Reducing Resistance to Change
1. Resistance to change is a natural reaction when employees are asked, well to change. The main thought of most of the employees is that change is uncomfortable and requires new way of thinking and doing (Self, 2007). In real, employee does not fear change, though, they fear the unknown. It has been seen that most cooperative and supportive employees also experience resistance to change. They are no universal or logical solution that can be applied to all change programme, as all organizations are different, the reason for change is different, timescales and budget are different (Collins, 1999). However, there are few ways to reduce resistance to change.
The first way is to overcome opposition and participation and this can be possible if the motivators engage themselves to those who are opposed to change (Aucoin, 2007). This will show them the actual concern and may also give potential solutions in a timely manner. As motivator gives time to employees to give their input, it also convinces them that they are part of a group that actually cares about its employees. Motivator also needs to help employees to explain why a change is important for the organization and make employee perceive to see big picture and benefits of change.
Effectively engaging all the employees whether at middle level or lower level, will make them feel responsible for the success of the change programme. This will show employee that the organization is willing to include them in the process of implanting new changes in the workplace. Motivator also needs to state important of changes with the help of creative approach and ideas, as it will reduce the fear of unknown and the likelihood of resistance. For example, they can make them understand that no two employees are same when trying to understand the employee concern.
With the effective introduction of stress management programme can also help the motivator to reduce resistance to change (Blankenship and Wegener, 2008). Many employees also come in stress when they perceive uncertainty about tomorrow and future and thus changes also threaten an employee self-esteem. With implementation of change effort, most of the employee will experience some level of stress and this makes motivator to work in hand with the Human Resource Management team to start a stress management programme, which can help all the employees to cope with the new changes in the business enterprise.
Motivator can also reduce resistance to change if they communicate it effectively. It will be the best way if employer explicitly states employees what is going on. Motivater can also take help of both formal and informal communication so as to ensure that all the employees receive information about the change in some or other ways. With the help of all communication outlets like email, organization intranet or face-to-face meeting, the message needs to be spread to whole of organization. Incorporating many different ways to communicate change will assist in stating the new goals and objectives need to be achieved in the near future.
Role of the Leader or Change Agent
2. Successful organization change depends on leaders. Effective leader or change agent acknowledges that their support is important to success and some of the roles leaders play different roles while driving change in the company (Van Dam, Oreg and Schyns, 2008). The first role is of the sponsor where leader act as advocates in respect to the change and a sponsor is an individual who would not let the change initiatives die from lack of attention. They are also termed as representatives who try to keep the change in front of all employees and peers. As sponsor, the leader is the champion.
A change agent or leader is also a decision maker who takes control of various resources like people, budget and equipment. They also have the authority to reach with a decision affecting initiatives. In their span of control, they also have the ability to give their opinion in “yes” or “no”. During the process of change, the decision-making authority must be leverage by the leaders so that the option will support the initiative (Morgeson, DeRue and Karam, 2010). In support of change, leaders are decisive and thus set priorities. Moreover, they are deliberate and self-aware with the final decisions.
In the process of communication, leader act as face and the voice of change. For sharing of necessary information and keep people updated, they communicate often and offer encouragement. They are also responsible for breaking the line of single communication. When workers hear multiple messages in the company, the one they prefer or listen to most is in relation to the immediate boss. Leader interprets the change message to be significant for their efforts, in flow with the overall message. This shows that leaders are consistent and transparent while taking out with necessary decisions.
During the phase of change, the next role leader plays while engage is providing motivation to change and getting people involved. A change agent or leader create a sense of urgency and state various aspects, which are crucial for change (Herold, Fedor, Caldwell and Liu, 2008). The leader also shows commitment and passion for getting things done. Some of the employees who are accepting change well are also appreciated and recognized by the leader. With engaging completely, leader realizes that some changes are tough to be adapt and thus understand the needs of individuals by motivating them and stepping out from their comfort zone. By engaging during the change will help in providing support to the project team.
The last role played by the leader is being accountable for the change. With their authority, change agent or leader hold individuals in the company accountable for change. By upholding agreements, they ensure that every follow the same and not let the employees get away from not changing. Moreover, they are trying to acknowledge the underlying reason as why individual showing resistance to change so that necessary obstacle can be eliminated in a timely manner. Leaders are exacting and fair and follow through on delivering consequences when individuals do not do their part.
Assessing Change Management Success
3. Assessing change management used to be considered elusive and complex. It also varies from project to project. As organization spend significant time and resources planning and initiating change, measurement should be considered during the planning of change and before any action is undertaken. It provides guidance towards the goal achievement and alerts senior management to the need for mid-course correction (Lyneis and Ford, 2007). Multiple metrics and measurement techniques can be employed by the senior management in evaluating change accomplishment based on both individual and organizational level. The three categories explore in the measurement are organizational performance, individual performance and change management performance.
Organizational category is the first category of measurement. These measures are connected with the project in relation with desired outcomes for the company. The metric in organization performance need to response the following question – “Did the initiative gives what was expected?” Some of the significant organization metrics by which senior management or executive can assess the change are – performance improvements, business and change readiness, project KPI measurements, Benefit realization and ROI and speed of execution (Helfat and Martin, 2015). Performance improvement can be examined by seeing quality and quantity aspects in relation to goals.
KPI also plays an important role in change management (Kim and Huynh, 2008). For example, some of the KPI can be employed by senior management will be like number of changes rejected due to any reason, increase in overall change success rate, changes performed during business hours and many more. ROI stands for return on investment which can be easily measured by any organization. The second category of measurement is the individual performance and these measures indicate that whether the individuals impacted by the change are progressing or not in their change journey. In respect with overall success of the project, measurement of individual progress proved to be a leading indicator.
The method used to obtain these measures includes surveys, assessments, observation, tests and performance assessments (Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin and Frese, 2009). Other metrics in relation with the individual performance are – adoption metrics, proficiency measures, employee feedback, observation of behavioural change, Issue, compliance and error logs and many more. Senior management can raise employee feedback form, which will be duty of all the employers to make it filled by employees on time. Moreover, they can also issue a memorandum to all the respective managers and leaders to observe all the employees and individual behaviour in response with the change employed and submits a report to them in a suitable time period.
The final procedure will be the change management performance. The metrics in these categories are linked with the actual activities carried out by the change management team. Some of the common change management performance measures are – communication deliveries and effectiveness, project KPI measurements, speed of executions, business and change readiness, training test and effective’s measures and many more. Therefore, by employing all these measures, the senior management can effectively measure the performance of the change management. This will also help the business enterprise in the future business planning and making of necessary policies.
References
Aucoin, B.M. (2007) ‘Projects create change, and change needs leadership’, Rightbrain project management a complementary approach, Management Concepts, Vienna, VA, pp. 73-92.
Blankenship, K.L. and Wegener, D.T. (2008) Opening the mind to close it: Considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(2), p.196.
Collins, D. (1999) Organizational change sociological perspectives, Routledge, London, pp. 1-8 & 170-174.
Helfat, C.E. and Martin, J.A. (2015) Dynamic managerial capabilities: Review and assessment of managerial impact on strategic change. Journal of management, 41(5), pp.1281-1312.
Herold, D.M., Fedor, D.B., Caldwell, S. and Liu, Y. (2008) The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees’ commitment to a change: A multilevel study. Journal of applied psychology, 93(2), p.346.
Kim, S.Y. and Huynh, T.A. (2008) Improving project management performance of large contractors using benchmarking approach. International Journal of Project Management, 26(7), pp.758-769.
Lyneis, J.M. and Ford, D.N. (2007) System dynamics applied to project management: a survey, assessment, and directions for future research. System Dynamics Review: The Journal of the System Dynamics Society, 23(2?3), pp.157-189.
Morgeson, F.P., DeRue, D.S. and Karam, E.P. (2010) Leadership in teams: A functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. Journal of management, 36(1), pp.5-39.
Rauch, A., Wiklund, J., Lumpkin, G.T. and Frese, M. (2009) Entrepreneurial orientation and business performance: An assessment of past research and suggestions for the future. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33(3), pp.761-787.
Self, D.R. (2007) Organizational change–overcoming resistance by creating readiness. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 21(5), pp.11-13.
Van Dam, K., Oreg, S. and Schyns, B. (2008) Daily work contexts and resistance to organisational change: The role of leader–member exchange, development climate, and change process characteristics. Applied psychology, 57(2), pp.313-334.
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