Description

Description: This course examines the various Models of Change and assists you to use the most appropriate models in situations that involve: Revolutionary Change and Disruption; Crisis; Conflict; and Quantum Skills.

Background: Leading and managing change is about how leaders mobilize others to get extraordinary things done in organisations. It’s about the practices leaders use to transform values, create a vision and work towards a shared outcome. Effective crisis management is a particular type of change. Leading disruption requires sound and swift decision-making, and neither can happen without some kind of pre-planning. Many leaders face crises, imposed by external circumstances that require a rallying of people. The key to inspiring people at all levels during difficult times is having leaders at all levels in the organization, who can look beyond the present problems and emerge with new possibilities. Building trust and empowering people to solve current problems at each level in the organization goes a long way in developing a strong team of leaders who can take on future challenges or face the crisis.

A corporate crisis is defined as “…a perception that an individual or set of individuals faces a potentially negative outcome unless some type of corrective action is taken”. Crisis management is a relatively new field of management. Crisis management has become an important component of managing a business. Today, no business is immune to crisis. It can attack an organization in the shape of natural calamity, terrorists attack, industrial accidents, etc. It often threatens the public image of a business where the company’s image and pride are at its stake. The challenge of a crisis is the ultimate test of leader’s character. Anticipating crisis is a matter of strategic planning and risk management, but each crisis that manifests itself, must be dealt with adeptly by leaders who must then deal with the long-term implications of the crisis for the business and bring about the required change.

Change management plays a very important role in the latter stages of crisis management. Change management, in fact, is becoming synonymous with management itself. Organisational change is defined as the process by which an organization changes its structure, strategies, operational methods, technologies, or organizational culture to affect the change within the organization, and the effects of these changes on the organization.

Any business will run into times of difficulty and at those times, business crisis management and the competent management of change is needed to take the appropriate action to steer the organization back onto the right path. Leadership and crisis management go hand in hand in times of trouble. All managers should familiarize themselves with crisis management theory.