Change in Workplace

How Employees deal with technology

change

Ayesha Afzal

BBA 2A

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ACKNOWLWDGEMENT

This report on Employees Adaptation to technological change has been possible only because of
the kind cooperation lent by my course coordinator Miss Tahira Adeel Zaman of English Writing
Skills course, without whose guidance it would not have been possible for me to write up this
report. Moreover I would like to thank my batch mates for their constant support and guidance.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLWDGEMENT..............................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
LITRATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................6
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

ABSTRACT

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This report emphasizes how employees deal with technological change in an organization such
as a Hospital. At Texas Children Hospital, the top management decided to implement an
Electronic Medical Record System to help save time and make work more efficient for the
employees and doctors. A change management team was made to help the people in the Business
Unit 1 and 2 easily adapt to the change. Research methods such as surveys and observation were
done from both Units to analyze how both units had reacted to the change situation in their
Hospital. The surveys showed that the differences between the 2 Units on accepting the change
was different due to the attitude of their team leaders, the amount of information provided to the
employees, remedial training and encouragement of the team leaders. The result showed that
after these methods were implemented, Unit 1 had a more favorable and positive reaction to the
change as compared to Unit 2.

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INTRODUCTION

Change is essential to happen for an organization to grow in the industry. There are 3 major types
of changes that occur namely structural, technological and people change. I will base my report
on the different methods employees use to deal with technological change and why it is
important for them to quickly adjust to such changes.

One of the issues which arise with sudden change is the resistance to conform to any change in
their workplace especially technological related. This is because the employees feel insecure and
are full of doubts about relearning new skills, methods or adjust to new techniques. They are
afraid that if they are unable to adjust to the new changes they will be asked to leave the
organization. Other reasons include stubbornness of older employees to relearn new skills
because they feel more comfortable doing their daily tasks with tools and methods which they
are comfortable with and have been doing for a long time.

Technological change in an organization usually involves the introduction of new equipment,

methods or tools, automation or computerization. Most importantly, in order for the managers to
deal with external competitive factors, they are impelled to introduce technological change in
their organizations. In order to discover the solutions and reasons to how employees cope or do
not cope with technological change I have read previous case studies, research articles and taken
help from books on management.

Moreover the benefit of researching on this topic is basically making people understand that
sometimes it is difficult for people to adapt to sudden technological change however, by applying
certain methods employees can learn how to cope with such changes and make it easier for them
to adapt to them gradually, all of which is extremely beneficial for the organizations on the
whole.

LITRATURE REVIEW
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CASE STUDY

Helping Employees Adapt to Change at Texas Children's Hospital

by Stephanie Elam and Tammy Christensen, Texas Children's Hospital

Texas Children Hospital had undergone an expansion project. To support the success of the
expansion, a project implementation team and organizational leader were asked to overlook, help
and support the employees adapt to the changes. The changes included the hospital adopting a
new technological method which is an electronic medical record system over the previous
method of keeping records on paperwork. The electronic medical record had the advantages of
allowing an ongoing access to patient information as well as quick communication between the
primary care and the specialty services. The first phase of this operation was going to be put
down in 2 important business units in the organization. It was estimated to affect about 85% of
the employees.

The organization leaders selected a team of people to develop a Change Agent Network which
was responsible to help the affected employees with as much help on processing and adapting to
the change as possible by using methods of meetings where they could all exchange ideas,
problems and come up with solutions. Ongoing information about the change project which can
help calm the members/employees in dealing with the sudden change. Moreover the change
management team was to develop a dress rehearsal activities to help mentally and physically
prepare the members on handling the new electronic medical record system, which was to be
done through a practice system developed for this use.

Furthermore, a synopsis was gathered on the result of the help management team to the
employees in Business Unit 1 and Business Unit 2 and their responses to the changes.

Business Unit 1 was shown to have accepted the change process rather well. They had developed
a strong commitment towards understanding, learning and engaging in the new system. This
positive result was due to the leaders and staff having open communication which was done in
both effective and efficient way. The staff members were offered options such as online meetings
and provided with ongoing present information so that the staff members could feel rest assured
and their confusions and misunderstandings to disappear. On the other hand Business Unit 2
were not much excited about the new changes in their workplace. The reason was found out to be

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the barrier to communication which evolved between the leaders and the staff members. The
staff members were provided with minimal information and the leaders themselves were less
enthusiastic to support their responsible staff members in guiding them to adapt to the new
changes. Moreover Business Unit 1 leaders had become more dedicated in their support team
which had positive results on their unit staff members. They held weekly calls with them which
cleared out any type of confusion or problem faced by any staff member. They were being fully
supported during the job after the implementation of the project. The same could not be said
about Unit 2 leaders and staff members. Though they were provided with the initial on-site
support for the implementation, the staff members issues were not discussed with the support
team however they were told to ask the help desk about their issues. This wasnt a good idea
because the help desk was not fully educated and aware of the project implementation process
and its technicalities hence were not able to 100% solve the staff members problems with the
usage of the new system.

Furthermore it was reported that Business Unit 1 leaders offered remedial training for their staff
members after the implementation of the project. This was to make sure that the people were
using and accessing the system correctly. The Business Unit 2 Members were not provided any
such training hence succumbed to more problems and failure to understand and work the system
effectively.

DISCUSSION

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The major findings of the case study mentioned above were, firstly, when the management of the
hospital decided to bring about technological change in their working system, the organizational
leaders made a team of specialist people who were given and had put under their control- 2
Business Units. These Units were the one where the change was going to be practiced the most
after the implementation of the new electronic medical record system. Secondly, the first
Business Unit was noted to have superiors extremely motivated and helpful towards their Unit.
This had a positive effect on their Unit employees. Thirdly, the second Business Unit wasnt too
enthusiastic, motivated and was lazy compared to the Business Unit 1 on their responsibilities.

This had a negative effect on their Unit employees who got tired, restless and annoyed with the
new change as they were not being provided up-to-date information, practice sessions or getting
their insecurities about the new system solved. In conclusion, the findings showed that in order
for technological change in an organization to be effective, it needs to be first accepted by the
target employees on whom the change will take the greatest toll. Moreover the acceptance can
only happen when barrier to communication doesnt exist between top managers and the
employees. Moreover full participation from both sides- employees and management- needs to
exist. As can be seen in Fig 1, Business Unit 2 werent forced or encouraged to take part in the
practice sessions. The Business Unit 1 leaders made it compulsory for their employees to take
part in all practice sessions hence they were more aware of the recent on goings and change than
Business Unit 2. Secondly, there should be strong trust between the top level management and
low level employees. The employers should make sure that they care about the well-being of
their employees to gain their trust. And lastly, employees should be provided with up-to-date
information all the time, and have a strong team who are responsible to keep their employees
motivated during the implementation of the change.

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 Figure 1

Fig 1; Business Unit 2 werent forced or encouraged to take part in the practice sessions.
Business Unit 1 leaders made it compulsory for their employees to take part in all practice
sessions hence they were more aware of the recent on goings and changes than Business Unit 2.

During the research some methods and procedures were used to get the best and effective results.
Firstly, a specialist team was made up to guide their respective Business Unit employees.
Secondly, the team was asked to develop 2 unique yet effective methods for the change-affected
employees. These were; a Change Agent Network, this was a network which was responsible to
help the employees in understanding and adapting quickly to the change by using methods such
as weekly meetings, tips, reminders, conference calls, skype video conferencing all which was
done in order to help develop a close knitted trust worthy relationship between the management
and the employees so that they would feel that they were being asked to be involved in the
process of the change. The second method developed by the team leaders was the dress rehearsal
activities; this was basically a stimulation type activities developed especially for the employees
so that they could first hand see and help the employees prepare and understand the usage of the
new system before it was to be installed. These rehearsals insured that the employees in the Units
were going to be prepared beforehand the implementation of the system so that there will be no
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problems occurring after it had been installed. Lastly, remedial training was provided to the first
Business Unit; this was done to help the employees feel confident about the use of the new
system even after it was implemented. This ensures the employees to feel safe and content about
the whole technological change, before and after implementation.

Question: I have sufficient information about the project.

Figure 2

Figure 2; shows pie charts on the sufficient information about the new system being
implemented of both Business Units.

This case study helps us understand that there are certain methods which can help employees
adapt to technological change. The employers used overall 3 methods to help their employees.
These were dress rehearsal, change agent network, and remedial training. Using change agent
network helped built trust between employers and employees of the 2 Business Units. With trust
came confidence and contentment with the new system usage. However here Business Unit 2
suffered some problems before and after implementation of the new system. This was found out

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to be mainly due to the de-motivated team leaders of Business Unit 2. Because they werent as
motivated and enthusiastic about their job in leading and helping out their Unit 2 employees,
their employees suffered and faced a lot of problems and frustration. They werent providing up
to date information or keeping the weekly meetings like Business Unit 1 team leaders. They had
told their Units employees to ask the help desk for any problems they faced while using the new
system or any questions they wanted to ask. This was a bad idea because the help desk wasnt
skilled or specialized in the new system workings. Because the help desk had insufficient
knowledge on the system they were unable to help the employees solve their problems. This was
found out to be one of the many reasons employees werent able to adapt to the new system as
efficiently as Unit 2 employees.

Moreover, during the dress rehearsal few team leader members of Business Unit 2 made the
practices mandatory for the employees or encouraged them to get involved in them. Furthermore
Business Unit 2 did not keep remedial training for the employees. Remedial training was found
out to help build enthusiastic, confidence and motivation levels of Business Unit 1. It was also
found out that Business Unit 1 had lower stress levels during the whole implementation process
of the new system as compared to Business Unit 1 whose team leaders did not provide their
employees any remedial training. This case study helped distinguish between the reasons and
ways of making the employees adapt to technological change and see what reasons were
restraining the employees from achieving that. Surveys showed that while favorable results for
Business Unit 1 increased an average of 8%, results for Business Unit 2 only increased an
average of 1% overall.

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 Average Increase in Favorable Responses by Question - Figure 3

Fig 3; the above chart indicates the overall conclusion of the change process by both Business
Unit 1 and Business Unit 2. This includes if information was provided to them or not, if they saw
the benefits of the new system or not, if they had been supported throughout the change or not
and more.

In conclusion it was noted, that the only way to help employees deal with technological change
is to not only believe that the employees themselves will be capable to handle the change with
training etc. but having a motivated and strongly committed workforce management leaders to
support and help the employees in understanding and proving with up to date training and help
services all the time before and after the change implementation in order to make the change
adaptation by the employees of an organization a successful one.

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CONCLUSION

Change is likely to happen in all organizations at least once. It is important to happen in

organizations because without adapting to the change the organization will not be able to stay in
the industry or beat its competitors. Moreover change especially technological change helps
speed up the work-in-progress in the organization and helps increase the level of efficiency and
effectiveness of production. It also helps saves time and effort and lastly helps utilize scarce
resources (Factor of Production) extremely well. This is important for growing companies as it
adds to the economics of scale of the organization.

This research report helped in finding out the reasons and methods of how employees adapt to
technological change in any organization. The most important things which help employees
adapt to the change is the trustworthy relationship between the employees and the employers.
The employers need to show support and be available all the time to answer the employees
questions and confusions.

Moreover having team leaders and developing some unique methods such as dress rehearsal and
a change agent network would help grow motivational levels of the affected employees.
However if the team leaders themselves arent motivated or enthusiastic enough the result will be
that the employees will not adapt to the technological change and would feel demotivated and
lose trust with their employers. Lastly, participation is also very important during change as well
as an open ended communication system during the whole change implementation process.

However, more information in regards to other possible reasons may be required for finding out
the significant differences in improvement in organizations. As well as more research on other
organizations other than a hospital, can be used in comparing how employees deal with
technological changes in different industries as there will be different problems faced by the
employees working in different industry organizations.

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REFERENCES

1. Case study - impact of effective change management, retrieved 21/3/16, http://www.change-

management.com/tutorial-why-case-study.htm

2. The impact of change on employee motivation, retrieved 28/3/16,

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/32185/Sidikova_Mashhura.pdf?sequence=1

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