Effective Communication And Successful Implementation Of Change Initiatives

Change involves a movement from one stage to another; communication is a primary and most important tool for change. Organisational change may occur due to organisational culture, values, people and behaviours. Therefore, human leadership plays main role in making change a success one. When there is a change leader needs to make decision about who you must communicate, when you will communicate, what need to be communicate, when you will communicate and how you will communicate.

Communication breakdowns within an organization may contribute to resistance in changing organizations. Managers must be prepared to talk candidly about the needs for change, otherwise fear and uncertainty will remain a prevailing element that can damage morale and prevent successful implementation of the desired changes at all levels of the organization. Employees need comprehensive information about the nature, processes, and consequences of organizational change.

Managers need to determine the best method of communicating the changes to the employees that are directly affected. This material presented in last weeks class and in the course material helped us understand how important communication is when implementing changes in a work environment. The course book identified four main approaches to managing change in an organization. Lewins’ Three-Step Model argued that successful change in an organization follows three steps: Unfreezing the status quo, movement to a desired end state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent. (Robbins & Judge, 2011). This approach requires manages to evaluate the need for change and implement a plan of action to help the organization manage changes effectively.

It was noted that communication efforts must be verbal and active (Kotter, 1995). Kotter eight step change model has many drawbacks and benefits. The advantages are that it is the step by step, which is easy to follow model. Another is that it does not focus on the change itself, but rather the acceptance and the preparation of this change, which makes it an easy transition. In Kotter’s and Lewin’s models, both consider the difficulties that organizations encounter when trying to move people from their comfort zone for the change to happen. In both of the models they use a different set of calculations to know whether there is any need to change to take place in the

Open channels of communication within the entire organization are extremely important during change. Assumptions must be tested during the entire process. What seemed correct and the only way to go yesterday may not be the right way now. The questions that the change leaders asked at first need to be revisited to ensure the change is going as expected. This brings us to the next group of people in the change experience, the followers.

Management must espouse coherent strategies and persuasively convey them to the employees to successfully communicate the change vision within an organization. Also, the organization should query employees to conclude the superlative mode of communicating with the team. It starts with leaders considering their previous methods and determine if they need modification or enhancement.

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With any change there are many factors involved within the process itself however communication has to be the key factor involved in the change process. Without this you cannot expect line managers or employees to support the change. With communication you need to ensure employees feel positive. It is also good practice the company adapts its style of communication depending on their audience and where they are in the change. Where one style might suit senior management, this might not be appropriate for administrators or cleaners. Communication can have a huge impact on the end result, it can also help to ensure targets are met, everything is kept in control and no employee disregards the change. Lack of communication could lead to frustration and lack of trust with employees.

2006, p412). Using techniques such as storytelling (Syedain 2007; Reissner & Pagan 2011) and having constant conversation of what is happening (Esposito 2014, 336), is crucial for employees to make sense of the change. Combined with artifacts, continuous communication helps staff to materialize new meanings to “constrain identity and action” according to Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstfield (2005, p409). This ultimately helps reinforce lasting culture change throughout the organization.

Week 3, the lecture on Managing Change describes organizational changes that occur when a company makes a shift from its current state to some preferred future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to decrease employee resistance and cost to the organization while concurrently expanding the effectiveness of the change effort. Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost constantly if they are to remain competitive. Students of organizational change identify areas of change in order to analyze them. A manager trying to implement a change, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization.

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.

In a recent study of major change, it was found that employees are highly critical of even well thought-out attempts to communicate change and multiple communication channels are preferred when communicating a change vision, plan and process (Elving, 2005;

There are numerous models of change; most change models advocate a logical approach with different stages. Although the models may differ, they have communalities which include the need to prepare for the change before its implementation and then entrenching the change (Cameron and Green, 2012). One of the most recognized is the 8 stage model by Kotter (2012). The first step is creating a sense of urgency, the second step is forming a powerful coalition, the third is creating a vision, followed by communication of that vision. The fifth step is the removal of obstacles; the sixth step is creating short term wins, seventh is building on change and lastly is anchoring changes in the corporate culture (Kotter, 2012). The steps may be undertaken in a concurrently as well as consecutive manner,

For any business in the rapidly evolving world of business, planning and implementing successful organizational change is indispensable. Essentially, organizational change refers to a process whereby an organization strives to optimize performance in order to achieve its ideal state characterized by high performance and profitability (Côté & Mayhew, 2014). Any business would be more likely to lose its competitive edge, as well as fail to meet the demands of its loyal consumers if it doesn’t plan and implement change. Weiss (2012) emphasizes that all organizations ought to embrace change, and it’s imperative to note that successful organizational change doesn’t involve simple process of adjustments; instead it requires appropriate change management capabilities.

The key to effective change is identifying how different people perceive and adapt to change at all levels. Change management can be described as the development of new methods to improve the way in which an organization does business. Change is the most important element in a successful business management today. Leading, following and resisting are three ways of dealing with change. From my experience, managers should always embrace a leadership role in managing change and understanding different approaches to change and understanding why some individuals seem more receptive than others. EI has aided me in managing change within the organization, team and department as I have more awareness around individuals’ emotions when they arise in response to an action or specific situations. One of the most important things that a manager can do is to alter/improve communications to leverage different approaches for greater buy-in and earlier adoption. This is accomplished by knowing your audience up front, and anticipating questions that may arise as well as knowing individual and how they deal with change, as everyone deals with change differently. From my experience, this is extremely important, as a manager has the ability to affect change with their communication, which can set the tone for the message being delivered and in how others perceive the communication.