International Student from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom - Culture Change - Coursework Example

INTЕRNАTIОNАL STUDЕNT FRОM НОNG KОNG TО UNITЕD KINGDОM(СULTURЕ СHАNGЕ, СHАNGЕ LЕАDЕRSHIР; LЕАRNING ОRGАNISАTIОN & ОRGАNISАTIОN DЕVЕLОРMЕNT ) Name Class Unit Analysis of organisational change Introduction The success or failure of organisation change is determined by the surrounding context. The context acts as the catalyst for change or an inhibiting factor. The context in an organisation refers to the elements and triggers which are capable of having an impact on content and change process (Cummings and Worley, 2014). All change processes can be understood and analysed based on contextual themes. The contextual forces are both internal and external. The internal forces are; strategy, culture, management. The external factors are social political and economic (Waddell, Cummings and Worley, 2004). Organisational change consists of several themes which are: communications & Resistance; Planned Approaches; Process, Stories & Political Approaches; Change Leadership; Learning Organisation & Organisation Development (OD); Structure and Systems; Culture (Rees, 2008). This assessment analysis organisational change based on work experience I had while working as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong. The analysis will be based on change leadership and culture. The analysis from this experience will be used to present an insightful discussion on what contributes to effective change management in organisations. For organisations to remain competitive, they are expected to continuously adapt their behaviour with an aim of sustaining competitive advantage. According to Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley (2013), changing the mind-sets of employees is not an easy job. Despite this, it is important to move away from the traditional ways which are no longer adequate. Change also involves adjusting to a new environment. This can be compared to the moment that I moved in at the Chinese restaurant. It was a moment of change which required moving to a new environment. I had to adapt to a new environment and learn new ways of doing things. Changing to a new environment leads to internal and external pressure. This leads to organisational stress form both directions as well as discomfort (Rees, 2008). This triggers the change required in the organisation. In organisation change, leadership plays a major role. Leaders are supposed to accept change and lead it. Leaders accept the need for change in four stages according to Kets de vries (de Vries, 2011). The first stage involves pain where the current system makes people aware of the outcomes of continuing with the existing patterns. The second step involves reacting to change with shock and disbelief. The third step involves defensive routines where reluctance to change is seen. Lastly, there is recognition that status quo cannot be maintained. The leadership realises that clinging to status quo will lead to more stress (Rees, 2008). This makes it prudent to dive into unknown and the organisation becomes ready for change. Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley (2013) assert that joining a new organisation involves a lot of stress as one tries to fit in. I was new in an organisation that had new environment. I had to change myself and adapt the new environment. One is appointed into a knowledge driven society where they are expected to fit (Branson, 2008). The main challenge is learning new things and unlearning the old things. The leadership in the Chinese restaurant ensured that I was able to adapt to change fast. This involved helping me in building competencies and practices. There was training and development which was carried out through use of skill building exercises as well as job practices. Job practices included mentoring, assignments and rotations. At this point, practice is very vital. This is through the potential found in everyday experience. The leadership ensured that I was able to gain the desirable outcomes (Rees, 2008). It is also evident that leadership at the Chinese restaurant ensured that new employees adapted to change. The manager enabled me to adjust to the new environment and fit into the existing culture. Culture plays a very vital role in the contextual change process. Rees (2008) shows organisations culture is not uniform or static. This is due to fact that they evolve over time. Joining a new organisation represents a major culture change and uncertainty. The culture change is determined by the assumptions that culture is partnered and shared. Culture change includes changing the people mind-sets and behaviours (Vakola, Eric Soderquist and Prastacos, 2007). The moment I joined the Chinese restaurant, I was exposed to a completely new culture. I was assisted to become acquainted into the new culture through culture change. Culture change has an impact for each individual. Adapting to new culture was a major learning curve for me. The hotel had a power culture where orders emanated from the top (Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley, 2013). The orders were made by the management and the rest of the staff had to follow them unquestionably. The leadership in the restaurant ensured that culture was adapted in the organisation. This was done through several processes which included staff selection, socialisation, culture communication and removal of the deviating members (Cummings and Worley, 2014). The managers also acted as the role models to ensure they modelled the appropriate behaviours. The managers transmitted the culture to the workers. When one is faced with culture change, they become aware that tools for measuring their performance and loyalty has changed. The new culture may present one with low level of trust for the new system and culture shock (Rees, 2008). According to Rees (2008), the employee passes through four stages which are; disbelief and denial, anger, emotional bargaining and finally acceptance. This can be evidenced the moment I joined the workforce at the Chinese restaurant. Unless the four stages are recognised and dealt with appropriately, employees becomes resentful to change. This makes it hard to adapt to the new culture (Branson, 2008). In my case, the four stages were handled well leading to ease in adapting to culture change. Individuals resist change due to leadership failure. In some cases, leaders fails to grasp what motivates change. According to Cummings and Worley (2014), this may lead to high turnover and low levels of motivation. Leadership are expected to create an environment of psychological safety. This allows the individuals to engage in new behaviours and try the new culture. This allows one to test the validity of the new beliefs and values. The leaders must act as change agents where they prompt others to follow (Vakola, Eric Soderquist and Prastacos, 2007). In this case, leadership ensured that I was able to adapt fast. The leadership ensured that I unlearnt some of the cultural assumptions and learn new and alternative assumptions. Communicating across cultures is a challenge. This is due to fact that each culture has its own rules. There is need to learn new rules, values and beliefs associated with the new culture. This is attained through communication (Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley, 2013). When I joined the new culture, everyone in the restaurant expected me to act like the rest. The generalisation made it hard to adapt to the new culture. When communicating, what is correct in one culture may be inappropriate in another culture. This is a lesson that I learnt as I tried to adapt to the restaurant ways of doing things. I learnt that no culture is right or wrong, they are just different. The key to adapting in another culture is the ability to develop an understanding of the differences and respect them (Branson, 2008). I learnt that the role communication plays in changing behaviour. To attain change and adapt to a new culture, there is need to change the employee attitude first (Robbins, Judge, Millett and Boyle, 2013). Even when the behaviour does not change at the moment, it takes time to change. The moment I was able to improve my communication skills helped in changing my behaviour. Employees values helps in changing employees’ workplace behaviour. I was consistent in my values. When it comes to organisation change, it is vital to focus on the changing behaviour of employees (Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley, 2013). Vakola, Eric Soderquist and Prastacos (2007), claims that to change values, supervisors are expected to engage in face to face communications. In this case, the manager engaged in communication with me as a new employee. This was hard at first since I had poor communication skills. It took a long time for the behaviour change and adapt to new way of doing things. Communications by the line managers was aimed at attaining new behaviour and eliminate old values. The person close to the employees ensures that they eliminate old values. In this case, the manager was close to employees and ensured that there was change in values (Branson, 2008). The new behaviour was made consistent through communication. When new employees are recruited into an organisation, they influence culture in different ways. This is due to fact that they have fresh ideas and attributes. The management has a role to reinforce new norms and values (Waddell, Creed, Cummings and Worley, 2013). In this case, I entered the organisation with new expectations. The management worked hard to ensure that the desired behaviours and outcomes were reinforced. In an organisation, communication professionals such as managers are very important. They act as the catalysts when carrying out change. They articulate the change through asking the right questions and utilising the right data. Through communication, a transformative journey is made (Anstey, 2006). Communication acts as a reflection to culture. Without communication, there is low hope in changing culture. This makes leadership very vital in the process. By helping the organisation to communicate more effectively, it becomes possible to foster change (Vakola, Eric Soderquist and Prastacos, 2007). This is through creating a strategic business capability. The management at the Chinese restaurant used communication to ensure that I was acquainted with ways of doing things. The role of manager in ensuring that there was smooth flow of communication was commendable. It made it possible to understand how management and employees works together in ensuring change is successful. Being multilingual also helped a lot in adapting to the new culture. This is due to fact that after improving my communication skills, I was able to communicate with foreigners. Being an international student and multilingual from Hong Kong studying in UK has given me an edge in implementing organisation change in future. I have gained experience on how to lead and manage change. I have already seen how management and employees roles intertwine. As an international manager, this will enable me in implementing change. A change leader is expected to have good communication skills and ability to convince others about change (Anstey, 2006). These are skills that I have already developed. Part 2 Effective management of change in organisations In managing change, leadership competencies help a lot. This is due to fact that leaders are involved in transitioning individuals from the current state to desired state. The individuals have to be empowered to accept and embrace change (Anstey, 2006). Through change management, it becomes possible to transit from the current ways of working to the desired ways. Leaders as the change managers are expected to align the organisation to new way of doing things. The manager was able to deal with communication breakdown in my part. This was through informing the employees on an on-going basis. The manager communicated in time and ensured that all new employees were acquainted with change. People ability to change is influenced by the way change is presented to them (Cummings and Worley, 2014). Their ability to change may be affected if they misunderstand it. If employees are able to understand the need for change, they are likely to participate (Graetz, Rimmer, Lawrence and Smith, 2006). This implies that there is minimal disruption to change. In this case, the leadership at the Chinese restaurant engaged in making the new employees understand change. The top leadership is expected to communicate the expected results of change in time. This should be a decision accepted by all in the executive. As a change leader, one has a role to ensure that change goals are well understood (Cummings and Worley, 2014). This is as evidenced in the Chinese restaurant where the leadership informed the new employees the need for change and what was expected of them. Knowing how to communicate change is very important for success of the change process (Anstey, 2006). Change management and leadership are very vital in the modern organisations. This is due to fact that they are against the same challenge of moving away from the common culture (Diefenbach, 2007). The managers are tasked with ensuring that new employees adapt to the new culture. In case of culture change, they are expected to ensure they succeed. The earlier the leader is involved in the change management process, the higher the chances of success. This is due to fact that they are capable of creating acceptance to change on those affected by it. Successful change management requires the leadership to be committed (Graetz et al., 2006). This is regardless on the area of an organisation to be affected by change. Culture is a great enabler of organisation change. Change management involves managing culture. Change that is bound by the organisation culture is more sustainable. Culture led change is more lasting than the conventional change management process (Anstey, 2006). For change management to be successful, you have to start with a single person. ADKAR change developed by Prosci is used in implementing successful change. This involves creating awareness, desire, knowledge, ability to implement and reinforcement to sustain the change. Also Kottler 8 step change model helps a lot in managing change. The steps are based on empowerment and communication foundation. After the change has been implemented, it is important to come up with new methods so that people do not go back to the period before change (Diefenbach, 2007). Failure of organisation change is a major challenge that organisations looks to reduce. Using change methodology alone does not guarantee success (Waddell, Cummings and Worley, 2004). Through use of change management methodology, it is possible to prepare for any unplanned change. Communication makes it possible to eliminate fears and concerns brought about by change. People will always be concerned on the impact the change will have on them. When there is uncertainty, the level of productivity reduces (Diefenbach, 2007). The management are supposed to communicate well prepared and planned change message. Employees expect to get change message from managers and supervisors (Waddell, Cummings and Worley, 2004). Most people will have questions on the change process which can be answered by their line managers and supervises. Through communication, one can reduce the failure rates (Graetz et al., 2006). Change management is a familiar concept in the modern business. Despite this, the manner in which business manage change varies based on the type of business, type of change and those involved. Change management is a structured process and tools which enables individuals to transit from current state to the expected state. When change management is carried out well, people are able to work together towards a common change objective (Diefenbach, 2007). This leads to change that delivers results. To sum up, my experience at the Chinese restaurant provided a lot of insight on organisation change and how to manage it. I was able to look at the organisation based on leadership and culture. The leadership at the restaurant ensured that new employees were acquainted into the new culture. They also ensured that communication was maintained for smooth change process. There was transition to a new culture where new employees were expected to adapt. Being multilingual helped me later to adapt to change. Change management must always involve good leadership that has the capability to communicate the need for change. The employees must be explained why they need to change to reduce resistance. There is need to create awareness, desire, knowledge, ability to implement and reinforcement to sustain the change. Organisations must manage change well to reduce the rates of failure. References Anstey, M., 2006. Managing change: Negotiating conflict. Juta. Branson, C.M., 2008. Achieving organisational change through values alignment. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(3), pp.376-395. Cummings, T. and Worley, C., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning. de Vries, M.F.K., 2011. The leader on the couch: A clinical approach to changing people and organizations. John Wiley & Sons Diefenbach, T., 2007. The managerialistic ideology of organisational change management. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 20(1), pp.126-144. Graetz, F., Rimmer, M., Lawrence, A. and Smith, A., 2006. Managing organisational change. John Wiley & Sons. Rees, C.J., 2008. Guest editorial: Organisational change and development: Perspectives on theory and practice, Taylor & Francis Robbins, S., Judge, T.A., Millett, B. and Boyle, M., 2013. Organisational behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU. Vakola, M., Eric Soderquist, K. and Prastacos, G.P., 2007. Competency management in support of organisational change. International Journal of Manpower, 28(3/4), pp.260-275. Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C., 2013. Organisational change: development and transformation. Cengage Learning. Waddell, D., Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2004. Organisation development & change. Thomson. Read More