Change Management in Today's Bussiness - Article Example

Change Management In Today's Business Abstract Today the world has become a global village and markets have expanded to the extent that now firms are competing on a global level. This on one has provided firms with a massive opportunity and on the other hand it also demands more hard-work and effort from the workers. The challenge therefore is how to tackle the ever-changing work-environment. Today's companies are struggling to remain competitive, mainly due to the tough global competition, uncertain environments, cutbacks in personnel and resources, and massive worldwide political, social and economic shifts. The growing diversity of the workforce brings new challenges: maintaining a strong corporate culture while supporting diversity; balancing work and family concerns; coping with conflicts brought upon by the demands of women and ethnic minorities for increased power and responsibilities. Workers expect their managers to share power rather than the other way round. Organizations have become flatter in structure, forcing the flow of power and information to be pushed amongst the few lower layers. This allows the formation of teams whose front line workers play new roles as decision makers. Thus, today's business world is highly competitive. One needs to reshape and react to the rapidly changing and evolving needs of the world if they are to survive and thrive. Resistance to change would mean the end of the road, both for the leader himself and the organization. Today customers are demanding more than an excellent service. If one doesn’t supply it, the competitors will. Organizations are therefore aiming to reshape themselves to change quickly, so that in the long-run they may be able to meet the needs, and honor the demands, of their customers. The organization's top leaders know that in order to attain their long-term goals they would require highly skilled, trained and committed workers. Forces of change More and more organizations today face a dynamic and changing environment. This, in turn, requires these organizations to adapt. Hence, it is important to consider the changing nature of the workforce. Most organizations, today, have to adjust to cope up with a multi-cultural environment. Human resource policies and practices have to change in order to attract and keep this more diverse workforce motivated and willing to work. And many organizations have to spend large amounts of money on training to upgrade various skills of the employees. Also another important factor that is responsible for bringing about change in the global business environment is the technology. The substitution of computer control for direct supervision, for instance, is resulting in wider spans of control for managers and flatter organizations. Sophisticated information technology is also making organizations more responsive. Companies like Ford, AT&T, Motorola, General Electric can now develop, make and distribute their products in a fraction of time it took them a decade ago (Luecke, 2003). Also individuals doing narrow, specialized and routine jobs are being replaced by work teams whose members can perform multiple tasks and actively participate in team discussions. Competition is also changing. The global economy means that the competitors are as likely to come from across the ocean as from across town. Heightened competition also means that the established organizations have to defend themselves against both traditional competitors that develop new products and services and small entrepreneurial firms with innovative offerings. Successful organizations will be the ones who can change themselves in response to the competition. They will be fast on their feet, capable of developing new products rapidly and getting them to the market quickly. They will, in turn, require an equally flexible and responsive workforce that can adapt to rapidly and even radically changing conditions. Resistance to change There is a definite downside to the resistance to change and that is hindrance to the process of adaptation and progress. It doesn’t necessarily surface in a standardized manner. Resistance can be overt, implicit, immediate, or deferred (Robbins, 2004). It is easiest foe the management to deal with resistance when it is overt and immediate. For instance, a change is proposed and employees quickly respond by voicing complaints, engaging in a work slowdown, threatening to go on a strike, etc. The greater challenge is managing change when it is implicit or deferred. Implicit resistance efforts are more subtle, like, loss of loyalty to the organization, loss of motivation to work, increased errors or mistakes, increased absenteeism, etc (Robbins, 2004). Similarly, deferred actions cloud the link between the source of the resistance and the reaction to it. A change may produce what appears to be only a minimal reaction at the time it is initiated, but then resistance surfaces weeks, months or even years later. Or a single change that in and of itself might have little impact becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Reactions to change can build up and then explode in some response that seems totally out of proportion to the change action it follows (Luecke, 2003). The resistance, of course, has merely been deferred and stockpiled. What surfaces is a response to an accumulation of previous changes (Luecke, 2003). Resistance to change may actually exist at two separate levels, individual level and organizational level (Luecke, 2003). If we look at the individual sources of resistance to change, they mostly emanate from basic human characteristics such as perceptions, personalities and needs. Habit is one of the reasons why individual resistance to change may exist in employees. As human beings, we are creatures of habit. Life is complex enough; we don’t need to consider the full range of options for the hundreds of decisions we have to make everyday. To cope with this complexity, we all rely on habits. But when confronted with change, this tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of resistance. Also, another factor is security, as people with a high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens their feelings of safety. Economic factors also are a strong source of building up individual resistance. As changes in job tasks or established work-routine can also arouse economic fears if people are concerned that they won’t be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards, especially when pay is closely tied to their productivity. Also, the fear of the unknown may hamper employee morale and result in resistance to change. The other level of resistance is the organizational resistance. Organizations, by their very nature, are conservative. They actively resist change. Government agencies want to continue doing what they have been doing for years, whether the need for service changes or remains the same (Robbins, 2004). Organized religions are deeply entrenched in their history (Robbins, 2004). Attempt to change church doctrine requires great persistence and patience. Educational institutions, which exist to open minds and challenge established doctrine, are themselves extremely resistant to change (Robbins, 2004). The majority of business firms, too, appear highly resistant to change. From a Leadership perspective Today the world has become a global village and markets have expanded to the extent that now firms are competing on a global level. This on one has provided firms with a massive opportunity and on the other hand it also demands more hard-work and effort from the workers. The challenge therefore is how to tackle the ever-changing work-environment. When one speaks of the dynamic work environment one has to realize the importance of Good Leadership in such a scenario. So, the leaders of today's companies have a lot to care about and a lot of responsibilities to take care of. Therefore, it is totally up to the leadership to make most of the human skills at hand and motivate them in order to make sure that they adapt quickly and easily to the work environment and thus maximize efficiency. Today's companies are struggling to remain competitive, mainly due to the tough global competition, uncertain environments, cutbacks in personnel and resources, and massive worldwide political, social and economic shifts. The growing diversity of the workforce brings new challenges: maintaining a strong corporate culture while supporting diversity; balancing work and family concerns; coping with conflicts brought upon by the demands of women and ethnic minorities for increased power and responsibilities. Workers expect their managers to share power rather than the other way round. Organizations have become flatter in structure, forcing the flow of power and information to be pushed amongst the few lower layers. This allows the formation of teams whose front line workers play new roles as decision makers. Thus, today's business world is highly competitive. One needs to reshape and react to the rapidly changing and evolving needs of the world if they are to survive and thrive. Resistance to change would mean the end of the road, both for the leader himself and the organization. Today customers are demanding more than an excellent service. If one doesn’t supply it, the competitors will. Organizations are therefore aiming to reshape themselves to change quickly, so that in the long-run it may be able to meet the needs, and honor the demands, of their customers. The organization's top leaders know that in order to attain the long-term goals they would require highly skilled, trained and committed workers. Leaders need to ensure a transition amongst workers from change avoidance to change acceptance, which can then be observed throughout periods of change. According to Donald Clark, there are 5 steps accompanying change. The first is Denial, where the employee has a traditional mindset where he cannot foresee any change occurring in his work, then comes Anger, when he realizes that he has been forced into changing, but he still cannot face the reality and is not in favor of the change, then comes Bargaining, where he finally accepts the fact that he’ll have to do things differently now and he tries to keep himself and others happy, however, this is soon accompanied by Depression, where he keeps comparing his older job parameters to the new ones and he doesn’t find the new way of work easy and interesting. The final stage comes after the depression phases out, and this is called Acceptance, where he finally gets used to the new way of work (Roberto and Garvin, 2005). This probably explains why a worker’s first reaction is always to resist change. Workers tend to feel comfortable performing the same tasks and processes in a particular and timely manner. This comfort helps them by providing them the security and forcing them to believe that they are the masters of their environment. So it would be obvious for them to fear a disruption in their lives, as they fear that if they aren’t able to adapt and learn, their jobs might become harder, and they might lose control over their jobs. When one speaks of change management and the role leaders tend to play in bringing about the change necessary for an organization to perform, leaders skill come into account, especially emotional intelligence. There are 5 main components to emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1998). Self-awareness is the trait where emotional intelligence actually begins, such leaders are never hesitant to talk about and discuss their weaknesses and it is this attitude that later brings upon a positive change in them as they are able to improve upon such weaknesses with time. This helps a leader in bringing about change as he is someone who knows his limitations and he knows when and where he can actually stand-up and deliver for the rest of the workforce and be a motivator for them, i.e. when can he lead by example. Thus he knows which tasks and changes can actually be brought about in an organization and which ones cannot be. The second trait is self-regulation, and that leaders with this trait can control their emotions and impulses better and channel them for good purposes (Goleman, 1998). This brings about an openness to change in their attitude and behavior, and increases their trustworthiness and integrity, and also helps them remain comfortable in ambiguous situations and scenario. And this is what subordinates try to see in their leaders, especially in times of change. Motivation is perhaps the most important trait and the most obvious one that a leader is judged upon. It’s the motivation abilities of a leader that gives the sub-ordinates the notion that the leader has a strong drive to achieve. It portrays the optimism of the leader to the followers, such that they know that their leader would still be optimistic when facing failure, so it has to do more with the mind than anything else. It is the positivity of the mind, it emanates from the mind of the leader and leads its way to the minds of the followers (Roberto and Garvin, 2005). Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. Empathy is the trait that enables a leader to be an expert in building and maintaining talent. It enables him to treat people according to their emotional reactions. This is why he can be successful in getting the most out of the talented people that work under him, it thus makes him a better man manager. He is able to manage and lead people from various different backgrounds and cultures, belonging to various social and economic classes, i.e. it increases the cross-cultural sensitivity of the leader himself. With the businesses and economies globalizing, leaders have to lead and manage people belonging to different cultures which is the major reason why change management in such a scenario is very difficult, however, if only a leader can empathize with his followers, it makes the job half as difficult as before. The last trait that comes under emotional intelligence is the social skills of the leader. A leader needs to be proficient in managing relationships and constructing networks that lead to effectiveness in change management. Such a leader is able to find common ground between individuals and situations and scenarios and is able to build rapport. It also improves his persuasiveness and the ability to build and lead teams. Bringing about change in an organization is a very hectic task and it requires dedication from both-ends, the leadership and the followers. Leaders need to be aware of what is the current situation of areas and departments where changes have taken place by involving persons who will be in charge of the results. Analyze the conditions with the representatives. Indulge in strategic planning that leads towards success after change in organization. Continue activities with involvement of employees that will help in solving problems and also in improvement of change process. Finally measure, examine and estimate the change. Another important tool in ensuring effective transformation is collaboration and good communication, which is essential and plays a vital role in process (Kotter, 1995). All processes, practices and functionalities give more values to customer, goals and performance for achievement of goals. There should be internal solutions. Horizontal, Vertical and multi directional interaction must be carried out before change in organization. For a leader, it is important to study the present culture of the organization and to know where one is. It is also necessary for a leader to identify employees who want change and those who are not happy with change. Take examples from existing model that has effectively implemented change and also communicate with them regarding their experience with change. Don't be immediate at trying to completely change existing culture, but take advice from people about ways to implement change and methods to solve the problems while implementation. Vision may help you in change, but this is not the only way. Creating a learning organization What Total Quality Management (TQM) was to the 1980s and reengineering was to the 1990s, the learning organization has become today (Luecke, 2003). It has helped managers develop and look for new ways to successfully respond to a world of interdependence and change. A learning organization may be defined as an organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change. Just as individuals learn, so too do organizations. In order for an organization to exist sustainably, they all have to learn, it is a fundamental requirement. However, some organizations such as Xerox, Ford, General Electric, Wal-Mart, Corning, Federal Express just do it better than others (Robbins, 2004). Most organizations engage in what has been referred to as single loop learning, in which errors are corrected using past routines and present policies. Learning organizations, in contrast, use double loop learning (Kline and Saunders, 1997). When an error is detected, it is corrected in ways that involve the modification of the organization’s objectives, policies, and standard routines. Double loop learning challenges deep rooted assumptions and norms within an organization. In this way it provides opportunities for radically different solutions to problems and dramatic jumps in improvement. Some of the main characteristics of a learning organization, include, a shared vision of the entire workforce to which everyone agrees and believes in (Kline and Saunders, 1997). Also people part of such an organization discard their old ways of thinking and the standard routines they use for solving problems or doing their jobs. The members also think of all the organizational processes, activities, functions and interactions with the environment as part of a system of inter-relationships. Learning organizations also permit their employees to openly communicate with each other (across vertical and horizontal boundaries) without fear of criticism or punishment. References Mayer, John (2004). Leading by Feel. Harvard Business Review Kline, Peter and Saunders, Bernard (1997). 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