Managing the Dimensions of Ethos, Pathos and Logos of Change Through Transformational Leadership.

It is often seen that though organizations expend enormous resources into change initiatives, these seldom yield the desired returns. As succinctly put by Schaffer and Thompson (1992), "Most improvement efforts have as much impact on company performance as a rain dance has on the weather!" The most critical ingredient in any change effort is leadership, and managing change is fundamentally a people issue. Several leaders failed because they attempted to create change through intellect alone, without moving people emotionally (Goleman et al., 2002). This paper explores how a leader can overlay the four fundamental principles of transformational leadership as defined by Bass (1985), to the four stages of an individual's experience during change as postulated by Janssen's 'Four-Room Apartment' Model of Change. The paper discusses these stages in terms of the challenges that individuals face to their values and identity (Ethos), to their intellect (Logos) and their emotions (Pathos), and puts forward a suggested road map of behaviors and ideals that leaders must demonstrate to address each of these in order to bring about a successful change. A transformational style of leadership that is empathetic to the dynamic human mind must connect to the individual at a very personal and emotional level, appealing not only to his intellect, but also his emotions at the psychological level to initiate and sustain successful change in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]