Organisations by their very nature are conservative. They actively resist change; you do not even have to look far to see evidence of this phenomenon.
Government agencies want to continue doing what they have been doing for years, whether the need for their service changes or remains the same. Organised religions are deeply fixed in their history. Attempts to change church principles require great persistence and patience. Educational institutions, which exist to open minds and challenge established principles, are themselves extremely resistant to change. Most school systems are using essentially the same teaching methods today as they were 50 years ago. The majority of business firms too, appear highly resistant to change.
Change invariably threatens the status quo, it inherently implies political activity. Internal change agents typically are individuals high in the organisation who have a lot to lose from change. They have in fact risen to their positions of authority by developing skills and behaviour patterns that are favoured by the organisation. Change is a threat to those skills and patterns. What if they are no longer the ones the organisation values? This creates the potential for others in the organisation to gain power at their expense.
Politics suggests that the force for change is more likely to come from outside change agents, employees who are new to the organisation (and have less invested in the status quo), or from managers slightly removed from the main power structure. Those managers who have spent their entire careers with a single organisation, and eventually achieve a senior position in the hierarchy are often very stubborn to change. This is because change is a very real threat to their status and position. Yet they may be expected to implement changes to demonstrate that they are not merely caretakers. By acting as change agents, they can symbolically convoy to various constituencies (stockholders, suppliers, employees, and customers), that they are on top of problems and adapting to a dynamic environment. Of course, as you might guess, when forced to introduce change, these long time power holders tend to implement first order changes (linear and continuous changes), as radical change is too threatening.
Power struggles within the organisation will determine, to a large degree, the speed and quantity of change. You should expect that long time career executives will be sources of resistance. This incidentally, explains why boards of directors that recognise the importance for rapid introduction of second-order change (change that is multidimensional, multilevel, discontinuous and radical) in their organisations, frequently turn to outside candidates for new leadership.
Charles Handy opinion of managing change.
Charles Handy said the following quotations: “To ‘manage change’ is wishful thinking, implying as it does that one not only knows where to go and how to get there but can persuade everyone else to travel there.” I believe he meant that it is very hard to manage change if you just simply tell your subordinates what the changes are, expecting them to deal with it, as they will most likely not understand and wont want to understand the changes, especially if it involves a lot more work for them to do.
“To ‘cultivate change’ is something different, suggesting an attitude of growth, of channelling rather than controlling, of learning not instructing. A changing organisation is one that uses differences to grow better, that treats politics as a bonus and people as individuals who are rightly different and usefully different.”
“There are those who want to change things and those who would willingly settle for a quiet life…The challenge for the manager is to harness the energy, so that the organisation develops…We should not wait until change is forced upon us, as individuals or as organisations because change then is hurried, unpleasant and often beyond our control.”
I feel in the above 2 quotations, Charles Handy it saying it is possible to manage change, if you try to channel and teach everyone about it, especially those who are sceptic, and once everyone believes in their new goals, then they will be enriched, more content and better at achieving them. Change should also be anticipated, rather than just thinking about it and undertaking it when it arises, as it is very likely to be rushed and become inadequate.
What a manager can do in the face of change.
Successful change must involve top management, including the board and chief executive. Normally there is a campaigner who initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan. Change is usually best carried out as a team effort. Communications about the change should be frequent and with all organisation members. To sustain the change, the structures of the organisation itself should be modified, including strategic plans, policies and procedures. This change in the structures of the organisation normally involves an unfreezing, and re-freezing process. Unfreezing is a change of efforts to overcome the pressures of both individual resistance and group conformity. Freezing is stabilising a change intervention by balancing driving and restraining forces.
If there is resistance to the change, the best approaches to address it, is through increased and sustained communications and education. For example, the manager should meet with all sub-managers and staff to explain reasons for the change, how it generally will be carried out and where others can go for additional information. A plan should be developed and communicated, and if the plan does change, then communicate that the plan has changed and why. Forums should be held for organisation members to express their ideas for the plan. They should be able to express their concerns and frustrations as well.
The change should be communicated with the employees a.s.a.p. It may sound seductive, but gradually releasing the information about the change; telling the employees pieces of the change that they can digest and then telling them some more, will only lower employee trust in the manger. The employees will think, “OK, what’s our manager not telling us? What will we hear about next? What’s the real bottom line on this change?” So if you reveal change a piece at a time, employees are likely to feel like they are being taken down the “primrose path.”
A manager should just come out with the whole change, as you understand it, from the get go. It is better for the employees to get it all on the table, so that it can be worked without fear that “another cloud will break tomorrow!”
Making a strategy is a must have for a manager during times of change within an organisation. The earlier it is done, the better, as it will give the manager more time to spend on other things. The strategy should consist of four main things; communication, participation, support and negotiation.
Communication; managers should provide adequate information to their subordinates on the need for change, in order to gain their support. They should make the purpose of the change clear, as fear of change can be as disturbing as the change itself.
Participation; managers should involve everyone in planning and making the change. It is much easier to support something you have a stake in. If possible, committees using small groups of people should be set up to review and make recommendations for change. Surveys and newsletters are also tools that can be used to help.
Support; managers must be prepared to spend extra time with employees who have difficulty accepting the change. You must ensure as the person initiating the change, that you are seen as trustworthy and credible, otherwise you will be working with in content employees
Negotiation; a worked out win-win situation for all parties involved should be made. Trying to match the personal goals of the employees to the objectives of the change will help achieving them. If it blocks personal goals then employees will have bad moral and feel unmotivated, and also they may decide to not support the whole change of the organisation altogether.
A manager’s responsibility during times of change.
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Mintzberg’s ten roles for a manager will help a manager to achieve the objectives of an organisation within the times of change. The ten roles consist of three main roles; inter-personal, informational and decisional roles.
Inter-personal roles are essentially leading roles. A manager needs to become a figurehead to his subordinates. Informational roles are administrating roles, such as monitoring your subordinates and becoming a spokesman. Decisional roles are fixing roles. A manager must be able to negotiate, handle disturbances and be resourceful.
The most important objectives for a manager to complete during times of change, is that their subordinates understand fully what they have to do, how they are going to do it, and when they are going to do it.
Moral is also very important, a manager must make sure that their subordinates have good moral, because if they don’t they will feel unmotivated and therefore their productivity and quality levels will decrease, causing the organisational objectives to take longer and be harder to achieve, also time is money!
Managers must be able to communicate well, otherwise the above will be very hard to do. Simply sending your subordinates emails about what they have to do is not good enough. Face to face communication is the best as you will be able to explain any doubts your subordinates have, and it will improve the quality of their work, as they will know exactly what to do, and this will also help teamwork and their motivation/moral.
Managers need to get out and network with their subordinates in order to understand and address concerns and ideas. Ensuring everyone in the organization has a personal role in the change effort will help achieving the change goals.
As the complexity increases, effective managers must have a strong knowledge of the people in the organization and the tasks they perform. And they must have the skills to use that knowledge in practical and flexible ways.
Aggressive, forward thinking, and humble managers, are the silver bullet for companies who desire to create an environment of change.
Bibliography
- Introduction to Organisation Behaviour – Helga Drummond
- Organisation Behaviour – Stephen Robbins
- Understanding Organisations – Charles Handy
- Organisational Behaviour – Tyson & Jackson
- Analysing Organisations – Sandra Dawson
- Explaining Organisational Behaviour – Lawrence Mohr
- Understanding Gender and Organisations – Alvesson & Billing
