Master Company - Overcoming Resistance to Change - Research Proposal Example

Overcoming Resistance to Change Organizational Change Student’s Name: Professor’s Name: Institution: Course: Date: Executive Summary Master Company is a large food manufacturing organization. It sells its products both locally and internationally. It has a large number of employees and many departments. Many employees are qualified in different fields of study. In this regard, the company’s innovative results are not poor. As a result of having qualified personnel the company realizes good returns. Despite having qualified personnel, the company is faced with a critical problem of overall management. In this regard, the company fails in many areas of operations ranging from the departments to the employees. The company’s structure is not complex. The directors are the top officials of the organization. The CEO is the second official from the top. Managers are in the third level of command. The management position is divided into senior and junior managers although both positions fall in the third command. Supervisors are the fourth officials in the organization. Still on the fourth command, the company has both senior and junior supervisors. At the lowest command are junior employees. The junior employees include laborers, cooks, and guards among others. Communication and authority flows from the top to the bottom commands. The company is in dire need of changing the management of the organization. In this regard, the organization has decided to consult professionals in the field of management to produce proposal for a research so that, the organization can improve results when implemented. As a management professional in a management consortium, I have been selected to spear head the proposal research of the company. The company has vowed to provide all the necessary resources required to aid the research process. In order for the proposed research to be successful I will be required to investigate the operations of the firm. I will also hold interviews and meetings with various employees. The company will be required to produce its past data for comparison with the present. Both senior and junior employees are reluctance to change. In order for a company to be successful in changing its management, some measures including measures include educating employees on the importance of change, and making them fully informed of the expected change among others should be implemented. For a company to have successful implementation of change, it must consider a number of factors including comprehending and pointing out the results of the change to the concerned people, marshaling people to accelerate and own change among others. The management should be aware that change does not occur in a vacuum. Table of Contents 1.0Introduction 5 1.1Literature Review 6 1.2Paradigm Guiding Assumptions to be Adopted 7 1.3Research Questions to be Addressed 8 2.0Research Design 9 2.1Sampling 11 2.2Gathering Data 12 2.3Gaining Entry 13 2.4Quantitative and Qualitative Data 14 2.5Interview Protocol 16 2.6Proposed Timeline 17 3.0Strengths/Limitations 17 References 19 Appendices 20 Appendix A 20 Appendix B 22 Overcoming Resistance to Change 1.0 Introduction Change in an organization is the biggest problem that many organizations face today. Poor management is contributed by many factors. Some of them include lack of skills in management and reluctance to change (Glick & Huber, 1995). This paper discusses the proposal research on management of change conducted on behalf of Master Company. Master company is a big international corporation which markets its products both locally and internationally. It enjoys innovative employees who bring new ideas. Despite of the company having adequate resources, it is faced with one major problem; managing change in its operations. As a result of poor management, the company has invited my company to assist in conducting a proposal research on management change in that organization. The management of the company has selected me to lead the proposal research. The company does not perform per the expectations of management. Sometimes the company produces more than the required products. On the contrary, it sometimes produces less than the required products. Senior employees are seen to collide as they do not clearly understand their roles. Some claim they are superior to their colleagues. On the other hand, junior employees are continuously being interchanged between departments. In this regard, they are not allowed to ‘specialize’ in one field as the company has many departments. The managers believe that because they are learned, nobody has the knowledge of advising them. The junior employees are good followers of the instructions that are given by their seniors. In order for change to be realized in the company, change strategies have to be implemented. Despite the fact that many people are reluctant to change, the research proposal would provide guidelines on how to implement change without causing problems to the organization. This would require investigation of the company’s operations as well as research from different sources which would be discussed in this dissertation. 1.1 Literature Review According to Glick & Huber (1995) change in an organization can be as a result of several reasons. They described the reasons as; features of the firm’s environment, features of the firm’s performance, organization’s top managers’ features, and features of a firm’s strategy and features of firm’s structure. Foster (2007) postulates that there are five themes normal to change efforts. The themes are contextual issues that deal with conditions and forces prevailing in a firm’s external and internal environments, content issues that deal with nature and substance of a specific change, criterion issues that deal with the results evaluated in a firm change efforts, process issues that deal with steps taken in the putting in place of an intended change, and last but not least theme which deals with behavioral and affective reactions to change. According to Tim (2008) organizational change is a procedure of change that brings about a metamorphosis which is sustainable from an image that creates drastic change in a firm’s services/products, clients/customers, channels of markets, margin sources, skills, persona, and competitive advantage, incorporating those changes with central competencies. He further describes organizational change as significant change which has an impact on the firm’s culture, power distribution, strategy, control systems and structure. According to Bourne (2009) rightsizing, total quality management, reengineering, and restructuring are the brands which firms use to explain change strategies. He further postulates that currently, generational diversity prevails than before in the workplaces. In this regard, the generational diversity establishes challenges that are new. The three major generational groups possess dissimilar life experiences which influence their view of the world as well as their interaction to organizations. JPC Training and Consulting (2002) points out that 70% of change plans do not succeed as a result of resistance by employees. It further proposes that agents of change can anticipate the vigorous opposition of those who are ‘in power’. This imagination of a firm is more complete and gives a better approach on the way an organization performs in relation to change. A firm requires the aspects of leadership, power, authority, management, vision, cultural change, and social control in order to perform successfully. The main concern of each of those aspects is dependent on the firm’s overall mission. 1.2 Paradigm Guiding Assumptions to be Adopted As a matter of fact, it is vital to note that most of the literature review was directed by positivist assumptions usually using observation methods. No research that was reviewed adopted more than one way approach and provided the purpose of attaining a full comprehension of staff manners post a changing process, but according to Saunders et al. (2009) this provides a big gap in literature. In this concern, the proposed study would use mixed methods of research design, entailing dissimilar sets of guiding presumptions for unlike components, so that maximum value of learning the research can be realized. Quantitative survey elements would be grounded on positivist guiding presumptions and would concentrate on figuring major constructs as well as surveying their inter-relationships. Qualitative interview would be grounded on constructivist/interpretivist guiding presumptions and would strive to comprehend more on the employees’ response to implementing change. 1.3 Research Questions to be Addressed Combining both the needs of the research prepared by the CEO and the knowledge gained from literature, the following hypothesis would be addressed. The research question will be identified and ideas form both experience and literature to come up with key concepts that will be investigated in the research (Fisher, 2007). Based on employee’s perceptions on change (JPC Training & consulting, 2002), reluctance to change is brought by individual people in an organization for instance; Hypothesis 1: Many managers do not want change to be implemented in an organization due to fear of job losses and demotion. In addition, some resist change because they do not want to go back to school to add skills as it would be a requirement by innovations being implemented. However, they do not resist directly but indirectly. A number of them use their juniors in the resistance campaign. Moreover, many of them when accept change when fully informed about it beforehand. Hypothesis 2: Junior employees on the other hand resist change due to fear of the unknown. However, after they are informed that they would be trained to adapt change, they readily accept due to speculation of salary increases. On the contrary, those who hate learning new ideas still oppose the changing move. Importantly, after receiving the full information about change they all accept its implementation whether it will affect them positively or negatively. 2.0 Research Design Upon approval of the research proposal, different methodological approaches will be used in the research are for instance, experimental, action research. The reason for conducting experiment will be to study the informal links. That means whether a change in one self-regulating variable would create change in another dependent variable (Saunders et al., 2009). The experiment to be conducted will involve both managers and subordinates in Smart Company. In this regard, the subordinates and managers to be experimented will be taken at random. The managers to be experimented will be informed of the planned changes in the organization. For instance, modern machinery will be bought for production department for production purposes. The managers and some employees from the production department will be trained on the use of the modern machine. After training, they will be required to use the machine in production. Saunders et al. (2009) contend that the participation approach enables the respondents to identify the difficulties brought about by change. The other untrained employees will continue producing using the old equipment and techniques. The results of the two equipment and techniques will thereafter be compared. In addition, an experiment will be conducted on employees in the sales department to test on increase in sales. In this regard, a number of employees will be selected and taught how sales can be improved. Afterwards, the company will set goals for all employees to attain at a certain given time. After the elapse of the given time, the results will be collected and compared to see the employees who would have better results. Research method to be used in the organization, will comprise of four themes; the first and foremost theme would focus and emphasize on the intention of the research. That simply means research which will be in action instead of research on action (Saunders et al., 2009). In this regard, the research will be about solving organizational issues such as the effects of change to the entire organization. In addition, the research will also involve all the members of the organization. Therefore, the members will be informed of how the changes will be implemented including the training they will be expected to undergo, the form of communication to be used and last but not least their future as a result of anticipated change. The second theme would involve the inclusion of practitioners in the research process and specifically a mutual democratic affiliation between researchers and practitioners. The practitioners and researchers might be academicians’ external or internal consultants or other practitioners. Consequently, the researcher will be a portion of the organization in which the change process and research will be undertaken instead of more distinctive research or consultancy where, for instance, workers become objects or subjects of learning. Therefore, the aim of the researchers will purposely be to implement change in the organization where all employees will be actively involved either directly or indirectly. The third theme would stress on the iterative scenario of the procedure of planning, diagnosing, evaluating and taking action. The action research twist will begin in a particular context and with a transparent purpose. According to (Saunders et al., 2009), the theme is always articulated as a goal. Diagnosis, which is sometimes known as analysis and fact finding will be conducted to facilitate action arrangement and decisions regarding the actions to be undertaken. The actions will be taken and assessed. Subsequent cycles will entail more diagnosis, considering past assessments, arranging further actions, taking those actions and assessing them. The last and not least theme will postulate that it ought to be transparent that the outcome will inform other perspectives (Saunders et al., 2009). 2.1 Sampling The intended method to be used in the research sampling scheme is systematic sampling. This will involve choosing the sample at normal intervals from the model frame (Saunders et al., 2009). In order to perform it, someone will be required to do four things. To begin with, one will be required to number every case in the sampling frame with a specific figure. In this regard, the initial case will be numbered 0 and the second case 1 and so forth. Secondly, the first case will be selected using a random figure. Thirdly, the sampling fraction will be calculated. Last but not least, systematic selection of subsequent cases will be done using the sampling fraction to find out the occurrence of assortment. In order to work out the sampling fraction, which is the fraction of the entire population required to be chosen, the following formulae will be used. Actual sample size will be divided by total population to give the sampling fraction. In case the sampling fraction becomes ⅓; selection of one in each 3 cases is required. That means each third case from the sampling structure. If the calculation results in more complex fraction, it will be okay to round the population to the closest ten or hundred (Saunders et al., 2009). In addition to this, it will be acceptable to add a small sample size till simpler sampling portions get calculated. Choosing one out of every three will not in the real sense be random because, every 3rd case will be subject to be selected. Therefore those in the middle will not get a chance to be chosen. In order to avoid that, a random figure will be used to make a decision on where to begin the sampling. If the fraction produced will be ⅔ of the employees interviewed about the need for change accepted it for instance, it will mean that ⅔ of all the employees in the organization accepted change. 2.2 Gathering Data The procedures to be used for recording, gathering, and safeguarding data will be many. Structured interviews will be the first one. In this regard, questionnaires based on standardized and predetermined or alike set of questions which are also referred to as interviewer administered questionnaires will be used. Every question will be read and the response recorded on uniform schedule, normally with pre-coded answers. The second procedure for gathering data will be semi-structured interviews. In this type of interview, a list of questions and themes will require to be tackled, even though they might range from one interview to the other (Schwab, 2005). In this regard, some questions might be omitted in certain interviews, provided a particular organizational background that is dealt with relative to the topic of research. The organization of the questions will also be diverse in relation to conversation flow. The question’s nature and the following consequent discussion indicate that, data will be recorded through audio-recording the discussion or maybe note taking (Saunders, et al., 2009). The other method of data collection to be used will be through unstructured interviews. In such interviews, there will be no predetermined number of questions to be asked in the entire session, although it will necessitate having a transparent thinking of what will be explored (Schwab, 2005). As the interviewee’s perceptions will be the one to direct the manner of the interview, it will be named as informal interview. Collecting data through observation will also be appropriate in this research proposal. In this regard, the researcher will try to participate in the activities of Smart Company and the lives of its employees in order to collect data. 2.3 Gaining Entry To pass gatekeepers and gain access to the organization, the management of the organization being accessed will be contacted, using letter for borrowing permission of access through the CEO – see appendix A, in advance to provide the necessary permission. In addition, it will also be a requirement to obtain consent and acceptance from anticipated participants in the group or organization in order to obtain admission to any data that they will be able to offer (Saunders, et al., 2009). Admission might impact upon the researcher’s capability to choose an embodying sample of members, or secondary information, for trying to answer the research questions and meeting the goals in unprejudiced manner and to come up with valid and reliable data. When researching in an organization, it will be important to ensure sensitivity remains to the reality that the researcher is in that organization temporarily whereas the employees he is collecting information from will require their business to continue as usual after his departure. In this regard, a cover letter for the survey in Stage 2 – see appendix B, will be given to the participants to get their consent and inform them of the confidentiality of the process. This will have an impact on the manner in which both the research findings and data will be analyzed. Moreover, the manner in which data is stored and collected from individuals will possibly be governed by data security legislation. Legislation of that sort will offer security of individuals relative to storing and processing individual data. Participants will possess the right of privacy to any information they will feel like. They will also have the right to voluntary participation and possess the right to move out completely or partially from the procedure (Saunders, et al., 2009). 2.4 Quantitative and Qualitative Data Quantitative data will be divided into two distinct groups; numerical and categorical data. Categorical data is the data whose figures will be impossible to measure numerically but possible to classify into categories (sets) according to the features that will recognize or explain the changeable or placed in order of ranking (Saunders, et al., 2009). Nominal or descriptive data which falls under the category of categorical data will be the data which is not possible to describe the numerical category or position them. For instance, a vehicle manufacturer will categorize the kinds of cars it makes as saloon, hatchback and haste to avoid ambiguity. Numerical data will be data which is “quantifiable”. In numerical data, every data value will be assigned a place on an arithmetical scale. Data will be analyzed using a far broader variety of statistics (Saunders, et al., 2009). Numerical data will be sub-divided into two ways namely; ratio or interval data, and discrete or continuous data. According to Schwab (2005), when using interval data, it will be possible to distinguish the disparity or hiatus between two data figures for a specific variable, but the relative distance will not be stated. The temperature of the thermometer which is measured in degrees Celsius is a good example. Despite the fact that the disparity between 30 degrees and 20 degrees is 10 degrees, this does not tell that 30 degrees is 1½ times warmer. Moreover, the ratio data will be used to work out the relative ratio or disparity between whichever two data values for a changeable. For example, if a manufacturing corporation obtains a profit of $400, 000,000 in a year and $800,000,000 the subsequent year, the profits would be said to be two times the preceding year. Qualitative analysis will involve three types of procedures; condensation or summarizing of meanings, grouping or categorization of meanings and ordering or structuring of meanings utilizing narrative. After writing all notes, or creating transcripts of an observation or interview, it will be possible to create a summary of the major points which will come up as a result of conducting the activity. The summary will condense protracted statements into concise statements in which the major sense of what will have been observed or said will be rephrased in lesser words. An instance of qualitative data will be where organizational documentation will be summarized (Saunders, et al., 2009). That data will be a vital basis in its own right such as, internal reports, using minutes’ meeting, schedules, planning documents and briefings, or such documentation will be used as a way of triangulating collected data. Categorizing data will entail two activities namely; establishing categories, and, following, appending those categories to purposeful portions of data. By doing will help to identify relationships and further widen the categories being used to aid this (Saunders, et al., 2009; Schwab, 2005). Categories will be derived from theoretical framework or existing data and will be, in effect, labels or codes which will be used to group data. They will offer an emergent structure which will be relevant to the research project to analyze and organize the data further. Data will also be analyzed through ordering or structuring of the meanings utilizing narrative. Narrative structuring will ensure that data will be structured both for a short time and relative to the organizational and social contexts of the research partaker. This kind of analysis will focus on the told stories on interviews, operating on their plots and structures. In addition, narrative analysis will be used to produce a rational story from the collected data on the time of interview (Saunders, et al., 2009). 2.5 Interview Protocol Three types of interviews will be conducted; semi-structured interviews, structured interviews and in-depth or unstructured interviews. Structured interviews will use questionnaires which will be grounded on a standardized and predetermined or similar laid down questions. Each question will be read and the response recorded on a standardized plan, normally with pre-coded replies. According to Schwab (2005) structured interviews are used to collect quantifiable data. If allowed by the company, this kind of interview will take three hours to conduct this kind of interview. Semi structured interviews will cover a number of questions and themes. According to the topic of research some of the questions will be omitted (Saunders et al., 2009). The arrangement of the questions will also be diverse depending on the conversation flow. The recoding of data will be note taking or audio–recording. This interview will also take three hours to conduct once given the permission to conduct such an interview. Unstructured interviews will be informal (Saunders, et al., 2009). The interviewee will be given the chance to talk frankly about various incidents, beliefs and behaviors relative to the topic. The interviewer will lead the interview and the interviewee will answer the questions asked by the person doing the research. The method of recording to be used will either be note taking or audio recording. This interview once allowed by the company to be conducted, will take two and half hours. 2.6 Proposed Timeline The time required to complete this research will be seven months. According to Schwab (2005) lengthy time in research is beneficial where there are numerous data to be collected and interpreted to enhance collection of relevant data. In addition, the time for recording and accessing data should be adequate. It might create misunderstanding when the interviewees begin to be hastened with questions regarding the research. The resources demanded to complete the research successfully are enough access to the relevant data, availability of recording equipment, laptops, computers or books for note taking. Phones will also be useful in some cases. Members of the organization to be interviewed will also be useful as they will provide information to be used in the research. 3.0 Strengths/Limitations There are several strengths and weaknesses in this research proposal. The research will offer modern methods of dealing with change without affecting the feelings of employees. In this regard, the approach of implementing change will be suggested accurately. It will compare work in Smart Company at different years. In this regard, the company will be able to detect the performance of the various departments when there were changes at different times. According to Schwab (2005) comparison of data helps to analyze both past and present trends which enable future prediction. It will provide the opportunity for the company to improve on the level of communication. It will provide an opportunity to improve on transparency and accountability among the employees in the organization. In this regard, employees will gain access to important information regarding the firm’s operations. In addition, the managers who were high handed will be reluctantly compelled to befriend junior employees. The proposal will show clearly the type of management at Smart Company which really needs to be changed. The proposal will also offer an opportunity of setting the roles to be played by managers and junior employees. It will offer an impact of implementing change in Smart Company. The research will however face limitations. To begin with, presently it is hard to predict the extent of access that will be permitted by the organization to conduct research. In this regard, if the admission will be denied, the research will be affected and might produce poor results. Some of the report which will be given by the employees could be false due their personal interests. In this regard, when the time of comparing data comes, it might exhibit great discrepancies. The recommendations in this research will be limited to Smart Company thus they will be generalized or transported beyond that firm. If the interviewees refuse to participate in the research, the collection of data will fall short leading to the conclusions to be made vulgar. Some employees might refuse to participate as a result of being recorded due to the fear of being victimized by management. In case of breakdown in equipment used for audio-recording, the whole process will be affected. On the other hand, computer breakdown will also interfere with the research process. Some members of the management believe that they cannot be given advice by anybody because they are senior employees. The hint used in the research proposal to make it feasible will be forming very good relation with employees. In this regard, more and accurate would be corrected. References Bourne, B., B. (2009). Phenomenological study of response to organizational change: Baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. ProQuest: ProQuest LLC. Daniel, F., S. (2007). Individual resistance, organizational justice, and employee commitment to planned organizational change. ProQuest: ProQuest Information and Learning Company Fisher, C. M. (2007. Choosing a topic and designing the project. In Fisher, C. M. & Buglear, J. Researching and writing a dissertation: A guidebook for business students.Harlow: Pearson/Prentice Hall Financial Times, 2007. Chapter 1, pp. 29-75. Glick, W., H. &Huber, G., P. (1995). Organizational change and redesign: Ideas and insights for improving performance. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press. JPC Training and Consulting. (2002). Organizational Change. Retrieved on May, 8, 2013, from http://www.jpc-training.com/change/review.htm. Tim, R. (2008). Understanding how to change: An inductive determination of how agents of state government plan, lead, and sustain change. ProQuest: ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Saunders, M. et al. (2009). Research methods for business students, 5th ed. Harlow: Pitman Publishing Imprint. Schwab, D. P. (2005). Research methods for organizational studies, 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Appendices Appendix A Draft letter for borrowing permission of access through the CEO Fine Management Consultants Letterhead Mr. Brown Deb CEO, Master Company 14 Oak Shire 17 Berhat Street Dear Mr. Brown, RE: PERMISSION TO ACCESS MASTER COMPANY My intention of writing this letter is borrowing permission of gaining entry to your organization to conduct a proposal research on resistance to change in your organization. I hope that you remember I replied your message you sent on 29 April 2013 for research in the aforementioned area. I therefore require your permission to gain access in; your office, your contact details, relevant documents and the departments in your organization. During the time of conducting interviews, I would need a small room with chairs and a table and doors which will be shut. I promise you that I will do the best research possible which will help your organization implement change. That report will be presented to you not later than seven months after initiating the research. I promise not to reveal any confidential information relating to your organization. I would ensure participants’ report confidentiality at the most possible way in order for them to see me as a researcher and not a decision maker. Participants’ responses will not be revealed to anybody. Thank you for hearing my request. I am positively waiting to hear from you soon in order to begin the research. Yours sincerely, John Jasen Fine Management Consultant Appendix B Draft cover letter for the survey in Stage 2 Fine Management Consultant Dear potential interview participant I am writing this to you because you expressed your wish in participating in a follow-up interview. The interview will offer you an opportunity of narrating your views regarding the proposed changes to operations in your organization. I expect the interview will take the shortest time possible. I assure you that the information you are going to give me will be private and confidential. Your participation in the interview will be voluntary and you might withdraw your participation anytime you wish. The interview will take place in room 4A at the Smart company main office. However, if you feel uncomfortable with that location do not hesitate to tell me so that we can organize somewhere else. The interview proceedings will be recorded so I seek permission in advance. The recorded information would be damaged on completion of the analysis. Please inform me you if you are satisfied with the interview so that I will call you to organize the best time. Yours sincerely, John Jasen. Fine Management Consultants Email: negs@fine.com.au Phone: (05) 7784-6547 I agree to be involved in the interview I am aware of what would happen during the interview and the confidentiality of the information I would offer the researcher. I am also aware of any quotations which would be present in the interview. I offer permission to be recorded in the interview: Yes No My signature proves acceptance of those conditions and portrays my dedication to participate: Read More