Change Management
Individual Assignment
Author
Organizational Behavior
Instructor
January 25, 2004
Drivers of Change
The simulation on change management focuses on how change brought about as a result of strategic initiatives within a company affect work design and organizational culture. The specific company, Synergetic Solutions Inc., is a computer trading company which currently employees approximately 300 employees, realizes an annual revenue of six million dollars, and is distributed across five east coast locations. Like many, this organization is being driven to change due to a mixture of external and internal drivers. Specifically, the company finds itself competing in a market where its products and services have become stagnate. Since Synergetic is in the technology market, the company must expect external drivers such as industry competition, standards and benchmarks, and new technology capabilities to introduce the requirement for change on a periodic basis. Internal drivers of change are also prevalent in Synergetic's organizational environment. Specifically, the corporate executive officer has recently mandated strategic direction changes which will introduce internal drivers for change to this organization. CEO, Harold Redd, decided to focus the company on networking solutions and raise revenues of this venture to 80% of the organizations' total sales within nine months.
Successful Change Strategy Factors
Implementation of change in the organization will require the leader to weigh resistance to change at both the individual and organizational levels. Because change invariably threatens the status quo, it inherently implies political activity. (Robbins, 2001). The leader of change implementation for the organization must consider the following 17 key elements, identified by the Massachusetts based Symmetrix consulting firm (Robbins, 2001), in weighing their ability to successfully implement a change strategy:
. What is the organizational level of the change sponsor?
2. Is day-to-day leadership supportive of the change?
3. Is there a strong sense of urgency from senior management driving the change?
4. Does management have a clear vision of how the future will look after the change?
5. Are there objective measures in place to evaluate the change effort?
6. Is the specific change effort consistent with other changes occurring in the organization.
7. Are functional managers will to sacrifice their personal self-interest for the good of the organization as ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
. What is the organizational level of the change sponsor?
2. Is day-to-day leadership supportive of the change?
3. Is there a strong sense of urgency from senior management driving the change?
4. Does management have a clear vision of how the future will look after the change?
5. Are there objective measures in place to evaluate the change effort?
6. Is the specific change effort consistent with other changes occurring in the organization.
7. Are functional managers will to sacrifice their personal self-interest for the good of the organization as a whole?
8. Does management pride itself on closely monitoring competitors changes and actions?
9. Is the needs of the customer well accepted by everyone in the workforce?
0. Are employees rewarded for taking risks and looking for new solutions?
1. Is the organizational structure flexible?
2. Are communication channels open within the organization?
3. Is the organization's hierarchy relatively flat?
4. What are the organization's previous successes in major change implementation?
5. Is employee satisfaction and motivation currently high?
6. Is there a degree of cross-boundary cooperation within the organization?
7. Are decisions made quickly for most situations in the organization?
Kinds of Resistance
There are many kinds of resistance that the leader of change in an organization will be experience. Ken Hultman explains that individuals will resist change when a change in habit is imposed, personal sense of security is threatened, one's income could be lowered, the change is ambiguous and contains a high level of uncertainty, or they become guilty of selectively processing the information presented and do not understand the potential benefits that the changes could bring. Six tactics presented by Robbins to overcome resistance to change include: education and communication, participation, facilitation and support, negotiation, manipulation and co-optation, and coercion. Educating and communicating with employees to provide them the logic driving the changes can often reduce resistance to change. Individuals find it difficult to resist a change decision in which they have participated, therefore participation is encouraged. Though time consuming, facilitation by providing counseling, new skills training, and even short paid leave of absence is one way that change agents can reduce resistance to change. Negotiating, or exchanging something of value, is a strategy that can lessen the resistance to change. Manipulation by distorting facts, creating false rumors, or threats is more often present than desired, but carries the chance of backfiring if the targets become aware that they are being tricked or used. Another tactic is that of coercion, which is the application of direct threats.
Influence of Leadership Styles
Leadership is cautiously defined by McShane as the process of influencing people and providing an environment for them to achieve team or organization objectives. Effective leaders can help individuals or teams define their goals and identify ways to achieve them. Effective leaders also create conditions that enable others to realize their potential in the workplace. (McShane, 2002). Leadership styles will influence the effectiveness of the change management process by recognizing and varying the style with the specific situation. The identification of when to give directions, times to empathize, times to use stretch goals, and times to involve subordinates in decision making will influence the effectiveness of the change management process under the guidance of specific leader. The Directive leadership style or task-oriented leadership is effective when clarification of performance goals, the means to reach the goals, and identification of the standards used to judge reaching the goals is needed by the organization undergoing the change. The Supportive leadership style is effective when the need is for a leader that is understanding, approachable, friendly, and is able to guide the employees involved in organizational change through stressful situations while treating them with equal respect and showing concerns for their needs and well-being. The Participative leadership style is effective when employees undergoing change are motivated by involvement with the decisions beyond their normal work activities. The Achievement-oriented leadership style is effective when employees are motivated by encouragement to reach their peak performance and the leader shows a high degree of confidence in their ability to set and achieve change goals. Task structure, team dynamics, employee skill and experience, and locus of control are contingencies that will impact the effectiveness of the leaders impact on the change management process. (McShane, 2002).
Simulation Results and Organizational Impact
Execution of the simulation multiple times clarified the importance of managing the intervention process by unfreezing the current conditions, implementing change, and re-freezing the process to allow stabilization. The simulation also yielded the results that implementation of multiple leadership styles can actually produce very similar results. The first step of the strategy was to select an action plan for implementation. Selection of the plan that focused on widening span of control, delegating decision making responsibilities to team leaders, delegating apprasial responsibilities to team leaders, and setting up process groups in combination with evaluating the employee's competencies and skills, analyzing the work processes and performing process re-engineering, redefining roles and tasks, and nominating a team of senior managers to address concerns yielded results where the employees requesting pay increases as they were being approached by competition attempting to acquire their skills. When an implementation of a plan that focused on identifying key technologies like project management automation software, promoting employee technology forums, and implementing industry benchmarks and certification was combined with the same the same actions of evaluating employee's competencies and skills, analyzing the work processes and performing process re-engineering, redefining roles and tasks, and nominating a team of senior managers to address concerns; the change process yielded results where the employees were more satisfied and the issue of losing expensive talent to the competetion was not a primary issue. There was still the need to mix this solution with restructuring of the teams to benefit from the recent skill set retooling of the employees.
.
http://www.stuffofheroes.com/leadership_style_vs%20leadership%20tactics.htm
References
Hultman, K. (1998). Making Change Irresistible: Overcoming Resistance to Change in Your Organization. Davies Black.
McShane-Von Glinow (2002). Organizational Behavior (2nd ed.). The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Individual Assignment Week Six 1
