4:Drivers of World Change, Changed Management & Changed Leadership

As the name of our module, Technology and World Change, suggests, we spend time looking in depth at these aspects and often discover far more knowledge than we probably would have already known. And this week, the focus had been on drivers of world change with respect to globalization, technological innovation so on and so forth.


Globalization has first and foremost caused a notable change in the world in terms of integrating the world via trade, telecommunication and transportation. It has created means to increase the efficiency of communication and thus enhanced co operations between many foreign firms which ultimately results in the rise of more prosperous economies. With that, globalization has continued to spark off a chain of changes such as that of food security, values and people, infectious diseases etc. In terms of food security, probably because when countries prosper, their people are achieving higher standards of living and thus find it less financially burdened if they were to have more children. Thus when the birth rates increase, as with other countries whose birth rates may rise for a different reason, it’s going to gradually change demographics in the world. Our human race will continue to rise and is expected to peak at about 10 million before the end of this century. This implores on us a greater need for resources and food to sustain the people, and the truth is that the population and wealth increase drives global demand so high that there isn’t enough to cater to our needs. Coupled with other climate changes that we’re facing due to massive industrialisation processes and natural reasons, crop yield are predicted to be lower than what we really require.


That aside, globalisation has likewise increased the spread of diseases because of modes of transportation like aeroplanes, where tendency of bugs to be transferred, from one country to another, is very high (as in the case of the SARS epidemic when people travelling to affected areas were being quarantined for about 2 weeks). And one of the more important changes is that migration will also go up as globalisation encourages mobility of labour and population shift following unrest in a country or climate change. These can essentially lead to a cultural mix in one particular country and the national cultures will become more internally diverse. Hence change is inevitable with occurrence of globalisation and technological innovation because that’s when the world becomes more inter-connected, which itself is a massive change already.


Following which attention was shifted to change management and change leadership. Change is not just at the global level, change can happen at the national, company, individual level, of which company level served as our priority during the discussions on Monday. In the reading, Herding Cats, it clearly showed that in order for a behavioural change among employees to occur, leaders/managers cannot force upon them the makeover that was going to be implemented. Leaders/managers have to explain the rationale for the change, gather feedback on how the change could be worked on, involve the followers, equip them with the necessary skills for a smooth transition of change and if possible let them take charge of certain areas to anchor their sense of ownership&belonging. Through constant reviewal of performances & rewarding to appreciate one’s efforts, the leader is well on the way of mastering process of implementing change and also to help their followers acclimatise to the change.


I felt that the introduction of Positive Deviants in changed management and changed leadership was something interesting because I’ve never come across it before. I believe that if a positive deviant were to exist among the followers, it could even ease the difficulties that leaders/managers may come across when getting the followers to work in tandem with them. This is because, when the positive deviant is of the same level as the followers, he tends to understand his fellow mates better and could even convince them about the positives of the change (for those who are resistant to change). These positive deviants may serve as representation of the followers and thus facilitate communication between the superiors and the workers, thereby contributing to both a successful changed management and a rising productivity level.


In order to change, we should either step forth to make the change or adapt to change in a responsive manner and not to be “surprised” at the change. There is always a leader in us. It’s really up to us whether we want to showcase that ability and to help make a difference to the world we live in. Because when we brace ourselves to step out of the comfort zone, we are already making the first move in changing our attitude and behaviour, which could ultimately create an impactful change on the world.

Monday's lesson was insightful and engaging, great job presenters! I'd rate an 8.5/10 :)