Blog 2

Managing Change

Change is nothing new and a simple fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change. It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change (Mullins 2010: 753).

In this blog, we are explore the different view of what management can do about resistance to change, the impact of change, why people resist change, and what managers can do for change to take place if need be.

Resistance to change has long been recognise as fundamental factor that can influence the success or failure of an organisational chafe effort. Mullins (2010) argues that change is unknown and inescapable part of organisation and social life, change happens without been planed for, he  want on further to stated that change  involves the personality of the individual therefore management can do little or nothing about the resistance to change (Mullins 2010).

Waddell (1998) argues that managers can manage the process by two way communication which are, information sharing and consultation. Through this process, employees will tend to be more committed to change effort, rather than just remaining grievance with it. inline with this statement, the psychological contract theory explains that the complex relationship between an organisation and its employee can be use to understand the process that management can put in place to manage resistance to chance (Mullins 2010). Kotter in its 8 steps model for successful change writing in his book “ leading change’ followed in the “Heart of Change’ suggested that managers can initiate the change process through 8 steps, which include; increase urgency, build the guiding team, get the vision right, communicate for buy-in, create short-term wins, don’t let up and make it stick . (Kotter 2012). Each of the stages relates to people response and approaches to change in which people see, feel and than change (Mullins and Christy 2010).

 

Fig 1.0 adopted from leading change in Organization (Kotter 1995)

Resistance to change

Been resistance to change is a neutral occurrence and part of human psychology due to factors such as; the fear of the unknown, individual habit, selective perception, implications and the feeling of been threatened  (Mullins and Christy 2010). Druck (1993) stated that change is personal, Pietersen (2002) also stated that for many people, the spectre of change produces what is sometimes called the factor- which comprises of fear, uncertainty and Doubt to individuals and organisation (cited in Chew et al 2002). in IBM case study, as we read, the company was afraid to change its organisational culture even when its survival was depending on it (Weeks 2004).

Lewins in its three stage model proposed that for people to change, it  involves pre-prescribed group steps aim at a goal, the first stage is the unfreezing stage, at this stage, unhelpful behaviour needs to be explicit and disconfirmed, the next stage which is the moving stage, at this stage trial and error, research styles actions needs to slowly initiated to get things done, finally, refreezing stage which requires behaviour to be consistent and to be mentioned in the feature (schein 2004). However, Increasing complexity requires organisation to rethink the nature of hierarch and control, promote self-organising processes, learn the art of managing and changing contexts, and learn how to use small chafes to create large effects (Burns 2005 :82). He identify that emergent leadership is based on the assumption that change is continuous and process as well as unpredictable process of aligning and realigning an organisation to its changing environment.

                                        

Figure 1.2 Emergent Change (Burnes 2010)

Weick (2000, cited in Yukl 2010: 299) identify that benefit such as sensitivity to local contingencies, tightening and shortening feedback loops from results and been able to satisfy needs by employing existing knowledge are some of the benefits organisation can achieve when emergent to change.

In other to meet the world growing demand for energy, Chevron an oil and gas company is venturing its capital to leveraging its technologies to enhance productivity to meet up this challenging demand. The company believes that the increasing demand will create an avenue for profit. this has resulted to the company changing its strategy, rather sharing dividend, it has decided to invest in technology. (chevron.com 2014). In conclusion, people love change, however, people resist to change if they perceive potential loss. A successful management of change is clearly essential in an organisation for economic and competitive performance (Mullins 2013). organisation can provide change leadership through building coalition with credibility, skills, reputation, connections and formal authority (Burnes 2012).

REFERENCES

Bovey, W.H and Hede, A (2001) ‘Resistance to organizational Change: the Role of Defence Mechanisms’ Journal of Management Psychology, Vol. 16(7), pp. 534-548.

Chew, M. Cheng, J. and Petrovic-Lazarevic, C. (2002) ‘Manager’s Role in Implementing Organisational Chnage: Case of the Restaurant Industry in Melbourne’, Journal of Global Business and Technology, Vol 2(1) pp. 58-66.

Chevron (2014) Chevron Venture Capital: Leveraging Technology to Deliver Superior Results. (online) available from <http://www.chevron.com/ctv/ctvi/&gt; [17 June 2014].

 

Kolter, J.P. (2012) Leding Change. Boston, Mass Harvard Business Review.

Kotter, J.P. (2007), ‘Leading Change’, Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 96-103, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, (11 June 2014).

Mullins, L.J. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th edn. Harlow: Person.

Mullins, J. and Christy, G (2013) Managing Change in Orgainsational Behaviour, 10th edition, Harlow: pearson.

Schein, E.H. (2004) Organisational Culture and leadership, 3rd edition, London: Jossey-Bass.

Waddell, D and Sohal, A (1998) ‘Resistance: A Constructive Tool for Change Management’. Journal of Management History Vol. 36(8) pp 584-548.

Weeks, J. (2004) Culture and Leadership at IBM. INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Yukl, G. (2010) Leadership in Organisational Behaviour, 9th edn, Pearson: Essex.