Engaging Employees in the Change Process
If an organization is not prepared for change, then any change initiative is likely to fail.
Therefore, to increase the probability of a successful change initiative, leaders need the ability to
determine if an organization is ready to implement change.
General Requirements:
Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:
- You are required to use APA style for this writing assignment.
- This assignment requires a minimum of 10 scholarly research sources (please select at
least 10 sources from the following list) related to this topic, and at least one in-text
citation from each source referenced to be included.
Directions:
Write a paper of 1,200 – 1,500 words that discusses how to engage employees in the change
process and how to benchmark the progress of a change initiative. Include the following in your
paper:
- An analysis of the factors used to determine if change is needed in a given
organization.
- A discussion of how to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support
change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaptation.
- A critique of several tactics that can be used to engage employees in the change
process.
- An evaluation of the effects of change on individual, social, financial, and corporate
concerns.Available Scholarly Research Sources
(please use at minimum 10 sources from this listing)
Banjarnahor, H., Hutabarat, W., Sibuea, A. M., & Situmorang, M. (2018). Job Satisfaction as a
Mediator between Directive and Participatory Leadership Styles toward Organizational
Commitment. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 869–888.
doi:10.12973/iji.2018.11455a
Busby, N. (2015). Implementing change through employee involvement at the financial
ombudsman service. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 34(4), 31–41.
doi:10.1002/joe.21612
Commons, M. L. (2018). Four forces that prevent change in organizations: How to become an
innovative organization. Behavioral Development, 23(1), 14-21.
doi:10.1037/bdb0000073
Day, A., Crown, S. N., & Ivany, M. (2017). Organisational change and employee burnout: The
moderating effects of support and job control. Safety Science, 100, 4–12.
doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2017.03.004
Kars, M., & Inandi, Y. (2018). Relationship between School Principals’ Leadership Behaviors
and Teachers’ Organizational Trust. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 18, 1–
- doi:10.14689/ejer.2018.74.8
Lee, Y. H., Woo, B., & Kim, Y. (2018). Transformational leadership and organizational
citizenship behavior: Mediating role of affective commitment. International Journal of
Sports Science & Coaching, 13(3), 373–382. doi:10.1177/1747954117725286Lee, K., Kim, Y., & Cho, W. (2018). A Study on the Relationship between Servant Leadership,
Organizational Culture, and Job Satisfaction in Fitness Clubs. Sport Mont, 16(3), 43–49.
doi:10.26773/smj.181008
Luhn, A. (2016). The learning organization. Creative and Knowledge Society, 6(1), 1–13.
doi:10.1515/cks-2016-0005
Page, L., Boysen, S., & Arya, T. (2019). Creating a culture that thrives: Fostering respect, trust,
and psychological safety in the workplace. OD Practitioner, 51(1), 28–35.
Rafferty, A. E., & Restubog, S. D. (2017). Why do employees’ perceptions of their
organization’s change history matter? The role of change appraisals. Human Resource
Management, 56(3), 533-550. doi:10.1002/hrm.21782
Riivari, E., & Lamsa, A.-M. (2019). Organizational ethical virtues of innovativeness. Journal of
Business Ethics, (1), 223. doi:10.1007/s10551-017-3486-6
Tvedt, S. D., Saksvik, P. Ø., & Nytr⊘, K. (2009). Does change process healthiness reduce the
negative effects of organizational change on the psychosocial work environment? Work
& Stress, 23(1), 80–98. doi:10.1080/02678370902857113
Van der Voet, J., Kuipers, B. S., & Groeneveld, S. (2016). Implementing change in public
organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change
in a public sector context. Public Management Review, 18(6), 842–865.
doi:10.1080/14719037.2015.1045020
Wee, E. X. M., & Taylor, M. S. (2018). Attention to change: A multilevel theory on the process
of emergent continuous organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(1), 1-
- doi:10.1037/apl0000261Winkler, R. (2015). Conditions for implementing organizational changes. Acta Logistica, 2(4),
21–24. doi:10.22306/al.v2i4.49
Yang, M. M., Young, S., Li, S. J., & Huang, Y. Y. (2017). Using system dynamics to investigate
how belief systems influence the process of organizational change. Systems Research &
Behavioral Science, 34(1), 94-108. doi:10.1002/sres.2394
Yu M. (2009). Employees’ perception of organizational change: The mediating effects of stress
management strategies. Public Personnel Management, 38(1), 17–32.
doi:10.1177/009102600903800102
Engaging Employees in the change Process
Abstract
Due to changes in the current business environment, companies need to successfully implement changes. Before initiating change, companies should determine whether they are capable of successfully initiating change. As such, companies should be structured in a manner that power is decentralized, roles are properly defined, and information systems are effective. This ensures effective top-down and bottom-up communication, which encourages employees to raise concerns about the change and have their worries addressed. Companies face various challenges when initiating change. A significant challenge is employee resistance since employees consider change as having an influence on their current roles, salaries, and job security. Therefore, effective communication and implementation of transformational leadership, as well as participatory leadership, is effective in increasing employee engagement and reducing resistance from employees. Benchmarking is also essential in determining whether the change is effective, and is carried out by measuring behavioral changes among employees, as well as the influence of the change on market outcomes and company processes.
Keywords: Organizational change, Transformational leadership, Benchmarking.
Engaging Employees in the Change Process
Factors That Determine If Change Is Needed
The current business environment is changing at unprecedented levels, especially due to the changes in technological advancements. Companies need to manage transitions to new procedures and processes on a regular basis. For changes that often require the company to make structural adjustments, leaders need to implement organizational change. Before engaging in a change process, firms need to acknowledge the necessity for change. Most commonly, change can be triggered by already existing opportunities to improve the firm’s processes or the existence of several issues in the company. The existence of opportunities presents itself as proactive change, whereby the company seeks to gain significant influence in its sector of operation. However, such changes can be made difficult by uncooperative managers. A company that is experiencing a decline in sales and poor operations is also likely to initiate changes. This form of reactive change is useful for the company to adapt to its environment. Reactive change is the most common in organizations since it is triggered by technological advancements, stiff competition, and depletion of resources (Nadina, 2013). By closely monitoring the current situation in the company, managers should identify the most appropriate change required by the firm and act decisively and swiftly. Considerations should be placed on the external and internal environment since this allows managers to create a more realistic perception of the factors manifested by the environment (Nadina, 2013). Therefore, the internal and external environment influences organizational change. Other factors that affect change as well, including employees, company structure, culture, economic, and sociocultural factors (Nadina, 2013). Employee resistance makes it difficult for companies to initiate changes as it leads to the unsuccessful implementation of change. A company that has an organic type of structure is more likely to realize the need for change in the company since it focuses more on informal relationships and experience. Organizational culture, on the other hand, is also a key determinant of the need for change since a pro-change culture is likely to minimize resistance, which results in successful change implementation.
Determining Whether the Company Is Ready For Change
Determining whether a company is ready to support change is highly important. The company should be structured in a manner that supports and appreciates change. Well-structured organizations provide every employee an opportunity to learn how to go through a continuous change (Luhn, 2016). As such, companies should adopt a structure that focuses on delegation and creating informal relationships through decentralization of power to encourage employees to deploy their capabilities and creativity, which will help the company to implement changes successfully (Luhn, 2016). Culture forms an integral part of the company as well. Particularly, ethical culture is necessary for change. The ethical culture encourages members of the company to adopt a morally sustainable behavior (Rilvari & Lamsa, 2019). Such behavior should be in line with the formal requirements of the company, meaning that it is highly unlikely for members of the company to resist change that is considered necessary for the organization. Organizational culture is also highly essential since it guides the formal and informal operations of the company (Page, Boysen & Arya, 2019). Leaders are highly relevant in ensuring that the culture of a company is shared by employees. Since the culture is defined by visions and norms, leaders should be able to foster these visions and norms, which are then adopted by employees. Therefore, a company whose structure clearly defines the roles of leaders and ensures effective top-down and bottom-up communication is able to foster individual commitment and readiness for change (Page, Boysen & Arya, 2019). The bottom-up communication is highly essential, especially since employees are capable of producing useful and creative ideas to support change. Therefore firms should be structured in a manner than fosters continuous change from the bottom up (Wee & Taylor, 2018). Considering continuous change emerges from the bottom, organizations whose structure supports this approach gives workers the chance to contribute useful ideas that can help improve the situation of the company. A company that is structurally ready to support change should also be able to overcome resistance to change. Since resistance comes mostly from employees, the company should be structured in a manner that enables it to overcome barriers to change. This should involve having a highly effective informational and training system. The informational system facilitates multidirectional communication and information campaigns, which help to reduce uncertainties and prevent gossips (Winkler, 2015). Training is essential since they result in the modification of knowledge, as well as shaping the beliefs and thoughts of the employees towards change.
Engaging Employees In The Change Process
The role of employees in initiating organizational change is highly essential, mainly because the changes are bound to have a great impact on employees. Considering that organizational change results in stress among employees, an effective means of ensuring that employees are engaged in the process is to manage stress levels. Employees associate change with unemployment, job conflicts, and ambiguous roles. Such negative effects can influence the employees’ acceptance of the change. As such, Yu (2009) suggests that decreasing the uncertainty about organizational change can help to reduce the stress levels among employees, thus encouraging them to be more engaged in the process. The role that leaders play is also crucial in ensuring that employees are engaged in organizational change. According to Van der Voet, Kuipers, and Groeneveld (2016), leaders can influence employee commitment through communication. Developing effective channels of communication can help to decrease uncertainty levels and also provide useful information to employees concerning the need for change in the company. The notion is also supported by Busby (2015), who stated that the broad communication of the company’s intentions, policies, and programs for initiating change to the employees can help to reduce resistance. Additionally, communication should also facilitate the conveyance of employee concerns, fears, and complaints regarding the change (Busby, 2015). Another means of engaging employees is by heightening their commitment to the company. According to Banjarnahor, Hutabarat, Sibuea, and Situmorang (2018), leaders influence their employees’ level of commitment by improving their level of job satisfaction. This impact can be achieved by using the participatory leadership style, which positively affects job satisfaction and increases organizational commitment (Banjarnahor et al., 2018). Higher levels of commitment result in employee engagement. On the other hand, Lee, Woo, and Kim (2018) argue that transformational leadership influences employee behavior and commitment levels. The six dimensions of transformational leadership enable leaders to create a vision for the company and motivate employees to work towards achieving the vision. Most importantly, the authors stress the importance of communication in clearing uncertainties and ensuring that the workers are engaged in the process.
Effects of Change on Social, Financial and Corporate Concerns
The means of benchmarking the process of change can be carried out in various ways. One method is by measuring the influence of the change in employee behavior. Employees consider change as having an effect on their jobs, social status, salaries, and reduced role clarity. As stated by Day, Crown, and Ivany, (2016), organizational change can result in physical and psychological stress, which have a significant impact on employee well-being and health. This means that increased levels of stress among employees is an indication that the change process is ineffective (Tvedt, Saksvik, & Nytro, 2009). On the other hand, an improvement in behavior such as increased frequency of idea sharing and idea generation presents a positive measure of organizational change. The measure of organizational change on the overall outcome of the company with regards to sales and profits is also essential since it helps to identify the effect of the change on increasing market value (Deshler, 2019). The company can measure the number of new ideas presented by the employees, as well as the revenues generated from the sale of new products. High revenues generated from the sale of new products developed during the change process provide a positive measure of the change process. However, in cases where the company gains little finances from the sale of the new products developed during the change process, then the leaders should re-examine the designs and ideas. Additionally, re-examining how the change was communicated to the employees is necessary for situations where the company experienced negative behavioral changes during the process. Overall, successful change is determined by a positive change in company practices and the development of products that increase market share, sales, and profits, as well as positively influence employee behavior.
References
Banjarnahor, H., Hutabarat, W., Sibuea, A. M., & Situmorang, M. (2018). Job Satisfaction as a Mediator between Directive and Participatory Leadership Styles toward Organizational Commitment. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 869–888. doi:10.12973/iji.2018.11455a
Busby, N. (2015). Implementing change through employee involvement at the financial ombudsman service. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 34(4), 31–41. doi:10.1002/joe.21612
Day, A., Crown, S. N., & Ivany, M. (2017). Organisational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. Safety Science, 100, 4–12. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2017.03.004
Deshler, R. (2019, April 9). The Formula for Assessing Organization Change Success. Retrieved from https://blog.hrps.org/blogpost/The-Formula-for-Assessing-Organization-Change-Success
Lee, Y. H., Woo, B., & Kim, Y. (2018). Transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour: Mediating role of affective commitment. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 13(3), 373–382. doi:10.1177/1747954117725286
Luhn, A. (2016). The learning organization. Creative and Knowledge Society, 6(1), 1–13. doi:10.1515/cks-2016-0005
Page, L., Boysen, S., & Arya, T. (2019). Creating a culture that thrives: Fostering respect, trust, and psychological safety in the workplace. OD Practitioner, 51(1), 28–35.
Tvedt, S. D., Saksvik, P. Ø., & Nytr⊘, K. (2009). Does change process healthiness reduce the negative effects of organizational change on the psychosocial work environment? Work & Stress, 23(1), 80–98. doi:10.1080/02678370902857113
Van der Voet, J., Kuipers, B. S., & Groeneveld, S. (2016). Implementing change in public organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in public sector context. Public Management Review, 18(6), 842–865. doi:10.1080/14719037.2015.1045020
Wee, E. X. M., & Taylor, M. S. (2018). Attention to change: A multilevel theory on the process of emergent continuous organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(1), 1-13. doi:10.1037/apl0000261
Winkler, R. (2015). Conditions for implementing organizational changes. Acta Logistica, 2(4), 21–24. doi:10.22306/al.v2i4.4
Yu M. (2009). Employees’ perception of organizational change: The mediating effects of stress management strategies. Public Personnel Management, 38(1), 17–32. doi:10.1177/009102600903800102
Nadina, R. R. (2013). Methods of Identification of the Need for Organizational Change as Being Opportune. West University of Timioara, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, 707-712. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6334723.pdf
