Organizational Change Management And Importance: A Case Study

Factors that trigger the process of organizational change

Discuss about the Organizational Change Management And Its Importance.

The current study focuses on the concept of organizational change management and its importance.  A number of studies have been conducted in order to understand the process of change and it importance within an organization. There are a number of factors which trigger the process of change within an organization. Change is a driving force which can bring about positive changes within an organization (Fors 2017). It helps in propelling forward the objectives of organizational growth.

In order to understand, the impact of change management upon the organization and individual growth through the organization an open-ended interview questions had been used. These allow sufficient scope to the interviewee to expand upon the research questions. The responses collected helped in understanding the success of change management in attainment of the organizational objectives.

The constantly changing market dynamics put high performance pressure upon the organizations. The organizations suffer from cut throat competition within the global competitive market. Hence, they need to revisit their policies time and again which will help them adjust to the change situation (Cameron and Green 2015). These changes lead to modification of the organizational structure as well as bring about sufficient changes within the job roles. Due to the change in their job roles the expectations of the employees working within an organization may change (Kuipers et al. 2014). These are related to growth objectives as well as salary appraisal system within the organization. The change management often requires the employees to add on to their skills sets, which will help them in dealing with their changed job roles (Appelbaum et al. 2016). These are often delivered in the form of additional training sessions to the employees, which further help in enhancing the productivity of the organization. However, the change management is often restricted by individuals within an organization owing to security concerns (Hornstein 2015).

In the current study, three particular organizations had been selected by the interviewers which had been named as a, b and c.  These organizations had further gone change in management owing to a number of internal reasons.  Some of the changes have been brought about in order to gain more autonomy over business operations, to suit  the local market needs, conflict of interest between employee and management, infrastructural requirements. It was assumed that the change management will give the organization a better positioning within the market. The organizations held on to the old style of management and customer service delivery.  The internal conflicts further made the overall productivity of the organization suffer. In order to deal with the huge bunch of customers, dependence upon technological resources were required for organization C.  Within the organization B, the new management tried to save money by putting fewer workforces during the shifts.  This created more work pressure upon the employees and led to a lot of resistance initially. However, in order to receive optimum success standards for the organization implementing the change management process becomes crucial. As a part of a group project interview questions were designed for the collecting the responses of the employees of the different organizations chosen for the case study.

Impact of change management on organizational and individual development

In this respect, a primary qualitative research design has been used by the researcher. The researcher has used open ended questions for the collection of the responses from the interviewee. The responses collected were used in the designing of the important themes, which were used to do a thematic analysis by the researcher. As mentioned by Roller and Lavrakas (2015), the relation between interviewer and interviewee is very important in order to gather the true to facts information. The face to face interview method helps in understanding the deep-seated psychology of the interviewee (Lewis 2015). The method focuses upon the actual experiences rather than individual beliefs and opinions. As mentioned by Bernard (2017), the interview method helps the researcher in steering the conversation as per his own requirement. The interview process can be divided into a number of objectives such as the style of interview, power dynamics and visibility (Ormston et al. 2014). The question which was drafted by the researcher over here was formal, semi-structured, open ended and non-leading questions based upon the personal experiences of the interviewee (Bernard 2017). However, as argued by Gentles  et al. (2015), the researcher need to take care of the demographics of the interviewee while conducting the interview process.  For example, the ages, gender of the participants are important governing factors. At any stage of the interview, if the interviewee feels that they no longer want to participate in the interview and data collection process they can leave the venue and process of the interview. Additionally, privacy and confidentiality are also important in the data collection process and needs to be maintained accordingly. The sensitive information pertaining   to the interviewee such as the name, age, gender, address as well as the organizational details needs to be kept safe. The permission seeking forms a very important part of an organizational research. It is in the best interest of the researcher that prior permissions are sighted from the interviewees participating in the data collection process. 

Therefore, being at a hand length from the organization, the interviewer could send email to the interviewee asking them regarding their free time or willingness to participate in the interview process.  The researchers conducting the data collection process ensured that they had put in a disclaimer under the participant details; ensuring that no personal information of the participants of the interview process will be disclosed at any stage of the interview. While designing the interview questions the researchers had also focused upon the current organizational scenario. As mentioned by Bernard  et al. (2016), the responses to interview questions can often be used by the researchers for designing of important theoretical constructs. The theoretical knowledge was further used by the researchers in order to study the different aspects of change management in details.

Challenges and successes of the change management process

Therefore, being a part of the interview process I have made a number of observations and reflections which made me understand the loopholes in the entire operations process. In my opinion, being at a hand’s length from the organization of interests could make it difficult for the researchers to analyse the correct situation. Additionally, I also felt that the biasness of the researcher can affect the end results of the research. I also felt that the small size of the interview focus groups affected the quality and the quantity of the results generated.  I also felt the demographics of the interviewee also affected the power dynamics of the researcher. That is the researchers in certain areas had to limit themselves while asking the questions. This is because under no circumstances the privacy concerns of the interviewee could be jeopardized.

For the organization A, the CEO was not performing his duties well. Additionally, the development of unfavourable work conditions triggered the change. It was   further driven by reports based in industry skill.  The move was given a positive nod by the staffs, as it could help in removing the stagnating conditions of the work environment.  For the organization B, it was seen that the manager had dropped in a resignation owing to personal reasons. The change in management further created problems for the employees as the changing work conditions were making them work more. For the organization C, it was found that the coffee shop was planning for the launch of new machines which would increase the production manifold times.

Interview with the top level managements further highlighted that they were sceptical regarding meeting with the organizational objects and growth prospective. The responses to the questions were further evaluated from the perspective of change management. The interview responses were further used to evaluate the positive or negative consequences of the organizational change. The interviewee was asked questions pertaining to the recent change that the organization underwent. The interview was aimed at reviewing the personal feelings and opinions of the interviewee regarding the organizational change. The responses have been different with the organization A where the employees where hopeful that the changed management would help them in meeting with their personal growth objectives. On the other hand, for organization B, the workers were of the opinion that change had only make the work conditions more difficult putting pressure on the employees with unrealistic targets. Additionally, for organization c the employee felt that implementation of the coffee machine would result in the  employees putting long work hours.

Methods used to communicate change management to staff

Through the interview the responses of the managers were compared with that of the employees for arriving at a commonly supported point. The managers were asked regarding the strategy used by them for bringing about the change management process and the manner in which it was communicated to the staff. The middle level as well as senior level managers of the organization was of the same opinion that following a SMART goal could help them in implementing the change management objectives successfully.

As mentioned by Johnston and Marshall (2016), technology dependence also reduces the amount of pressure levied upon staff or workforce. The management was also bent upon attaining the objectives of the company in much real time. The senior level managers were positive about achieving the change within a six months time period.  The entire change management process was communicated to the staffs by sending e-mails.  As mentioned by Eason (2014), the method of communication adopted by a business organization plays a crucial part in staff engagement. Though, the managers were positive regrading the objectives of the change the employees was sceptical.  This clearly pointed towards the lack of effective communication methods within the organization.

The current study focuses upon the objective of organizational change management.  The same had been highlighted through the example of hypothetical organizations which had undergone major shift in their management or operations. At many stages the employees have projected sufficient resistance to the change management move. It had been reported that a sudden change in operations could lead to many people losing their jobs (De Massis et al. 2018).  The research further studies the success of the change management process within the organization.  For which an interview had been conducted by the researchers using semi structured interview questions. The responses collected from the interview had been used by the researchers for conducting a thematic analysis. The responses could help the researchers in understanding the different aspects of the change management process. For conducting the interview a sample size of 5 females and 7 men across age groups ranging from 18 to 55+ were selected.  However, before conducting the interview the researchers had ensured that a permission letter enclosing the privacy and confidentiality norms had been duly sent to the organization of interest. This was done in the best interest of the participants were the confidential details of the organization were preserved by the researchers.

Importance of effective communication in successful implementation

The objectives of change management could be defined with respect to an organization using a number of theories and models. In the present context, the change management process implemented and experimented within the hypothetical organizations has been further tested with the Lewin’s change management process.

The Lewin’s change management process could be divided into three basic steps which are- unfreezing, changing and refreezing.  In the unfreezing stage, the ideas will be first pushed through the mindset of the employees (Cummings et al. 2016). It is at this stage that the old ideas, beliefs as well business operations are challenged to give way to new ideas. As mentioned by Kaufman (2017), the employees need to be taught regarding the sufficient importance of a new idea and objectives and the manner in which it can give them a competitive advantage. The communication is the most important at this stage where the employees need to provide with the data and the facts supporting the logic (Lines et al. 2015). This will help in reducing the resistance to the change by helping the employees look at the larger picture.

The changing step is the transition stage and is marked by the implementation of the change. It is at this stage that most people struggle to accept the newly implemented change and is sceptical regarding the success of the change process. This stage is marked with underlying anxiety and fear. Hence, the mangers can undertake sufficient educative approaches with the employees resiting the change (Kuipers et al. 2014). The information exchanged though free communication helps in removing any fear or anxiety associated with change management process (Hon et al. 2014).  In the re-freezing stage it is to be ensured that the implemented changes are accepted as the new norm of status quo (Hossan 2015). This stage is crucial as one can monitor the progress of the organization at this stage. Hence, based upon the success observed though the change process they are made a compulsory part of the operations (Endrejat et al. 2017).

It was found though different stages of the Lewin’s change management process that the organization B had been most successful in pushing through the objectives of change management within the employees. The   thorough communication   implemented across the organization helped in developing a strong feedback loop where every employee had equal chances of participating in the change initiation process. The organization further ensured that effective training sessions were implemented for helping the employees cope up with the organizational stress.

Conclusion

The current assignment focuses on the aspect of organizational change management.  It has been discussed with reference to an organization which has recently undergone change in its operations creating a lot of difficulty for some of its staffs. However, the move had been welcomed by the managers of the organization as it can give the organization a competitive advantage it has often been resisted by the employees. The assignment looks at the different view of the change management from the perspective of the employees working in the organization and also from the aspect of the necessity to the business. The changes are integrated within an organization in order to renew the working policies of an organization. The view and the perspectives of the different stakeholders need to be taken into consideration in order to find out the dilemmas which go into implementing the changes within the organizational framework. Most of the times the resistance is offered owing to security concerns as the employees may feel that allowing a change may affect their growth prospects within the organization.

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