An assessment of leadership competencies for effective change management in a chemical organisation

Abstract

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where a leader works with subordinates to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration and executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group. It is much more than simply giving assignments and direction. It requires vision, collaboration, planning, and practice. For it to be effective, transformational leadership requires leaders to develop and demonstrate certain competencies and behaviours that contribute to exceptional personal, team and business performance. The purpose of this research was to investigate leadership competencies required for effective change management now and in the future (three to five years from now) and to answer the following questions: What are the leadership challenges facing the organisation now? Will the current leadership competencies address the current leadership challenges? What are the leadership challenges the organisation is likely to face in the next three to five years’ time? Will the current leadership competencies address the future leadership challenges? A four-point Likert scale questionnaire collected data from 132 participants working at a selected chemical organisation. The questionnaire collected data on leadership competencies required for effective change management, as well as to evaluate perceptions (current and expected observations) regarding current leadership competencies that are associated with effective change management. This was done to determine what leadership competencies are missing in the current leadership team and evaluate challenges facing the organisation today and in the next three to five years. The results show that the current leadership competencies are positively related to effective change management for the selected chemical organisation now in the three to five years’ time, but employees need coaching and development, diversity needs to be managed better as well as customer relationships. The results show that there is a need for leaders in the organisation to develop current and new leadership competencies address the key concerns identified by the employees and be able to manage and retain key skills. The research results are very important for the higher management of the targeted chemical organisation to implement change initiatives effectively. This study comes to an end with recommendations, limitations and a brief conclusion