BU450 Leadership Skills: Analyzing a Change Management Case Study

This assignment presents a case study where a manager must implement unpopular changes within a team, lacking prior input and following other recent changes. The paper analyzes the significance of leadership skills, particularly in change management, and proposes two approaches to address the situation. The first approach involves the Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model, emphasizing the importance of understanding the need for change and motivating the team. The second approach outlines four steps: define, plan, implement, and sustain, highlighting the importance of communication, collaboration, and commitment. The case study emphasizes the challenges of implementing change without proper planning and communication and provides strategies for effective leadership in navigating organizational transitions. References are provided in APA format.

Running head: LEADERSHIP SKILLS
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Although in the contemporary era, leadership skills have become widely popular and
highlighted, it is a quality that has always been an absolute necessary in order to achieve any
goal (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Leadership skill helps in every aspects of career, beginning from
the application for jobs to seeking career development. Leadership qualities can help a person in
overcoming difficult situation as well as achieving unimaginable heights. The paper will discuss
the significance of leadership skills with the help of a case study. The paper will discuss the case
study followed by the ways one can approach the problem.
The case study is based on a manager who is to implement several unpopular changes in
the company that even he or she does not agree. The changes come on the heels of other recent
changes in the team. After implementation of the unpopular changes, there is no input into the
change. There is not successful outcome after the changes. The changes in the that has been
implemented in the was not among the recommended processes for successful change in the
chapter. A period of freezing has not been there even though few of the changes were
appropriate, there was only little freezing when the change was announced last time.
World is a fast changing and in order to keep pace with the changes organizations must
change as well. Any organization that handle and maintain the changes, thrives well in the
market while the organizations that fail to do so either struggle to sustain or even fail to survive
in the market. Change management is a familiar term in every business today. However, the
ways business mange change varies drastically depending on various factors such as nature, size,
location, setting, age of the business. A major factor of the change management is depended on
the ways people within the organization understand and cooperate with the changes and its
processes.

2LEADERSHIP SKILLS
One of the leadership skills is change management. A potent leader certainly knows ways
to implement changes in the team or organization. It is difficult to gain the support of people and
achieve the goal oriented with the change without appropriate approach to the team. In the above
case, the manager finds it hard to implement the unpopular changes within the team and after
implementation of the changes there are no such difference that the manager could see. It has
been found that there was absence of the period of unfreezing and before the changes was
applied.
The first method of approaching the team would be Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze. One of
the models that help to understand organizational change was developed by Kurt Lewin in the
year 1940s that holds true even in the contemporary era. His model is widely known as
Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze, a three-stage process of change for organizational change. In order
to begin any successful change process, it is vital for the team leader to understand the reason
and need for the change to take place. According to Lewin, motivation for change needs to be
generated before change occurs (Bradley, 2017). The manager in the case study does not agree
with the changes which can be seen that the manager do not know the need for the change.
Therefore, the manger needs to know the reason for the change and the way it can benefit the
organization. This is the unfreezing stage of which change begins. It will help the manager
approach its team members accordingly and he or she will be able to motivate them for the
upcoming changes. Change is the next step where people begin to resolve their doubts and
recommend the views regarding the change. It is an important stage which will make the team
members feel part of the change and also cooperate with the manager. Refreeze is the point when
the changes are take shapes and people embrace the new ways of working.

3LEADERSHIP SKILLS
The second method of approaching the team would be following the four simple steps,
define, plan, implement and sustain. Change is certainly inevitable and even necessary for the
growth and development of organization. Change is a common thread found running in every
organization regardless of its size, age and industry. Therefore, following these four step would
help approaching the team in a strategically way.
The personal feeling and personal experiences should be shared that would motivate the
team members motivated in contributing and cooperating with the changes. Personal experience
can impact a person’s thinking about changes and would encourage in getting involved with the
change (McDonald, Chai & Newell, 2015).
Four key actions that should be taken would be:
Communicate: it is essential to communicate the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind any change to the
team members before a change is implemented. Successful leaders communicate the purpose of
the change and relate it to the organization’s values and explain the benefits of the changes
(Walters, Rybakov & Darbishire, 2017).
Collaborate: It is often critical to bring people together, plan the change and execute the change.
However successful leaders work across the boundaries in order to encourage their team
members to do the same. In this process collaborating the other team members in decision
making early on and strengthen their commitment to change (Gee et al., 2017).
Commit: lastly, ensuring that their belief and behavior are committed to the change will help the
team member follow their leaders (Singh & Gupta, 2015).

4LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Leadership skills can help in all aspects of career, beginning from applying for jobs to
seeking career advancement. Any organization that handle and maintain the changes, thrives well
in the market while the organizations that fail to do so either struggle to sustain or even fail to
survive in the market. The first method of approaching the team is to unfreeze it as it is essential
for the new changes to be implemented. In order to understand the importance of freezing and
unfreezing, understanding the concept is essential.

5LEADERSHIP SKILLS
References:
Bradley, C. (2017). An evidence based proposal to change practice in the assessment and
documentation of the spiritual needs of palliative care patients (Doctoral dissertation,
University of Cumbria).
Gee, B. M., Devine, N., Aubuchon-Endsley, N. L., Brumley, M., Ramsdell-Hudock, H. L., &
Swann, H. E. (2017). The Reciprocity Team: Development of an Interprofessional
Research Collaboration. Journal of allied health, 46(2), 43E-49E.
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2015). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development.
Nelson Education.
McDonald, R. I., Chai, H. Y., & Newell, B. R. (2015). Personal experience and the
‘psychological distance’of climate change: An integrative review. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 44, 109-118.
Singh, A., & Gupta, B. (2015). Job involvement, organizational commitment, professional
commitment, and team commitment: A study of generational diversity. Benchmarking:
An International Journal, 22(6), 1192-1211.
Walters, K., Rybakov, I., & Darbishire, P. L. (2017). Developing a Mobile Application:
Improving Health Care Students’ Ability to Communicate. Purdue Journal of Service-
Learning and International Engagement, 4(1), 19.