Importance of Effective Communication and Participation
Discuss about the Employee Participation and Organizational Commitment.
Organizational change is inevitable in the current business scenario and it is becoming more common and frequent with time. Furthermore with the increase in the importance for organizational change, resistance to change is also becoming evident. There are number of reasons that are contributing in resisting for change. Thus, along with the initiation of the change management, it is also becoming important for the change agents to effectively manage the change (Ashkenas 2013). There are number of theories and concepts that are being initiated in relation to management of change management.
According to Mckay, Kuntz and Naswall (2013), there are number of techniques that can be initiated by the change agents in order to effectively manage the resistance to change. One of the major mechanisms stated by the authors is communication and participation of the stakeholders in the change process. It is discussed by the authors that associated stakeholders in the change process should be communicated effectively about the aims and objectives of the change management. Moreover, the stakeholders should also be communicated about the benefits that can be gained from the initiation of the change process in the organization. Thus, if the stakeholders are aware about the details of the change process, then they will less likely to resist to the change.
It is also to be noted that the major resistance to the change process comes from the side of the lower level employees. This is mainly due to the reason that lower level employees have the perception that initiation of the change management process in the organization will affect their job security and value in the workplace. Thus, according to the authors, effectively communicating with the lower level employees regarding the aspects of the change management process will help to reduce the negative perception from the lower level employees.
Employee participation is another measure stated by Hon, Bloom and Crant (2014) in managing the resistance to change. According to the authors, employees always have the fear of reduction in their organizational valuation in case of the initiation of the change management process in the workplace. They fear that they will have less voice in the decision making process due to the reason of the implementation of the change management. According to the authors, change agents should enhance the participation of the employees in the implementation process of the change management. This is due to the reason that employees should be involved in the implementation process in order to gather their feedback and opinion in the process. This will help the change agents to have the information about the issues with the employees and they can overcome the shortcomings. As per the authors, the more will be the participation of the employees in the change process, the less will be the resistance from the side of the employees.
Role of Employee Involvement
Change management in Honda, Japan is initiated based on the employee’s issues and challenges. Thus, they face much less challenges in terms of resistance from the side of the employees.
Apart from initiating the internal techniques of managing the resistance of the change management, there are number of theories and models being discussed by different authors. One of the major theories initiated in relation to the management of resistance to change is the Lewin model of change management. According to Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), Lewin change management model will help the change agents in preventing the resistance in the implementation process of the change. According to this theory, there are three steps that should be initiated in managing the resistance to change. The authors have also discussed about the step to be followed in initiating the Lewin change management model.
It is stated that unfreezing, change implementation and refreezing should be effectively implemented in sequential manner in order to fulfill the desired objective of the change management process. This model also states that it is important to generate the feedback and opinions from the side of the employees and the change management should be implemented in phased manner. This is due to the reason that phased implementation process will ensure identification of the shortcomings of the change process. Accordingly, the change process can be rectified and modified and implemented in the next phase. Majorly, this model concentrated on the importance of evaluation of the effectiveness of the change process. This will ensure that issues with the employees get solved in the primary stage and employees are less resisted towards the change process.
According to some authors, McKinsey’s model of change management is also as effective in managing the resistance in the change management process. According to Singh (2013), McKinsey’s model of change management can help the organizations in achieving organizational excellence by the way of change management process. This is due to the reason that according to the McKinsey’s model of change management, there seven steps that should be initiated by the change agents in having effective management of the resistance from the side of the employees. According to the authors, the seven steps includes strategy for implementing change process to providing training to the employees to get accustomed with the new systems. It is stated by the authors that initiation of the McKinsey’s model of change management will ensure that all the aspects to be considered in the implementation process of change management are being fulfilled.
Lewin Model of Change Management
Another major factor that should be considered in managing the resistance in change management is leadership roles. According to Yilmaz and Kilicoglu (2013), leadership roles in the organizations play an important role in managing the resistance of the employees in relation to the implementation of change process. According to the authors, the more effective will be the leadership roles, the more will be the level of engagement and motivation of the employees. Motivated and engaged employees are highly unlikely to resist in change process (Shell.com 2018). Furthermore, initiation of the effective leadership approach will also enable the change agents to determine the issues and opinions of the employees regarding the change process. Accordingly, they can implement the change process without having the resistance from the stakeholders.
Shell went for successful change management due to their leadership effectiveness. However, there were number of complexities faced by them in their implementation of change management. Initiation of situational style of leadership helped Shell to succeed in the process rather than maintaining similar leadership approach.
The analysis of different literature shows that various authors have contrasting opinion about the resistance to change. Lewin was the founder of the change management concept and all other theories can be simplified to develop the three step model of unfreezing, change and refreezing. Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) stated that the model developed by Lewin has been oversimplified and the idea of refreezing in today’ context is not applicable as flexibility and adaptability are two most essential factors of sustainability in the modern environment. Lewin’s model is the template of applying change management where it has been considered as the repackaging of a philosophy that is mechanistic in nature mainly known as the Taylor’s scientific management concept. On the contrary, Georgalis et al. (2015) defended Lewin’s Model by stating that the analysis is only partial and does not consider the other three pillars such as group dynamics, action research and field theory. The authors made a misinterpretation of the Lewin’s Idea by not taking into account the important factors of change management.
Lewin’s theory of change management has been considered as one of the elements that are interrelated but no evidence can be provided by the supporters of this model. The reality of change is not correctly represented by the Lewin’s Model. Even though, many consider change at three steps model as the major change management model, only 33% of the model is accurate (Steigenberger 2015). As stated by Altamony et al. (2016), the counter historical approach of change management when used to analyze the Lewin’s model showed that different authors have outlined different patterns while studying change management model of Lewin as pre paradigmatic disciples has differentiation in interpretation and inputs variables. This shows that following the Lewin Model blindly will result in development of similar results so it essential to think differently and find other alternatives to this model Matos Marques Simoes and Esposito (2014). On the other hand, researches conducted by other researchers have provided different opinion about the research elements as they have interpreted this model as effective for implementing change management where different phases have been used for different purposes. This empirical literature shows that contrasting opinion among different authors and researchers, some opinionated that there the model is not applicable in the modern context where some thinks that this is the founding model to change management. The findings of the articles is still not conclusive about the model and further analysis of the model is required using the Michel Foucault counter historical approach.
McKinsey’s Model
The above discussion of the literature shows that there are different views in relation to the management of the resistance in change management process. However, these views are having their own shortcomings and advantages from different perspectives. Mckay, Kuntz and Naswall (2013), stated that communication is one of the major factors to be considered in managing the resistance in change management. The major competing element in their view is that communication is the key element for the organizational excellence and it helps in reducing the distance between lower and higher level internal stakeholders. Therefore, the authors have stated the most important factor in managing the resistance in the change management.
However, on the other hand, there some weaknesses also being identified from the discussion of these authors. This article assumed that communication problem is the only problem that may get aroused in the change process. However, in the current business scenario, business organizations face more complex and diverse set of challenges (www.cps.co.uk 2018). In this case, the approach of the change management is also more diverse, which not only include communication problem but some others also (Ohana, Meyer and Swaton 2013). It is also to be noted that if the authors can put some more diverse issues along with the communication problem, then the effectiveness of the article would have got increased. The article should have designed in a way that it will address the different reasons for the resistance with the help of effective communication process.
Hon, Bloom and Crant (2014) stated that employee participation also helps in reducing the probability of resistance from the side of the employees in the change management process. According to them, fear of the employees in relation to the new systems in the change management process is one of the key reasons for resisting to the change. The authors have given an effective solution by means of enhancing the participation of the employees in the change management process. The main advantage of this article is that it has given the major concentration on engaging the employees. It is discussed in this article that employees should be participated in the change management process in order to garner the feedback of the employees. Thus, opinion of the employees is being given the most concentration. This is important in the current challenging business scenario.
However, on the other hand, the limitation identified with this article is that, this article assumed that fear of the employees towards change is the only reason for their resistance, while there are number of other reasons that are also responsible for the resistance of the employees. For instance, employees may not be comfortable with the new techniques and technologies initiated in the change process (Bateh, Castaneda and Farah 2013). Thus, the impact of the article in determining the factors of managing resistance to change is limited. The article would get further enriched if some other issues with the employees can get discussed. It is to be noted that enhancing the participation of the employees will not solve all the issues related to the employees; rather it may initiate more issues for the change agents. These factors should get addressed in the article.
Significance of Leadership Roles
Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) stated that lewin mode of change management will be effective in managing the resistance in change process. According to them, three steps discussed in this model will help the change agents in effectively implement the change process in the organization. The key positive factor in this article is that authors have stated a model in analyzing the management of resistance of change, rather than just stating alternatives stated in the previous articles. Implementation of this model will help the change agents to proceed in phased manner and it will ensure that all the factors in the change process are being considered. However, on the other hand, the key negative factor of this article is that lewin model difficult to implement in different situation faced by the contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that current business scenario is having more diverse set of situations to be faced and it will be difficult to implement the lewin model with same approach in different situations (Shirey 2013). Authors can discussed about different approaches by which the lewin model of change management can be implemented in different situations.
Yilmaz and Kilicoglu (2013) stated that leadership roles also play an important role in determining the emergence of resistance to the change management process. The key merit of this idea is that leadership roles is one of the major factors in determining the organizational excellence and it is skipped by majority of the authors in the previous articles. However, it is also to be noted that leadership roles is diverse in nature and similar approach to leadership will not be applicable and suitable in every situation. For instance, transformational leadership will not be applicable in the situation where employees are not trained and equipped enough to deal with the organizational challenges. In this case, initiation of the transformational leadership cannot manage the resistance to change (Bolden 2016). It is suggested that author should elaborate more about the applicability of different leadership approach for the different situations for the business organizations and how the resistance to change can get mitigated with different leadership approaches.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that management of resistance to change is having different factors to consider for the change agents. Some of these factors are reviewed with the help of different articles and models. It is analyzed that all the articles are having different set of advantages and disadvantages from different point of view. This essay evaluated these advantages and disadvantages and suggested some points that are missing in the reviewed articles. However, review of these articles helped to understand different aspects that should be considered by the change agents in having less probability of emergence of resistance from the side of the employees. Effective consideration of these factors will ensure that change management process is implemented ideally in place.
Reference
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Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), pp.33-60.
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Shell.com. (2018). www.shell.com. [online] Available at: https://www.shell.com/media/speeches-and-articles/2015/how-to-embrace-change.html [Accessed 3 May 2018].
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Steigenberger, N., 2015. Emotions in sensemaking: a change management perspective. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(3), pp.432-451.
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