Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Change is inevitable in the life of an organisation. In today’s business world, most of the
organisations are facing a dynamic and changing business environment. They should
either change or die, there is no third alternative. Organizations that learn and cope with
change will thrive and flourish and others who fail to do so will be wiped out. The major
forces which make the changes not only desirable but inevitable are technological,
economic, political, social, legal, international and labour market environments. Recent
surveys of some major organizations around the world have shown that all successful
organizations are continuously interacting with the environment and making changes in
the structural design or philosophy or policies or strategies as the need be.
According to BARNEY AND GRIFFIN, “the primary reason cited for organizational
problems is the failure by managers to properly anticipate or respond to forces for
change.”
Thus in a dynamic society surrounding today’s organizations, the question whether
change will occur is no longer relevant. Instead, the issue is how managers cope with the
inevitable barrage of changes that confront them daily in attempting to keep their
organizations viable and current. Otherwise the organizations will find it difficult or
impossible to survive.
MEANING OF CHANGE
In very simple words, we can say that change means the alteration of status quo or
making things different. “The term change refers to any alterations which occurs in the
overall work environment of an organisation.”
“When an organizational system is disturbed by some internal or external force, change
frequently occurs. Change, as a process, is simply modification of the structure or process
of a system. It may be good or bad, the concept is descriptive only.”
From the above definitions, we can conclude that change has the following
characteristics:
1. Change results from the pressure of both internal and external forces in the
organisation. It disturbs the existing equilibrium or status quo in the organisation.
2. The change in any part of the organisation affects the whole of the organization.
3. Change will affect the various parts of the organizations in varying rates speed
and degrees of significance.
4. Change may affect people, structure, technology and other elements of the
organisation.
5. Change may be reactive or proactive. When change is brought about due to the
pressure of external forces, it is called reactive change. Proactive change is
initiated by the management on its own to increase organizational effectiveness.
3. Social changes: Social changes reflect in terms of people’s aspirations, the needs,
and their ways of working. Social changes have taken place because of the several
forces like level of education, urbanization, feeling of autonomy, and international
impact due to new information sources. These social changes affect the behavior
of people in the organization. There, it is required to make adjustment in its
working so that it matches with people.
4. Political and legal changes: Political and legal factors broadly define the
activities which an oganisation can undertake and the methods which will be
followed by it in accomplishing those activities. Any changes in these political
and legal factors may affect the organization operation.
INTERNAL FORCES
It is not only the changes in external factors, which may necessitate organizational
changes; any change in organization’s internal factors may also necessitate changes. Such
a change is required because of two reasons: changes in managerial personnel and
deficiency in existing organizational practices.
3. Nature of the work force: The nature of work force has changed over a passage
of time. Different work values have been expressed by different generations.
Workers who are in the age group of 50 plus value loyalty to their employers.
Workers in their mid thirties to forties are loyal to themselves only. The youngest
generation of workers is loyal to their career.
The profile of the workforce is also changing fast. The new generation of workers
has better educational; they place greater emphasis on human values and
questions authority of managers. Their behavior has also become very complex
and leading them towards organizational goals is a challenge for the managers.
The employee turnover is also very high which again put strain on the
management.
TYPES OF CHANGE
The various types of changes are:
1. INDIVIDUAL LEVEL CHANGE
Individual level changes may take place due to changes in job assignment,
transfer of an employee to a different location or the changes in the maturity level
of a person which occurs over a passage of time. The general opinion is that
change at the individual will not have the significant implications for the
organization. But this is not correct because individual level changes will have
impact on the group which in turn will influence the whole organization.
Therefore, a manager should never treat the employees in isolation but he must
understand that the individual level change will have repercussions beyond the
individual.
2. GROUP LEVEL CHANGE
Management must consider group factors while implementing any change,
because most of the organizational changes have their major effects at the group
level. The groups in the organization can be formal groups or informal groups.
Formal groups can always resist change for example; the trade unions can very
strongly resist the changes proposed by the management. Informal groups can
pose a major barrier to change because of the inherent strength they contain.
Changes at the group level can affect the work flows, job design, social
organization, influence and status systems and communication patterns.
The groups, particularly the informal groups have a lot of influence on the
individual members of the group. As such by effective implementing change at
the group level, resistance at the individual level can be frequently overcome.
3. ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL CHANGE
The organizational change involves major programmes which affect both the
individuals and the groups. Decisions regarding such changes are made by the
senior management. These changes occur over long periods of time and require
considerable planning for implementation. A few different types of organization
level changes are:
iii. Process oriented change. These changes relate to the recent technological
developments, information processing and automation. This will involve
replacing or retraining personnel, heavy capital equipment investment and
operational changes. All this will affect the organizational culture and as a
result the behaviour pattern of the individuals.
iv. People oriented change. People oriented changes are directed towards
performance improvement, group cohesion, dedication, and loyalty to the
organizations as well as developing a sense of self-actualisation among
members. This can be made possible by closer interaction with employees
and by special behavioural training and modification sessions.
To conclude, we can say that changes at any level affect the other levels. The strength of
the effect will depend on the level or source of change.
Restraining /
Pushing forces pulling forces
There may be three types of situations, as both driving and restraining forces are
operating:
i. If the driving forces far out weight the restraining forces, management can
push driving forces and overpower restraining forces.
ii. If restraining forces are stronger than driving forces, management either
gives up the change programme or it can pursue it by concentrating on
driving forces and changing restraining forces into driving ones or
immobilizing them.
iii. If driving and restraining forces are fairly equal, management can push up
driving forces and at the same time can convert or immobilize restraining
forces.
Thus, to make the people accept the changes, the management must push driving forces
and convert or immobilize the restraining forces.
IMPLEMENTING CHANGE
Once the management is able to establish favourable conditions, the right timing and
right channels of communication have been established the plan will be put into action. It
may be in the form of simple announcement or it may require briefing sessions or in
house seminars so as to gain acceptance of all the members and specify those who are
going to be directly affected by the change.
After the plan has been implemented there should be evaluation of the plan which
comprises of comparing actual results to the objectives. Feedback will confirm if these
goals are being met so that if there is any deviation between the goals and actual
performance, corrective actions can be taken.
CHANGE PROCESS
Any organizational change whether introduced through a new structural design or new
technology or new training programme, basically attempts make employees change their
behaviour. Unless the behavioural patterns of the members change the change will have a
little impact on the effectiveness of the organization. Behavioural changes are not
expected to be brought about overnight. These are the most difficult and marathon
exercises.
A commonly accepted model for bringing about changes in people was suggested by
KURT LEWIN in terms of three phase’s process:-
1. Unfreezing
2. Changing
3. Refreezing
1. Unfreezing
Unfreezing means that old ideas and attitudes are set aside to give place to new ideas. It
refers to making people aware that the present behaviour is inappropriate, irrelevant,
inadequate and hence unsuitable for changing demands of the present situation.
According to EDGAR SCHIEN the following four elements are necessary during this
unfreezing phase:-
• The physical removal of the individuals, being changed from their accustomed
routines, sources of information and social relationships.
• The undermining and destruction of social support.
• Demeaning and humiliating experience to help individuals, being changed, to see
their old attitudes or behaviour as unworthy and think to be motivated to change.
• The consistent linking of reward with willingness to change and of punishment
with willingness to change.
Unfreezing thus involves discarding the orthodox and conventional methods
and introducing dynamic behaviour, most appropriate to the situation. People are
made to accept new alternatives.
2. Changing
Unlike unfreezing changing is not uprooting of the old ideas, rather the old ideas are
gradually replaced by the new ideas and practices. In changing phase new learning
occurs. The necessary requirement is that various alternatives of behaviour must be made
available in order to fill the vacuum created by unfreezing phase. During the phase of
changing, individuals learn to behave in new ways, the individuals are provided with
alternatives out of which choose the best one.
KELMAN explains changing phase in terms of the following elements:-
Compliance: - it occurs when individuals are forced to change either by reward or
by punishment.
Internalisation: - it occurs when individuals are forced to encounter a situation and
calls for new behaviour.
Identification: - it occurs when individuals recognize one among various models
provided in the environment that is most suitable to their personality.
3. Refreezing
Refreezing is on the job practice. The old ideas are totally discarded and new ideas are
totally accepted. Refreezing reinforced attitudes, skills and knowledge. He practices and
experiments with the new method of behaviour and sees that it effectively blends with his
other behavioural attitudes.
FERSTER and SKINNER have in this connection introduced the main reinforcement
schedules namely- Continuous and Intermittent reinforcements. Under continuous
reinforcement individuals learn the new behaviour within no time. And intermittent
reinforcement on the other hand, consumes a long time but it is has the greatest advantage
of ensuring a long lasting change.
CHANGE AGENTS
Change agents are the persons who initiate change and manage change in the
organizations. They are specialized in theory and practice of managing changes. The
change agent may be a member of organization or an outsider such as a consultant. An
internal agent very well knows the organization and have ability, knowledge and
experience of directing people for changes. But, internal agent is removed from regular
duties to concentrate on the transition. However, external agents view the organization
from the system point of view and is much affected by the organization norms. Top
managers also prefer hiring specialized consultant change agents as they can offer more
objective prospective than insiders. External experts are, however, not well aware of the
desires and attributes of the employees, therefore, the changes suggested by them are
generally resisted by the employees.
Change agents have five set of powers as support of managers is essential but not enough.
Following are the powers,
1. High status given by the members of the client organization, based on their
perception that the change agent is similar to them in behaviour, language etc.
2. Trust based on his consistent handling of information and maintaining proper role
in the organization.
3. Expertise in the practice of organizational change.
4. Credibility based on experience with previous clients.
5. Dissatisfied constitutions who see the change agents as the best opportunity to
change the organization to meet their needs.
CHANGE OPTIONS
There are four subject matters which a change agent can change.
Structure
Structure is defined as how the tasks are formally divided, grouped and co-ordinated. For
inastance, change in plant layout or new technique can only succeed when the structure is
changed according to change in environment. He may also change responsibility,
authority, functions, performance according to the need of the change. He might also
redesign jobs or work schedule.
Technology
The introduction of new equipment and work process is technological change.
Automation or computerization is the common technological change. Major
technological changes involve introduction of new tools and equipment, automation,
computerization.
People
This involves changing attitudes and behaviour of members thorugh communication,
decision making and problem solving. They help individuals to work more efficiently and
effectively together. The changes may only be possible in case the members are positive.
In case there is lack of agreement, stress and tension occurs with the employees.
Physical Setting
It involves change in interior design, equipment placement, plant layout, tool placement.
These changes are helpful in organizational development. Physical setting considers flow
process, information flow and outcome. The smoothness of flow increases the
effectiveness of changes.
The basic objective of change agents is to increase effectiveness, performance and
satisfaction.
ACTION RESEARCH
An organizational change based on research contributing towards betterment of the
sponsoring organization. In this, generally the agent is an outside person, involved in total
process from diagnosis to evaluation. This person contracts with the sponsoring to engage
in research. Action research consists of five steps as explained below:
Diagnosis
The agent gathers information about problem, anxiety and required problems by asking
questions, interviews, review of records and listening to employees. It helps to find what
actually the problem is.
Analysis
The gathered information is analysed. The consistency and pattern of problem is studied.
Feedback
The agent shares with the employees what has been done in steps one and two. Thus,
employees will be actually involved in change programme. In participation of employees
the change agent develops action plan for bringing the required change.
Action
Plans decided in the previous step are set in motion. Required action is taken to correct
the problems identified.
Evaluation
In this step the agent evaluates the effectiveness of action plans. Using initial data as
benchmark any subsequent changes can be compared and evaluated.
Action research is a problem focus based method. The agent decides the action on the
basis of the identified problem.
ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance of the change depends on the perception of the employees towards the
change. So, all the changes are not necessarily restricted. If an employee perceives that
the change will affect his/her favorably, then he/she will accept the change. For example
if workers have to stand before a machine throughout the shift, they will like the
introduction of new machine which will allow them to sit while working.
RESISTANCE
All the changes are not necessarily resisted. Resistance to change arises due to deferring
perception, personalities and needs. If the employee perceives the change is unfavorable
to them, they resist to the change. Individual generally feel comfortable in the
environment that they are habituated to. So, when the change arises, the thought of
moving from the environment they are accustomed to become a source of resistance.
Human resistance to change may be in any of following forms,
1. Hostility or Aggression.
Hostility or aggression is the immediate reaction if an individual to change.
Hostility can be expressed verbally, but the combined form of hostility and
aggression is of a more intense character and can also take physical forms.
2. The individual may develop lack of interest towards has work. If individual do
not like the change it may result to spoilage of materials, idling of time and
decline in performance. This will alternately decrease this efficiency in work.
3. Employee remains absent in their work as well slow performance in their work.
4. Employee find themselves uncomfortable, shaky and tensed on the job.
Resistance develops anxiety and tension in the employee.
5. Strikes are usual symptoms of the group resistance.
INDIFFERENCE
In some cases changes in the organization or environment fails to bring the reaction of
the employee. There are two reaction to change, acceptance & resistance, but in some
cases there is no reaction. This is because sometimes employee fails to realize the impact
of change or some people feel that they will not be affected by the change. In both these
cases there is no reaction to the change, so they will remain indifferent to change.
FORCED ACCEPTANCE
Employee or the people may resist to the change in initial state but if he changes force are
stronger the resistance force, then they have to accept the change. This is known as
forced acceptance of the change. This is known as forced acceptance of the change.
KEITH DAVIS absorbed that “People develop an established set of relations with their
environment. They learn how to deal with each other, how to perform their job and what
to expect next. Equilibrium exists, individuals are adjusted when change comes along,
and it requires individuals to make new adjustments, as the employee seeks a new
equilibrium. When employees are unable to make adequate adjustment to change which
occur, the organization is a state of imbalance or disequilibrium. Managements general
human relations objective regarding change is to restore and maintain the group
equilibrium and personal adjustment which change upsets.”
There may be reasons for resistance to change for analytical purpose, lets us categories
the causes into the following.
1. Individual Resistance.
2. Group Resistance.
3. Organizational Resistance.
INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE
Individual arise due to differing perceptions, personalities and needs. Some of these
reasons appear to be rational and emotional. These reasons are listed below,
ECONOMIC FACTORS
The economic reasons for the resistance to change may be the following:
i. In organization when the development or change on technology takes place,
employee resists the change. Employee may fear that the change will lead to
technological unemployment. Generally, new technology is associated with
education of labor intake and therefore they resist the change. For example the
introduction of computer in an organization means that employee will have to
learn the certain package to work efficiently. They may not be liked by some
employees and they develop negative attitude towards computer and resist them.
ii. In organization where pay is tied to productivity individuals usually resists change
as they fear that they will not be able to perform new task effectively, thus
causing a decline in productivity and a decrease in their income.
iii. Workers may fear that they will be demoted if they do not acquire the skills
required for the new jobs.
iv. Workers resist the changes which lead to high standards which in turn may reduce
the opportunities for bonus or incentive pay.
Habit
All human being are creatures of habit. Individual generally feel comfortable in the
environment that they are habituated to. The modern life is very complex and no one
likes to consider the full range of option for the hundreds of decision which has to be
made everyday. Instead we rely on habit or programmed responses. When confronted
with change, the thought if moving away from the environment they are accustomed to
become a source of resistance.
Insecurity
Safety and security are high priority for every individual. One of the major reasons for
resistance to change is uncertainty about the impact of change, especially on the job
security. When employees feel that the security of the job is threatened by change, they
resist it. The fear unknown always has a major impact on the decision of the individual.
Lack of Communication
If the workers are given an opportunity to participate in the process of change, the
resistance is likely to be less. But if the change is not properly communicated that to in an
acceptable manner to the employees, it is likely to cause resistance.
Extent of Change
If there is a minor change and the change involves only the routine operations the
resistance will be minimum or no resistance. But incase of major changes like reshuffling
of staff will lead to major visible resistance. Similarly the process of change is slow, the
resistance will be less as compared to rapid or sudden change.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
One of the major reasons for resistance can be emotional turmoil that a change may cause
especially if the past experiences with the change have not been positive. The
psychological reasons for the resistance to change are:
1. Workers may have the fear that the new job will bring boredom and monotony as
a result of specialization brought by the new technology.
2. Change in technology brings new method of doing the job and it must be learnt
and adopt the new ideas of doing the job. To learn these ideas they need work
hard and they do not want to take the trouble in learning new things.
3. The workers may be incapable of understanding the implications of new ideas and
method.
4. Workers may not like criticism implied in a change that the present method is
inadequate and unsuitable.
5. New changes may lead to reduction of the personal pride of the workers because
they fear that new work changes will do away with the need for much manual
work.
SOCIAL FACTORS
Every individual have social needs like friends, belongingness, etc. In organization, while
working employee develop social relationship with the other employees. They become
members of certain informal group. The change will bring a fear in mind of people
because generally people dislike with for new adjustment, breaking present social
relationship reduce social relationship, feeling of outside interference in the form change
agent etc.
GROUP RESISTANCE
While working in an organization the employee form informal group in the organization.
The most organizational change has impact in informal group in the organization.
Breaking up a close knit work group or changing social relationship can provoke a great
deal of resistance. The main reason why the groups resist change is that they fear that
their cohesiveness or existence is threatened by it. This is particularly true in case of
group which are very cohesive where people have a strong case of belongingness to
group and where member consider the group as superior to the other groups.
ORGANISATIONAL RESISTANCE
Organizational resistance means that the change is resisted at the level of the
organizational itself. Some organizations are so designed that they resist new ideas, this is
specifically true in case of organizations which are conservative in nature. Government
agencies want to continue doing what they have been doing for a number of years even
though there is need for the change in their services. Majority of the business firms are
also resistant to changes. The major reasons for organizational resistance are:
1. Threat to Power. Top management generally considers change as a threat to
their power and influence in the organization due to which the change will be
resisted by them. The introduction of participative decision making or self-
managed work teams is the kind of change which is often seen as threatening by
the middle and top level management.
2. Group inertia. Sometimes, the individuals resist change because the group to
which they belong resists it. The degree and force of resistance will depend upon
how loyal one is to the group and how effectively the group resists the change.
3. Organizational structure. Change is often resisted by the bureaucratic
structures where jobs are narrowly defined, lines of authority clearly spelled and
flow of i9nformation is stressed from top to bottom. Moreover, organizations are
made up of a number of interdependent subsystems, one system cannot be
changed without affecting the others.
4. Threat to specialization. Change in organization may threaten the expertise of
specialized groups. For example, giving computer training to all the employees in
the organization and giving personal computers was perceived as a threat by the
experts in computer department of the organization.
5. Resource constraints. Organizations need adequate financial resource for
training change agents and for offering rewards to those who support change. An
organization who does not have resources for implementing the change resists it.
6. Sunk cost. The change is generally resisted by the top management because it
often leads to the problem of sunk costs. The heavy capital which already
invested in the fixed assets or the amount which has already been spent on the
training of the employees will go waste if the change is introduced.
2. Effective Communication
Inaccurate information can be a reason for the resistance to change. An appropriate
communication program can help in overcoming this resistance. Workers can give
necessary education about the change, its process and its working through training
class, meeting and conferences. The reasons about change must be communicated
very clearly and without ambiguity. Communication can help dissipate some fear of
unknown elements. Management should also see that there is a two way
communication between the management and workers so that the so former comes to
know about the reactions of the latter directly without delay. All this will help
persuade employees about the necessity of change and once persuaded they may
actively want to have the change.
4. Leadership
Leadership plays an important role in overcoming resistance to change. A capable
leader can reinforce a climate of psychological support for change.
The greater me prestige and credibility of the person who is acting as a change agent,
the greater will be the influence upon the employees who are involved in the change
process. A strong and effective leader can exert emotional pressure on his
subordinates to bring about the desired change. Most of the times, there is no
resistance from the subordinates and if they resist, the leader tries to overcome
resistance by leadership process.
8. Timing of Change
Timing of introduction of change can have a considerable impact on the resistance.
The right time will meet less resistance. Therefore, management must be very careful
in choosing the time when the organizational climate is highly favourable to change.
An example of right time is immediately after a major improvement in working
conditions.
CONCLUSION
To conclude we can say that change may be forced on an organization or an organization
may change in response to the environment or an internal need. Whatever the case
changes must be properly planned and members should be properly prepared to accept
these changes enthusiastically, because the real world is turbulent, requiring
organizations and their member to undergo dynamic change if they are to perform at
competitive levels.
I’ll conclude with an example of a situation using these principles successfully. In this
situation, John Williams had just accepted a position as a data center manager.
Entering the job, he found that morale was low, inspections had been failed, and there
was an atmosphere of distrust. John had some barriers because it was a civil service
situation and he did not control the salaries of the individuals working for him. After
evaluating the situation, he called a meeting and announced that everyone would be
cross-training everyone else, and all procedures would be documented.
This was met with significant resistance, as you can imagine. Each employee had his or
her own small innovations – “cheat sheets,” informal procedures, and other “industrial
voodoo” that they guarded jealously. They each felt that his or her own job security was
dependent on their exclusive knowledge of some essential part of the data center. John
explained that participation in the cross training was mandatory, and failure to
successfully teach one’s job to one’s teammates would result in termination.
He also indicated that once the cross-training was completed, employees would rotate
getting a week off with pay every six weeks, rotating alphabetically through the six-
member team. The caveat to that was that the employee “on leave” would have to be near
a phone in case his teammates needed assistance, and could be in the office within one
hour.
Everyone was much more enthusiastic, given this motivation. People became helpful to
one another, they supported and helped one another, systems were documented, trained
and explained. The staff working was very careful not to disturb the team member on
leave because they knew they would have their turn soon and wanted the same
consideration.
The data center passed the next inspection with improving ratings, and the following one
with nearly perfect ratings.
The team had truly accomplished something, and had accomplished it together. They
were successful, and success breeds success!
By creating common goals, an atmosphere of collaboration, and a compensation system
that recognizes and rewards innovation, your company can mitigate the risks and
maximize the rewards of innovations from within the ranks.