PASSION AS A SOURCE OF CHANGE CAPABILITY

arrow_back Go back

Passion as a Source of Change Capability

How can an organization successfully change and remain agile? A sneak peek: This can truly be achieved through the human factor within your company! And to perceive, embrace, and sustain this requires leadership. Not only passionate leaders determine success, but also a team of passionate employees!

The scientific literature is abundant with evidence, so why hesitate? If an organization aims for sustainable continuity, it must be able to continuously adapt to changing circumstances.

This principle places a significant demand on organizational design in terms of structure and culture. The extent to which an organization can achieve this can be referred to as "change capacity." A phenomenon of immeasurable organizational value!

Generating Higher Change Capacity

Passion (the opposite of burnout) speaks to the vitality of individuals, their level of dedication, and their "absorption capacity." While this might sound theoretical, in practice, passionate individuals tend to be more proactive, loyal to their employers, think and act innovatively, and possess a higher willingness to embrace change. Employees who are more open to change can consequently generate a higher change capacity. Recent practical research has confirmed this (Rens, 2015). Thus, passion deserves to be the number one HRD (Human Resources Development) theme.

But how do we recruit and select passionate individuals? How do we enhance passion and incorporate this concept into discussions? How do we translate demonstrable behaviors that align with passion, including in coaching? And which leadership style fosters an increase in passion?

The Pros and Cons

Nearly everything in life is influenced and rooted in something. The same applies to passion, which is unsurprising. Alongside the fact that passion partially depends on an individual's personality (consider resilience, for instance), it is augmented by sources of energy and diminished by work stressors.

For an organization, it's intriguing to comprehend what energy sources and stressors exist within the work context. This pertains to both instrumental aspects (such as having HR discussions with one's supervisor and understanding job demands) as well as the more "warm" aspects like leadership style and organizational culture.

Organizational Culture as an Energy Source 

Robert E. Quinn (1999) conceived a robust model of competing values. The four distinct cultural types each possess their own powerful characteristics. The hierarchical culture establishes a tight system and frameworks – everyone knows their role. However, excessive implementation leads to bureaucracy. The family culture is marked by togetherness, cohesion, and team spirit. Yet, too much of it stifles feedback, hindering learning.

And what about the market culture? It's characterized by goal orientation, target-driven work, and competition awareness. Yet, solely striving for results also doesn't provide a solution.

Lastly, the adhocracy culture. A challenging term. Here, the focus is on creation, freedom of thought, innovation, and being outwardly oriented. This last type enhances passion. But how to transition to it? And how to retain aspects of other culture types? That too calls for leadership...

Leadership as the Ultimate Energy Source

There's an extensive body of (scientific) literature on the phenomenon of leadership as well. An important facet of leadership is the psychological aspect of a leader. Another aspect is leadership style. Numerous books describe various leadership styles. There are several foundational styles that hold a prominent place in scientific literature:

• Autocratic style
• Democratic style
• Transactional style
• Transformational style

It's demonstrated that the latter style aligns best with change-oriented organizations. When employees experience a more transformational leadership style, their readiness for change and their passion also increase the most. However, a less effective leadership style can also be perceived as a work stressor...

Concretizing Challenges: Working Together?

The fact that leadership can act as the engine for a cultural movement suggests that investing in leadership development is sustainably responsible, especially when it contributes to a higher change capacity for your organization!

 

Contact us

Stephan Rens is eigenaar van reNsultaat organisatieontwikkeling. Deze blog is een samenwerking tussen iScreen en reNsultaat.nl, onze Associate Partner.