Growth and organizational evolution causes change, resistance to that inevitability and stress as a byproduct. The tactics individuals and leaders adopt can cause harmful consequences if not managed with sensitivity and awareness. Change can be threatening for those experiencing job insecurity (Robbins & Judge, 2007) or develop teams and co-workers that act at cross-purposes (Huy & Mintzbereg, 2003). Change can be a source of stress, but so can workload, leadership styles, and the shuffling of roles and responsibilities (Cooper, 2006). Management of resistance and stress is largely dependent on the organizations leadership to be the bulwark of these human traits by perceiving their sources and proactively attending to them.
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According to Huy and Mintzbereg (2003), dynamic change originates from organizational crisis or when power is concentrated and descends from top senior management personnel. For example, Vivendi Universal underwent a five-year buying binge in the telecommunications and media markets (Huy & Mintzbereg, 2003) in an attempt to build a media market monarchy. When the stock market bubble burst in the 1990s, Vivendi’s stock value dropped sharply, which then created an organizational crisis (i.e. dynamic change) and required guided top down management decision-making. Top down decision-making can be effective but can back fire and create covert resistance (Huy & Mintzbereg, 2003).
No less important is systematic change. Huy and Mintzbereg (2003) stated that workforce groups and consultants who handle quality improvement, work reprogramming, benchmarking, and strategic planning often promote systematic change. According to Huy and Mintzbereg (2003), systematic change can become overly formalized and technique-orientated to the point in which the initiative is stifled and resistance to change becomes implicit and deferred in the organization. While on the other hand, senior executive leaders drive dramatic change and systematic change is advanced
Step 2 is forming a powerful guiding coalition. Leadership will have to be on board and on the same page in regards to the change. Kotter and Cohen reveal the core problems people face when leading change. Their main findings are that the central issue concerns not structure or systems but behavior and how to alter it (Farris, 2008). The success of the changes will depend on the ability of the managers to show their commitment to change and motivate the employees to do the same. Without any process to track the implementation, the change can also fail.
In order to successfully and effectively implement change all of the employees should have a good understanding of how the changes will benefit the organization, their positions, and how it might impact their routines. To many employees the implementation of change is not always properly communicated, and the process of change on paper as it is being implemented can be threatening as well as confusing. Also, the people behind the scenes making the changes may not have taken specific details into consideration regarding effective changes that perhaps the employees
Implementing change in an organization is complicated. It is important that a manager understands their role and responsibilities for which could very well be the success or failure of an organization. A manager should know how to handle staff resistance, and the areas that require change. There are processes that help management with assisting their staff members with adjusting to change and concentrate on the areas of importance. This process includes planning, assessment, implementation, and evaluation. The difference between a failed organization and a successful manager is when the manager has the ability to implement change with little disruption to
There are many reasons that change can or must occur within and organization. The key will be in understanding the organization and the prospective change. According to Mangundjaya (2015) "there are many variables that can influence the success of organizational change, such as the content of the change, the process of the change, individual characteristics, leadership, external environment and organizational context" (p. 67). Organizational change has the potential to successfully align an organization with its goals or completely derail any future success and progress. It is important that the organization takes the proper steps to prepare for, implement, and evaluate change.
In order to bring about a successful change, it is important to first consider the rationale for change. The organization and people being impacted by the change must understand the desire for change, benefits, and importance of supporting the change. After the change has been embraced and implemented successfully, it is essential for the organization to incorporate it as a standard practice, motivate the personnel to utilize it, and adhere to the change to influence positive
Change in an organization can be and usually is difficult for various reasons. Much of the difficulty is in the approach used to initiate change and the willingness to stay engaged and stamina to sustain change through to the end. Organizations can choose to lead by recognizing and implementing change, follow in the shadow of organizations leading the market, or get out of the way by standing still and eventually going under. With this said; if change was easily done and successful for every organization there would be no need for change management specialists and years
John Kotter, a leading advocate and educator in change initiatives, expresses two essential characteristics that must be present in any change initiative. First, any change that is considered to be useful and necessary must go through a multi-step process that will transcend obstacles in its way. Second, it is essential that any change initiative must be lead by effective leadership (Kotter, 1996). However, any leader in a change initiate must reconcile the reality that a major component to mankind’s instinctive nature is that people have an inherent need for predictability and order (Hogan, 2007). Leaders must, therefore, consider that initiatives may be experienced in ways that contradict this basic need leading to employee resistance (Bernerth, 2011). Considering such a potential obstacle, Kotter developed an eight-stage change process to guide organizations through initiatives in ways that may retain employee stability and enable employees to maintain a sense of identity and understanding (Huy, 1999).
Change that is frequently unanticipated and is forced on the organization. In a research conduted by Helfat, C. E., Finkelstein, S., Mitchell, W., Peteraf, M., Singh, H., Teece, D., & Winter, S. G. (2009). Modifications in government and alterations in the economy can occur on the spur of the moment. Responsiveness to sudden change requires sacrifices made by the employees for the benefit of the organization. Both arranged and unplanned types of progress in organizations require leaders to be well-equipped to adjust accordingly.
When a change needs to take place, top management must foresee and do something about it before it is needed; this is a leader’s most critical competency. The growth of a company is predicated on transformation at least several times throughout the lifespan of the business. The change will not happen overnight; therefore, an appropriate pace is necessary, not too fast and not too slow. The leadership team must be meticulous, and simultaneously, the employees must be well-prepared for change. Indeed, the changes must be well thought out to provide stable contingencies (Gleeson, 2016).
Change management is an important and critical part of leadership and has tremendous business value; with change, it’s important to consider the organization’s mission statement as well as how the change impacts goals and objectives. It is important to know what is driving the change as this is key to all those that are impacted by any change. With change, there is many elements needed and this starts with a change management model which includes planning, communication, and sustainability of the change. All of which, I have facilitated over the years in my role as a
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.
It is a difficult task when soliciting buy-in from subordinates in an organizational change initiative due to an inherent resistance to change. This synopsis will present three change tactics that are commonly used to engage employees in the change process and they are: Kotter’s 8-step Process for Leading Change, the Change Management Foundation Model, and Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act model. It will also discuss why organizations should use benchmarks in the change process. This document will conclude with a summary of this discussion.
In order to examine this issue further, this research will look at a number of different sources. Contemporary managerial sources are explored in order to understand how other voices in the field are describing similar methods for change. First, popular structures for change management are examined, especially within their correlation to Palmer & Dunford (2009). This is followed with an extensive
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 make 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 for organizations to achieve the maximum benefits from change they must effectively create and
Studies from different parts of the world made by different health organizations have showed that long working hours and pressured work lead to stress which affects the employees mentally and physically and leads indirectly to low productivity levels. Not only stress, but it can cause a lot more of health issues like extreme fatigue including sleepiness, poor concentration, and increased susceptibility to illness. These symptoms can a have a noticed effect on the general productivity of an organization.