Management experts agree that leadership could be the number
one strategic concern of businesses in the 21st century (Lussier,
1997). This is echoed by Kets de Vries (2001) who states that
the effectiveness of an organisation’s employees, who are in
leadership positions, will determine how the organisation will
perform. Furthermore, this performance is impacted upon by the
fact that organisations are faced with a number of critical issues.
These issues range from changes in societal values to changes in
investor focus (Higgs, 2003).
Leadership in the face of change is therefore a topic of crucial
concern to all organisations in the present turbulent business
environment. This is also due to the fact that the impact of
change increasingly leads to the demise of many businesses.
Some of the major challenges that accompany change include:
l The constantly changing environment has created
an unpredictable future as the marketplace has lost its
predictability (Rabey, 2006); and hence
l The unpredictability of change. Not being able to predict
what type of change the organisation is going to be faced
with next (Grieves, 2000);
l The uncertainty around the outcome of the change (Grieves,
2000). There is no clear relationship between the scale of the
change and the scale of its impact within an organisation
(French, 2001); and
l The risk of failure. Many change initiatives undertaken
by organisations are, even with the best intentions, often
destined for failure in some point in implementation. Various
surveys have shown that a very low percentage of change
programmes are successful (Siegel et al, 1996).
Adding to the complexity created by these challenges that the
leader has to contend with, the leader must also understand how
to lead employees through the uncertainty that accompanies
change. A reasonable deduction that can therefore be made is
that leaders require competencies that will enable them to deal
with the new world of rapid change and its unique challenges.
The skills that may ha