Leading Organisational Change: The Case of Tokenism

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of tokenism on leading organisational changes. In particular, the paper focuses on the case when change leaders are appointed in a ‘token role’ in change management initiatives and how the experience of tokenism shapes their behaviours and actions. Based upon Kanter’s theory of tokenism, we employ the three perceptual tendencies (visibility, contrast, and assimilation) domains of the theory to understand the possible consequences of change leaders being token. We postulate that token change leaders are likely to experience challenges to perform actions such as building teams, communication, motivation, negotiation, and coercion. Consequently, change leaders may possess poor credibility, misperceived information, desperation to communicate, and inability to exert force on others.