The Importance of Managing People Pressures in Implementing Change

 This report analyses the various people pressures faced by managers in effecting change. It starts by deeply analyzing the barriers encountered and the possible impact they have on the process of change then relates this to relevant theories. Finally, it makes recommendations on how to deal with them focusing on the themes of motivation and communication of change.

Ineffective management of change, various stakeholders need to be motivated to adapt to the new mode of operations hence the following challenges may be experienced:

• Diversity

The employees are a part of the organization and they have various expectations and needs. They have different ideologies, beliefs, customs, attitudes, and values. It is difficult for the manager to understand the needs and expectations of all the employees as human beings are complex. It is also challenging to understand their personalities and identify ways of motivating them (Ramcharan and Parumasur 2014). Even if their personalities are to be understood, it is almost impossible to implement different motivation mechanisms in the same organization. As a result, managers may implement a uniform motivation mechanism leading to dissatisfaction by some employees which will eventually lead to resistance to the change.

• Too many hierarchical levels

Majority of organizations operate in a system whereby there are a lot of hierarchies; from the top manager to the junior employees and subordinate staff. All the employees at each level need to be motivated and sensitized in order to effectively manage change. For the junior employees, they are used to an ideology of delayed promotions and poor compensation. Therefore, they do not feel valued in the organization hence they feel as if the change is meant just for the good of the organization and they are not taken care of (Kanat-Maymon, Yaakobi & Roth 2018). Nevertheless, the motivation of senior managers is still a challenge because they have already achieved their career goals and they are receiving handsome compensations.

• Work overload and poor systems

Employees often feel as if they are burdened with too much work and have no benefits to reap from their contributions to the organization. Thus, they often develop a negative attitude towards change as they tend to think that the change is meant to increase their workload. As a result, resistance to change is bound to happen almost every time employees became aware of the management’s plan to effect a change. Work distribution is also a challenge for managers as some employees will feel that they have way too much workload compared to their colleagues hence demotivation sets in (Hayes 2014). In addition, business systems are always changing and managers have to reduce boredom by keeping the jobs varied while fostering specialization at the same time

• Lack of consensus

Challenges Faced by Managers in Implementing Change Management Strategies

Everyone needs to be brought on board with the change and this is not possible sometimes, resistance will often be experienced in the later stages of effecting the change. Before any decision regarding the change can be made, managers at all levels need to be on board since they are the ones to take the change to the employees whom they supervise (Guinn 2013). It is often difficult to bring senior managers on board as they may feel despised especially if the idea did not come from them in the first place. Employees at other levels may also not be on board due to individual reasons such as absenteeism and lack of communication.

• Familiarity with the current state of the business

It is natural for workers to become comfortable with the way activities are currently being done in an organization hence they know what is expected of them and are confirmed to a certain way of doing things. A significant change is bound to disrupt this familiarity and thus resistance is expected (Mcfarland 2014). The employees are often not ready to do away with what they are used to and learn new ways of performing their jobs (Xu & Payne 2012). The transition may also require training of staff which is an additional cost to the firm and the manager is also uncertain whether the training or the change will be effective at all.

Communication is a vital element in the initial stages of implementing change. All the stakeholders have to be made aware of the change and on time. However various pressures may be experienced by the managers in doing this:

• Distance between units

Departments within an organization need to have close and constant communication if the change is to be effective. This is often not possible due to the huge distances between the departments hence face to face meetings are not common and collaboration is challenging. Communication is still a challenge even in this era of web conferencing, emails and cell phones due to network challenges and additional costs. Therefore managers may start implementing the change even before everyone is made aware of the change which may cause resistance at some point.

• Unclear expectations

In most cases, top-level managers do not hold adequate discussions with middle-level managers in order to discuss expectations and methods of implementing the change. As a result, they fail to agree on a specific plan and strategic goals which results in employees that are not aware of what is expected of them or on what steps to be followed (Polat 2017). The benchmarks and controls to guide the transition are also not clear hence there is no proper way of assessing progressing or knowing whether the change is effective or not.

• Untimely information

Effective Communication and Motivation: Key Themes for Successful Change Management

Information about change does not get to employees on time and sometimes it does not get to them at all. This is normally caused by rigid systems of communication or delays in message delivery leading to different paces of embracing the change in different units of the organization and managers have to exert a lot of pressure on their employees. This may escalate resistance since the employees may feel that things are moving too fast or that they are not being given adequate time to learn the new style of operations. In some cases, there are no proper avenues for providing feedback hence employees are not able to make their thoughts known leading to a situation whereby the management and junior employees are not in agreement.

• Unknown plan for the future

Top managers do not discuss their vision their vision for the organization’s future with the employees. Therefore they do not establish a clear and single sense of direction towards which everyone will be striving. For this reason, employees lack inspiration in doing their best as they do not have a course which they are working towards. At times they may be caught by surprise of a certain goal which they were supposed to achieve but they were not aware (Masterclassmanagement.com. 2018). Managers may also accuse them of not working hard while in the real sense they do not know what they are working towards or what they are hoping to achieve.

• Lack of collaboration between functional areas.

Different units tend to be competitive rather than share common methods and goals. They desire to keep their operations private and not share vital information that could be of benefit to the other. Employees also do not trust each other thus they do not share information amongst themselves (Kanat-Maymon, Yaakobi & Roth 2018). Vital information on change from the manager may be received by a group of workers who fail to share it with their colleagues.  ALL of these will jeopardize, therefore, change is ineffective and the organization’s productivity as a whole is limited.

• Trust

An organization with members who trust each other is likely to be successful as compared to an organization whose members don’t trust each other. Managers need to trust their staff on getting the job done while the staff should trust their managers that they have their best interest at heart. Also there should be trust among the staff of a similar level so as to enhance collaboration hence teamwork is achieved which is a critical factor for success.

• Energy of the core group

The Role of Employee Perception of Authority Legitimacy in Change Management

The core staff needs to be dedicated and ready to take up tasks if at all the organization is to succeed. Managers and leaders will not be able to achieve the organization’s vision if the staff around them is lazy and has to be pushed. Dedication is also required from the management mainly because workers look up to them and they need to lead by example.

• Skills and qualifications

The amount of training and coaching provided to employees has a significant impact on the organization’s success. Continuous training updates on the skills of the employees to make sure they are efficient in their jobs and they can incorporate the modern trends to reduce the risk of obsolescence. Lack of training is obviously a factor for failure as the firm’s operations will soon be lagging behind in comparison with the competitors.

• Ideology

Ideology has to do with what the staff and the managers believe in. Though its impact on success is minimal it cannot be ignored. For instance some managers believe that they have to evaluate the performance of their subjects from time to time while some employees might think that is not necessary. These differences in ideologies may cause mistrust between the management and the employees thereby affecting teamwork negatively.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the human resource of an organization is an important factor to consider in the implementation of change.  A lot of barriers experienced by managers in implementing change come from employees hence they have to be managed effectively. Employees are mostly demotivated and unwilling to take up new roles or change the ways they are already used to. Communicating the change to employees is also another challenge considering the state of most organizations. However, managers can try the following tips to effectively manage change:

• Involvement of employees

Employees should be involved right from the time when the decision to effect change is made. Feedback should be encouraged and employees’ thoughts and opinions should be taken into account (Hayes 2018).  Employees are often excited to see their idea being implemented and this promotes creativity and enhancement of problem-solving skills. They will work together as a team and increase their trust and confidence in management (Faupel and Süß 2018). This will make sure the employees feel valued and part of the organization hence they will be motivated towards embracing the change.

• Improving interpersonal relations

Trust between managers and their subjects is crucial and this can only be achieved by improving interpersonal relations. This also calls for superiors to respect to respect the junior employees and view them as an important resource to the organization so that status differences can be eliminated (Anon 2011). Employees will become more cooperative in such an environment and strive towards successful implementation of the change (Anon 2012). Managers will also be able to communicate freely while employees give feedback appropriately, hence ideas will be easily implemented and challenges dealt with.

• Understanding employees diversity

Leadership Challenges in Motivating Employees

Managers need to conduct a careful analysis of the different employees of the organization, their culture, needs, and expectations. Some employees may have personal issues which lead to demotivation while others may be completely satisfied with their current state and not ready for any transition (Moniz 2010). Any change will have an impact on them and they are bound to react differently. Therefore management should find a way of merging the diversity and using this differences as strengths so as to foster motivation and collaboration.

• Leading by example

Managers should be at the frontline in embracing change so that they can demonstrate the new way of doing things to employees. They should not expect their juniors to effect changes that they cannot affect themselves (Blackburn 2012). When the employees see their superiors leading by example, they know that it is possible and they also commit to successful implementation of the change.

• Proper orientation of employees

Employees should be given proper orientation on organizational goals, authority relations, and systems so as to remove any barriers to communication (Inc.com. 2018). This will make sure that they are in line with the vision and mission of the organization, therefore, they will incorporate any change that has to be effected in order to achieve this. They should also be involved in developing the objectives and strategies of the organization to ensure that they are always on board and they never feel left out.

• Localized training of employees

Managers should try as much as possible to deliver the best training to employees as part of implementing change. The training should be modified to suit their needs and it should be in the language which they understand most (Larkin & Larkin 2010). This will make sure the later stages of implementing the transition are smooth as employees have adequate skills.

References

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