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Managing Personal and Professional Change In todays dynamic world, many commercial and social institutions undergo the process of restructuring, in order to be able to address various socio-political and business challenges. As practice shows, such restructuring often comes at price of loosing employees, closing down organizational branches and redesigning operational strategies. Carter Mcnamara's in his article Organizational Change and Development defines the essence of organizational change: Significant organizational change occurs, for example, when an organization changes its overall strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or practice, and / or wants to change the very nature by which it operates (McNamara). Therefore, organizational restructuring can be thought of as objective factor in the realm of economy. The purpose of organizational change is to provide preconditions for continuation of institutions effective functioning. According to book Organizations Behavior, Structure Process Chapter 17, change agents can be groped in two general categories internal and external.
Internal change is meant to affect the processes within the organization. For example, when the principles of managerial activity need to be reconsidered, in order to maintain its effectiveness, it calls for internal change. Nevertheless, very often organization needs to adjust its operating strategy to be able to address various environmental factors. When this happens, we usually refer to it as an external change. In its turn, the external change is defined by three factors technology, economy and resources. As practice shows, most of the time, companies undergo an organizational change, because of the external reasons.
Let us analyze them briefly. The most important force of external change is economic. In modern world, many classical principles of economics become obsolete. This results in situation when companies face the option of whether to sell their production lines or to change the very principles of their operation.
For example, it is much more profitable for manufacturers to assemble the final product in Third World countries. When Company decides to relocate its production lines, this inevitably results in Companys restructuring. The economic source of change can also be related to certain products or services becoming superfluous. When this occurs, organization needs to shift the production accents, so that they will meet the popular demand. In its turn, this often involves the elimination of organizations subdivisions. In his article Creating and Managing Organizational Change Tom Koulopoulos gives us example of car manufactures being forced to redesign production conveyors, at the factories, every time when they launch a new model.
Public institutions also adjust their functioning, in order to make it more cost effective. It usually consists in consolidation or elimination of whole departments. The main task of economic restructuring is to maintain or to increase organizations effectiveness, while reducing its size. Technological force of change is just as important. The rapid pace of technological development renders many industries obsolete. It is especially noticeable in the field of informational exchange.
Many political observers suggest that by year 2050 the newspaper industry will cease to exist, in traditional sense of this word. This is because all the necessary information will be easily accessible off the Internet. Many traditional jobs that are based on the principle of physical labor will no longer require human workers. In 1997 FedEx had introduced a new computerized system of parcel tracking. It resulted in reorganization of FedEx tracking department by downsizing it to include only five workers, while prior to 1997 this department consisted of twenty-five employees. Nevertheless, FedEx tracking effectiveness was significantly increased through implementation of new technology.
This example shows us that technology play ever-increasing role in domain of economy. It is managers foremost task to keep up with technological progress, because this is one of the most important preconditions of maintaining organizations efficiency. Organizational change, which comes as the result of implementing new technology, often poses many challenges to employees. This is because it requires an additional effort, on their part, to feel comfortable in dynamic working environment. To make it easier for the workers to adapt to technological restructuring, many organizations offer additional courses that are meant to help employees to add to their professional value. It is only when employees feel that they will be able to cope with the pace of technology that the organizational restructuring can bring an immediate results.
The abundance or shortage of resources also causes organization to restructuralise, according to the demands of every particular set of circumstances. Usually, it consists of shifting the emphasis towards preservation of resources, which very often leads to Companys downsizing its operational activity, while trying to find an alternative recourse. The process of organizational change results in undermining Companys operational activity for some time, before changes begin to benefit both: Company and workers. This is why many employees resist changes. In his article, Managing Organizational Change Michael W. Durant makes a good point: During the change process, there are common predictable stressors, but how we react to those stressors will differ for each person since we are all unique individuals.
The anxiety and confusion that result from not knowing what lies ahead can create stress (Durant). Even though that many organizations now promote team spirit, the majority employees still think of their own egoistic interests as the priority. Of course, they would never admit this, while explaining the reasons for their skepticism towards restructuring. In addition, many employees have low tolerance towards new ideas. It prevents them from opening their minds to change. Usually such people are not overburdened with intelligence and their unwillingness to adapt to the new circumstances is the most difficult to deal with.
At the same time, such people are also the ones that can be easily replaced with new employees, without organization loosing much of its operating efficiency. There are several ways to decrease resistance to change, within organization. One of the most important of them is through education and communication. People need to feel that they are not being left behind the preparatory stage of such change. They must be constantly educated on the subject, where the emphasis would have to be put on how employees are going to be able to benefit from restructuring.
Michael W. Durant comes up with recommendation of how to insure the effectiveness of communicational process: Communicate only the facts. Not communicating to employees when implementing change programs is the worst mistake a company can make. During times of uncertainty communication voids are filled with rumors. Communication lowers stress and anxiety. When restructuring jobs or refocusing the organizations direction, it is very important to clarify roles and how they support each other (Durant).
Employees need to be able to feel that they actively participate in the process of change. This will empower them in their own eyes and bring the element of psychological comfort into the ordeal. Facilitation and support is another way to help employees through the transitional period. However, it is doubtful whether managers are going to be able to come up with real efficient way to support employees, unless they hold a degree in psychology. Facilitation and support, as method to overcome employees fear of change, is based on peoples ability to accept unavoidable, after they realize that there are no alternatives. People like to be spiritually comforted.
Nevertheless, it is very hard to imagine that facilitation and support can be other then of purely psychological nature. Negotiation and agreement, as the mean to help people to adapt to a change, is best applied in organization with high degree of individual freedom, on part of employees. We talk about organizations, where workers creativity is a crucial factor that insures organizations effectiveness. The best example of such organizations are software designing companies, where it is necessary for the employees to have gatherings, every once in a while, in order to agree on companys commercial and social policies. In this case, the members of organization would have to be given a real chance for their suggestions to be considered, before restructuring takes place. However, when we talk about organization that practices authoritarian style of management, negotiation and agreement will result in negative consequences, when applied.
This is because people that are used to obey will never be able to believe in their own ability to affect things, even though that they might play along with managers, by pretending that the organizational restructuring is really welcomed, on their part. External and internal forces of change result in situation when Company usually needs to manipulate employees behavior, in order to improve its operational efficiency. In specialized terminology it is referred to as managing a professional change. Structural changes always lead to job simplification and enrichment. In its turn, this is directly related to workers increased sense of satisfaction. Employees value increases in his own eyes, because he is able to accomplish more than he used to.
This is the most crucial precondition of boosting workers morale. Thus, we can see that the talent of manager lies in his ability to implement organizational change for the benefit of both Company and employees. Only the employees with high sense of self esteem can perform effectively. However, it is not enough, on the part of manager, to simply understand what needs to be accomplished. Manager must have a clear comprehension of how this can be done.
There are two classical methods of improving workers performance establishing a team spirit within organizations body and enabling cross cultural understanding between the employees through managing diversity. Behavioral change is usually thought of in the context of team building. Organizational restructuring can be accomplished at much lower cost, when employees think of themselves as being part of a team. This is because people feel that they are not left alone with their anxieties, related to organizational change. There are many different methods of boosting team spirit; however, they will not have effect, unless coworkers share the same rights and responsibilities.
It is crucial for managers, who strive to establish team spirit within organization, to insure that employees professional level is more of less compatible. The issue of promoting diversity became very important in recent years, as organizations are required to employ more people of different ethnic backgrounds. However, as practice shows, celebration of diversity rarely results in making workers performance more productive. This is because, it is based on wrong assumption that people can act as one team, while pursuing their own secular agendas.
Any team is nothing but an open system. The quality of teamwork is defined by the number of associations, between the elements of system. However, only the homogeneous elements provide stability to the whole system, because they can be related to each other in variety of different ways. Promoting of diversity strives for something opposite.
It appears that professional change cannot be really effective, if its goal is anything other than improving the quality of performance, on the part of employee. This has nothing to do with turning working environment into some sort of kindergarten, where employees will not even start executing their professional duties, unless they feel emotionally comfortable. Organizational change must occur after employees embrace the idea of personal change. Managers task it to insure that the transition period is going to be as short as possible. At the same time, there is no standard approach to managing a professional change, because people are different. Manager must be able to improvise, while applying different types of incentives, in order to improve teams performance.
Bibliography: Diamond, A. Managing Organizational Change. 2006. Info Bay Area Com. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web Durant, M.
Managing Organizational Change. 2000. Credit Research Foundation Online. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web Gibson, J. , Ivancevich, J. , Donnelly, J. , and Konopaske, R. (2006). Organizations Behavior, Structure Process. Chapter 17. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. 12 th edition.
Haven, H. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Organizational Change and Performance under Conditions of Fundamental Environmental Transformation. March 1992. Find Articles. Com. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web Koulopoulos, T.
Creating and Managing Organizational Change. 2007. Perot Systems Com. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web McNamara, C. Organizational Change and Development. 2006. Free Management Library. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web Mitchell, R.
Strategy Formulation. 2000. Economy and People. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from http: // 64. 233. 167. 104 /search? q = cache: ihEEDTpDAm 4 J: web Shook, D. FedEx Keeps Delivering.
March 8, 2002. Business Week Online. Retrieved March 8, 2007 from web Abstract: This paper discusses different aspect of professional change in its relation to organizational restructuring. Outline: Organizational change. Pp. 1 - 3. Professional change.
Pp. 3 - 6.
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Research essay sample on Managing Personal And Professional Change
