Global Best Practices in Indonesian Context: Insights from CEO’s Studies on Change Leadership

On July 18th, 2012, the 5th Global Indonesian Network (GI-Net) Dialogue, initiated by Atma Jaya and Tjitra & associates, was held in Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia. Several scholars from Atma Jaya Atma Jaya Catholic University, Islamic University of Indonesia and Magister Management of University, and Senior Manager as well as Directors and CEO from companies such as Rajawali Corpora, Schott Igar Glass, Danamon Indonesia, VADS,  Bumi Cahaya Unggul, GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) etc., took an active part in the dialogue regarding the global best practices under indonesian context, and gave their incisive opinions and perceptions on change leadership. 

Following successful event in April which carries the same theme, this GI Network Dialogue intends to deepen research result in Indonesian context: Leading and Managing Large Scale Change, a joint study of Atma Jaya University (Indonesia), the Global Change Alliance (GCA), Zhejiang University (China) and the Program in Leadership and Organization, at Columbia University (USA). 

During the dialogue, Dr. Hora Tjitra, executive director of Tjitra & associates, mentioned, the priority for Indonesian leaders in managing change was to get the buy in from the top. Compared with Western leaders who tended to plan systematically first then changing accordingly, Indonesian leaders tended to plan while the change was happening and used more gut feeling, due to their difficulties in putting their ideas in what Westerners viewed as ‘strategic planning’. They imposed more emphasis on  how to lead the change, who were the responsible persons and whom to get the buy in from. One potential obstacles was  the declining confidence in leading changes. Unlike their Chinese counterparts who needed pervasive reasons and promising vision for performance as the prerequisite to change, when it came to change, Indonesians required the leaders to do social investment. Buy in from the top was one thing for Indonesian leaders, but they also needed acceptance from others. This was where social investment played its part. When the leaders had gained buy in from the top, and the bottom level feel engaged with the process, the change would run fast and smoothly. Usually, there were four phases of Change Process in Indonesian leaders: 1. one team, one voice – in delivering messages.; 2. passionate learning – having the right competence, adapt, and risk calculating; 3. 'Bergaul – putting social investment in front'; 4. right leadership tools – rewards & punishments to get the buy in and being consistent.

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Admin – who has written 29 posts on Global Indonesian Network.

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