Drive For Change Website
Case study participants all agreed that leadership is a vital ingredient in improving service delivery. Leadership is not just the responsibility of top managers. Active engagement and leadership from all managers and union representatives is crucial to successfully implementing change at all levels.
Leadership is essential in building effective working relationships between managers, trade unions and staff. If managers and trade union leaders really want to develop a consensus on the need to improve services through employee engagement - then it has to be visible and active. Effective leadership and commitment to employee engagement has to be demonstrated clearly to the whole workforce through the day-to-day behaviour of senior managers and union representatives. This will influence others to 'come on board'.
It is important to recognise that all change involves taking risks. Trying a new approach requires a willingness to take risks. An organisation with a blame or victim culture will therefore find it difficult to achieve real change. Organisations must be prepared to take risks and innovate for the benefit of service users and employees.