Conclusion - Change Management

Having an understanding of the significance of change management will enable you to create a vision that will give the positive results the organisation looking to achieve. 

It all leads to one end.  Change is never complete alone.  It takes the interactivity of each aspect of an organization (leaders, individual contributors, tools) to make change management prosperous. 

Gone are the days of five year plans.  Today’s speediness of business requires a swift organization who can change even as regularly as 12 – 18 months.  Having a comprehensive and thorough management of change procedure is the only way businesses can survive and flourish.

Resistance to Change Management

Although change is intended to be a benefit for the organization or its employees, the employees’ behaviour it is not always for change process.

Ford and McNamara (2002) in a review of the literature say that resistance occurs because it threatens the status quo, or increases fear and the anxiety of real or imagined consequences including threats to personal security and confidence in an ability to perform.

Resistance to change represents an obstacle to in any change initiatives. Resistance to change is divided into three groups of factors (Mabin, Forgeson and Green 2001):

Individual, Group and Organizational.

An interesting approach to the individual’s resistance is Kotter and Schlesinger’s (1979) research, the authors suggest that people resist change for various reasons, but the most common reasons for resisting change are:

- Individuals interests, people are characterized by their own interests and by the desire not to give up something of value;

- A misunderstanding of the change and its implications;

- A belief that the change does not make sense for the organization; - Low tolerance for change.

Coch and French (1948) focused their research on individual factors by analyzing psychological factors such as: fear, feelings of failure, resentment, frustration, and low motivation

Individuals’ reactions to change are a result of their emotions with respect to change (Liu and Perrewe 2005). Also, recent studies have provided evidence of a complex relationship between employees’ emotions and their reactions to change (Avey, Wernsing, and Luthans 2008; Hareli and Rafaeli 2008).

Reference

Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., &Luthans, F., 2008. Can positive employees help positive organizational change? Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 48—70.

Coch, L., & French, J. R. P., Jr. (1948) Overcoming resistance to change. Human Relations, 1, 512-532

Jeffrey D. Ford, Laurie W. Ford, Randall T. McNamara (2002) "Resistance and the background conversations of change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 15 Iss: 2, pp.105 – 121.

Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (1979) Choosing strategies for change. Harvard Business Review, 57, 106-114

Liu, Y., &Perrewe´, P. L. (2005) another look at the role of emotion in the organizational change: A process model. Human Resource Management Review, 15, 263—280.

Mabin, Victoria J., Forgeson, Steve and Green, Lawrence (2001) Harnessing resistance: using the theory of constraints to assist change management. Journal of European Industrial Training, 25(2/3): 168-191

Commitment in Change Management

Commitment to change can be described as “the glue that provides the vital bond between people and change goals” (Conner, 1992, p. 147). Commitment to change is considered to be one of most important factors for the successful implementation of change initiatives. 

There are many individual differences in how people typically respond to change (Oreg, 2006). These attitudes and behaviors can be of influence on employees’ commitment toward organizational change and its relation to behavioral support for change initiatives.

Lau and Woodman (1995) conceptualized commitment to change as a “specific attitude towards change”. For purposes of the present research, employees’ commitment to change will be defined the way Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) stated: “a mind-set that binds an individual to a course of action deemed necessary for the successful implementation of a change initiative”.

When attitudes of a person toward an organizational change are positive, you can say there is commitment (Coetsee, 1999). Several studies have shown that commitment to the organization contributes to the motivation of employees, increases employee performance, reduces absenteeism and ensures that employee turnover rate stays at a minimum (Coetsee, 1999; Herold, Fedor, Caldwell & Liu, 2008; Postmes, Tanis & De Wit, 2001).

Reference

Coetsee, L. (1999). From resistance to commitment. Public Administration Quarterly, 23, 204-222.

Conner, D. R. (1992). Managing at the speed of change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. New York: Villard Books.

Herold, D. M., Fedor, D. B., Caldwell, S., & Liu, Y. (2008). The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees' commitment to a change: a multilevel study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 346-357

Herscovitch, L., & Meyer, J. P. (2002). Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a threecomponent model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 474-487.

Lau, C. M., & Woodman, R. W. (1995). Understanding organizational change: A schematic perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 38(2), 537-554.

Oreg, S. (2006). Personality, context, and resistance to organizational change. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 15(1), 73-101.

Focus in Change Management

According to Suresh (2001), without a consistent focus, it becomes incumbent on each member to interpret the environment and to make decisions on which opportunities to explore from his or her own perspective. The likely result is a collection of highly skilled individuals, working extremely hard, and pulling the organization in a number of uncoordinated directions. Hence today's leaders must rely more on the discipline to focus on the right opportunities for the organization to steer the followers in the right direction. 

In an article published by Fast Company magazine (2008), author Dan Feliciano states, “It’s not that people don’t like change… they don’t like ambiguity and punishment.” Dan offers, “Organizations need to focus on creating and communicating strategies to the employees… by creating goals, objectives, measures, targets, and identifying and resourcing key initiatives for your organization and then cascading the measure and initiatives to every person throughout the organization.”

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the possible short-term increase in work, so try to stay focused on how the change will benefit the team in the long-run.

Reference

Suresh, H. (2001). Change Management. Must for today’s Organization. Coimbatore: Think Business Networks Pvt. Ltd.

Feliciano, D. (2008). You don’t need Change Acceleration Process (CAP) training… you need organizationally defined measured communicated, aligned goals and objectives. Fast Company. [online] Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/796226/you-dont-need-change-acceleration-process-cap-training-you-need-organizationally-defined-meas [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].

Leadership in Change Management

We know that leadership can make a great difference, and we know that its importance for organizational success is intensifying. Change cannot be accomplished without the commitment and involvement of the organization's leaders.

Bass (1985) states that leaders must promote change by creating vision. Generally, leaders must possess a clear understanding of the strategic objectives for their organization, identify the actions needed to reach those objectives and conduct an analysis of the organizations existing ideologies. Leadership and organizational culture are widely believed to belinked in the process of change (Schein, 1986).

According to Kouzes and Posner (1987) when facing significant change, “Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations”. Leaders therefore must be skilled in change management processes if they want to act successfully as agents of change

 

Let's look at the role a leader should play during the change process.  

Leaders must have a way of thinking about change. They should have a "model" which will guide analysis of the situation and help him to formulate the process of change to be implemented.

Leaders must have clear goals. They must have a clear idea of what results the change will generate. 

Leaders should initiate change at the point where they have the most control and can make reliable predictions about the consequences of their actions. 

Leaders should recognize that change in any one part of the situation affects the whole. They must be alert for unanticipated consequences of their actions.

Reference:

Bass, B. M. and B. J. Avolio, 1994, “Improving Organizational Effectiveness through Transformational Leadership,” Sage, Thousand Oaks CA. 

Kouzes, J. M. and B. Z. Pozner, 1987, The leadership challenge, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. 

Schein, E. H., 1992, Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, 2nd eds. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.