Thursday, March 22, 2012
Fear of change?
Change? Why is it inevitable ?
The process of change is simply moving from the current way of doing things to a new and different way of doing things.
Change is defined as pervasive influence where all aspect are subject to continual change of one form or another. The concept of organizational change is in regard to organization wide change as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program and the like. Examples, it might include a change is mission, restructuring operations )e.g restructuring to self-managed teams, layoff, etc), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, and rightsizing. Some experts refer to organizational transformation.
Change in organization strategy is an attempt to alter the organization's alignment with its environment. Organization change might also focus on any of the basic components of organization structure or on the organization whole design.
The nature and causes if resistance to change
Employees resist change because they have to learn something new. In many cases there is not a disagreement with the benefits of the new process but rather a fear of the unknown future and about their ability to adapt to it. Most people are reluctant to leave the familiar behind. We are all suspicious about the unfamiliar; we naturally concerned about how we will get from the old to the new especially if it involved learning something new and risking failure.
Why do people resist change in the workplace?
- Fear of failure
- Creatures of habit
- No obvious need
- Loss of control
- Concern about support system
- Closed mind
- Unwillingness to learn
- Fear that the new way may not be better
- Fear if the unknown
- Fear of personal impact
Changes is not the same as transition. Change is situational: the new site, the new boss, the new team roles and the new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal. Unless transition occurs, change will not work.
How to overcome this?
First, an organization must be ready for change. Just as a table must be set before you can eat. so must an organization be ready for change before it can be effective. It is better to use survey to evaluate if a company is ready to undertake a change effort.
Second, organizational change is less successful when top management fails to keep employees informed about the process of change.
Third, employees' perceptions or interpretations of a change significantly affect resistance. Employees are less likely to resist when they perceive that the benefits of a change overshadow the personal costs. At a minimum then, managers are advised to provide as much information as possible to employees about the change, inform employees
about the reasons/rationale for the change, conduct meetings to address employees' question regarding the change and provide employees the opportunity to discuss how the proposed change might affect them.
To conclude, whatever the changes inside an organization might be and whatever the reasons that made these change necessary, a good way of implementing the changes successfully is for a manager to treat the participation and the communication with his employees as integral parts of the change process.
The process of change is simply moving from the current way of doing things to a new and different way of doing things.
Change is defined as pervasive influence where all aspect are subject to continual change of one form or another. The concept of organizational change is in regard to organization wide change as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program and the like. Examples, it might include a change is mission, restructuring operations )e.g restructuring to self-managed teams, layoff, etc), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, and rightsizing. Some experts refer to organizational transformation.
Change in organization strategy is an attempt to alter the organization's alignment with its environment. Organization change might also focus on any of the basic components of organization structure or on the organization whole design.
The nature and causes if resistance to change
Employees resist change because they have to learn something new. In many cases there is not a disagreement with the benefits of the new process but rather a fear of the unknown future and about their ability to adapt to it. Most people are reluctant to leave the familiar behind. We are all suspicious about the unfamiliar; we naturally concerned about how we will get from the old to the new especially if it involved learning something new and risking failure.
Why do people resist change in the workplace?
- Fear of failure
- Creatures of habit
- No obvious need
- Loss of control
- Concern about support system
- Closed mind
- Unwillingness to learn
- Fear that the new way may not be better
- Fear if the unknown
- Fear of personal impact
Changes is not the same as transition. Change is situational: the new site, the new boss, the new team roles and the new policy. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal. Unless transition occurs, change will not work.
How to overcome this?
First, an organization must be ready for change. Just as a table must be set before you can eat. so must an organization be ready for change before it can be effective. It is better to use survey to evaluate if a company is ready to undertake a change effort.
Second, organizational change is less successful when top management fails to keep employees informed about the process of change.
Third, employees' perceptions or interpretations of a change significantly affect resistance. Employees are less likely to resist when they perceive that the benefits of a change overshadow the personal costs. At a minimum then, managers are advised to provide as much information as possible to employees about the change, inform employees
about the reasons/rationale for the change, conduct meetings to address employees' question regarding the change and provide employees the opportunity to discuss how the proposed change might affect them.
To conclude, whatever the changes inside an organization might be and whatever the reasons that made these change necessary, a good way of implementing the changes successfully is for a manager to treat the participation and the communication with his employees as integral parts of the change process.
Labels: Current Affairs
just my 2cents at 1:28 AM |
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