Lunes, Hunyo 3, 2013

Managing Resistance to Change by Jolito Ortizo Padillla




No organization or individual can escape change.But the thought of change rises anxieties because people fear economic loss, inconvenience,uncertainty, and a break in normal social patterns. Almost any change in structure, technology, people, or strategies has a potential to disrupt comfortable interaction patterns. For this reason. people resist change.The strategic management process itself can impose major changes on individuals or processes. Reorienting an organization to get people to think and act strategically is not an easy task.

Resistance to change can be considered the single greatest threat to successful strategy implementation. Resistance regularly occurs in organizations in the form of sabotaging production machines, absenteeism, filing unfounded grievances, and an unwillingness to cooperate. People often resist strategy implementation because they do not understand what is happening or why changes are taking place. In that case, employees may simply need accurate information. Successful strategy implementation hinges upon managers' ability to develop an organizational climate conducive to change. Change must be viewed as an opportunity rather than as a threat by managers and employees.

Resistance to change can emerge at any stage or level of the strategy -implementation process. Although there are various approaches for implementing changes, three commonly used strategies are a force change strategy, and educative change strategy, and rational or self interest change strategy. A force change strategy involves giving orders and enforcing those orders; this strategy has the advantage of being fast, but it is plagued by low commitment and high resistance. The educative change strategist is one that presents information to convince people of the need for change; the disadvantage of an educative change strategy is that implementation becomes slow and difficult. However, this type of strategy evokes greater commitment and less resistance than does the force changes strategy. Finally a rational or self interest change strategy is one that attempts to convince the individuals that  the change is to their personal advantage. When this appeal is successful , strategy implementation can be relatively easy.However, implementation changes are seldom to everyone advantage.

The rational change strategy is the most desirable, so this approach is examined a bit further. Managers can improve the likelihood of successfully implementing change by carefully designing change efforts. Jack Duncan described a rational or self- interest change strategy as consisting of four steps. First, employees are invited to participate in the process of change and in details of transition; participation allows everyone to give opinions, to feel a part of the change process , and to identify their own self interest regarding the recommended change. Second,some motivation or incentive to change is required.; self interest can be the most important motivator. Third communication is needed so that people can understand the purpose for changes.Giving and receiving feedback is the fourth step: everyone enjoys knowing how things are going and how much progress is being made.

Because of diverse external and internal forces, change is a fact of life in organizations. The rate, speed , magnitude, and direction vary over time by industry and organization. Strategists should strive to create a work environment in which change is recognized as necessary and beneficial so that individuals can more easily adapt to change.Adopting a strategic management approach to decision making can itself require major changes in the philosophy and operations of a firm.

Strategists can take a number of positive actions to minimize managers' and employees' resistance to change. For example, individuals who will be affected by a change should be involved in the decision to make the change and in decision about how to implement the change. Strategists should anticipate changes and develop and offer training and development workshops so that managers and employees can adapt to those changes. The strategic management process can be described as a process of managing change.

Organizational change should be viewed today as a continuous process rather than as a project or event. The most successful organizations today continuously adapt to changes in the competitive environment, which themselves continue to change at an accelerating rate.It is not sufficient today to simply react to change.Managers need to anticipate change and ideally be the creator of change. Viewing change as a continuous process is in stark contrast to an old management doctrine regarding change , which was to unfreeze behavior , change the behavior , and then refreeze the new behavior. The new "continuous organizational change" philosophy should mirror the popular "continuous quality improvement philosophy".



                                           Copyright Infringement is punishable by law

       

1 komento: