Organisational Change Management - Assignment Example

Organizational Change Management Table of Contents 2.1How and why do middle managers support strategic change?.....................................4 2.2 How and why do middle managers resist strategic change?.........................................6 3.0 Why do models of planned change not bring about cultural change?.......................................8 4.0 How do leadership behaviors positively and negatively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change?........................................................................................................12 4.1How do leadership behaviors positively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change?..................................................................................................12 4.2 How do leadership behaviors negatively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change?................................................................................................14 5.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..…15 6.0 References…………………………………………………………………………………..17 1.0 Introduction Organizational change management is a challenging task considering the competitive nature of the business environment today. As such, the management of organizations needs to adopt a strategic change that can ensure they remain competitive in the business environment. In ensuring an organization achieves success with new plans, there are a number of factors that the change agent needs to consider. For instance, the role of middle managers in the change process is important because they act as a bridge between the top management and other employees. In addition, the middle managers are vital to an organization during the change process because they help to coordinate the implementation of new changes within an organization (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999). On the other hand, while the middle manager’s role in supporting strategic change is critical to the implementation of new plans, they can also be an impediment to strategic change. For instance, the middle managers can resist new changes where they are not provided with adequate resources to implement new changes. Further, they can also resist change in case they perceive such changes as a threat to their position in the organization (Floyd & Wooldridge, 1992). Conversely, during the implementation of new changes, the change agent can exploit the various models of change. For instance, the management can use the models of planned change to bring about cultural change. However, these models of planned change are methodical, slow and overtaken by events in a constantly changing business environment. As such, the change agent needs to adapt to strategies such as emergent change that is more flexible in terms of introducing new changes in the organization from time to time since change is not static (Cummings & Worley, 2005). The other factor to consider during the change process is the leadership behavior that can influence employee’s commitment to organizational change. For example, a more democratic leadership behavior provides other employees with an opportunity to contribute their input towards the implementation of new changes in an organization (Cummings & Worley, 2005). This paper discusses three questions that relates to organizational change management with a focus on the role of middle managers, the models of planned change and their impact on cultural change and the appropriate leadership behavior that can encourage employee commitment to organizational change. 2.0 How and why do middle managers support and resist strategic change? 2.1 How and why do middle managers support strategic change? In today’s business environment, change is necessary for organizations to remain competitive; however, most change initiatives often fail due to the inability of managers to realize that change is a process, not an event. In this regard, middle managers have an important role to play in the change management process. Further, the middle managers are tasked with implementing various strategies, enhancing teamwork, managing change and establishing optimal working environments (Burnes, 2004). Further, middle managers support strategic change by undertaking an enabling and empowering role in the organization. Middle managers in an organization need to act as the agents of change by improving interpersonal skills such as communication and team building within the organization’s setting. Supporting strategic change also require middle managers to show a positive change orientation in terms of improving personal flexibility, risk taking and dealing with uncertainties. In addition, middle managers can support strategic change by undertaking personal change and ensuring that the activities of the organization are not interrupted during the change process. They also support the change process by implementing the required changes and assist other members of the organization through the change process (Burnes, 2004). In terms of helping other members in the organization, middle managers can support strategic change by acting as a role model and provide training and support to other staff members. The middle managers also support strategic change by facilitating communication between the senior management and other workers the organization. In performing this duty, they interpret and facilitate senior management’s vision to other workers. Traditionally, the role of middle managers involves disseminating information to the top managers, which are necessary for managing the change process. Supporting strategic change also require middle managers to implement the decisions made by the top management. They offer support that is needed to achieve strategies, monitoring of activities in the organization and taking corrective actions. The role of middle managers in supporting strategic change requires an effective implementation of the changes decided by the top management of the organization. When middle managers are properly involved in the top management, and with the appropriate organizational culture, it is easier to achieve success during the change process (Huy, 2011). In order to be engaged properly in the change process, middle managers need to be flexible and adaptable due to the constantly changing business environment. Their influence within the organization should not focus on hierarchical authority, for instance, but emphasize more on integrating the strategic and operating level information within the organization. As a result, the middle managers are in a better position to implement plans made by the senior management. The middle managers should support the strategic change because they act as the bridge between the organization’s top management and other employees during the change process. Further, they are in a position to establish an enabling environment where employees discuss fears related to the change process openly (Huy, 2011). On the other hand, the middle management plays various key roles in the organization that contributes towards success in strategic change. In this regard, they are the change agent and their vast operational knowledge of the organization is essential during the change process. Since the fear of change is a major challenge for the implementation of new plans in an organization, the middle management’s positive participation is important. They play a role in helping other workers to acknowledge the importance of new changes in the organization rather than an emphasis on individual interests by employees. In addition, in order for strategies to be implemented in an organization, the active participation and cooperation from the middle management is important. Through a participative process, the middle management support strategy implementation by inspiring employee involvement. In a participative process, the middle management can engage other workers in the early stages of strategy implementation because they are closer to the execution lines compared to the senior management (Wooldridge, Schmid, & Floyd, 2008). 2.2 How and why do middle managers resist strategic change? The middle managers can resist change due to fear of losing their power and control within the organization. During the change process, there are certain roles that the middle managers are forced to relinquish, or other functions are introduced that the middle managers do not have control. As such, they resist change in favor of the status quo in the organization. The worldview of middle managers is an influencing factor in accepting or resisting change. For instance, it is difficult for middle managers to accept change where they feel such a change amounts to personal attack by other senior managers in the organization. In addition, the middle management may also fear the possibility of being given the responsibility of maintaining the implemented changes in which they have limited input (Herzig & Jammieson, 2006). Middle managers may also resist change where they feel uncertain concerning the skills and experience required to manage change effectively. On this note, the fear of failure can contribute to the resistance to change because of self-doubt regarding the capability to perform a particular task. These managers may also disagree with the new strategies and tends to remain skeptical regarding the implementation of new changes in the organization. Resistance to change among the middle management also emanates from their exclusion in the design and planning phase of a change process. The middle management can also resist change particularly when they do not see any rewards from the top management of the organization. Employees in an organization tend to ask for a reward for implementing new changes. However, where there is no any form of reward, the employees become demoralized and may not support the change in the long term. For example, the middle management may ask for an improvement in their pay; however, when such a request is ignored by the top management, then resistant to change is possible (Herzig & Jammieson, 2006). Influence of other managers can also lead to the middle management resisting strategic change within an organization. For instance, the middle management can resist change in order to safeguard the interest of a particular group within an organization. For example, the middle management can resist change in order to protect their co-workers. Mistrust within an organization is also a factor that contributes to the resistance to change by the middle management. Where the middle management mistrust their top managers, implementing new changes in an organization may become impossible. The mistrust may emanate from lack of a proper communication channel between the senior management and the middle managers in an organization. Poor timing also contributes to the middle management resisting change because they are not informed earlier regarding the intended changes in an organization. Because the middle management coordinates most of the activities within an organization, they prefer a participative process where they are involved in the decision-making process regarding the implementation of new changes (Hope, 2010). 3.0 Why do models of planned change not bring about cultural change? In the constantly changing business environment, changes taking place in organizations are becoming more complex, unpredictable and competitive. In this regard, decision makers are facing challenges in terms of finding stability using the models of planned change. This is because the change agent needs to be more flexible and agile in terms of leveraging emergent change and survive in the competitive business environment. The models of planned change traditionally involve a sequence of steps targeting organizational and individual behavior (Conway & Monks, 2011). However, failure rates tend to be high when using the models of planned change. This is because the change agent may fail to notice the urgency for change, and there is a lack of cooperation and under communicated vision. In addition, the change agent may fail to establish short-term wins. In other instance, planned change may declare victory too soon and ignore anchoring the changes in the organization’s culture. Further, planned changes also fail in terms of changing the organization’s underlying nature and, as a result, problems tend to recur. Planned change can work effectively where there is a need for structural changes; however, structural changes alone cannot enhance organizational learning or sustain the change efforts (Conway & Monks, 2011). In this regard, while planned change focuses on eliminating the restrictive environmental forces, emergent change, on the other hand, focuses on recognizing the enabling forces and enhancing such forces. As such, organizations can achieve sustainability by focusing on emergent change. In today’s business environment, the change should go beyond planned change posited, for instance by Kurt Lewin and incorporate emergent change in the organization set up. The model developed by Kurt Lewin, for instance, involves three steps that include unfreezing, changing and refreezing. This model creates a perception that change is needed, which then, leads to a new and desired behavior in the organization. In addition, the model also involves establishing the new behavior into an organization’s culture. Most models of planned change do not bring about culture change because most of these changes tend to face resistance from the members of an organization. Further, the change agent often faces failure with models of planned change because they ignore the need to create awareness regarding the planned change. Within the organization’s setting, there are members who may resist change because they want to maintain the status quo. In addition, the level of acceptability among workers in an organization regarding a planned change might be lower and this can affect negatively on using models of planned change to bring about cultural change within an organization (Cummings & Worley, 2005). Further, the laxity in terms of examining old behaviors among workers, their worldviews regarding the organization also leads to the lack of urgency concerning the change in organizational culture. In this sense, the change agent needs to communicate the importance of the planned change to other workers in the organization. Communication is necessary when introducing a new plan to ensure that employees are well informed regarding the imminent change. This allows employees to prepare and adapt to the new changes. The more workers know about an imminent change, the more it will be easier to effect cultural change in an organization. Attitude change among employees is a challenge for the change agent especially when there is mistrust of the change agent by other employees. As such, realizing cultural change using the models of planned change requires the change agent to involve other workers in the decision-making process. During the transition process, effecting cultural change using models of planned change often face challenges because some workers may struggle in terms of adapting to the new changes (Cummings & Worley, 2005). As such, it is important that during the stage of transition after people are ‘unfrozen’, the change agent should provide training to staff on how to adapt to the new changes. When new changes are introduced into an organization, people tend to develop a fear culture due to uncertainty regard the new changes. Because of the fear, cultural change becomes a challenge when using the models of planned change. Cultural change during the implementation of new plans means that workers in an organization are supposed to learn new behaviors, and including processes and their way of thinking to meet the overall objective of the planned change (Cummings & Worley, 2005). However, during the process of changing organizational culture, the change agent may ignore the importance of preparing other staff members adequately to accept the new changes. During the process of changing organizational culture, it is important for the change agent to inform other employees why the planned changes are necessary and what they can bring to the organization in general. When using the models of planned change, it is important that the management convince other workers regarding the benefits that they can derive as a result of a cultural change. The models of planned change also fail to bring about cultural change because of the change agent’s reluctance to ensure that other workers do not revert to their old behaviors. In most cases, there tends to be a lack of effort by the management to guarantee the sustainability of cultural change in an organization. As such, the management needs to cement new behaviors into the organization’s culture. This is possible through positive rewards and acknowledging the efforts of individuals as a way of encouraging new behaviors in the organization. In this sense, when new behaviors are positively reinforced, then those behaviors are likely to be repeated by workers embracing new changes in the organization (Mento et al., 2002). Because of a constantly changing business environment, models of planned change may appear outdated in bringing about cultural change. Planned change may also fail to bring about cultural change due to the disorganization that is created when implementing new changes. As such, workers may find it difficult to achieve their goals and carry out various tasks appropriately especially when many changes are taking place in the organization. In addition, the management is sometimes overwhelmed in terms of planning and implementing new changes and, as a result, forgets about guiding their workers during the change process. In a rapidly changing business environment, models of planned change fail to bring about cultural change because they are methodical, slow and overtaken by events in a competitive business environment. In most cases, models of planned change often become outdated by the time of their implementation thus making it difficult to bring about cultural change. Since models of planned change are focused on a management led process, bringing about cultural change may be difficult particularly where the process is not participatory. In some instances, the management tends to distant themselves from other employees and works behind closed doors. As such, it is difficult to implement new changes because other workers will see the process as an initiative of the management and not for the organization in general (Mento et al., 2002). 4.0 How do leadership behaviors positively and negatively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change? 4.1 How do leadership behaviors positively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change? During the change process, leadership style adopted by the change agent is important in influencing employee commitment to organizational change. Because organizational change affects every person in the organization, it is essential for the management to adopt a more democratic style of leadership. This type of leadership can help to bring about the positive impact during organizational change. In most organizations, employees often prefer an arrangement where they are also included in the decision-making process (Lundy & Morin, 2013). In this sense, a democratic leadership style provides the management with the opportunity to listen to the views of other employees in the organization. Further, taking into consideration the views of other workers in the organization allows the change agent to implement an inclusive change process. Through a democratic leadership style, the active participation of the management in the change process rather that delegating duties to the middle management acts as a motivating factor for employees to support the change process. On the same note, followers in an organization see the management as their role model. Consequently, the type of leadership behavior that the management adopts influences employee commitment to organizational change. Employees in most cases are encouraged by a process where the management considers their input in the change process. Further, organizational change is enhanced through a process where the management talks directly to other employees. Dealing directly with other employees also helps to establish trust between the management and workers (George & Jones, 2002). In addition, employee involvement also improves in an environment where there is cooperation between the management and junior staff. A democratic leadership style is also ideal for encouraging employee commitment to organizational change because communication channels between the management and other employees are open. As a result, there is consultation and consensus building prior to introducing new changes in the organization. Conflicts that normally arise during the change process are because of lack of communication between the change agent and other employees in the organization. Without proper communication of the imminent changes by the management, some workers may feel short changed and resist the change. However, where these changes are communicated earlier, employees can understand the importance of such changes in the organization that is derived from consensus. A democratic leadership behavior also plays a role in ensuring that every employee takes responsibility in ensuring that the change process becomes a success. This is because all employees are part of the decision-making process and would want to see the new changes that they helped implement succeed. The attitude of employees towards change also depends on the leadership behavior of the top management. In this regard, democratic leadership style minimizes the negative attitude that sometimes employees develop towards their leaders (George & Jones, 2002). Through this leadership behavior, the working alliance between the management and other employees is enhanced, and workers willingly support initiatives introduced by the top management. This type of leadership behavior also encourages positive reinforcement that is necessary in terms of motivating employee involvement in organizational change. Since the top management using a democratic leadership style work closely with other employees, their feedback regarding performances of employees acts as a positive reinforcement. As a result, employees whose work is acknowledged by the management are ready to support organizational change. This leadership style also allows the top management to listen to the needs of employees who in turn, reciprocate by committing themselves to organizational change. Employee involvement is improved through a leadership process that listens to the challenges faced by employees at the workplace. This allows the management to take appropriate action to ensure that employees work under favorable condition during the change process. In addition, this leadership behavior also allows for constructive criticism of the top management by other employees. As such, the management can rectify their shortcomings without feeling insubordinate, and this improves employee’s commitment to the organization (Robbins, 2005). 4.2 How do leadership behaviors negatively impact upon employee commitment to organizational change? The type of leadership behavior adopted by the top management can affect negatively upon employee commitment to organizational change especially where the top management ignores the views of other workers. In some situations, the top management is often focused on maintaining their control over other workers and may not want a process that puts them on an equal footing with junior employees. In this regard, the change agent often prefers an authoritarian leadership behavior when implementing changes in the organization. Consequently, an authoritarian leadership behavior particularly in a large organization may create conflicts. The conflicts arise because other workers may feel shortchanged or not involved in the process of implementing new plans in an organization (Robbins, 2005). In a leadership style where the top management does not deal directly with their junior employees can affect employee commitment to organizational change. This is because the new changes are the initiatives of the management and do not consider the needs of employees who may feel affected by the new changes. In other instances, the management favors an authoritarian leadership style because they do not want to share roles or functions with their junior staff. In this regard, an authoritarian leadership style adopted by the management within an organizational setting is more focused on the ranking of workers rather than enhancing teamwork between the management and other employees (Pihlak & Alas, 2012). The posts of the top management are considered more prestigious compared to other positions within the organization. As a result, the management using an authoritarian leadership style may not want to associate directly with their juniors. As such, most decisions regarding strategic change are done in the boardrooms without involving other employees of the organization. The outcome in this sense is a demoralized workforce who ends up developing a negative attitude towards organizational change. An authoritarian leadership behavior can also create an environment where the top management implements plans that favor their self-interests rather than the interest of the organization in general. As a result, other employees are likely to resist a process that do not consider their input in implementing new changes that affect them either directly or indirectly (Linski, 2014). 5.0 Conclusion During the process of implementing new changes in an organization, a number of factors need to be considered by the change agent. Such factors include choosing an appropriate strategy or plan that can help an organization to realize success with the new changes. The organizational culture is also an important aspect of the change process, and the change agent should take into consideration the impact of the imminent changes in the organization’s culture. There are various models that are available to use in a planned change; however, the cultural change should reflect the current changes in the business environment. The business environment tends to change from time to time, and the traditional models of planned change may appear out of date due to the constant changes. 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