Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
External resistance to change in an organization
Organizational change plan part 2
The effects of organizational restructuring on employee performance
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: External resistance to change in an organization
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
…show more content…
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.
...y understand of why the change is needed. For example he can provide the employees with the pros and cons of the current process and how the new implemented changes will improve the organization.
Change affects more than just a program or a process within an organization, change affects employees, collecting data on employee’s readiness and willingness to accept a change will help leaders know if the organization is socially ready for change (Cole, Harris, and Bernerth, 2006). A change might be positive for an organization but if the employees who will be affect by the change are lost in the process then it could create a greater issue than not making the change. Leadership needs to communicate and inspire the employees to be positive toward the change, seeking to enhance their job satisfaction not make changes that will increase their desire to leave. This data is best collected early in the change initiative allowing leadership to properly cast the vision while addressing concerns. This requires leadership to create platforms for employees to engage in the change initiative freely (Ford, 2006). Employee attitudes can be measured through these dialogues providing leadership with necessary measureable data (Hughes, 2007).
Change can be defined as, “the continuous adoption of business strategies and structures in response to internal pressures
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).
Organizational change affects all levels and individuals of the organization in question. Although a change effort can originate in any part of the organization, it will eventually require strategic effort from the top and buy-in from the bottom in order to be sustained.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
One of the first scholars to describe the process of organizational change was Lewin (1974). He described change as a three-stage process that consists of unfreezing, moving and freezing stage. During the unfreezing stage the organizations become motivated to change by some event or objective. The moving stage is like implementation when the organization actually makes the necessary change. Furthermore the freezing stage is reached when the change becomes permanent. Organizational change has also...
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
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