Organizational change

Introduction Organizational change happens in response to change in the organization’s environment. The change can be from the internal environment such as demands from employees. It can also be change from the external environment such as change in consumer tastes and preferences or government regulation.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational change specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, an organization must have flexible systems and structures that can respond swiftly to any change in its environment. A company that is rigid to change in its environment risks being pushed out of business. There are some issues about organizational change which members of the organization must know. These include the importance of change and the challenges of organizational change that are related to resistance to change. This will help them in securing the maximum benefits of organizational change1 Importan ce of organizational change Change in an organization is very important because it helps the organization to secure many benefits that it cannot achieve if it remains in the same state. Change can help an organization to increase its operational efficiency by reducing its operational costs. An organization can change its way of operation by adopting new technology which will help it cut cost. For instance, an organization can start using computers in functions that were previously done by people. The company will realize a reduction in costs because it will have reduced salary expenses. Change can also help an organization increase its earnings whereby it adopts new products or enters new markets. This means that it identifies new needs in the market which it will seek to satisfy. Therefore, it might change its operations to start producing a different line of products to meet the new needs. As a result, it will be able to increase its earnings by venturing in to new market areas2. Change is also important in fighting competition from rivals in the market. When a new entrant in the market threatens a company’s market the company will need to initiate a change in its strategies. This involves restructuring operations such as dropping product lines that are less profitable. This allows the company to focus its resources on product lines that are more productive.Advertising Looking for essay on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, operations dealing with the dropped product lines will be stopped. Change can also help a company to effectively anticipate and meet customer needs. A company that is product oriented can change its strategies to be customer focused. This will help the company to identify and meet the specific customer needs3. Challenges of organizational change Some institutions are characterized by central control of power whereby few individuals at the top ma ke all decisions. Such organizations are often not successful in implementing changes in the organization. The leaders will always try to impose their ideas on the subordinates which lead to failure of the change process. This shows the importance of involving everyone that will be affected by the change in developing and implementing the change. Therefore, if the leaders use force to implement changes they will end up failing. Effective management of resources is also a challenge to organizational change. When an organization is intending to put in place some changes it must ensure that a plan that shows how resources will be used is made. The management must also ensure that those implementing the change stick to the plan. Otherwise, the implementation process might not be completed due to poor management of resources4. Another challenge to organizational change that is associated to the need to overcome resistance is communication. Human beings are inherently opposed to change du e to the fear of the unknown. Therefore, any attempts to change operations at the workplace will always face resistance some of which may be groundless. This shows the importance of communication whereby any intended change should be effectively communicated to the members. This includes telling them of the benefits associated with the change, any risks involved and how the risks can be minimized. Therefore, employees are likely to support the changes if they have adequate information5. Culture of an organization is another challenge to organizational change. Most organizational changes often change the existing culture within an organization but change in the organizational culture is not always welcomed by the members. This calls for a clear understanding of the culture to determine the effective approach of implementation6.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational change specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More An experience with resistance to change Windsor Development Inc., a microfinance company is involved in offering financial services to small and medium enterprises and performed most of operations manually. Therefore, management reached a decision to implement some technological changes that would help the company reduce its operation costs and improve efficiency in its services to customers. However, the management did not consult with the employees before reaching the decision. The employees communicated through informal networks on how they would frustrate the change process. They feared that implementation of technology would lead to loss of employment for some of them. Therefore, they threatened to down their tools if the management dared to implement the changes. This led to a standoff in the organization between the management and the employees. The employees saw the change as a threat to their employment but the management saw it as an opportunity for increasing operational efficiency7. Productive measures to address the resistance The management held a meeting with the employees whereby it explained to them the need to implement those changes and the benefits that would be realized if the changes were implemented successfully. In addition, the CEO directed the departmental managers to develop manuals that would explain in detail the changes which included the people to be affected either positively or negatively. The CEO further promised that any member that will lose his job because of the changes would be compensated fairly. The management also promised to sponsor training on the technology for all employees. This was to help them to be equipped with the necessary skills. The employees therefore embraced the changes, because they now felt valued by the organization8. Conclusion Organizational change is very important in many ways which include fighting competition, increasing an organization’s earnings and satisfying customer needs. Organiza tions can also adopt changes that will help it to reduce operation cost which leads to efficiency in operations. However, there are challenges that face an organization in an attempt to implement changes successfully. These challenges are associated with the need to overcome resistance to change. They include misuse of power, effective management of resources, effective communication and organizational culture.Advertising Looking for essay on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, the management needs to have a clear understanding of these challenges so that it can implement changes successfully. It is also important to address the fears of the employees even if some are ungrounded because will help in securing their support for the changes. Bibliography Belasen, Alan T. Leading the learning organization: communication and competencies for managing change. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000. Krawinkel, Bastian. The Importance of Organizational Learning in Change Processes. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag, 2008. Osborne, Stephen P. and Brown, Kerry. Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. Sisaye, Seleshi. Organizational change and development in management control systems: process innovation for internal auditing and management accounting. Oxford: Emerald Group Publishing, 2001. Wilson, John P. Human resource development: learning training for individuals organizations. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2005. Footnotes 1 Krawinkel, Bastian. The Importance of Organizational Learning in Change Processes. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag, 2008 P. 7-14 2 Osborne, Stephen P. and Kerry Brown Osborne, Stephen P. and Brown, Kerry. Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005 13-19 3 Belasen, Alan T. Leading the learning organization: communication and competencies for managing change. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000p. 70-79 4. Wilson, John P. Human resource development: learning training for individuals organizations. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 200555-56 5 Ibid p. 54 6 Sisaye, Seleshi. Organizational change and development in management control systems: process innovation for internal auditing and management accounting. Oxford: Emerald Group Publishing, 2001. p.85-90 7 Osborne, Stephen P. and Kerry Brown. Supra, P. 72-79 8 Ibid This essay on Organizational change was written and submitted by user L10nel to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. Organizational Change Organizations are currently affected by many issues that have rendered them less effective and efficient to cope with today’s market demand. It has been pointed out that the nature of operations entirely contributed to that. Beitler points out that â€Å"top management creates anxiety among their juniors with unplanned changes† (56).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Organizational Change specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More First, the growth in technology has improved the qualitiy of goods and services in terms of relevancy, cost effectiveness and satisfaction of societal needs. However, the cost of installation, maintenance and operational limits the use of technology among various competitors. As a result, technological innovation and creativity are not realized. In today’s market taking into account varied taste, preference and demand, organizations are striving to capture a fair share of it. Various market researches have been carried out to outline need of the consumers and their preferences. Fashion and lifestyles are some of the factors that keep changing with time. The generation gap has made it difficult to predict consumer behavior in an era of technological diversity, especially the y-generation’s one (Burke 87). Economic instability has derailed the running of the organization. Most countries are experiencing a poor exchange rate in the world market and unfavorable balance of payment. In addition, political instability has negatively influenced international relations causing import and export oriented organizations alarm. Today, most organizations are affected by the global economic breakdown, and this has consequently resulted in laying off of many workers (Kotter and Dan 57). Many organizations have condemned theft, fraud and errors within the company amongst its employees during normal business operations. With increased cartels and formal agr eements among business organizations, cases of fraudulent behavior have evidently been pointed out strongly as the ones affecting the organizational policies. Therefore, it has resulted in leakage of important and confidential information to non-authorized people. There is a need to improve the security of operating systems. This has led to the development of stringent procedures underlying recruitment, handling of tender supply as well as access and leakage of internal information. According to Lewis, â€Å"different cultures among organizations may cause conflicts† (77). For example, there are poor corporation’s concerns, uncertainty and complexity of various agreements and lack of participation in decision making among the employees. Sometimes, employees may not realize the changes brought by organizational culture. In addition, cultural diversity and integration may create negative expectations. This limits their levels of commitment to the organizations.Advertisin g Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Every organization tries to satisfy the welfare of its employees offering good remunerations and creating a clear promotional prospects. Employees sometimes express their dissatisfaction through strikes and anxiety. This may be caused by poor communication between the top management and junior staff. Sometimes, agreements on the workload and labor hours are looked down. The expression of these work-related stress coupled with domestic disturbances may make an employee turn into unlawful acts (Quinn 105). Employees have varied attitudes and behavior towards the agreements between their organization and others which may be superior. The environment that might be created by the top agreement greatly influence self motivation of the workers. If an employee loses confidence in the organization, this may lead to a job tenure and fear to be compromis ed. Morale set by the workers may initiate the voluntary turnover and encourage working relations among the employees. Democracy and equal participation of the staff in the decision making processes can encourage their motivation and high level of productivity. Satisfied employee will work despite the harsh working environment. Managers are expected to show some little concerns about the employees and contribute much to their welfare. High level of performance, that is the main objective of organizations to achieve, can only be realized when employees’ commitment is well-monitored and encouraged. Therefore, organization should be flexible to adapt to changes brought about by the demand of its employees (Salerno and Lillie 37). The world market has experienced fluctuations in terms of education, commitments and attitudes of the labor market forces. People with higher qualifications enter the frictional job market with an intention to move to another level of employment if the opportunity arises. Thus, unemployment does little to fresh graduates. Managers evaluate the level of productivity of each employee and assess if there is a need to train his/her employees to informational change to keep up with the demand in the market. Immobility of labor supply has affected various organizations which want to keep up with the global changes and ensure that they are able to compete with the competitors’ strategies. Beitler further points out that †during the periods of inflation, the country faces a general rise in price level of goods and services. As a result, the organizations do face challenges in price stability† (108). On the other hand, employees express their negative attitude toward the perceived little pay that cannot support their lives. These challenges often lead to organization losing market share to the competitive company which may have in place a strong strategy to provide for the changes in the market.Advertising We will w rite a custom research paper sample on Organizational Change specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Administrative processes are part and parcel of the resistance to change within an organization. Managers are required to define a clear channel of communication from top management level to a lower one. Any misunderstandings about who is to report to ideal issue may cause uncertainty in the leadership. Inadequate communication and poor quality decision making may hinder control and coordination of duties. In addition, staff motivation, if not well handled, may lower the productivity level, and this may foster quicker change to be observed. Staff may also be demotivated if the change touches power, salary and any work benefits. Members of the organization are likely to face change limits with respect to access to current information, job traditions and fading authority to make the right decisions (Lewis 130). Dependency is experienced among v arious organizations, especially those that are engaged in the international trade. Organizations may not run well without access to the adequate capital. They borrow domestically and from regional blocks. Sometimes, governmental policy restricts the level of both internal and external borrowings. Therefore, companies are restrained and forced to change their plans and strategies. Dependency may be bad due to its high cost and involvement and sometimes encourage resistance to change within organizations. The organizations, therefore, consider adopting any new strategies leaving struggling behind with huge debts. Many corporations will work hard to ensure that their brand is protected and accorded necessary recognition. Though competition may unveil its bad impact on the organization, it is the duty of the management to introduce possible strategies to outshine their competitors. Without competition, the quality of the products may not be improved, and the demand in the market might not be fully fulfilled. Therefore, strong marketing strategy comes in as a way of developing and improving the corporate identity. It involves a deep market research and data analysis of the competitors’ quantity and price setting (Quinn 127). We will look at a case study of an International Airline and British Airways. They have been in the forefront of creating the cultural diversity. Various people came together and exchanged their views about their companies and cultures, especially in television advertisements.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Many great sights have been aired, for example, Times Square. They used a widely coordinated by many satellites system that covered hundreds of miles across the globe. Thereafter, they needed a business identity that would unveil their global image of harmony, care, cosmopolitan and pride. Many organizations cause culture change by diversifying their products and organizational strategies. They succumb many obstacles, and their managers try to create successful organizational culture. The culture change purports a direct link between culture and performance; this is rather a hypothesis than an established fact. Cultural audit is necessary for organizational growth since diversity in culture signifies the true reflection of societal demand. It requires individual analysis of every organization based on employees’ performance. Every employee is expected to keep to organizational ethics and norms. For example, employees are not expected to divulge and spread internal information . Every organization should be guided and driven by their goals and objectives. This is the foundation of their success. When an organization is focused on achieving its objectives, its staff is expected to make some sacrifice and abate egos so that they attain their organizational goals. The cultural changes caused by external factors should never be allowed to derail the organization productivity level unless the change will be positive enough to affect motivation of the workers. Employees are, therefore, expected to voice their expectations and carry out the initial discussion with the management on the issues of their welfare and equal participation in decision making. Management based on democratic leadership is expected to succeed and never be susceptible to any change in the society (Salerno and Lillie 115). Series of briefing and implementation of action plan call for frequent sessions and seminars for management training. In these training sessions, it is vital to introduce key changes in the management levels. Other issues that should be discussed include explanations on various cultural changes, the importance of empathy and participation. Management should begin with explaining the goals and objectives to its employees and be ready to be open for any discussion. Building expectations for success, utilizing methods, such as presentations or seminars, workshops for team and skill building, and training or retraining programs. Carrying out such job training analysis needs technical considerations and continuation of modelling of the change by senior or middle management. Professional ethics should form the guidelines for the conducts of every employee, and management should respond positively by rewarding efforts of every worker. It is a dream of every employee to have his or her remuneration reconsidered. Staff presentations concerning progress and feedback with the change program should be used for judging the workers’ performance. Labor mobi lity is only experienced in situations with a low productivity. It is likely that some employees will prefer to work in areas where they are paid a high amount of salary even if the conditions of work are not good (Burke 127). Lack of role models at the workplaces contributes to creating a positive environment in a way as it may give freedom to employees to act according to their own interest. Observational learning plays an important role in how people view things. If you feel that you are a change agent, you should get some people on board so that you model the organizational behavior. People tend to believe when there is less rhetoric and more demonstrations. Some people believe in something only if they see it. Fear may cause resistance to change especially if the employees are less competent. Change is inevitable regardless of skills to be employed which necessitate appropriate training. There should be a frequent motivator to eliminate this fear on them. This should be done th rough the introduction of effective new training programs on informational change, a rationale and a master plan for change. The right schedule should appropriately be in place for training programs and moderate mode of evaluation. Fatigue can demotivate people especially when they feel pressure due to changes made. People also feel fatigued when there are a lot of changes that have been introduced. In some cases when an organization does less with the use of the hand and turn to the monitoring of automated machines, this may result in loss of craftsmanship, consequently making the employee lose the sense of his/her identity. Introduction of certain forms of rewards may motivate the staff to take up the new challenge. Management, therefore, must address these issues regarding identity, and skills of teh workers. Managers are better positioned to solve differences and resistance among employees ensuring that adequate incentives and motivational talks are rightly provided to employees . With certain concessions provided to employees concerning an agreement that they are willing to support the new program, it is more likely that teh last will successfully be implemented. More unions and bonuses can also be provided for certain level of performances. Managers are, therefore, required at all the time to recognize their ability and use praise and symbols to show concern and support. These training sessions typically comprise explanation of the process of cultural change; emphasis on the importance of empathy, communication and participation by workers; explanation of proposed goals and aims to be achieved through change, and how these will impact on the organization and, ultimately, on organizational performance that is a translation of a ‘soft’ process into ‘hard’ financial results (Kotter and Dan 122) In order to prepare the organization for a change, management using the change agent should ensure that company is aware of the measures to be taken and focused on the possible threats in case of faliure to introduce some innovation, encourage the workers to believe that change is possible and desirable, and develop participation of staff, especially influential supervisory one (Lewis137). Management with support of the change agent should implement the innovation making the company’s goals and objectives clear to the staff, expressing openness for suggestions, and contributing to the employees’ faith in success. To ensure the success of the change process, it is better to use varios methods to introduce the innovations. These could be made in form of presentations, seminars, and workshops to improve the staff’s skills and readiness to change. Works Cited Beitler , Michael. Strategic Organizational Change. 2nd ed. Greensboro, U.S.A: Practitioner Press International, 2006. Print. Burke, Warner. Organization Change: Theory and Practice (Foundations for Organizational Science Series). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications, Inc., 2010. Print. Kotter, John, and C. Dan. The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harvard: Harvard Business Review Press, 2002. Print Lewis, Laurie. Organizational Change: Creating Change Through Strategic Communication.1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print. Quinn, Robert. Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within (The Jossey-Bass Business Management Series). 1st ed. Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 1996. Print. Salerno , Ann, and B. Lillie. The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008. Print. This research paper on Organizational Change was written and submitted by user Cardiac to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.