Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Applied Research in Management, Business and Economics
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Critical Vulnerability of An Authentic Leader as A Key Factor of Change Management Communication for Achieving Outstanding Prosocial Result
Natalia Saveleva, Igor Savelev
ABSTRACT:
Having been in management for more than 15 years, we came across empirical evidence of critical vulnerability in business leaders who carried out large-scale organizational change and ultimately achieved outstanding prosocial results. Vulnerability could manifest itself in resistance or criticism from stakeholders, characterized by distrust in leadership vision, active sabotage of decisions and could even lead to the termination of the leader’s powers. The leader’s communications when faced with vulnerability were not a search for compromise or confrontation, but a consistent conveying the vision to stakeholders. However, as leader’s efforts towards integration progressed and stakeholder interests began to converge with leadership vision, the initial vulnerability tended to subside, paving the way for outstanding prosocial results and recognition for the leader. We hypothesized that: 1) there was a unique behavior and communication pattern of an authentic leader while implementing transformative change which paradoxically led to uncontrollable, critical vulnerability but ultimately led the organization to an outstanding result; 2) the reason for the leader’s vulnerability was the gap in the level of leadership mindset between the leader and the stakeholders; 3) leadership communication in the state of critical vulnerability bridged the mindset gap and ensured gradual company consolidation. A preliminary research of leadership communication was conducted, the main purpose of which was to search for unique communication pattern of the leader in the state of vulnerability which contributed to the achievement of outstanding prosocial results. The research objectives included: 1) to pinpoint the leader communication patterns using the Michigan Model of Leadership, namely the Competing Values Framework; 2) to find examples of the gap in the level of leadership mindset of the leader and stakeholders; 3) to determine the position of leader’s communication in a state of vulnerability in relation to change management models. The participants included 9 top managers actively involved in the transformative change of their companies. Research methodology integrated quantitative method (survey) and qualitative method (in-depth interviews). The study expands our understanding of authentic leadership and strategic communication.
keywords: change management communication, change management models, leadership mindset, Michigan Model of Leadership, organizational dialectics, vulnerability curve