Engaging Employees in the Change Process
The change process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team or project leader follows to apply change management to a change to drive individual transitions and ensure the project meets its intended outcomes. The purpose of change is to ensure individual transition and the intended outcomes of the organization. If an organization is not prepared for change, many times there is a failure on the horizon, and it is the leader’s responsibility to determine if an organization is ready to implement change. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss how to engage employees in the change process and how to benchmark the progress of a change initiative. Furthermore, we will be analyzing the factors used to determine if change is needed in each organization. Additionally, how to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaptation will be discussed. Finally, how to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaptation will be discussed.
Analysis of Factors
An analysis of the factors used to determine if change is needed in each organization. In any given organization, an analysis of factors can be used to determine if change is required and by that conclusion, what the right plan of action may be by leadership. Factors used to determine if change is required may include unsatisfactory performance, unplanned and unpleasant surprises, increased competitor competition leading to positive results, organizational inefficiencies and struggles, new opportunities, and new and emerging technology (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015), to name a few. An analysis of the factors will lead to a clear picture of the current situation and will allow for the identification of necessary steps which must be taken within the organization. Furthermore, leaders can evaluate their organization’s readiness for change in a four-step process. These steps include forming a team, collecting relevant data, analyzing the data, and sharing the results to effectively evaluate the need for change (Weiner, 2009). When forming a team, the leader must realize that workers are often the best source of information about the workplace and these people should include those affected by the safety and health change, responsible for implementing and maintaining the change, and/or involved in future decisions about changes (Yukl,2008). Next, collecting relevant data should include three kinds of data: conditions before the change, information about how the change was put in place, and what happened after the change was made. Analyzing the data is used to determine whether the changes are effective and data analysis can be simple or complex depending on the questions asked, the completeness of the data, and the experience of the evaluation team (Weiner 2009). Finally, sharing the results leads to feedback which a leader can use to effectively evaluate the need for change within the organization.
Discussion of Structure
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. How to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaption may be a difficult task for even the most experienced leader. However, to better understand the dynamics within an organization that hinders change, the following three questions should be first answered: First, how ready are managers in my company for this organizational change? Some information you will need to know to determine how ready your managers are for change are the following: Are your direct reports effective sponsors for this change? Do managers in your organization communicate effectively with their team members? Which managers will be major obstacles to implementing this change? Next, how ready is my organization for this change? Some of the information you will need to know to determine how ready your organization is for change are the following: Does your organization use specific measures to assess business performance? Does this change effort support other major activities in the organization? Does your organizational culture reward or punish people for being innovative, taking risks, and solving problems? Finally, the third question that needs to be asked is how ready are my employees for this organizational change? Now, certain information that may be utilized to determine how ready employees are for change may include the following: Do your employees understand your customers’ needs? What is the state of employee morale in the organization? Do your employees feel personally responsible for their success in the organization? (Stouten, Rousseau, & De Cremer, 2018).
Critiques of Tactics
Several tactics can be used to engage employees in the change process, however, the following five are most likely the most proven and successful. First, survey and prove it, this provides backup for why you took one approach over another. It proves to your users and management that you care about their opinions and factored in team usage of the CRM before making a change. Next, seek assistance from senior leadership, it is important in this step to realize that these leaders do not necessarily need to be directly a part of the change process but bringing in the skills of experienced senior leadership can benefit any change process. Next, build management support, this step is not just beneficial, but necessary during the change process. The next step is to create exclusivity, exclusivity makes employees feel special while also encouraging proactive feedback regarding the change process. Finally, budget and timing are key, and maybe when it comes down to it, the most important of these steps (Nutt, 2016).
Evaluation of Effective
An evaluation of the effects of change on individual, social, financial, and corporate concerns. Change Evaluation of Effects of change on individual, social, financial, and corporate concerns can be severed if not handled appropriately. Some organizational changes require major restructuring, resulting in sweeping life changes for several employees. Typical changes that negatively impact a portion of the employees are salary cuts, loss of benefits, downgrading in job positions, job loss, or relocation to another city, state, or country. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote in Frankenstein, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Some organizational changes require major restructuring, resulting in sweeping life changes for several employees. Typical changes that negatively impact a portion of the employees are salary cuts, loss of benefits, downgrading in job positions, job loss, or relocation to another city, state, or country. Additionally, according to a recent study, U.S. workers who reported recent or current change were more likely to have work-life balance conflict, feel cynical and negative toward others during the workday, and have lower job satisfaction and significantly less trust in their employers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the discussion in this paper provided numerous avenues on ways the change process is crucial to organizational stability and success and can be thought of as the steps and activities leadership takes to apply the change. The purpose of change is to ensure individual transition and the intended outcomes of the organization. If an organization is not prepared for change, many times there is a failure on the horizon, and it is the leader’s responsibility to determine if an organization is ready to implement change. The purpose of this article is to discuss how to engage employees in the change process and how to benchmark the progress of a change initiative. Furthermore, an analysis of the factors used to determine if change is needed in each organization was provided along with an explanation of how to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaptation. Finally, we discussed how to determine if an organization is structurally ready to support change leading to a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and adaptation will be discussed.
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