LEADERSHIP IN A CRITICAL INCIDENT

Another major basis for establishing a competitive advantage over other organizations is the motivation and leadership that employees have, which will help the organization is achieving its goals (Waldman and Javidan 2009, p. Leadership performance in an organization is vital in helping the organization succeed in many ways. However, particular leadership skills and behavior are appropriate in handling specific critical incidences in an organization (Adair 2009, p. To understand how these leadership behaviors could help an organization, it is important to understand what they are and how they can be applied within the organization. Introduction All leaders are potentially vulnerable to events that are beyond their control, which could result in serious conditions enough to severely impact both the employees and the organization.

A successful leader in such a situation should be able to react to crises when they arise and express decisiveness in undressing the challenges that come with mergers. Having skilled leaders working through the situation to get the organization back on track after mergers is crucial to success in business. The ultimate goal of a merger is creating a single, thriving organization that is more lucrative, profitable, and effective than the individual companies. However, as a merger brings together companies with vastly different cultures and values, a range of factors that impede the process, from regulatory and price issues to leadership’s failure to agree on roles or a new company name. As such, a merger is a critical incident that involves significant levels of adjustments and uncertainties.

Therefore, an effective leader during the critical incident of a merger should consider ways of avoiding the merger syndrome (Waldman and Javidan 2009, p. To avoid distrust and rumors in the early stages of a merger, leaders should ensure that communication is timely, truthful, and open. According to Barrett (2008, p. 11), effective leadership communication is the single most useful tool in ensuring the success of an organization through a merger. If communication in an organization is effective, employees and other stakeholders listen well and do not overreact. Employee engagement Another appropriate leadership behavior that an organization’s leaders should embrace in dealing with the critical incident of a merger is engagement with the employees. Engagement entails the conditions where people make emotional-based choices to be loyal to an organization.

An organization’s employees demonstrate engagement through positively directing their energy and commitment to the organization’s goals, strategies, and vision. The purpose of an effective organizational leader is to engage other organizational members in committing their full energy to the creation of value and success (Adair 2009). In the context of a merger, engagement is the amalgamate of how organizational members perceive change, the events happening around them, and the level of energy experienced (Cooper and Finkelstein, 2014, p. In this manner, the leaders will be able to identify any issues that could potentially impend the organization’s achievement of goals through a merger. b. Being transparent and honest; leaders should ensure honesty in every aspect of engagement with employees. Employees have a high likelihood of trusting an honest leader and discarding rumors and false information that they get from other sources.

c. The companies that come together as one must now integrate their operations to produce products and services with a common goal of ensuring long-term shareholder growth. As such, it is important for the leaders to determine strategies of amalgamating the cultures of the two companies. An initial step in managing culture clash after a merger is deciding on the most appropriate model of organizational culture that will suit the new corporation. This step could involve choosing one of the existing cultures or creating a completely new culture that works for the new organization (Cummings and Worley 2014). One leadership behavior that leaders can adapt to lead through the culture clash in a critical incident of a merger include seeking buy-in from employees Leaders need to ensure that employees are involved in the type of culture adopted for the new corporation.

I believe that there are many things that I can do, on my own or with the help of those around me that can produce the learning needed to improve. From this perspective, I also believe that I possess a high ability to develop leadership capability in others. One important aspect of my leadership behavior that would be instrumental in the situation of a critical incident is the ability to see positively scenarios that are widely perceived with griminess. This leadership behavior is important in circumstances that require the application of multiple perspectives in solving a problem. The behavior is also useful in turning problems into opportunities for the benefit of the organization. In as much as I preach to my followers about what I expect and how I want them to behave, I understand that they will only comply if they perceive my behaviors to be reminiscent of what I teach.

I understand that actions speak louder than words. It is not what I say that informs my followers about what is important, but rather how I act. As such, by possessing and practicing effective leadership behavior before my followers, I believe that they will develop similar leadership capabilities. For instance, by being a team player, I encourage my followers to partner with others to be team players. Modification Plan for My Behavior My behavior modification plan will include awarding myself more leisure for reaching a certain leadership behavioral goal. The plan will also include imposing on myself some mild disciplinary measures when I engage in unwanted leadership behaviors. References Adair, J. Effective leadership. Pan. Cartwright, S. and Cooper, C. L. Managing mergers acquisitions and strategic alliances.