Managing Change in an Unstable Company - Essay Example

?Managing change in an unstable company Large-scale commercial enterprises are composed of diversified personalities in their human resource. This implies varied behaviors and management technicalities for cohesion among members of the organization and in organizational processes. Consequently, efficient and effective management is a necessity for a successful large-scale organization; otherwise, instability becomes a threat to sustainability and growth. This paper explores management of organizational change in an unstable organization. Introduction Change refers to transition from a condition to another. Organizational can either be positive or negative to different or all parties in an organization. Managing such changes, especially adverse changes, are important in defining an organization’s progress. This paper explores a case scenario to determine possible initiatives for managing adverse changes in an organization. The paper reports on different approaches that the organization’s leaders must adopt to rescue the unstable company. Summary of the company’s case The organization that has been financially disadvantaged has undergone numerous challenges in the past one and a half years. These include high employee turnover rate, inability to update the company’s software for application in the Information and Technology systems, and stressed up employees who lack motivation. Even though the company’s top management has developed a strategy for reorganizing the company’s jobs and responsibilities, each moment of imminent implementation of the strategy is impaired by employee turnover. A more comprehensive approach, based on an understanding of organizational behavior, is therefore necessary for a successful implementation of the strategy towards the company’s rescue. This includes consideration of organizational development process skills, change strategies, cultural considerations, the role of information technology, communication skills, leadership, and resources and mechanisms for supporting the proposed change. Possible application of the elements is explored bellow. Required organizational development processes skills Skills in organizational development process are very essential in managing change in any unstable company. This is because such an organization is in dire need of a developmental phase to spearhead its recovery. The skills can for example motivate positive change even in instances where developmental initiatives have not been identified. One of the fundamental skills in development processes is an in depth knowledge of the processes and behavior in the subject organization. This has the advantage of facilitating effective strategies that can successfully spearhead developmental change. Listening and communications skills are also fundamental in development processes that involve coordination of different personnel and activities. Similarly, skills in research and statistical analysis are critical for monitoring and evaluation of change. The skills allow for identification of underlying problems for policy development, determination of progress made in development processes, and control of implementation of change strategies. Identification and implementation of the skills in the organization will facilitate knowledge development in the company’s core problem and a subsequent management towards implementation of a selected policy (Brown, 2005). Short and long-term strategies The company also needs to develop strategies for its developmental strategies. Elements of capacity based theory of change processes; dynamism, learning, and personnel based strategies facilitate development. From this perspective, the company can develop short-term strategies such as employee motivation with the aim of controlling employee turnover during a planned reorganization initiative. Similarly, short term training to promote dynamism among existing employees, prior to a planned reorganization initiative, is essential in facilitating employee’s reception of change. This is because fear of impending change, in conjunction with other factors such as low rewards, could be a factor to employee turnover in the wake of a planned change initiative (Harvard, 2005). Long-term strategies however include proper human resource management that should recruit and select dedicated employees. Development of an appropriate personnel retention policy is another essential strategy for the company. Establishing a culture of dynamism is also an essential long-term initiative to preparing employees for change initiatives. This would counter employee mobility that could be caused by fear of change (Harvard, 2005). Cultural considerations Culture defines people’s behavior, and level of tolerance to change and general work environments. As a result, it is a possible cause of the company’s inability to implement its proposed change initiatives. The company’s executive therefore needs to understand cultures among its employee population because employees’ cultures determine their suitability to and reception of specific roles in an organization. An understanding of culture will therefore influence job reorganization strategy to generally acceptable job specification and will influence appropriate role allocation in the proposed reorganization model (Brown, 2005). The role of information technology Information technology is another essential tool in administration of normal operation processes and change processes. It also facilitates communication and digital operations. Poor management of information technology systems or application of outdated ones would therefore discourage employees. Similarly, reorganizing the organization without dynamism in technology may impose job complexities to initiate employee turnover. The management should therefore update its information technology to correspond to proposed development processes and to train employees accordingly (Tracy, Slimpson and Deetz, 1999). Leadership Leadership is another instrumental element in managing developmental change in an organization. This is because of its basic role of influencing members of an organization into implementing proposed initiatives. While a proposed change may face a number of challenges such as poor technologies, development process skills and strategies, effective leadership may influence personnel to commit to change. The management should therefore adopt effective leadership skills to influence employees’ commitment to both the organization and its processes (Tracy, Slimpson and Deetz, 1999). Communication skills The management also needs to consider the company’s communication strategies. This is because while efficient communication approaches are essential to developing change programs and subsequent implementation of the programs, poor communication is an identified barrier to change initiatives. This supports a possibility of poor communication for identifying a communicating a proposed development change as a reason for employee turnover prior to implementation of developed plans. The company’s executive should therefore consider its vertical communication initiatives (Brown, 2005). Resource and mechanisms for supporting change Resources and mechanisms are instrumental in facilitating organizational change. Human resource, for example, facilitates change implementation processes while technological mechanisms enhance evaluation of available change alternatives for applicability and monitoring and evaluation of implementation processes. Adequate considerations should therefore be made to ensure that the factors are available to support developmental change (Brown, 2005). Conclusion The case identifies diversified factors as potential causes of the company’s failure to reorganize its jobs and responsibilities. This report therefore recommends that the company’s executive reconsiders, for improvement, its development process skills, change strategies, cultural considerations, state of the company’s information technology, top leadership style, communication approaches and resources and mechanisms for change. References Brown, K. (2005). Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. New York, NY: Routledge. Harvard Business Press. (2005). The essential of managing change and transition. MA: Harvard Business Press. Tracy, S., Slimpson, J. and Deetz, S. (1999). Leading organizations through transition. London, UK: SAGE. Read More