Podcast:

Impact of change on Organization:

According to a Greek philosopher Heraclitus “there is nothing permanent than change”. He

believed that change is the core of universe. This quote describes the importance of managing
change in human as well as organizational life.

Organizations today regularly introduce complex changes to capitalize on opportunities and

address challenges. Such changes might involve adopting new strategies, improving operational
processes, or implementing new technology platforms. Regardless of type, many organizational
changes impact the ways individual people perform their day-to-day work. Because the success
of organizational changes depends on individuals engaging, adopting and using them, we must
manage changes at both the individual and organizational levels concurrently.

Impact of change:

Organizational change” pertains to the altering of structures, strategies, procedures or cultures of

organizations (Quattrone and Hopper, 2001). This shift may be deliberate, with the aim of
gaining or losing specific features of the organization to attain a defined goal, or it may be less
deliberate, perhaps occurring as a consequence of developments outside the control of the
organization. Moreover, during the change process, additional parts of the organization may be
unintentionally affected, particularly when change is experienced as excessive (Stensaker et al.,
2001). Such unintended repercussions of organizational change may be both positive and
negative (Jian, 2007), and may be more likely when a large number of transactions are required
to implement the change decision and many specialized problem-solving capabilities are invoked
(Casa and Lodge, 2015). Either way, organizational change represents something novel and
intrinsically unknown and uncertain for the organization and its members, which may disrupt
existing structures and processes. Thus, organizational change can be experienced both as an
opportunity to gain and as a risk of losing and may involve redesign of tasks and responsibilities
that alter existing work content and –environment in various foreseen and unforeseen ways.

How individual can be affected by change:

Job fear:
The main motive behind employees being against adjustments in their workplace is fear on how
it would impact their jobs. Some might think it will cost them their jobs or they would have to
work over time to adapt to the transition.

It’s therefore your obligation as manager to paint a clear picture to the employees on how a new
beginning (and change) would improve their jobs. Make them feel their positions are secure.
Give a detailed explanation on how a transition would mean improved production thus raises or
reduced working hours.

It’s critical that the job security fear is addressed early enough to give employees the drive to
accept upcoming adjustments.

Fear of Failure

People also resist change when they feel that their performance may be affected under the new
system. People who are experts in their jobs may be less than welcoming of the changes, because
they may be unsure whether their success would last under the new system. Studies show that
people who feel that they can perform well under the new system are more likely to be
committed to the proposed change, while those who have lower confidence in their ability to
perform after changes are less committed.

Reward and benefits:

Employees can be against a new start if there is no reward for them. It’s therefore wise to be
creative and come up with a strategy that will introduce rewards that motivates them to buy in to
the new system. You can provide prizes or raises for employees with thoughtful ideas on how to
achieve new goals. Doing this curbs rebellious behavior and ensures that employees are actively
participating in the transition.

Poor communication of impact of change:

This is also one of the major reasons why employees would be rebellious. How the businesses
transition is presented to the workers plays a big role in determining their reaction. Most people
would want an assurance of their future before they relate to the advantages of the changing
process. You have to make sure the employees know what the success of the company means to
them. Unless the employees understand why the company needs a new start, they will show
resistant behavior at work. If communication is thoroughly made at the initial stage by the
management, employees would be willingly to embrace it.

Effective measures by management to embrace change:

Seeing that the success of an organization is dependent on making adjustments, it’s should be the
priority of any project manager to address this issues that breed rebellion in employees. The best
way to deal with resistance is making sure the employees understand the foundations of any
transition process. Manager must apply change management theories to embrace positive impact
of organization’s change on individual. Individual change management is about supporting and
enabling a person through the transition, so they can successfully engage, adopt and use a
change.

Apply Prosci ADKAR Model:

The Prosci ADKAR Model for individual change is a key component of the Prosci Methodology.
ADKAR is an acronym for the five outcomes an individual needs to achieve to successfully
adopt a change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.

A: Awareness: bring awareness of need for change

D: Desire: to participate and support the change

K: Knowledge: On how to change

A: Ability: To implement desired skills and change

R: Reinforcement: To sustain the change

Planning and Executing Change Effectively

executing change without prior preparation is likely to lead to failure. Instead, organizations
should start with unfreezing, or making sure that organizational members are ready for and
receptive to change. This is followed by change, or executing the planned changes.
Finally, refreezing involves ensuring that change becomes permanent and the new habits, rules,
or procedures become the norm. Following steps must be followed while planning and executing
change effectively:

 Unfreezing Prior to Change

 Create a Vision for Change

 Communicating a Plan for Change

 Develop a Sense of Urgency

 Building a Coalition

 Provide Support

 Allow Employees to Participate

  Executing Change

 Continue to Provide Support

 Create Small Wins

 Eliminate Obstacles

 Refreezing

 Publicize Success

 Build on Prior Change

 Reward Change Adoption

 Make Change a Part of Organizational Culture

Conclusion:

You should make the employees aware of the reality that they can not control change but should
rather focus their efforts on adapting to it. Perception is key in this case. This means that an
organization should also work on the way they present a new beginning to their employees.
Some of the key points to note to help you embrace a new start include:

References:

 Casa, M., and Lodge, M. (2015). To What Extent Does Organisational Change Result in
Unintended Consequences? London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
 Jian, G. (2007). Unpacking unintended consequences in planned organizational change: a
process model. Manag. Commun. Q. 21, 5–28. doi: 10.1177/0893318907301986
 Karasek, R., and Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity and the the
Reconstruction of Working Life. New York, NY: Basic books.
 Quattrone, P., and Hopper, T. (2001). What does organizational change mean?
Speculations on a taken for granted category. Manag. Account. Res. 12, 403–435. doi:
10.1006/mare.2001.0176