The Politics of Organisational Change - Essay Example

? The politics of organisational change BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE The politics of organisational change “The very dynamics of planned change subsume human freedom and thereby induce conformity and compliance” (McKendall 1993, p.94). Introduction Planned change is defined as “a negotiated order and organisations are arenas in which internal groups seek to exert influence in multiple constituencies” (Grieves 2010, p.8). In relation to change, the McKendall quotation denies the efficiency of the structural-functional perspective of organisational change whereby governance actors view the organisation as a machine, with inter-dependent components that must function efficiently in order to enact effective change. McKendall would be supporting the multiple constituencies view of organisational change in which governance tactics and recognition of needs associated with the psychological contract are fulfilled through transformational leadership to gain subordinate compliance and conformity to change objectives. Transformational leadership is a system whereby leaders charged with governance and systems design utilise inspirational, visionary and commitment-based strategies to build subordinate confidence and motivation toward change goal attainment (Leithwood and Poplin 1992). This is a change from transactional leadership, a traditionalist governance system where rewards are strictly contingent on performance from a functionalist perspective. Trust-based philosophies in transformational leadership are designed to foster job role autonomy and flexibility, thus promoting employee freedom to ensure dedication and loyalty to meeting organisational objectives. The multiple constituencies perspective is inter-linked with chosen management philosophy as it relates to connecting with subordinate personnel with recognition of emotions and psychological needs related to their decision-making power in the organisation. It is not until these needs are satisfied that change can be enacted successfully as constituencies in the organisation respond according to perception of politics rather than the tangible realities of change, politics and organisational design. The politics of change and psycho-social considerations The multiple constituencies approach to organisational development recognises the foundations and validity of the psychological contract as a template methodology for enacting more consensus-based organisational changes. This post-modern approach to managing people and leading them through organisational change practices rejects unitarism as a viable management strategy, a system of governance that is centralized and control is established through non-consensus governance actors (Grieves). Effectively, in order to attain commitment and adherence to change practices, the subordinate constituency must be granted recognizable power-sharing opportunities throughout the change processes to promote perceptions of autonomous working environments; a lean toward organisational democracy. However, in order for a legitimate and true democracy to exist, it must sustain seven distinct characteristics. These are freedom, openness, trust, transparency, fairness, equality and accountability (Barrett 2010). “If there is no consensus within organisations, there can be little potentiality for the peaceful resolution of political differences associated (with change)” (Almond and Verba, p.251). Planned change, such as the push and pull factors identified through Force Field Analysis, dictate the need for negotiated strategies in order to maximise positive change outcomes. For instance, when fear of change is identified as it relates to a specific change goal, fear can be mitigated through more effective interpersonal communications between governance and subordinate work teams or promoting job security as part of the psychological contract. In this case, the leadership of the organisation appeals to the foundational needs of employees as identified in the fundamental Hierarchy of Needs promoted by psychologist Abraham Maslow to ensure compliance to change goals. Why is the psychological contract such a considerably-important element of the multiple constituencies perspective to politics and change? One must understand, first and foremost, the generic social attitudes that exist within the constituency population about the dynamics, viability and overall value of politics. According to Kacmar, Bozeman, Carlson and Anthony (1999, p.391), “organisational politics involves actions by individuals which are directed toward the goal of furthering their own self-interests without regard for the well-being of others or their organisation”. The very definition of politics indicates informal actions that occur as a product of seeking self-serving agendas related to career or goal attainment. Ferris and Kacmar (1992, p.101) further support this notion of organisational beliefs about the viability of political structures, offering “most people perceive only the dark side of politics, and indeed there is a dark side, characterised by destructive opportunism and dysfunctional game playing”. When these perceptions about political systems exist within the constituency, it is difficult to gain support for change and ensure compliance without more management adherence to interpersonal relationship development and transformational leadership style. The fulfilment of removing false or distorted perceptions of political systems involves sustaining governance practices that motivate, reward or otherwise establish equitable processes associated with consensus-based decision-making policies and structures. Conformity and compliance occur as a product of these psycho-social interventions rather than structural-functional justification. This justifies why freedoms and autonomy are concepts linked with less change resistance in the organisation as effective planned change that considers more than simply the structural components of the change objective considers emotion and tackles responses to the irrational or unpredictable psycho-social responses of constituency. Autonomy in the job role is directly linked to organisational and governance credibility (Burton 1999). Ferris, Frink, Behawuk and Zhou (1996) indicate that perception of credibility is enhanced by establishing effective justice systems whereby human resources efficiencies create procedural activities that promote fairness and justice. Under the organisational development and multiple constituencies perspectives, it is necessary to create processes involving job role inter-dependencies to achieve certain planned change objectives and outcomes. Actors in the organisation responsible for maintaining critical path responsibilities related to their job role are the most significant players in achieving goals throughout these processes. Thus, organisational governance must be considered with equity in task delegation whilst also promoting autonomous working environments in other to gain conformity and compliance to the change and associated systems view applications involved. Planned change that adopts a strategic approach which identifies more than systems diagrams will consider the impact of change on worker psychology through various HR-induced needs analyses to ensure effective procedural justice and power-sharing opportunities throughout the course of the change. This is why McKendall’s quotation of planned change suggests the establishment of liberties as part of functional-structural philosophy with consideration of the multiple constituencies approach to gain credibility and thus achieve compliance. Grieves (2010) offers creativity, volition and critical theory suggesting that change results from conflict and is not an effective outcome of consensus leadership. This perspective on change leadership would seem to refute the other aforementioned theories of organisational politics and change that strongly demand consensus based on psycho-social needs of the constituency. Conflict takes many forms within the organisation stemming from poor interpersonal communication, the establishment of poor procedural justice systems, unitary management adopting transactional rather than transformational principles in governance or poor establishment of cultural unity that clearly motivates individuals toward goal-attainment. If the psychological contract and its complex elements are so critical to the establishment of change management compliance and adherence, why would Grieves (2010) offer support for conflict as a positive catalyst for effective change? Conflict does not necessary have to sustain negative connotations, as it can be an effective motivator of learning-by-doing. The complexities of resistance to change, as one example, can create unpredictable and irrational responses as it relates to psycho-social programming in groups or in the individual, thus generating conflict as it relates to governance style or generalized fear of change methodologies. It would be impossible to assume that even the most comprehensive planned change activities stemming from management actors can identify all of the uncertain emotional responses of individuals. Learning what motivates resistance to change, by assessing individual responses and creating counter-resistance strategies to defeat irrationality or extreme, unpredictable emotional conflicts in attitude or behaviour, lays a new template by which to plan psycho-social conflict responses in the future. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998) propose that the process of learning is emergent, iterating that the past is critical to understanding and self-development. By allowing conflict to occur throughout the change process, it maintains the ability to promote learning about the complex dimensions of human behaviour that will inevitably surface during certain change objectives. By following conflict throughout the change strategy, lessons in transformational leadership improvements, more effective HR strategies and project management can create innovative and effective solutions to resistance factors. Since all factors of human social and psychological behaviours cannot be quantified statistically, as might be suggested through the structural-functional approach to systems management, learnings that emerge through conflict assist in future Force Field Analyses development or other evaluation tools for change goal attainment to recognise factors of the psychological contract that have moved from unpredictable to tangible and predictable based on known historical patterns of individual conflict and non-compliance. This would, in theory, have the ability to establish a more effective procedural justice system and also establish cultural unity by improving the ability of leaders to approach workers with better motivational tactics and reward systems within the change processes. None of the views of organisational politics or theories of planned change efficiency can account completely for the absurd or illogical assertions that stem from the subordinate population during the change management process. Jackson (2008) offers the psychological phenomenon of sensation seeking, in which an individual pursues active exploration, a common biological drive that promotes curiosity and learning comprehension. Under sensation seeking theory, motivations are enhanced when individuals take an active role in experiential scenarios involving tactile interventions. Merriam, Caffarella and Baumgartner (2007) further identifies that adults must be actively involved in a process or system in order to be fully engaged, inquisitive and enact long-run learning and comprehension. Without recognition of the multiple constituencies approach to leadership, it will remove opportunities for consensus-based, democratic decision-making and deny active participation within the change processes, thus reducing motivations. Opportunities to explore innovation with a hands-on methodology would, under psycho-social theories, remove risks to achieving planned change objectives. The creation of autonomous, free working systems provide sensation inducements and also experiential opportunities for learning and expression of subordinate creativity and thus enhance compliance and adherence by, again, appealing to the psychological mechanisms that drive satisfaction. The elements of human behaviour, under psychological theory of motivation, again justify the use of transformational rather than transactional leadership as part of planned change to ensure reduced change resistance and improved efficiency toward attaining the final change outcome. Why are all of these concepts of the psycho-social programming found within diverse individuals in the organisational environment so critical to understanding political structures and change championing? The concept of developing strategic planning control and evaluation systems, such as Force Field Analysis, look toward the drivers that promote change and those that conflict successful establishment of proposed change outcomes. Structural-functional view, a more traditionalist management perspective, would largely negate the influence of personality-based or emotionally-based responses that occur throughout the system redevelopments that are critical for attaining change outcomes. Managers in today’s business environment must be more focused on becoming transformational, to include coaching, mentoring or other similar strategies related to human capital development if they are to be successful in mitigating resistance to change. McKendall’s quotation suggests that planned change is inclusive of freedoms as a means to compliance, however this would require rejection of rigid centralised hierarchies of control to promote autonomy and freedom of decision-making where organisational development is more than just structural, it is cognitive and psychosomatic in order to achieve results and gain adherence and commitment from various, diverse organisational actors. Psychology also offers the notion of emotional intelligence, a personality trait whereby an individual understands their own self-restraint capabilities, is able to discern and remove irrational perceptions from thought and action processes and also maintains awareness of the emotional state of others effectively (Boyle, Matthews and Saklofske 2008). This recognition of the concepts of emotional intelligence is an antithesis of the legitimate theorist definition of organisational politics as rather self-serving action and thinking to sustain one’s own objectives or career positioning. Considering the concept in terms of theory versus practice, a logical conclusion would be that genuine organisational politics do not exist when elements of empathy are put into organisational practice and policy since the concept considers more than fulfilment of a unitary agenda. The multiple constituencies view does recognise the complexities of human nature that demand assessment and mitigation in order to promote effective change outcomes, thus indicating the necessity for managers to sustain high emotional intelligence in order to gain effective motivation and compliance to change strategies. Running under the assumption that theory can be put into tangible organisational practice, should one support McKendall’s notion that freedoms as a product of planned change will bring higher compliance and dedication to employee support of the change initiative? Recognising the importance of emotional intelligence as a leadership-based factor throughout the change imperative, it would seem that planned change must, in practice, be anti-political as it extends far beyond satisfying the self-interested needs of management and takes on a much more altruistic style of governance that makes multiple considerations associated with the potential risks of psycho-social responses from subordinate actors to determine the most effective course of implementing and controlling change philosophies or change systems. The most dynamic example of this is the post-modernist view of multiple constituencies, creativity and volition as they provide options for subordinate actors and considers their unique preferences as critical resources throughout the entire change processes. Perhaps it is, genuinely and legitimately, the anti-political dimensions of change that serve as the only rational catalyst that leads to employee dedication and compliance to change imperatives. Transformational leadership style demands empathy and consideration of emotional needs when dictating organisational development parameters and also in relation to how governance actors inter-relate to individuals socially and professionally. Multiple constituencies recognise not only internal group needs that can facilitate resistance to change, but external stakeholders as well, thus indicating a non-political viewpoint of considering the well-being of others psycho-socially. Promoting opportunities for creativity and experiential learning through tactile involvement in decision-making and change processes indicates, also, an anti-political agenda whereby freedom is granted to promote subordinate satisfaction even in job roles where autonomy might not always be appropriate in highly centralized organisational hierarchies. However, risk mitigation strategies demand having counter-strategies for resistance which must take into consideration emotional and needs-based attributes of employees and then incorporating these into governance philosophies and organisational development to ensure effective compliance and adherence to change goals. There might be some theorists in organisational theory that would argue against an anti-political stance, suggesting a pragmatic belief that politics are inevitable and therefore inseparable from the organisation and the dynamics of relationships within the hierarchy. However, when multiple constituencies and creativity are promoted throughout the change imperative as legitimate sources of pull factors that detract from change successes, politics as they pertain to the accepted theorist definition of political concept are inappropriate and potentially ineffective within highly diverse populations of subordinate actors. The dynamics of the psychological contract and associated emotions-based strategies to achieve motivation, loyalty and compliance, by design, refute the potential for politics to exist if there are to be satisfactory outcomes in attaining positive change objectives. Conclusion Grieves (2010, p.8) refers to the definition of change as a negotiated order, suggesting a variety of potential outcomes of deliberations that are designed to be win-win, as the term negotiate is recognized as cooperation, bargaining or consultation with others in the organisation. Thus change, itself, negates the possibility of political strategies to be utilised in the organisation if the governance actors fully intend to ensure effective subordinate dedication and motivation to achieving goals and reaching the objective of compliance to these imperatives. This is an interesting concept when one looks at the legitimate definition of organisational politics and compares it to change management in practice and the various auditing or analyses tools commonly used to identify threats or resistance factors to change. It would seem, based on theoretical constructs, that politics must essentially occur within a proverbial vacuum to attain effective change outcomes that are separated from the multiple constituency approach or creativity and volition needed to foster support for attaining change goals. References Almond, G. and Verga, S. (1963), The Civic Culture, in Weingast, B. (1997), “The political foundations of democracy and the rule of law, American Political Science Review, 91(2), pp.245-262. Barrett, R. (2010), States in the evolution of democracy [online] http://www.valuescentre.com/uploads/2012-0619/Stages%20in%20the%20evolution%20of%20democracy.pdf (accessed August 7, 2012). Boyle, G., Matthews, G. & Saklofske, D. (2008), Handbook of Personality and Testing, Sage Publishers, pp.73-93. Burton, R.M. (1999), Tension and Resistance to Change in Organizational Climate: Managerial Implications for a Fast Paced World, Duke University [online] http://www.lok.cbs.dk/images/publ/Burton%20og%20Obel%20og%20Lauridsen%20tension%202000.pdf (accessed August 6, 2012). Ferris G. R., & Kacmar, K. M. (1992), Perceptions of organizational politics, Journal of Management. 18(1), pp. 93-116. Ferris, G., Frink, D., Bhawuk, D. and Zhou, J. (1996), Reactions of diverse groups to politics in the workplace, Journal of Management, 22(2), pp.23-44. Grieves, J. (2010), Organizational change: themes and issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jackson, C. J. (2008). Measurement issues concerning a personality model spanning temperament, character and experience, in Boyle, G., Matthews, G. & Saklofske, D. Handbook of Personality and Testing. Sage Publishers. (pp. 73–93) Kacmar, K.M., Bozeman, D.P., Carlson, D.S. and Anthony, W.P. (1999), An examination of the perceptions of organizational politics model: replication and extension?, Human Relations, 52 (1), pp. 383–416. Leithwood, K.A. and Poplin, M.S. (1992), Educational leadership, Research Library, 49(5), p.8 Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. (2007), Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide, San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Read More