Emotional Phases And Steps Of Change

Organizational change encompasses many challenges to both the individual, and the organization. An organization is a living system, as Flower (2002) states “living systems cannot survive without change, challenge, variety, and surprise” (Flower, 2002, p. 16). An organization requires the ability to adapt in to survive as Darwin states in The Origin of Man, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” (Read Me First, 2013, p. 1). It must adapt to the changing market, global economic pressures, stakeholder demands, and the diverse needs

As we all know, change is inevitable and we cannot control the world changing around us, but what we can control is how we can deal with how the employees deal with change. Knowing and understanding the common cause why people is resistant to change gives you the chance to plan your strategy to address these factors.

Organizations can face change for any number of reasons. Managers must be the leaders in change in order to influence employees. Complacency is an obstacle to change. According to Organizational Behavior and Management, “It is management’s responsibility to show employees why they should want to change” (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2014, p. 507). By creating a sense of urgency, employees can recognize the need for change. The ability of employees to recognize the need for change combats the problem of complacency. Kotter, in Leading Change, states

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.

Many researchers have endeavored to define readiness for organizational change and have resulted in the development of processes aimed at guiding change. Organizational change can range from simple to complex shifts in the way of work. Some changes can be departmental, procedural, or an entire company modification. Change leaders must consider many aspects of the organization before restructuring can take place. It is natural for an organization to experience resistance, eagerness, and frustration during a change initiative and therefore knowing when and how to manage change is

Employees who feel pushed out of their comfort zone may also resist change, due to the unfamiliarity of new implications or managers. The fear of uncertainties due to the lack of communication can also lead to resistance to change on an individual level. If employees are not informed of the needs of the change then the fear of the unknown can cause resistance.

Emerald Article: Resistance to organizational change: the role of cognitive and affective processes Wayne H. Bovey, Andy Hede

Change is a fact of organizational life that develops in response to interpersonal, cultural, environmental, and other external factors that fluctuate and change for various reasons. Employees can display varying levels of resistance ranging from aggressive resistance to apathy (Spector, 2012). Resistance is a concern because it undermines the effectiveness of the change implementation process, but there are tools available which leaders can utilize to reduce this possibility. The essential tools will be discussed in this paper along with the reasons for utilizing them in a change implementation process.

Change is discussed in Chapter 11 of Human Relationships. Change is something everyone goes through but often causes a great deal of stress. I know this is especially true in my life. Even when people have notice of the change it can still cause a great deal of stress. For example, when school first started I was extremely overwhelmed. I had months to prepare for school though. On the bright side, there’s some things I can do to make change easier. Being able to recognize that change is something I can’t control and as something that is going to happen is the first step. Recognizing the Seven Stages of Personal Change are essential to smooth transition process. I can recognize the anger and helplessness I feel over change are all too common. Recognizing the feelings and emotions that come with change will allow me to move through the seven stages easier. This is very important in a medical office because change is always happening, Employee changes in the office, company changes, medical changes, and law changes among others. Recognizing change needs to happen and knowing how to deal with it is vital in a medical office. When a manager can adapt to change they can adapt to anything.

Changing situations throughout the world affect all organizations in business today. Therefore, most organizations acknowledge the need to experience change and transformation in order to survive. The key challenges companies face are due to the advancements in technology, the social environment caused by globalization, the pace of competition, and the demands regarding customer expectations. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles involved with change despite all the articles, books, and publications devoted to the topic. People are naturally resistant to fundamental changes and often intimidated by the process; the old traditional patterns and methods are no longer effective.

Poorly managed organizational change can increase risk, budgets and damage reputations. Organizational change typically educes strong emotions because change interferes with the sense of security, as well as produces feelings of uncertainty (Barabasz, 2016). Employee’s reactions to imposed change, which can range from high turnover, low morale, an assiduous reduction in productivity, to wildcat or other strikes, perplexes many leaders. Leadership that develops strategies to manage the active and passive resistance can mitigate risk and minimize additional costs. In this paper, I will discuss a case study that focuses on how employee resistance to a poorly managed change

Employees resist change due to several reasons. Firstly, the uncertainty and the unclear effects of change on the

Acknowledging and understanding employee’s different levels of resistance and acceptance is critical for change agents in a company as it directly effect the success of organization change strategies (Wittig, 2012). Witting explained Herein’s Spectrum of Employees’ Reaction to Organizational Change (SERCO) as a non stagnate scale; where employee’s attitude towards a change will move between the two opposite ends of the spectrum: resistance versus acceptance, during different stages of the change initiative.

Organizations today have to constantly change and adapt in order to survive in the current dynamic market. To this end, all businesses have to be prepared to deal with change appropriately, with the help of managers who are responsible for preparing the company for change and the employees who have to cope with the changes. All organizations experience a certain degree of change on a daily basis, however large scale changes cannot be adopted into daily routines as easily (Kotter & Cohen, 2012). Hence, the success of any organization when faced with change entirely depends on how the leadership of the company presents the new vision for change which can either lead to successful transitions or can end in failure. This means that the management plays a crucial role in ensuring that all employees of a business are made aware of the importance of the changes taking place and the implementation plan. Moreover, managers and leaders have to be prepared to overcome any resistance from employees who are unwilling to adapt to the required changes (Leavy, 2014).

The greatest challenge that leaders face when managing change is the employees' reaction and resistance ADDIN EN.CITE Bevan2011179(Bevan, 2011)17917917Bevan, R.Keeping Change on TrackThe Journal for Quality and ParticipationThe Journal for Quality and Participation3412011( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Bevan, 2011 #179" Bevan, 2011). In any organization, there are three kinds of employees, the sheep, resistors, and change champions. The most difficult people to manage are the resistors. These employees worry so much about how the change will impact them negatively. They see the change will expose them to the top management and will be seen as not been valuable within the organization. As a leader, the best way to deal with resistors is to let them know that change will happen progressively, and all employees will be involved ADDIN EN.CITE Luecke2003180(Luecke, 2003)1801806Luecke, R.Managing Change and Transition2003Boston, MA 02163Harvard Business School