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1. Introduction:
Organisational change is both the process in which an organisation changes its strategies, operational methods, structure, organisational culture, or technologies to affect change in the organisation and the effect these changes have on the organisation. Organisational change can occur for distinct periods of time or be continuous (Shawn Grimsley, 2014).
In the case study, the financial group wanted to consolidate its customer contact centres across several divisions. Rumours started spreading throughout the company about whether the change will be good for the company, which lead to employees feeling unsafe in their job security. Some of the head employees like supervisors and key managers began resisting the change, leading to lower productivity for employees and the managers. A consultant was hired to help prepare the organisation for this change, and warned the CEO about the resistance in employees, but
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Kotler’s eight step process and the management of the process.
3.1. Kotler’s eight step plan to the change process: Step 1: Create Urgency
For change to happen successfully, the financial group should develop a sense of urgency around the need for change. It helps if the whole company wants to change and motivates to get things moving.
The consultant should be open and honest about what is happening in the company and why the change should occur, which is to improve customer service and reduce costs for the company. How more people people start talking about the change you propose, how more the urgency can build and feed on itself.
The consultant should develop scenarios showing what could happen to the company if the change is not implemented, and examine opportunities that could be exploited.
Step 2: Form a Powerful Coalition
The consultant should convince the employees why the change is necessary by getting support from the key managers and supervisors within this company. Managing the change isn’t enough – the consultant has to lead
Elite Engineering has been unable to successfully implement change because they haven’t been able to get the employees to see the need for the change and to believe in the change. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.” (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) Change is often met with resistance. When it comes down to it many people fear change. At Elite Engineering, the engineers were happy with the way things were being run. They enjoyed the billable work they were doing and did not want to take the time to collaborate with others, as it would take away time from their billable work. The engineers saw the billable work they were doing as a way to ensure they received their bonus at the end of the year. However, they were failing to see that the litigation business was going to begin to shrink and in order for them to remain competitive, changes needed to be made. Kotter and Schlesinger state that there are for common reasons that people resist change. The four reasons are the desire not to lose something of value, a misunderstanding of the change and its implications, a belief that the change does not make sense for the organization, and a low tolerance for change. (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008) At Elite Engineering, I think upper management was unsuccessful at implementing change because the employees didn’t want to lose their bonuses (something of value to them), they misunderstood the change, and they didn’t feel that the change made sense for the organization.
Change usually comes with resistance in any workplace because change disrupts the employees’ sense of safety and control (Lewis, 2012). Kurt Lewin (1951) created a three step process for assisting employees with organizational Change (Lewis, 2012). The three stages are Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze. These are the steps to a smooth transition for change within organizations. Further, these steps are not possible without good communication from upper Management through line staff. Communication was consistently listed as an issue in surveys conducted by the department.
Change is a fundamental element of individuals, groups and all sorts of organizations. As it is the case for individuals, groups and societies, where change is a continuous process, composed of an indefinite amount of smaller sub-changes that vary in effect and length, and is affected by all sorts of aspects and events, many of which cyclic are anticipated ones. It is also the case for organizations, where change occurs repeatedly during the life cycle of organizations. Yet change in organizations is not as anticipated nor as predictable, with unexpected internal and external variables and political forces that can further complicate the management of change (Andriopoulos, C. and P. Dawson, 2009), which is by itself, the focus of many scholars in their pursuit to shed light on and facilitate the change process (Kotter 1996; Levin 1947; et al).
As an emerging leader whose desire is to see progress in his/her organization change is inevitable and necessary. Although change is an important component of moving forward and growing a lot of people resist change, this resistance can be contributed to our fear of the unknown which is what change represent to many people. Hence, when it comes to implementing change it would be best to start off by recognizing and identify what needs to be change ad how to bring about that change. You can’t convince others to go on a journey if you are not aware where you are going.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss organizational change and the management of that change. I will talk about the different drivers of change, the factors a leader needs to weigh to implement change effectively, the various resistances a leader may encounter while trying to implement change, and how various leadership styles will effect the realization of change. I will also discuss the knowledge I have gained through the completion of this assignment and how I think it might affect the way I manage change in my workplace.
The transformation of a company requires hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees to adopt a new view of its future, a future they must regard as essential. Change management involves managing the process of achieving this future state. Change can be viewed from two vantage points, that of the people making the changes and that of the people experiencing the changes. In the top-down, or strategic viewpoint associated with management, the focus is on technical issues such as the investment required, the processes for implementing the change, how soon the change can be realized, and the outcome. In the bottom-up viewpoint of the employee, the focus is on what the change means to the ...
Individuals, when faced with any major change, will be inevitably resistant and will want to preserve the status quo, especially if they think their status or security within the organization is in danger (Bolognese, 2010). Folger and Skarlicki believe that organizational change produces skepticism in employees, which makes it problematic and possibly even impossible to contrive improvements within the organization (as cited in Bolognese, 2010). Therefore, management must understand, accept and make an effort to work with resistance, since it can undermine even the most well-conceived change efforts (Bolognese, 2010). Furthermore, Coetsee states that for organizations to achieve the maximum benefits from change they must effectively create and maintain a climate and culture that does not support resistance and rewards acceptance and support ( as cited in Bolognese, 2010). Therefore, it is important to understand what resistance is and how to reduce the effects of resistance.
Werr, A., Stjemberg, P., and Docherty, P.(1997). The Functions of Method of Change in Management Consulting. Journal of Organisational Change Management. Vol 10, No 4, pp.208-307.
Unfortunately, most change managers may feel reluctant in sharing information with employees as they fear the unexpected events that may occur and threaten outcomes. Change managers are also apprehensive in communicating as they are scared their competitions be on alert or employees may leave due to fear. Hayes (2014), advises change managers to develop a communication strategy in order to better communication with employees. He identifies steps to take in order to create a communication
The goal of organizational change management is to create a prosperous work environment through strategic change and applying those changes through the people side of management. Organizational change management is a branch of handling the outcome and strategies of new business processes, changes in organizational structure or cultural changes within a company. There are multiple components in understanding the techniques and goals of Organizational change management. The first part discussed will be on setting goals for an organization as it can be a complex process because if aimed too high, the goals will most likely not be attained and performance will deteriorate.
The idea of change is the most constant factor in business today and organisational change therefore plays a crucial role in this highly dynamic environment. It is defined as a company that is going through a transformation and is in a progressive step towards improving their existing capabilities. Organisational change is important as managers need to continue to commit and deliver today but must also think of changes that lie ahead tomorrow. This is a difficult task because management systems are design, and people are rewarded for stability. These two main factors will be discussed with reasons as to why organisational change is necessary for survival, but on the other hand why it is difficult to accomplish.
It is apparent that the only thing constant in business is change. Organizational change is often an overwhelming challenge for business leaders, managers and employees alike. The need for change may be the result of market shifts, economic environment, technology advancements or changing work force skill-set demands. Today Organizational change occurs for reasons that originate external to the organization (Chandler, 1996: Hannan & Freeman, 1984), as well as internal to the organization (Baker 1990: Prechel 1994). Thus, External constraints, internal constraints, resource dependency and increasingly growing competitive markets force organizations to change in order to maximize economic potential. Although organizational changes are usually a response in reaction to an event, companies and leaders should still expect to encounter issues. Organizations need to be more proactive and contingent on how to handle the problems that will inevitably come about. This will make the process of organizational change go smoothly as well as reduce resistance through proper management techniques. Resource dependency argues that both environmental and organizational constraints impact organizational change (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).
Organisational change can cause stress for employees at all levels of an organisation, one of the main causes of increased employee stress during organisational change is employees’ perception of organisational change as a threat; many employees feel that there may be a threat to their job security, their status, or their ability to achieve if the conditions of their work are altered (Dahl, 2011). Employees may face changes in their written contracts and also in their implicit psychological contracts during organisational change, the change to these unwritten contracts can result in increased stress due to feelings of anger or betrayal by employees as they feel that they no longer know what to expect from their employer (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). In addition, if employees do not feel that the organisation acts in a fair and just way they are more likely to
The employee reflects change in an organization as a shift of role, responsibilities and skill. However, in an organizational level its refers change as a framework structure around the changing needs and capability of an organization to perform. Both employee and organization’s perception of change are needed to ensure the change is successful. Brown (2011) reported that “the role of change as a corrective action often affect patterns of work or values, and in consequence meet with resistance” (p. 144). Once an organization and its member decide to conduct a change program, they intensify the forces that driving the change. The life cycle of employee’s resistance is necessary in accomplishing change in an organization. There are five important phases in a life cycle of employee resistance to change in an organization, namely introduce the change, forces of change emerge, direct conflict happens in an organization, residual resistance appear in an organization and lastly, establish the change. (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Whether he had to bring in other managers to help with explaining the benefits to the change, or an outside consultant. By doing this he would have been prepared to deliver his case to his employees with all the facts and details about the new system instead of going in there blind. Even though you know all the details and benefits that are associated with a new system, it still doesn’t mean that everybody is going to accept the new system without resistance. In an article it states that “resistance to change can have a significant impact and influence upon the success of an organizational change project” (Van Dijk, & Van Dick, 2009, p.2). Employees instinctively anticipate change as the possible loss of status, pay, or simply loss of comfort in their current work environment. They may not resist the actual change itself, but they do however, resist the possible consequences that is associated with the change. That is why it very important to be open to the possibility of being met with resistance, instead of going in to the situation with the mindset of “this is how we are going to do it, and that is just how it is going to