The Leadership Approach At Amana Takaful

Barriers to change come from three sources: (a) the organization that is targeted for change, (b) the change to be initiated, and (c) the employees affected (Conner, 1998).

Following are potential reasons for barriers to exist:

 Resistance to change. People do not resist change itself, but the fallout from change (Conner, 1998). Waddell and Sohal (1998) argue that “people do not resist change per se, rather they resist the uncertainties and the potential outcomes that change can cause.” People are afraid that they may not be able to cope in the new environment because they may have to learn new technology or acquire different sets of skills to be able to do their jobs in the changed environment.

 The envision of employees not being congruent

Many researchers have argued that inflexibility and inability to learn and adapt to the environment are among the most critical factors that hinder organizational success (Jones, Jimmieson, & Griffiths, 2005; Lee, Tan, & Chiu, 2008; Zheng, Yang, & McLean, 2010).

 It is often hard for leaders to continue to be successful. For example, most leaders at Amana succeed in one department but fail badly when moved to a different one. The main reason for this is not addressing the changing circumstances and continue to try to lead in the exact same way.

 The leadership approach at Amana Takaful has been inflexible since recent years which ultimately demotivates the workforce.

 The inflexible nature of the leaders, will take time to adapt and embrace change and will not be able to maintain productivity during transition period.

 Apart from being really good at doing things, companies must be really good at learning how to do new things which is fostering rapid adaption that could derive competitive

For the “not able,” he recommends education, training, acquisition of new skills, management techniques, etc. For the “not willing,” he recommends establishing goals, measurements, coaching, reward and recognition systems, and solicitation of feedback . He posits that the success in overcoming the resistance to change depends on changing behavior.

Furthermore, for a planned change to be successful, management needs to know and understand the barriers to change, why they exist and how to overcome them. Figure 2.2. Recommendations in overcoming barriers to change

In conclusion. Good leadership is needed for change to be exercised effectively. Good leadership can help rally support for the change and provide direction on how best to execute the plans. Sometimes the key can be to hire a star leader to motivate and provide focus for the change. Companies should also consider fostering employee involvement with decision-making. This helps make the employees feel valued and also have ownership in the change result. The only issue with using this effectively is that sometimes too much feedback can cause paralysis within the