The Strategies of Queensland Department of Main Roads - Assignment Example

Managing People at Work Case Study Analysis (Health or Safety in the Workplace) Name Institution Date Introduction In modern day business environment, change is all invasive in organizations. Change occurs consistently and usually at swift speed. Since change is a portion of organizational dynamic, workers who are resistant to change can normally cripple a company. Resistance is an unavoidable response to change and if management doesn’t accept, understand and attempt to deal with resistance, it may dent the well intentioned change efforts. In 2003, road workers in Queensland department of Main Roads objected a major change that required them to work in long sleeved shirts and long trousers. This new focus on employee safety implied that new policies and guidelines were consistently being implemented to make sure that employees were safe from direct sunlight which had the capacity of causing skin cancer. This paper looks at how the strategies the department could have use to overcome employee resistance to change, the outside drivers and agents of change and the role of organizational culture in the change process. Question 1 Ways in which an organization could have overcome resistance of workers to the change The department can overcome employee resistance to change through education and communication,. According to Shermerhorn et al (2005), organizations can deal with resistance to organizational change through communication and education, involvement and participation, support and facilitation and negotiation and agreement. Effective education and communication is a good way that the department can use to overcome resistance to change Woods et al (2010) note that imprecise information might be a key reason to resistance to organizational change and thus an effective communication and education program might be useful in overcoming this resistance. The workers could be offered essential education on the importance of wearing long trousers and long sleeved shirts through conferences, meetings and training classes. The reasons on change should be communicated clearly and without any ambiguity and the management must also use a two way communication amid workers and management so that the management gets to know the reactions of the employees directly without delay. Communication should have been established amid the organization and the employees offering an opportunity to the two parties to discuss their views and concerns of the new dressing, and all the viewpoints and concerns communicated at both a formal and informal level (Robbins et al, 2008). Involvement and participation of employees in the change process is another way that the department could have used to overcome resistance to change. According to Hartog, (2004), people will find it hard to resists to a change in which they took part in. Before making and implementing the change, all the employees who were going to be influenced by the change should have been brought into the process of decision making. Their objectives and doubts should have been eradicated in order to win their support. This involvement of employees could have helped the department to overcome resistance to change, attain personal commitment and raise quality of change decisions. The employees should have been offered a chance to take part in the process of decision making through trailing the new dressing prior to its implementation, and be allowed to give proposals for what they would have like the department to implement as well as problems that they saw with the new dressing standards. Robbins et al (2008) argue that significant issue in making sure that a protective culture was embraced by construction workers was that workers needed to be conferred with in establishing the safety and health controls to be employed in the department. Through empowering employees to manage their safety and health matters and working cooperatively, the needs of both the employees and the department could be addressed (Griffin & Moorhead, 2010). The department could also have used negotiation and agreement to overcome resistance to change. According to Kotter (1996), negotiation and agreement is a scheme utilized when benefits and costs should be balanced for the gain of all the concerned parties. Because employees felt that their autonomy to decide on what to wear was being taken away by the change, the department could have negotiated with the employees before implementing the change. The department could also have asked employees to give their opinions on the alternative ways that could be used to ensure their workplace safety and skin cancer prevention due to direct sunlight. Question 2 Outside drivers of change and change agents Exterior driving forces of change are the kind of situations, events or things that happen outside of the organization and are beyond the regulation and control of the organization. The Cancer Council was the key external driver of change in Queensland department of Main Roads, an agency that offers recommendations on several sun safe strategies that organizations can take on to improve prevention and detection of skin cancer in workplace. The Cancer Council requires every workplace to implement an ultraviolet radiation protection program, which is a comprehensive strategy and policy for early discovery and prevention of cancer of the skin in workplace. Construction workers were viewed as having a greater risk of contracting skin cancer because of their long periods of exposure to ultraviolet rays from direct sunlight. Another external driver of change in Main Roads was the World Health Organization and the decision to direct workers to put on long trousers and shirts with long sleeves was based upon the advice of World Health Organization, which had demonstrated that Australia had the largest skin cancer incidence in the whole world. The organization had concluded that workers suffer from skin cancer as a result of working in sun, and thus through wearing long trousers and long sleeved shirts, construction workers could protect themselves from direct sunlight which is a major cause of cancer. The Queensland department of Main Roads was the major agent of change. The department required its construction workers to change the dressing standards by wearing long trousers and long sleeved shirts in order to protect themselves from skin cancer. The department decided to adopt this new measure as a way of changing the departmental culture to a secure culture. The department has an affirmative organizational culture that aims at protecting its employees and reducing hazards where possible. According to Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009), transformations in government regulations might greatly influence the way a company conducts business. Newly authorized safety procedures may force a company to transform its production processes in order to develop a safer working environment for its employees. A major driver in support of the change in dress standards to ensure a safety focused culture was dedication of senior leaders in the department who encouraged and demonstrated aspired safety behaviors in their business units. Question 3 Some of the functional and dysfunctional effects of organizational culture on the people and on the organization According to Morrison et al. (2005), a strong organizational culture focuses upon the environment it builds for its employees because this assist in encouraging a more productive and efficient organization. The Queensland department of Main Roads introduced the new dressing standard for its employee to create positive organizational culture which ensured that employees were protected from ultraviolet rays. Focusing on creating and maintaining organizational culture displays that workers are regarded a vital portion of the organization and this form of organization usually has amongst the excellent response from employees and thus have a greater opportunity of attaining its goal (Weinberg, & Cooper, 2007). Hartog (2004) notes that organizational culture also conveys the ideas and beliefs of the objectives that require to be achieved by and suitable behavioral standards the organizational members use to achieve their respective goals in the organization. The organizational values and turn develop the guidelines, expectations and norms for suitable behavior of workers whilst in a particular circumstance and control the behavior of employees with one another. In Main Roads, construction workers believed that they were required to take off their shirts when the came out in order to protect them themselves from heat stress during working hours and in order to battle this believe, the department endorsed the new dressing strategy so as to improve the departmental safety culture. The department aimed at promoting and influencing broad employee behaviors that were crucial to the creation of a constructive safety culture. Organizational culture had dysfunctional effects on employees and the entire Department of Main Roads. The culture made employees to resist change and improvement because of the belief that they were supposed to work with their shirts off in order to avoid heat stress. Hartog, (2004).argues that the very actuality that cultural derived mental models, values and norms are usually internalized by workers, usually makes them to resist change when they perceive these transformations as conflicting with the values they hold. The Maid Roads employees were resistant to the new dressing standards because they saw it as being contrary to their values. The construction workers also saw the change as diminishing the small quantity of autonomy they had; of deciding what they anted to wear and the way to manage the risk of heat stress during hot days. Organizational culture also acted as a barrier to cross organizational and cross departmental cooperation. According to Kilmann et al. (2002), while the term organizational culture is usually used, majority of large companies have sub cultures linked with diverse functional units of geographic locations. When coordination and communication is fundamental amid units with diverse sub cultures, there is misinterpretation of messages and conflict in priorities which hinders the capability of the units to work in a cooperative way to tackle a problem. In Main Roads , there are subcultures in every department that share core values and display behavioral norms that emerge form its linkages with past practices and customs and industry and the decision to amend dress standards had a negative effect on a particulat subculture of employees; the construction workers. Question 4 The Queensland department of Main Roads mechanistic organizational design or organic organizational design Organizational structure is utilized by organizations to get the most efficient way of delegating power, responsibilities and roles to its departments and employees. It also coordinates and regulates the way information flows amid diverse departments and managerial levels in the organization. Jones, G. (2010) argues that having an appropriate organizational structure allows an organization to implement good operating procedures as well as dictate the employees who assist in decision making and shaping the company. Mechanistic organizational structures are majorly for organizations that operate within a stable business environment, utilize centralized approach of power and sustain strong loyalty for the management. Firms that utilize mechanistic organizational design usually do not need to adapt or change their structure as a result of lack of creativity, innovation and swift decision analysis (Mintzberg, 1980). Organic organizational structure is utilized by companies operating in unstable environments and which are required to have the capability to transform accordingly. Mintzberg (1980) notes that they have the capability to process distribute and analyze knowledge and information very quickly to ensure that they remain competitive against their rivals. Companies using organic structures are required to communicate quickly and effectively through spreading information. The Queensland Department of Main Roads has an organic organizational design because it operates in a changing environment characterized by unanticipated events. The department needed to transform the departmental culture to a secure culture and this made the company to constantly implement new policies and guidelines to ensure safety of workers. The information on the new safety procedures and change of dressing standard was relayed through the use of information sessions to ensure that workers were quickly informed of the novel safety procedures. Question 5 How reduction in the autonomy of workers would do for their job satisfaction Reduction in workers autonomy would reduce job satisfaction of Queensland Department of Main Roads employees. According to Reis (2001), greater levels of autonomy on job raise job satisfaction and also motivate employees to perform their job. Employees who believe that they have the freedom to make selections in their workplaces and are responsible for their decisions are more productive, satisfied and happier. Autonomy might take diverse forms. An organization might let workers to set their individual working schedules, or select the way to undertake their jobs. When individuals feel that they have the freedom, the outcomes are impressive and potential benefits entail better performance, lower turnover, improved productivity, employee commitment and job satisfaction. A worker with a greater degree of liberty in workplace is highly likely to remain committed to a company. Commitment or organizational citizenship behavior, binds a worker to a company, thus minimizing the probability of job turnover (Hackman, & Oldham, 1976). According to Gagne and Bhave (2010), a committed worker has a high likelihood of finding organizational interests as individually meaningful and recognizes the well-being of the organization as a determinant of his individual job satisfaction. Whist commitment connects workers to a company, motivation acts as an energizing drive that stimulates actions within workers. Autonomy tends to promote the motivation of employee to undertake assigned tasks. Motivated workers proactively set their own goals in workplace and autonomy has a likelihood of enhancing job satisfaction. Katzell (1990) notes that in accordance to job design theories, greater autonomy should make workers to feel and have increased obligation for the results of their tasks and thus have greater work motivation. In addition, when workers have increased autonomy levels, their personality traits, particularly extroversion and conscientiousness have a greater impact on their job performance. Therefore, through offering workers more autonomy, they are capable of utilizing their personal traits to positively contribute to work performance (Mitchell & Mickel, 1999). Question 6 How I would have improved the implementation of the policy I would have improved the implementation of the policy by giving employees the autonomy to decide on the form of dressing that suited their needs. This could have improved workplace functions and prevent employee resistance to the new dressing standards through the suggestions and ideas of employees and also promote relationships with increased degree of loyalty and trust amid employees and management. I would have also improved the implementation of the new policy through encouraging an atmosphere of mutual trust and adaptability. Robbins et al (2008) note that to create trust, workers must have a feeling that they matter and they should also feel secure to speak their opinions plainly. Safe workers have the will to develop improvements themselves, a move that makes them change participants other than change resisters. Therefore, I would have asked the employees to offer opinions on the way the long trousers and long sleeved shirts could be modified to overcome heat stress and prevent safety and health risks associated with it. I would also have asked the construction workers to offer other alternative measures that could prevent skin cancer as a result of working under direct sunlight apart from the new dressing standards. When the ideas of an employee are explored and adopted, it generates trust and makes employees to feel valued. Meanwhile, in ratifying suggestions of employees, the organization itself becomes flexible, and the yoke of change does not rest with the employees only (Griffin & Moorhead, 2010). Conclusion Employee safety is a major concern for the management in every organization. The Queensland Department of Main Roads introduced the new dressing standards to ensure that employees were protected from sunlight during working hours. However, employees resisted this change because they felt that the new dressing exposed them to heat stress. In order to overcome this resistance, the company could have involved employees in the change process and give them a chance to offer suggestion on how the new dressing affected them and also to trail this dressing before its implementation. Organizational culture acted as a key driver of employee resistance to change because they felt that their beliefs and norms on their dressing was being tampered with and that their autonomy to makes decisions on what they wore was being taken away. As an organic organization, the Queensland Department of Main Roads decision making to make them feel that they were valued and their decisions had a great impact on the organization. References Robbins, S.P., Judge, T. 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