Managing change is probably one of the most important issues today. This involves simultaneously managing people, resources, processes, and emotions. In fact, people emphasize essentially on change leadership while referring to change management. Unless the leaders in the organizations recognize the qualities that are needed to lead strategic change programs, their effectiveness as change leaders will be significantly reduced. The present study looks at the influential change leadership pattern prevalent among the faculty members of four state agricultural universities, by studying their power and control dimensions. The faculty members, irrespective of their hierarchical levels, were medium to high in their use of expert power and personal power, whereas the use of position power was quite low. A very high proportion of the faculty members had a high level of internal control, and the external locus of control was almost negligible. The greater use of expert power, followed by the use of personal power, coupled with the dominance of internal control, found among the faculty members of State Agricultural Universities, is a positive indication of the effective influential change leadership qualities prevalent among the majority of the faculty members. In addition to making comparisons between faculty members at different hierarchical positions, the study also brings out comparison between faculty members belonging to crop science and animal science specializations. Suggestions are also made on the multiple skills that need to be developed by faculty members for enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness to influence the change process in their institutions.

The need for organizations to change is far more clearly recognized now, than a few years ago when the question "Why Change?" was paramount. Managing change is probably the single most important issue today for all organizations. Increased global competition, caused by liberalization and deregulation, has placed greater demands on organizations to be flexible, responsive, effective, and efficient. Transformation to a high performance team-based organization is a journey that requires new competencies for all members within an organization. There is a need for the organizations to undergo a paradigm shift from that of being "reactive" to that of being "proactive, responsive, and responsible".