Change
One of the most important and difficult leadership responsibilities is leading change. Chapter 10 discusses the change processes, and places an emphasis on cultural change. The creation and establishment of a clear and compelling vision is useful to guide the organisation through change, and the pre-requisite set of guidelines is included for formulating a vision. Guidelines are also proffered for implementing change for political or organisational or people-oriented actions. Throughout the change process, the role of the leader is key.
Teamwork
Teamwork, group decisions and leadership by executives are considered in Chapters 11 and 12. The use of teams and decision groups in organisations is a growing phenomenon. The leadership required for building and facilitating team learning and decision-making are considered. Yukl describes and discusses the merits of functional teams, cross-functional teams, self-managed work teams (semi-autonomous work groups), self-defining teams and virtual teams. Guidelines propose effective team building to increase cohesiveness, mutual cooperation, and identification with the group. They also put forward leader-centred and group- centred approaches for leading meetings.
Research into leadership from the 1950s until the 1980s was mostly concerned with middle managers. Theorists turned their attention to top managers from the 1980s, but there is controversy in leadership literature regarding whether executives have much impact on the effectiveness of an organisation. Chapter 12 looks at strategic leadership and top management, and considers external and internal constraints, the degree of discretion a leader has, the bias of attributions and the effectiveness of executive teams. Research shows that chief executives have most impact in a crisis, and the monitoring of the environment by executives is considered essential in the formulation of organisational strategy.