Research Report
Name of the Writer
Name of the University
Research Report
Literature Review
Change can be generally accepted as a response or a reaction to a threat or opportunity that is significant enough. This change can be either within the organization or even outside the organization. Some researchers have even defined the concept of change within an organization only occurs in response to events that are both related to the business and the economic conditions. This change is then effecting the managerial perception, actions and choice (Elsmore, 2017). Taking this into context managers see the fore coming of change using such signals. This is one of the reasons why every organization in every industry needs to analyzing the predominant actions and events occurring around it. This leads to the development of such a sense that increases awareness and grows from the fact that the organization is realizing the changes occurring around it. The organization understands the need for implementing such changes within its framework so that it will be able to keep itself ahead or within the competition (Waddell, et al, 2019).
It is becoming even more evident that organizations around the world have started to understand that in order to survive and thrive within the current competitive environment, it needs to implement change within its management process. Another reason for the emergence of these changes has been because of environmental factors. These factors present themselves in the form of activities that is helpful in becoming the basis of capability improvements both of the employees and the organization itself (Lozano, et al, 2015). Some researchers have stated that organizational change can also be considered as having the same effect as organizational transformation. However, the implementation of the change is an activity that is more arduous and this leads to the fact that within every organization all change efforts only succeed by one third. Some researchers have gone further onto say that around fifty percent of all change initiative within major organizations have not been successful.
Many researchers and theorists have characterized the change in different perspectives. Some theorists define change as a revolutionary and gradual movement of events. Furthermore, some have characterized the change as both incremental and transformational for any organizational (Bernstrom and Kjekshus, 2015). Moreover, researchers have also classified change as either of the first degree or the second degree. Change has also been characterized as having wide-ranging, transformational and frame-breaking change. These can be on a small scale and witnesses a slow shift in models such as incremental change. There are two types of changes these are either Incremental change or Transformational change.
Changes of the incremental nature are implemented within the functional processes. These functional processes include decision-making processes, recognition, communication systems, and reward programs. This first-order change or incremental change is considered a portion of a continuous process. Furthermore, this type of change is the result of low demand for change (Monstadt and Wolff, 2015). It is suggested from the change order should happen in a manner that is gradual. However, some researchers have suggested that the incremental approach will not have any real effect. This is because it is believed that it will not deliver the required change of the required scale.
The change of the transformational nature constitutes of a multi-dimensional qualitative, multilevel and discontinuous form of change. This type of change is mostly formed of organizations that suffer a paradigmatic shift. Furthermore, it leads to the formation of a new organization. This is because it is viewed as a cultural and deep structural change (Schein, 2015). Many researchers have argued the fact that transformational change is also described as groundbreaking and radical alterations. This exhibits a profound break within the settled pattern of the behaviour that is present in the organization. Now Transformational change can be further characterized into cultural change, i.e. the least tangible change. Another is the structural change, in which the structure changes.
In simple terms, the change management process can be explained in such a way that it is a way to attain and be able to manage the outcomes that are desired inside any organization. Evidence form some researchers state that within change management process majorly incorporates tools that organizations can use in order to either individually or in an overall sense can be able to make the process of transition from the adoption of change to the realization of change (Morin, et al, 2016). Furthermore, it can also be explained as a combination of several steps that helps in executing change. These steps are directing, organizing, coordination and planning. Furthermore, change management can be described as the guide that helps in the preparation, equipping and supporting the acceptability of change within an organization by the individual to meet a successful outcome for the organization.
Research from several decades has shown that all changes are unique and the individuals involved in those changes are unique as well. Furthermore, it has also been suggested that certain actions can be implemented that can help individuals in transitions related to their self. For supporting individuals within an organization, change management is very important. This is because it provides a structured approach for supporting said individuals (Hayes, 2018). Furthermore, it helps in moving people from the current state of mind that they are residing in a future state that is acceptable for them. Even so, there are very different levels of change management that can be employed within an organization.
Humans are very resilient creatures and it is their natural physiological and psychological reaction to resist any sort of change within their atmosphere. This can all be changed if people are supported when they are facing different changes. This sort of support can help in managing the process of change and can help in making people more adaptive and successful (Bailey and Raelin, 2015). In order to implement and manage change at an individual level, it is a requirement to understand the experience of change that people feel and the changes that needed to be implemented successfully. Furthermore, knowledge regarding smoothing the transition of people during change implementation is very important. For individual change management, research has been drawn from disciplines such as neuroscience and psychology. These are important for drawing and applying frameworks that are actionable towards individual change.
As change does happen on the individual level, it is impossible for the project team to be able to manage change on a person to person basis. Organizational change management provides for managing change at the project level. This is done by providing steps and actions that could be used to manage change within multiple individuals, who are the most affected by the change. In organizational change management, the team needs to first realize the people or groups of people that will be most affected by the change initiative. Further analysis needs to be done to understand in what ways these people have to change in order to accommodate the level of change (Hornstein, 2015). Furthermore, a customized plan needs to be developed that will help in providing awareness, coaching, training and leadership to the employees that have been affected by the change. In this manner, successful individual transitions need to be the central focus of the activities in organizational management. Organizational change management needs to be aligned with project management. Project management is one way of ensuring that the solution of the project is designed, delivered and developed. In relation to this change management ensures that the solution of the project is effectively adopted and embraced.
Change has already been established as an important aspect for the forward movement of any organization both vertically and horizontally. But change implementation has always faced a plethora of resistance. This resistance to changes has been due to a multitude of reasons. The primary reason for resistance against change that has been witnessed is the belief that due to the implementation of change there will be loss of job security or status within the organization (Cameron and Green, 2015). This is because it is considered unnatural to make such changes that can prove to be harmful to oneself. The different stakeholders within any organization such as peers, managers and employees all resist any form of technological and administrative change. This is because these changes might result in the role of these individuals to be either reduced or removed overall. So according to these stakeholders change can prove to be harmful to their position within the company.
Another reason that has been dominant for resisting to change is of reward systems that are poorly designed and do not fully enforce positive attitudes towards the change. In business, it is a common statement that states that managers will be given back what they reward (Mathews and Linski, 2016). In this context, the change would be resisted within any organization if the people in that organization do not feel that the reward is equal to the challenges posed by the change implementation. The thing is without a proper reward system there is no reason or motivation for the employees and other stakeholders to support the change initiative over a long period.
The fear present to the lack of visibility of the future that comes with change implementation have also been researched as another reason for the change resistance. This is because the fewer information stakeholders, especially employees have regarding the change and its impacts on them the more fearful they would be (Ming-Chu and Meng-Hsiu, 2015). So in order to lead change within any organization the most integral part is not to spring the change onto the organization without a proper support system. If there is no substantial communication or support system between the managers and the employees, a void would be left. This void would be filled by grapevine rumours, which would further aggravate the situation.
Peer pressure has been universally known as the sort of phenomena that can either be beneficial for the company or be disastrous for it. In this context, the interest of the group would be protected and if the implemented change interferes with the interests of the group, the different stakeholders will resist it as much as possible (Veloso-Besio, et al, 2019). Psychologists have tried to explain this dilemma this way that as humans there is a high need to want to belong to any group. This need is even more heightened in the workplace. If workplace social bonds are threatened by change efforts of any sort, then most of the team members will band together to resist the change.
The last reason for resistance to change implementation is the faulty way through which this change is implemented. This is can be due to a lack of any effective planning or poor timing. So in a sense, it is not the action of the leader but the way that the leader implements the change that becomes the reason for the occurrence of resistance against change implementation (You, et al, 2017). It can also be explained in one way that people might even agree with the change implementation but it’s the method or timing that might create resistance among the children.
References
Bailey, J. R., & Raelin, J. D. (2015). Organizations don’t resist change, people do: Modeling individual reactions to organizational change through loss and terror management. Organization management journal, 12(3), 125-138.
Bernstrøm, V. H., & Kjekshus, L. E. (2015). Effect of organisational change type and frequency on long‐term sickness absence in hospitals. Journal of nursing management, 23(6), 813-822.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Elsmore, P. (2017). Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?: Organisational Change?. Routledge.
Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.
Lozano, R., Ceulemans, K., & Seatter, C. S. (2015). Teaching organisational change management for sustainability: designing and delivering a course at the University of Leeds to better prepare future sustainability change agents. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 205-215.
Mathews, B., & Linski, C. M. (2016). Shifting the paradigm: reevaluating resistance to organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 29(6), 963-972.
Ming-Chu, Y., & Meng-Hsiu, L. (2015). Unlocking the black box: Exploring the link between perceive organizational support and resistance to change. Asia Pacific Management Review, 20(3), 177-183.
Monstadt, J., & Wolff, A. (2015). Energy transition or incremental change? Green policy agendas and the adaptability of the urban energy regime in Los Angeles. Energy Policy, 78, 213-224.
Morin, A. J., Meyer, J. P., Bélanger, É., Boudrias, J. S., Gagné, M., & Parker, P. D. (2016). Longitudinal associations between employees’ beliefs about the quality of the change management process, affective commitment to change and psychological empowerment. Human Relations, 69(3), 839-867.
Schein, E. H. (2015). Dialogic organization development: The theory and practice of transformational change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Veloso-Besio, C. B., Cuadra-Peralta, A., Gil-Rodríguez, F., Ponce-Correa, F., & Söberg-Tapia, O. (2019). Effectiveness of training, based on positive psychology and social skills, applied to supervisors, to face resistance to organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(2), 251-265.
Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2019). Organisational change: Development and transformation. Cengage AU.
You, J., Kim, J., & Lim, D. H. (2017). Organizational Learning and Change: Strategic Interventions to Deal with Resistance. In Handbook of Research on Human Resources Strategies for the New Millennial Workforce (pp. 310-328). IGI Global.
Transcripts for the Interviews Conducted
Participant 1: Participant background
Age of the participant
Under 30 41-50 51-60
Gender
•Male
•Female
•Other gender
Job category
•Manager
•Non-Manager
Level of education
•Secondary school
•Trade certificate or equivalent
•Diploma
•Undergraduate degree
•Postgraduate degree
Employment type
•Full-time
•Part-time
•Casual/contract
Organization sector
•Private
•Public/Government
•Not-for-profit
Number of employees
•0-10
•11-49
•50-249
•250+
How long have you worked at this organization
•Less than 1 year
•1-2 years
•3-5 years
•6-10 years
•More than 10 years
Section B: Interview Questions
How much are you familiar with the change management process?
Answer: I am very familiar with the concept and its importance for the growth of organizations in terms of taking them from their current level to an even more competitive level.
What reason can you give regarding the different changes being implemented?
Answer: change implementation is done in order to increases productivity and increases efficiency within the current organizational framework.
What reasons do you think that the organization (PWC) is supporting implementing these changes?
Answer: The performance of the company has not been up to the standard since the last few months, In order to improve the current situation changes are being implemented.
What is your view regarding the different change management teams currently working within the organization (PWC)?
Answer: I feel that these teams are doing an excellent work of helping their fellow employees transition easily in the implemented change system.
What alternatives would you think there are present to the different changes implemented?
Answer: The major alternative would be hiring additional qualified individuals and ending the service of those who are not up to the task. But this is an extreme measure that needs to be taken in dire situations.
Participant 2: Participant background
Age of the participant
Under 30 41-50
Gender
•Male
•Female
•Other gender
Job category
•Manager
•Non-Manager
Level of education
•Secondary school
•Trade certificate or equivalent
•Diploma
•Undergraduate degree
•Postgraduate degree
Employment type
•Full-time
•Part-time
•Casual/contract
Organization sector
•Private
•Public/Government
•Not-for-profit
Number of employees
•0-10
•11-49
•50-249
•250+
How long have you worked at this organization
•Less than 1 year
•1-2 years
•3-5 years
•6-10 years
•More than 10 years
Section B: Interview Questions
How much are you familiar with the change management process?
Answer: I am considerably familiar with the concept of the change management process. This is because during my years of service I have gone through multiple changes within this organization.
What reason can you give regarding the different changes being implemented?
Answer: The reason we heard was that the company wants to make our work more efficient. So that clients and investors get timely and effectively.
What reasons do you think that the organization (PWC) is supporting implementing these changes?
Answer: The major reason is that the company is afraid of its dropping bottom line and they are doing everything in their power to cover or improve that.
What is your view regarding the different change management teams currently working within the organization (PWC)?
Answer: The change management teams are trying their best to make the change transition more bearable but the results are still out on it.
What alternatives would you think there are present to the different changes implemented?
Answer: I think other than the changes implemented, the better thing the company can do is improve its reward system. This will be a boost for the morale of the employees of the company.
Participant 3: Participant background
Age of the participant
Under 30 30-40
Gender
•Male
•Female
•Other gender
Job category
•Manager
•Non-Manager
Level of education:
•Secondary school
•Trade certificate or equivalent
•Diploma
•Undergraduate degree
•Postgraduate degree
Employment type:
•Full-time
•Part-time
•Casual/contract
Organization sector
•Private
•Public/Government
•Not-for-profit
Number of employees
•0-10
•11-49
•50-249
•250+
How long have you worked at this organization
•Less than 1 year
•1-2 years
•3-5 years
•6-10 years
•More than 10 years
Section B: Interview Questions
How much are you familiar with the change management process?
Answer: I am not very much familiar with the concept of change management process but have an understanding of the importance of change itself.
What reason can you give regarding the different changes being implemented?
Answer: To rattle the current structure and framework of the organization and give people a piece of reality.
What reasons do you think that the organization (PWC) is supporting implementing these changes?
Answer: They are incurring losses and would like to improve that. This is to bring the company back on track and onto success.
What is your view regarding the different change management teams currently working within the organization (PWC)?
Answer: The change management teams are having a tough time transitioning the employees into the changes implemented.
What alternatives would you think there are present to the different changes implemented
Answer: An alternative would be the change in the leadership or the managerial structure. They need to bring in someone who can lead the people on the ground rather than give orders from the back.
