Barriers to Organizational Change - Example

Student Name: Course Name: Tutor: Date: Organizational change management Introduction There are always two types of activities present in an organization and these involve the ordinary delivery process (doing organization’s basic business) and change activities (amendments in business and its operations). Change might seem merely as dealing with changing jobs, products or even places, although this initially begins inside people’s head. Incase the organizations attempt to change without any consideration to this element then problems as well as failures are bound to occur. The change activities are always initiated by the process of change management. Therefore, as a term that is frequently associated with large organizations, change management is the undertaking of various processes in order to ensure that the significant changes in an organization are properly implemented. It as well ensures that the change expected is also accurately and systematically controlled for an effective and successful organizational change. Examples of changes evident in various organizations include the strategic changes, the technological changes, the structural changes, and changing personnel behaviours as well as attitudes. The greatest goal of change management is to overcome the resistance to change (from the employees) and empower the employees. This is to ensure that the organizational members accept the change in the current environment, hence enabling realization of the organizational objectives in a well-organized and successful transformation. Change management is often structured to transform teams, people, and the general organization from the status they are currently in to a preferred future status. As such, Due to its multidisciplinary nature, change management relies on creative marketing, proper communications, social understanding of the leadership style as well as group dynamics to be successful. Change management also aligns the team’s expectations, integrates teams, and controls training of people. As such, it requires metrics like Leader’s commitment, effectiveness of communication, reasons for change and the required change so as to develop accurate strategies and avoid failures. As such, skills of change management are a necessity to people in managerial and other leadership positions. Barriers to organizational change Rapid change, as a requirement in the organizations, is a fact in the modern business environment. In as much as there are certain leaders in some companies who believe in frequent changes, organizational change is mostly carried out for accomplishment of basic strategic goals. Despite the extent to which change is fundamental to the upper management, several barriers have to be overcome for proper implementation of the specific planned changes. The four greatest barriers to change, which frequently face various organizations, and which have high chances of creating havoc include: An insufficient planning of the culture-shift is a great problem hindering the change management. A majority of organizations are quite perfect at planning changes in the reporting structure, planning placements in the work area, planning job responsibilities as well as planning the administrative structure. The charts of the organization are frequently revised over and over. As well there is establishment of timelines, setting of benchmarks, appointment of teams etc. Failure in forecasting and planning for the resultant change in culture, however, is as well frequent. Incase the planning team’s focus is defined much narrowly, or focused too much on analysis of the objectives and critical thinking, there are increased chances of failing to realize that such changes will have an effect on the people in the organization. Even in the workplace, individuals make various decisions based on their feelings and their institutions. Incase of overlook of the employee feelings, there is always a resultant deep resentment since some particular unrecognized taboos, or cultural traditions, have been neglected or even not duly respected (Elsmore, 19). Lack of involvement of the employees is also another barrier to the organizational change management. People often have a natural panic in change and as such fear change. In a majority of strategic changes set by an organization, at least a number of workers will be requested to take various responsibilities or even focus on a range of aspects related to their skills or their knowledge. Turner (576) claims that the bigger the change an individual is required to make or undergo the greater and persistent the individual’s fear will become. Fear related to change will be evident. Most importantly above all, however, existence of the fear due to the possibility of failing to perform as expected in the new task will be evident. Immediate involvement of employees in the efforts towards change, and enabling them to form as many changes as there is possibility and practicality in them is paramount to the success of the change effort. As the workers in the organization understand why the change is taking place, while at the same time are given the opportunity for trials of the change, they much readily and willingly allow and support that particular change. It is also of immense value to consider the impacts from lack of consultations in the whole process, since this is another serious barrier. For any change to be easily and effectively implemented, the staff who work in the sections where change is to be carried out have to be informed and their opinions considered. The employees expected to be part of the team, and the experts in the very field needing change, have to be duly consulted for better results. In consideration of the Telstra company article by Kate Lahey, rumours are considered as the only way the employees get to know the developments underway. This is much more illustrated by the fact that the employees have learned from rumours that, in the organizational restructuring process, the company intends to create two new offices and appoint two senior staffs to help manage its resources effectively. This, however, has dire consequences considering that it has resulted in one executive resigning as a result of failing to be consulted. This can only imply that the value of consulting other staff is quite valuable in the whole process as it eliminates blame games incase of failure in the whole plans (Weick, 98). Another great barrier to organizational change is inadequate training. With the changes that are occurring in technology, organizational activities are increasingly becoming complicated. Due to the fact that changes must be implemented in accordance with the direction that technology is taking, it is of great significance to keep training the employees so that they remain updated. Most new applications always require training for the employees to fully understand, accept, and apply them. Incase of failure to train, the whole process can be disrupted by the staff. The managers should also be training on how to undertake the change process for them to be able to act as a guide to the other teams. As such therefore, failure to train the employees might lead to failures in the organizational change process (Bryson, 755). Communication strategies that are flawed as well are very detrimental to the change management process. The necessary communication strategies expected in the situations involving major organizational change should address the message, the delivery methods, timing, as well as the value of information which is to be shared with different organization’s parts. A majority of leaders often have a notion that with their explanation to people on what the people should know concerning the change, everybody will back-up the change and be ready for its adoption. Quinn (362) claims that, in the actual sense, the people require understanding the reasons behind the proposal on change, and most importantly the people dearly expect to understand the effects of the proposed change on them. A great announcement issued by the chief executive officer has very little effect in helping the people have understanding of the change and embrace it. People often require getting the information about changes from their direct supervisors. The strategy based on involving the direct supervisors and giving them a go-ahead to manage the process of communication is the answer to successful panning of change communication. With proper, careful, sensitive and thorough plans and action on the four barriers, the chances of employees accepting, supporting and acting as per the change will be very high, this is in addition to complying with the organizational change willingly and supportively. Theories of organizational change management. The Complexity theory places emphasis on organizations which have the characteristic of non-linear dynamics. As per this theory, the practices are considered as complex adaptive systems which are composed of local agents whose interactions develop a continually rising novel behaviour. The Organizational change hence results from interactions between the local agents and the complex organization, as well as between the complex organization and its setting. The theory puts a suggestion that before individuals plan on the way to change the organization, it is vital for them to understand it first. This is an indication of the significance of constantly reviewing the structures of an organization in order for the employees to understanding what may work perfectly and what requires improvements (Jones, 154). The systems theory suggests that the interrelatedness of the various parts of an organization have to be considered before implementing any change. Improving a particular area requires that the relationship with other areas should be considered. It is vital to think about aspects of the organization for instance technological, financial as well as human resources, and the tasks involved. The reason for this is because change may be brought about by affecting any of these aspects. In view of technology, it is quite clear in the case of Telstra that most customers are changing from employing the use of the fixed line copper networks into employing the use of the wireless broadband with the help of the mobile phones. As such, to achieve change in an organization like this, the managing director may concentrate on changing the technological aspects (Hatch, 109). Another theory, the organizational development theory, is a different event of an anticipated change within the organization. This deeply considers the concept of behavioural sciences. It hence places emphasis on the human processes in transforming the organization. The very theory suggests that any successful organizational change must have its basis on an agreement between the employees and the organizational. The spirit of team work, therefore, is very crucial for a successful organizational improvement. In the case of Telstra, the chief executive wants to have two chief operating officers reporting to him so that he can have more freedom to focus on federal government’s national broadband network. The executive officer is not considering the importance of teamwork in his plans. He is therefore not involving other officers in the national broadband network (Baron, 144). As per the contingency theory of organizational management, the capability of a manager to lead his employees rely on a number of factors. These factors include the manager’s preferred style, the abilities of the manager, the characters of the employees, as well as the prevailing situations. There are also other theories providing a foundation for organizational change management that can apply in the case of Telstra. Among the best theories are the social world’s theory, systems theory, complexity theory and organizational development theory. The Social world theory indicates that changes take place due to negotiations between different social worlds. This theory puts emphasis on the value of the person who is employing the use of the indicators for change and for what reasons. The chosen practices should have an aim at improving the value of work while at the same time complying with the required quality standards. With respect to Telstra, the planned change must increase the performance of the company apart from complying with the federal government’s expectations on national broadband network (Andrews, 598). Models of organizational change There are many models of implementing change in any given organization. Managers in various organizations always have the desire and feel the urge to implement changes in their organizations but always fail to understand the processes involved. Incase Mr. Thodey had applied the correct procedures in restructuring Telstra, then the resentment, hence the resignation of some staff members, wouldn’t have taken place. Kotter’s model could be very valuable in this case if only the eight steps are followed. Kotter’s eight-step model According to this model, the organization first creates the urgency for change, since change only becomes successful once the general organization realizes the need for it. This change should be treated as urgent leaving each employee feeling and supporting the urgency, especially by explaining the dangers and problems which are liable to occur incase the change is not implemented. Creation of a strong coalition is the second step towards achieving successful implementation. This should occur through convincing the people on the values of having this change. It is crucial for the major people in the organization to be part of the coalition due to the great support they can bring to the idea. Any person in the organization who can greatly convince people should be identified, apart from uniting the team of prominent people with powerful professional posts or titles. In case these groups work in unity, they might provide an enormous boost to the change process. The next step is to create the vision. Enabling the affected people to have a clear vision for the planned change is helpful in enabling them realize the reasons behind the proposed change. By completely understanding the intentions of the plans, the people will treat this positively considering that they will be aware of the reasons as to why they are to act in given ways. Communication of the vision is the fourth step. The organization’s members need to be briefed on the expected results arising from the expected change. Constant reassurance on the vision is encouraged since this helps in decision-making and problem-solving processes. It aids the organizational members in realizing the future benefits of the change. The fifth step involves eliminating the change process obstacles, including people resisting the change as well as any other perceived hindrance. Since the smooth flow of the process is required, a structure enabling this should be considered and adopted. By eliminating the obstacles, the concerned people find an embracing environment apart from greatly advancing the change. As such, experts in the change area can also be hired. By forming the short-term wins, the sixth step is achieved. This step involves encouraging the members on the success of the change, especially considering its worth in enabling the members feel successful prior to change. This will be much successful through forming possible short-term goals while the plans on change aren’t yet fully ready. According to Kotter, the seventh step means building on the change. It implies that the manager is not expected to declare victory until the maturity of the plan is reached. This should only be declared after the plan is almost through. This stage values investing adequate appropriate resources for the success of the plans. Any improvements to ensure complete plans are encouraged. Finally, Kotter suggests that anchoring the changes into the organization’s culture should be the final stage. This calls for ensuring that the plans are properly established in the organizational activities. Continuous efforts should be ensured to make certain that the change is reflected into each organizational aspect. This ensures that the change gets completely absorbed in the organizational culture. Telstra’s change proposals. Kotter offers good suggestions to the change management team in Telstra. In view of the steps involved in the kotter’s model, Mr. Thodey failed to establish a strong coalition to aid in the process of change. Other managing directors including David Moffat and Mr. Milner were not included by the change management team hence resulting in their resignations. They would have greatly supported the implementation of the change. Apart from this, Mr. Thodley didn’t communicate the visions to Telstra members. His plans for change and his motives for change were not declared to the members, hence being received through rumours by the employees. The vision he had would have enabled Telstra to tackle issues coming from the national broadband for some few years, hence as such he should have informed other members about this. These barriers could have been eliminated by the chief executive through informing members about it, especially the resistance to change, as in the case of Mr. Milner. The change strategies for Telstra As effective leadership teams bear witness, it is quite normal and natural for employees to have a positive or negative reaction to change. As such applying strategies which are helpful in averting such resistances is a necessity in the whole process. Among the effective strategies include developing a clear outline prior to initiating the planned change. The staff always develop feelings incase of failure of being informed about the policies and guidelines of the planned change. The employees as well have to know the effects the change will have on their working conditions. The result of ignoring this was evident in Telstra when Mr. Milner resigned (Bridges, 123). Advocacy, as a vital strategy, enables staff members to have an opportunity of expressing their views on the planned change. As such the members are given full information about the plans, after which their feedbacks collected and considered. This calls for leaders to be flexible. Communication strategy is quite crucial to the whole change process as effective communication ensures stronger and stable organization. The information need to be passed from above coming down. Therefore Mr. Thodey was required to pass the information to the staff members instead of letting the information flow as a rumour. Challenges that could have faced the executive officer Mr. Thodey was vulnerable to a range of challenges including challenges relating to the general performance of Telstra. Quite a number of organizations have poor performance arising from employees and other additional factors. The executive officer could have restructured the senior management team first, which wasn’t taken lightly by the officers hence resulting in resignation. Poor performance, as such, continued to be a challenge to changes in Telstra. The federal government also exerted pressure on the national broadband network, making Mr. Thodey have a lot of pressure and challenges from within and without Telstra. Conclusion Proper change management is a necessity to all organization since this determines their competence. Skills related to change management are valuable in almost all fields. As such therefore, the change management team is expected not only to know the theories and models of change management, but also apply them strictly and appropriately to achieve greater success. Reference Turner, Janet. Want to, need to, ought to: employee commitment to organizational change. Emerald JOCM 21 (1); 566-630. 2008 Elsmore, Peter. Organisational Culture: Organisational Change? Journal of Organizational Change Management,15 (4): 18-24. 2002. Bridges, William. Managing transitions: making the most of change. New York: Wesley Publishing Company.2001. Baron, Robert. Behavior in organizations. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. 2008. Jones, Ishmael. The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. New York: Encounter Books .2008. Hatch, Mary. Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. Oxford University Press. 2006. Weick, Karl. The Social Psychology of Organizing. New York: McGraw Hill 2009. Andrews, Jane. All change? Managers' experience of organizational change in theory and practice. Emerald JOCM 21 (3); 560-613. 2008 Quinn, Robert. Organizational change and development. Annu Rev Psychol, 50:361–86. 2007. Bryson, Jane. Dominant, emergent, and residual culture: the dynamics of organizational change. Emerald JOCM 21, (6): 743 – 757. 2008 Read More