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Who will lead our culture change? : How informal leaders manifest themselves in a culture change process

Veenis, Michelle (2018) Who will lead our culture change? : How informal leaders manifest themselves in a culture change process.

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Abstract:Prior research has been conducted on the behavior of formal leaders in an organizational culture change process. But with the current need for Dutch municipalities to change drastically, the role of informal leaders becomes more and more important. To examine how informal leaders manifest themselves during a culture change process, a group session was organized following the design of Edgar H. Schein (2010), which provides a rapid way to identify drivers for culture change. During this session two candidates were identified as informal leaders. One scored high on both social and practical behavioral characteristics, and the other scored high mainly on practical behavioral characteristics. These two individuals take on slightly opposite roles in the culture change process: one can be characterized as an optimistic storyteller and the other as a pessimistic square shooter. It is believed that in big organizations like Dutch municipalities that are changing towards self-managing teams and multidisciplinary collaboration, the roles of these informal leaders will become more important. It is crucial to find out how the possible influence of informal leaders can be used best for the organizations to benefit from it. However, more research is needed to be able to conclude what the specific influence of informal leaders will be. Hence, a first next step for organizations as such, and possibly other kinds of, is to recognize the existence of informal leaders in their own organization, and to keep the eyes open for the possible influences they might have on a culture change process.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Clients:
Gemeente Rheden, Rheden, Netherlands
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:International Business Administration BSc (50952)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/76383
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