Contextualizing Change Leadership in Ethiopia

ANALYSISBy Ayana Getnet Adella

In the globalizing world, change leadership bring about access to several advantages. Change leadership is an instrument of exploiting global changes for a nation's or an organization's progress. It is about alerting groups to the need for changes in the way things done, mobilizing, and energizing groups and utilizing the potential and capacity of the nation fully (John, 2009).

The leader and the style of leadership required in a sustained organization/nation differs from that which is required in a nation under threat (John Wiley & Sons L., 2013). The logical consequences of change leadership is the application of changes through experience in the accommodation of environmental analysis. This could happen in any nation to withstand competition and globalization. Our nation should not only be striving to initiate and create investors and micro and small enterprises, but it has to come up with competitive products which have value in global markets.

This can be done through the most efficient and effective leaders with dynamic mind to utilize different technology and knowledge from the environment as well as the organization (John Wiley & Sons I., 2005).

As part of the globalized world, the need for change leadership is considered one effective instrument in accelerating the war on poverty and democratization in Ethiopia. The government has held extensive discussions on the approach and the system of change leadership and has made decisions to designing approaches to change leadership. (Michael, 2009). These approaches are designed in line with the democratic process of the country. The democratic process of change leadership in the country involve in the application of succession planning process of the youth and in building their capacity through the transfer of experience from senior or experienced leaders (Michael, 2009).

According to Quinn (2004), leadership is about moving forward in faith, and requires head, heart and courage. It is clear that without courage, we tend to live in our heads and leave our hearts behind. This makes it difficult for creating one political and societal community in a country.

The underlining international principles in the application of change leadership are usually reflected in the leading party. The government has taken measures in changing of structures and systems to have clear and committed leadership (Mered, August 2009). Building sustainable organization is related to building the culture of organizational identity and system, process and realities. (Black, 2003). Therefore, change leadership is related to the commitment of political leadership and the clear understanding of the technocrat of the system of government.

The government's change leadership approach

Successful change is driven by the people's need and environmental challenges. The major issues of change leadership are mainly the concern of the top leadership's commitment. According to Kotter (1996), change leadership should start with establishing a sense of urgency, which is crucial to get the needed cooperation for high complacency in transforming all people in the country. This is true in our country to understand the severe poverty of the country in the contexts of Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), development of policy, regulation and rules in the government democratic apparatus and the direct participation of the people. The government uses different techniques such as meetings, press conferences, workshops, media, and other types of media and communication mechanisms to create equal understanding and awareness among citizens.

To raise the level of urgency, the government shows the major loss in financial saving compared to competitors, provide obvious examples in change management system applications in the world, the change in increased revenue, productivity, customer satisfaction and cycle time targets to get the products or services. The change radically insists that people to be held accountable for the broader measure of business performance.

The level of urgency for change in the nation is shown in the feelings of unsatisfied customers, unhappy suppliers, and disgruntled stakeholders. The top level management of the nation should also create honest discussion about the problems in different media outlets, and provide the people with ample information on future opportunities, and wonderful rewards. The government also need to show the current inability of the nations to dig up those opportunities (P. Kotter, 1996). These all methods are implemented by Ethiopian Government change leadership approaches.

The second step in leading change in a nation is by creating the guiding coalition. The major transformation in change leadership is highly associated with individual's practical involvement with their full hearts and minds. To amass highly energetic people, the government should be able to communicate the mission and vision of the nation and the strategic direction put in place to achieve them (P. Kotter, 1996). The top leadership and its apparatus should talk the same language in speeding up market and the technological change. The government's decision making process also considers today's business environment such as selections of strategic alternatives and the development of new processes (P. Kotter, 1996). This can be effective, when the change leadership of the guiding coalition is able to take position power, expertise power, credibility and leadership in to consideration (Dixon, 2007).

The third most important issue is creating clear vision. A clear vision can help everyone understand why you are asking them to do something. When people see for themselves what you are trying to achieve, then the directives they are given tend to make more sense in determining the values, develop a short summary (one or two sentences) that captures what you "see" as the future of your organization, create a strategy to execute that vision, ensure that your change coalition can describe the vision in five minutes or less and practice your "vision speech" often (P. Kotter, 1996).

The government designed the nation's vision to defeating poverty and clarify it to the people as shown clearly in the GTP. The plan was also discussed with the people so that they take it as their own and contribute their part to its successful implementation. The plan is conceived at the top level but it is practised or implemented at lower levels. This process enables the people to talk about and clearly understand what the government is set to do. This shows that change leadership is key in the implementation of the plan to realized change.

The other factor in the implementation of change leadership is removing obstacles for change. It requires to putting in place the structure for change, and continually check for barriers to it. Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to execute your vision, and it can help the change move forward. In removing the obstacles, leaders identify, or hire, change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the change, look at the organizational structure, job descriptions, and performance and compensation systems to ensure they are in line with the vision, recognize and reward people for making change happen, identify people who are resisting the change, and help them see what is needed and take action to quickly remove barriers such as human or otherwise (Black, 2003).

Anchoring the changes in Corporate Culture is the final tool of change leadership implementation. The corporate culture often determines what gets done, so the values behind the vision must be shown in day-to-day work. It is also important to making continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of the organization.

This will help give that change a solid place in the organization's culture. It is also important that the country's leaders continue to support the change. This includes existing staff and new leaders who are brought in. If one loses the support of these people, you might end up back where you started. In addition, talking about progress whenever the chance to do so is available is also essential.

Tell success stories about the change process, and repeat other stories that you hear and include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff. Publicly recognize key members of your original change coalition, and make sure the rest of the staff - new and old - remembers their contributions. Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will help ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten (Dawson, 2010). The government tries to incorporate the new culture of change through different media.

The people has got the training through formal education and informal meetings to apply the change. The government's commitment and support should inspire large number of people need to create new businesses as entrepreneurs improving their income in particular and the growth of the country in general.

 Researcher, consultant and trainer on change management and leadership (FDRE Ministry of Defence)