‘radical change’ and ‘continuous versus discontinuous change’.
Radical Change is a substantial change that is often forced on the organization. Incremental
Change is the task of achieving changes in line with the existing culture and objectives of the
organization. Continuous change is a type of change that occurs over time. Discontinuous change
is not understood nor expected by the employees. First-order change (undone change) is a type of
change that focuses on doing more or doing less of something. Second-order change is a change
that cannot be undone once started. Forced change is change that is forced upon employees by
the higher level management. Based on a type of organizational change that is radical,
discontinuous, second order and forced are propositions used to cause the most resistance. On the
Leadership styles, six emotional leadership styles are discussed as: the visionary leader
(emphasis on empathy), the coaching leader (connect organizational goals with the goals of
individuals), the affiliative leader (emotional needs over work needs), the democratic leader
(commitment of employees via participation), and the pace-setting leader (challenges and sets
goals for employees) and the commanding leader (uses authority to give directions to
employees). The six emotional leadership styles by Goleman et al. (2001) is seen as the
fundamental distinction of leadership styles. The six emotional leadership styles is used since it
is most effective when it comes to employees’ acceptance of organizational change. Employees’
acceptance of change can be influenced, leadership styles. Even though the outcome of the
organizational change is positive, change is still disruptive and stressful for employees can be
understood by the Kübler-Ross model. The Kübler-Ross model describes five stages that
someone is going through when something in his or her life is changing.

Denial, where the person imagines a preferred reality.

Anger, where that person becomes angry that this is
happening to him/her. Depression is the third stage in
which the individual gives up on the situation and
becomes very passive. Bargaining; in this stage, the
person is trying to make a deal to avoid the change.

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ARTICLE REVIEW: LEADERSHIP STYLES AND THEIR IMPACT ON IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE.

The Big Five personality traits grants the possibility to select a personality trait that can be
quantified to fit in this conceptual framework. Openness to Experience display a preference for
variety, as enjoying grasping new ideas and intrinsic interest in and appreciation for novelty.
Conscientiousness related to dependability and volition and the typical behaviors associated
with it include being hard working, achievement- oriented, persevering, careful, and responsible.
Extraversion is behavioral tendencies used to measure this factor include being sociable,
gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active. Agreeableness refers to the number of sources from
which one takes one's norms for right behavior. Neuroticism refers to the number and strength
of stimuli required to elicit negative emotions in a person like anxious, depressed, angry,
embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure.
Based on the above Six emotional leadership styles and personality traits a combination of
propositions were created whether or not a certain combination will succeed or fail.
Critique in Relation to Aspects of the Article
 There is no statement of the problem.
 There is no specific hypotheses to be tested stated.
 There is no method of sample selection described as one that is likely to result in a
representative, unbiased sample.
 There is no appropriate descriptive or inferential statistics presented.
Conclusion
 The propositions proposed in the thesis are drawn from theoretical concepts and will need
to be studied based on empirical data to form sound conclusions on the relationship
between employees and the acceptance of change.
 Leadership style acted as the most important variable influencing the relationship
between employees and their acceptance of change. However, further research could
reveal that there are other variables that could be at least as or even more important than
leadership style regarding influencing the relationship.
 Feasibility to conduct empirical research to explore the relationship between employees
and acceptance of organizational change as influenced by leadership styles, is
questionable. Further research will be difficult to conduct given the restraints in terms of
practicality and resources.

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