1a) Organisations ability to learn & OC:
A critical factor in organisational culture is the organisation’s ability of ‘sense-making’ from results of change, during which the knowledge accumulation and learning take place. If organisational culture doesn’t promote learning from past results, then it becomes difficult for organisation to be able to change continuously (Prastacos, 2002). The selection of OC approach depend on Firm’s tacit collective knowledge and dynamic processes which are based on organisations particular history, identity, past accomplishments, and area of expertise, thus making difficult for management to use any random OC approach or theory which has worked for others (Prastacos, 2002).
1b) Different levels of culture & OC:
The management of the multinational organisation’s need to be aware of the impact of different levels of culture’s that is group, corporate, and societal on OC and the implication of national culture on the organisational culture (Smith et al 1998 ). For example the Japanese management concept of Kaizen is difficult to implement in the western organisations because of their national cultural difference. In the Japanese culture, management is more comfortable with the interdependence of boss and subordinates, where as the American management style is based on individualism, independence and do not acknowledge the any interdependence(Imai, 1986) and for such a highly individualistic culture, it become difficult task to make employee share the management’s ambition and goals (Willmott, 1993). Before imitating other organisations way of implementing change the management also need to consider the unique factors present in that organisation. E.g. before implementing the Japanese style of implementing the change the managers in the west need to consider the unique factors which are present in Japanese organisation such as extent of government support, the nature of supplier buyer relation, the economy of Japan and its structure (Oliver et al, 1992). There is large amount of literature available on multi-cultural management techniques but the use of it by management is limited due its complexities (Smith et al 1998). Academic change management literature tends to use ambiguous terminology at the same time avoid the terms used by managers in their practice (Hughes, 2007). The ability and extent of encouragement to use ‘Information and communication technology’ too have a massive impact on effectiveness of organisation change process (Prastacos, 2002).
1c) Confusion over which model OC to apply:
Due to unique ‘mix’ of organisational plus national culture and individual circumstances (size (large/small), geographic location (rural/urban), product type (manufacturing/service)) of the organisation managements often find themselves in doubt over relevance and validity of different theories of OC (Bamford, 2005). Dexter (1994) point out that the universal models of change management are inadequate to address each organisations needs according to its culture and particular situation. The management have to be extra careful in choosing the right strategy for implementing the change. It cannot afford the risk of blindly applying the standard change recipe and hope it will work (Owen, A, 1986). Turbulent times demand different approaches in varied circumstances (Dexter, 1994), so the management should be smart enough to choose a “contingency model” which will enable to change strategies to achieve “optimum fit” with the changing circumstances. Managers also need to be able to interact effectively with employees who posses different values and work orientation (Smith et al 1998).
2) Negligence of human factors:
One of the main reasons for difficulty in implementing the OC is the negligence of human factors over the technical side of organisational change by the management (Siegal et al, 1996). All of the processes of OC directly or indirectly deal with or influence the employees. It implies that OC means personal change for employees (Bovey. 2001). OC requires participation of employees who have to change themselves so that organisational change can be a success (Evans, 1994). The process of OC largely depends on people’s readiness to accept the change & level of resistance to change (Prastacos, 2002). Some of the failures of large-scale corporate change programs are directly related to the employee resistance to change (Maurer, 1997; Spiker and Lesser, 1995; Regar et al, 1994; Martin 1975; cited in Bovey, 2001). Lucas agrees that there is consensus among experts of the field that human factors often fail the effort to change (cited in Mullins,1996).The management invest a considerable amount of resources in producing the planned change but very less is spent on training, communicating and follow up needed to effectively implement change (Schneider and Goldwasser, 1998, cited in Bovey, 2001).The management tends to manage the change mostly from technical point of view.
The reason for management’s tendency to neglect the human side of OC can be the complex nature of the psychology of change at the individual level. Individual differ in there ability and willingness to change due to their different experience of change (Coghlan,1993 cited in Bovey,2001). The literature in the field also contributes to the managers difficulties due to its sheer volume of material, making it difficult for management with limited resources to comprehensively analyse it. Mostly advises in the literature are based on the slight empirical evidence with lack of agreed consensus in some areas particularly on the OC approach (Bamford, 2005).
3) Pressure on management:
Some of the difficulties have their roots in the fact that managers need to change their style of management according to the stages of change process to successfully implement the change. Directive style of management is useful to begin the OC process; however it should be changed to the ‘mix’ of directive and consultative style of management after the implementation of change to maintain the success of change (Dexter, 1994). The management should also encourage the union activities to maximise the feeling of unity during the transformation to minimise the resistance to OC (Machin, 1991).Some times the management is committed to bring about the change but there exist a gap between top management and the employee. Because of this gap in their viewpoint the top management and employees see OC differently. For top level management change is an opportunity to solidify the organisation to accept new competitive challenges and risks by aligning operations with strategy; however most of the employees and sometimes even middle managers too look at change as disruptive and intrusive which upsets the balance therefore it is neither sought after nor welcomed (Strebel, 1996). To make it worse the senior management is often ignorant of this gap, thus underestimate the efforts that will be required to have the change accepted by the employees (Strebel, 1996). Management due to their ignorance of employee perspective often fails to give enough thought to strategies to communicate the rationale, the progress and the impact of the change as well as what and how to communicate to employee.(Klein, 1996). The reason for such a gap is that the management finds it easy to focus its attention on and become preoccupied with the ‘technical side’ of change that deals mainly with quantifiable and predictable issues such as developing strategies, action plans, calculating profitability and rationalizing resources (Bovey,2001). Management’s inability to address the feelings of employee and lack of information creating uncertainty during the change process is a major reason for employee’s resistance to change (Elving, 2005). Planned change models mostly emphasise the reinforcement of managerial control & put pressure on management to persuade employees to share the managerial goal or vision (plant, 1987 cited in Wilson). As a result sometime managers adopt inappropriate techniques such as manipulation and coercion to gain acceptance of change (Hultman, 1995; Carr, 1994; New and Singer, 1983 cited in Bovey). It results in mistrust and resentment in employees (New and Singer, 1983 cited in Bovey).The main reason in majority of failures of OC programmes is poor management practices that failed to address the widespread influence of change (Marjanovic, 2000) If managerial attitude toward change, formalisation and communication are not favouring the organisational change then the OC implementation process will be difficult to achieve (Self D. R., 2007). Communication has a key role to play in determining the level of resistance. A poorly managed change communication results in rumours and higher level of resistance from employees to change by exaggerating the negative aspects of change. Sometimes there is a high level of uncertainty during change about the individual implications and the outcome which affects the employee’s readiness to change. When organisational change results in down sizing and employee lose their jobs; the job-insecurity of survivors will have a big negative effect on the employees’ readiness to change (Elving, 2005)
Conclusion:
The extent of difficulties in effectively implementing the OC depends on the extent of resources’ spent on planning the careful strategies for OC. However in general the nature of the process of change implementation is complex and difficult to put effectively in practice. The management have to consider all of the above mentioned complex aspects OC for a planning the strategy. It is easy to understand by analysing case studies, how and why a particular organisation failed in effectively implementing the change. Even though the number of theories produced is huge, the statistic of failure to effectively implement the change is as high as 70% (Strebel, 1996; Siegal, 1996).Thus it proves that it is easier to talk about organisational change than to implement such change effectively.
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