Managing Change & Communication BSMH 5093

Prepared by :Nur Suraya Binti Hashim

(814448)

Prepared for :Associate Prof. Dr. Vimala Sanjeevkumar

Article Review :

Managing Resistance to Change

The Author : Sharon L. Baker(University of Iowa, School of

Library and Information Science)

Introduction

▪ This article describes about the reasons for negative reactions to change among the employees in the Library.

THE PROBLEM WITH CHANGE

● Inept management strategies can often cause the normal unease associated with a change to accelerate into more severe problems.

● “Human beings” tend to resist change even when change represents growth and development and will lead to greater efficiency and productivity. (Fine,1986)

● Several indicators of employee resistance to change : increased absenteeism, increased employee impatience, frustration, and sabotage. (Plate & Stone, 1974; Veaner, 1974)

Why Do Employees Resist Change?

1) General Uncertainty about the Effects of Change

∆ Management should :(a) Provide as much advance information about the actual change as possible.

(b) Fully inform affected employees of the reasons behind the change.

(c) do everything possible to clarify employees’ questions about the change.

(d) Give employees time to reflect on how the proposed change will affect them, the organization as a whole

(2) Uncertainty about Job Performance

The managers need to follow two strategies when introducing new tasks.(a) Need to provide employees with exact information about what the changed tasks will be. (b) Need to reassure their employees that they will develop the skills to do these tasks

(3) Less employee participation (involvement) in the change process

The strengths of encouraging employee participation in change.

(a) Increasing employee knowledge about the innovation thus lessening fear.(b) Can be ego enhancing, intrinsically satisfying,

and challenging, thus making workers feel needed and appreciated.

(c) Encouraging employees to believe that they have

some control over a system that will affect them.

(4) Fear of Change Due to Social Consequence

Main way for new director:# to be very careful during his first few months on the job to treat employees as if he likes each and every one of them and as if he recognizes the unique contributions that each is offering the library.

(5) Resistance because of Failure to Prove Change is Needed

The implication:

# The management must do a good job identifying and publicizing areas where true performance gaps exist if they expect employees to feel that they have valid reasons for changing

(6) Failure to Commit Sufficient Resources to the Change

The failed to commit sufficient resources to planning and implementing a large change and directly increased employee resistance.

Suggestions

Fine (1986) suggests that:

(a) Giving the complete training for employees to be more experts in implementing changes.(b) The managers must to be particularly sensitive to this issue, and to critically examine if they have supported the innovation by providing all necessary resources.

(7) Resistance Due to Failure to Tie Library Values to the ChangeThe best way:

* If managers insist on hiring a collection evaluation consultant, they need to explain that they are doing this to make sure that changes

efforts are really meeting user needs.

(8) Resistance Due to Failure to Create a Climate Conducive to ChangeThe way to manage the resistance:

# Management allows employees little participation and in fact does not encourage new ideas in any way.

# The managers need to both encourage and reward employee efforts to learn and grow as this will reinforce receptivity to change.

The implication:# The employees feel confidence in their abilities to respond to new situations and become more receptive to changed.

Points of ViewManaging Resistance

‘SITUATION

AL’ approach

Managerial Skills

“SITUATIONAL” approach

EDUCATION AND

COMMUNICATION

NEGOTIATION AND

AGREEMENT

PARTICIPATION AND

INVOLVEMENT

MANIPULATION AND

COOPTATION

FACILITATION AND SUPPORT

EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT

COERCION

Managerial Skills

Conclusion

◊ Corrective action can be used to manage resistance to change by providing adequate information about change and being generally sensitive to employee fears about change.

◊ Other positive steps also can be used including convincing employees that a real reason exists for the change and committing sufficient resources to the change to ease the transition process and alleviate employee frustration.

◊ Managers should tie the change to improved patron service and should constantly work to create a climate where employees are encouraged to explore new ideas and try them out.

CASE STUDY :CHANGE

MANAGEMENT

By : Ajay Kr. Singh

SYNOPSIS OF CASE STUDY### Fortune India Ltd. is a manufacturing company in Delhi. This company has been operating almost thirty years ago. The

efficiency of the company's employees is very high due to the fact that the same person is doing the job from quite some time.

### The Company has made changes in policies and procedures which involve job rotation. Among those involved was

Shyam and his three subordinates.

### Two from subordinates want to change the job rotation schedule. whereas one is not at all interested for the same.

### Shyam should manage the conflict situations that occur in the company.

Question 1:What conflict management styles are represented by each of the four alternatives suggested above by Shyam?

• Forget about Job Rotation in this unit.

• Issue the orders that job rotation is mandatory for all the three subordinates with immediate effect

• Respect the feelings of each one and workout an arrangement where job rotation occurs for a while, is stopped for a while, and so on, thus allowing each person to have his or her way for sometime.

• Call the meeting again and discuss the pros and cons of the proposed change and that their interpersonal relationship are very important than any job rotation. Try to develop a consensus for job rotation

Question 2:Which of the four approaches should Shyam choose to follow in this situation? Why? Or should an alternative approach be taken?

Answer :

▪ This approach is win/win situation

▪ Highly value their own goals and relationships

▪ Begin a discussion that identify the conflict as a problem and seeking solution that satisfy both themselves and the other person

▪ It requires a high-degree of trust and reaching a consensus can require a lot of time and effort to get everybody can synthesize all the ideas.

Approach 4

Question 3 :What special interpersonal skills should Shyam need to succeed in this problem situation?

Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal SkillsTeamwork

Conflict resolution

Effective communication Assertive

communication

Anger management

Question 4 :Assume that you are the CEO of the organisation and you have to implement this change. Prepare a model of change which you think would avoid such conflict when this change would be implemented.