Background of Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American company that has multinational presence and they specialize on computer technologies like cloud computing, database software, networking solutions and enterprise software. As of 2018, it was the second biggest producer of software in terms of its revenues placing it after Microsoft (Oracle.com 2018b). The company had a total income of 3.83 billion USD and has employee strength of 138,000 (reuters.com 2018). The organization was established in 1977 with the name “Software Development Laboratories” (dsp.co.uk 2018). The company’s vision is to be the trusted advisors for their clients and its mission is to help the clients to achieve greater success by helping them to move ahead to the future (Oracle.com 2018a).
The large size of the organization and its long standing history and success has resulted in a resistance towards change due to which the organization struggles to maintain pace with the changing environment (Fox 2014). The organizational culture in Oracle even though is very positive shows resistance towards an organizational change that can help the company to keep pace with the emergent technologies and work processes (Oracle.com 2018c). This has resulted in an increased stress on the work culture and has adversely impacted performance of the organization (oracle.com 2018d). It is therefore necessary to understand the factors that have caused resistance to change and develop strategies to overcome such barriers and improve openness to change.
Research Questions
How to reduce the barriers of change at Oracle Corporation
Research Objectives
- To understand the factors that have caused resistance to change in the organization
- To develop strategies that can help to overcome resistance to change and facilitate openness to change
- To facilitate effective change management in the organization
Methodology
The study would utilize a mixed method approach in which primary data would be collected using in depth structured interview questionnaire conducted over the telephone and secondary data would be collected to develop a theoretical framework to assess the problem. For the questionnaire a non standardized format would be used that would be conducted over the telephone and for the secondary data research would be done of academic journal articles in order to identify framework and models that can be used for the assessment of the problem and identify solutions. The mixed method can help to develop a greater understanding of the situation (Morse 2016).
Theoretical Framework:
Resistance to change can be understood as the behavior or actions of individuals or groups due to a perception of a change as a potential threat (Hon et al. 2014). Such perceptions leads to objections or disagreements being raised against the change and the resistance in itself can be exhibited in various forms like passive or active, organized or individual, timid or aggressive (Rafferty and Jimmieson 2017).
The process of implementing and managing change in an organization is called change management which includes assessment for change, preparing for change, planning for change, implementing change and supporting the sustainability of the change (Memon et al. 2017). According to Hesselmann et al. (2017), effective change management requires a sound analysis of the factors causing resistance to change which can help to understand how they can be overcome and facilitate change in the organization. Additionally, it is also vital to understand effective method for planng and implementing change in the organization (Memon et al. 2017).
Critical Problem: Resistance to Change
Through a review of academic literature, three important models/frameworks could be identified that can help to identify the factors causing resistance to change, how the resistance can be overcome and how the change can be planned and implemented which are discussed below:
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis: This framework gives an understanding on the change problems that needs to be addressed by an organization by dividing the factors that can influence change into two types namely the factors for change and factors against change. The factors create opposing forces of driving and restraining factors (Capatina et al. 2017). According to Shrivastava et al. (2017), this is an effective strategy to understand change resistance in the organization and help in successful change management.
Six Change Approaches by Kotter and Schlesinger: This model comprises of 6 steps that can be used to overcome resistance to change. Rosenbaum et al. (2018) suggested that businesses must constantly evolve to meet the challenges caused by changes in technology, addition of new competitors, changing regulatory policies and exploiting new opportunities. However, implementation of change might be challenging due to a resistance to change (King et al. 2017). The resistance can be caused due to misperceptions and feeling of uncertainty and dread over the outcomes of the change. The change curve explains how motivation/performance of employees can change over time, from a sense of shock and denial to the successful integration or acceptance to change (Hon et al. 2014).
According to the model, the types of resistance to change include parochial self interest, misunderstanding and lack of trust, difference in the assessment of situation and a low tolerance to change. The six steps that can be used to overcome resistance to change include education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and agreement, manipulation and co-optation and implicit/implicit coercion (Rosenbaum et al. 2018)
Lewin’s change theory model: This model consists of three steps namely: unfreeze, change and freeze which provides an approach towards planning and implementation of change in an organization (Burke 2017). According to Hussain et al. (2018), this model can help to make changes in the organization, minimize operational disruptions due to the change and ensure sustainability of the change. The first ‘unfreeze’ step aims to improve readiness to change, the second ‘change’ represents implementation of the change strategies while the final ‘re-freeze’ represents the sustenance of the change. Bakari et al. (2017) pointed out that using these three steps, change can be managed strategically in an organization and thus ensure better success.
Findings, Discussion and Analysis:
Using the frameworks identified above and the data collected from interviews with Oracle Corporation Employees, the factors that influence resistance to change can be identified and also develop strategies to overcome the resistance as well as plan for the implementation of change in Oracle.
Factors influencing change:
From the interviews several important factors could be identified which influenced the organizations readiness for change and also identify the factors that was causing resistance to change. According to the senior operations manager, the biggest factors that supports a need for an organizational change includes a drive towards improving the performance and profitability if the organization and optimize the performance. According to the managing director, the organization also needs improvement in operational flexibility to improve operational diversity. Moreover, there are also the external factors such as competition and an increased demand for higher quality of services which also requires an organizational change.
Research Questions and Objectives
According to the CEO, the main factors that is causing resistance to change includes a misperceptions of change among the employees, sense of insecurity and fear towards change, disagreements between management regarding the advantage and disadvantage of change and structural inertia of the organization. Interviews with some employees also highlighted that ineffective communication with higher management, inadequate information regarding the change process and old habits of the employees additionally caused resistance towards change.
The diagram below uses the Force Field Model to identify the driving and restraining forces that influences change management in Oracle Corporation using the data collected from the interviews.
Approaches to overcome resistance to change:
Based on the Force Field analysis, strategies to overcome the resistance to change can be identified which can be used in the organization. Discussed below are the steps that can be used to increase readiness for change in Oracle Corporation:
- Educating the employees on the need for change and communicating the change plan: The employees can be communicated regarding the need for change with honesty and clarity that can help them understand the logic behind the change and how it can help the organization as well as the employees themselves. Any misconceptions, wrong notions and fear regarding the change needs to be addressed. The education and communication should also be delivered consistently for long time duration for maximum effect (Fairfield 2018).
- Increasing participation of the employees in change management:The organization should involve people showing resistance to change in the change management process to increase their participation and helps to develop commitment to change. However it is also important to consider the obstacles to participation (O’Connor et al. 2018).
- Facilitating and supporting the change process:Support can be provided to the employees during the transition phase by providing training and mentoring for the employees that can help them to cope up with the new system. Counseling can also be provided for the employees facing difficulties to adjust to the new process and understand their concerns (Kirrane et al. 2017).
- Negotiating on the terms of change:This can be done by incentivizing change, better financial rewards for those who are able to accept and follow the change program. The organization can also delayer some of its departments by increasing rewards for leaving. Feedback from then employees can also be used to plan the change process to negotiate new terms for change that can address their concerns (Rafferty and Jimmieson 2017).
- Involving managers in change management:It is vital to involve all levels of management into the change management process and support individuals who are opposed to change to co-opt into the process. This can help to develop a balanced change plan keeping in mind the factors causing resistance to change (Hussain et al. 2018).
- Coercion: This should be the last approach strategy towards mitigation of resistance to change as it involves coercion of the employees to adapt to the change against their free will. Even though this strategy can have faster results, it can increase a sense of stress and anxiety among the employees as well as cause a sense of resentment (Barnes 2017).
Planning and implementing change:
Using the three steps (unfreeze, change and re-freeze) of change model, organizational change can be implemented in Oracle Corporations to implement the change (Burke 2017). Discussed below is the implementation strategy in three steps:
Step 1 Unfreeze: In this step effective communication would be developed between the employees and management that can help to understand the need for change. Participation from the employees can be increased to support better communication and involvement in change management as well as help the employee and management to see through each other’s perspectives. Feedbacks can also be taken to understand key concerns and address them to overcome resistance to change (Hussain et al. 2018).
Step 2 Change: Change can be implemented though new organizational policies and operational planning that would incorporate the new system and replace the old one. Developing strategies to streamline operations to increase productivity and performance can be used to implement the change. Support from a strong change management team can also facilitate the implementation process. Training and mentoring can be provided to help employees adapt to the process and employee performance can be evaluated periodically to analyze effectiveness of the implementation. The old system can be slowly phased out or completely replaced with the new process/system (Bakari et al. 2017).
Step 3: Refreeze: To ensure the change is being followed and is permanent, audits can be done on its compliance. The new process or system can be included in the organizational policies to ensure compliance and old system can be out dated to ensure maintenance of the new process. Moreover, training and mentoring can also help to maintain the new system. The change can also be incentivized by providing rewards, recognition and financial benefits to employees who successfully adapted to the change thereby attracting and motivating more employees towards it (Burke 2017).
Conclusion and Recommendation:
Synopsis:
Oracle Corporations is an international organization that specializes in computer technologies and software solutions for various companies. The organization is one of the leaders in the industry. Due to the constantly changing environment caused by internal and external factors, the organization needs to evolve constantly to keep pace with the changes and maintain its position as global leaders. However the long history and success of the company have increased resistance to change. Due to this, change management in the organization has become difficult. Using Lewin’s Force Field model the resistors to change have been identified while six change approaches by Kotter and Schlesinger has been used to understand strategy to overcome the resistance. Lewin’s change theory model have been used understand the strategy to plan and implement change.
Major Findings:
From the interviews with Oracle Corporation management and employees factors causing resistance to organizational change have been identified which includes ineffective communication between management and employees, misinterpretations of the employees towards the change, inadequate information shared with the employees, a sense of insecurity of the employees towards the new system, disagreements between the management on the potential advantage and disadvantage of the change, structural inertia and old habits of the employees.
The strategies that can be used to overcome the resistance was identified using the six change approaches such as educating the employees on the need for change and communicating the change plan, increasing involvement and participation at every level of the organization in the change process, providing support to facilitate implementation, negotiating new terms for change management, increasing managerial involvement and if necessary using coercive approaches. The implementation of the change can be done using three step model in which the readiness for change would be increased (unfreeze) followed by implementation of the change (change) and then making the new process permanent (refreeze) (Barnes 2017).
Answer to research question:
Barriers to change can be overcome by addressing the factors causing resistance to change and by strategically implementing the change in a three step process of unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The Kotter and Schlesinger’s six step model can be used to implement the change in the organization and improve the openness towards change (Rosenbaum et al. 2018).
Recommendations:
- Resistance to change can be identified using the Lewin’s Force Field model. This model can help to understand why there is a resistance towards change in the organization and thus understand what can be done to overcome them.
- Resistance to change can be reduced using the six step process by Kotter and Schlesinger. The six steps can be followed; addressing the key challenges identified by the force field model and develop a plan to overcome resistance to change.
- Change management can be done effectively by using Lewin’s Three Step model of change management. The three step model can help in the implementation of change in the organization.
References:
Bakari, H., Hunjra, A.I. and Niazi, G.S.K., 2017. How Does Authentic Leadership Influence Planned Organizational Change? The Role of Employees’ Perceptions: Integration of Theory of Planned Behavior and Lewin’s Three Step Model. Journal of Change Management, 17(2), pp.155-187.
Barnes, M.A., 2017. Robert Chin and Kenneth D. Benne: Change Management Biography. In The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers (pp. 285-295). Springer International Publishing.
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Capatina, A., Bleoju, G., Matos, F. and Vairinhos, V., 2017. Leveraging intellectual capital through Lewin’s Force Field Analysis: The case of software development companies. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 2(3), pp.125-133.
dsp.co.uk., 2018. The History of Oracle Corporation: 1977 – 2000. [online] DSP. Available at: https://www.dsp.co.uk/the-history-of-oracle-corporation-1977-2000/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].
Fairfield, K.D., 2018. Educating for change in mindset and worldview on sustainability: One teacher’s story. In Emerging Challenges in Business, Optimization, Technology, and Industry (pp. 157-168). Springer, Cham.
Fox, J. , 2014. Oracle: The Worst-Governed, Best-Run Company Around. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/09/oracle-the-worst-governed-best-run-company-around [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].
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