Introduction
Definition
Change is necessary for the survival of any organization. As time passes, technology advances, peoples’ attitudes and values change, laws and political control change, and there is the need for an organization to keep up with these changes as well. Change management is the way people deal with these changes. In an organization, change management includes the definition of the new norms, talking to the stakeholders about the design of specific changes, and planning and implementing the transition to a new business process or organizational structure (Xiongwei, 2009). Even though it is necessary for organizations to improve some aspects of their operations or structure, more often than not the change is unsuccessful. Most failures are attributed to the management’s formulation and implementation of change strategies. Other factors, both internally and externally, are said to be the reason why change management fails.
Background
An Australian coal mine introduced a new appraisal system under the orders of the Chief Executive Officer, who decided on this without any consultation. The HR manager was asked to direct this change, and he canvased other similar mines looking for a template for the performance system. The manager settled for an appraisal system that did not take into account the miners’ performance, payment, or HRM issues. The miners refused to participate in the appraisal, forcing the company to ask for the Industrial Relations Committee’s help. There are some reasons these miners gave in regards to their resistance to change. They included having an appraisal system whose scores were not discussed with the miners. That led to the deterioration of motivation among the workers hence having an effect on the overall productivity of the mine (Dawson and McLean, 2013).
Objectives
The following paper will look at a more detailed analysis of this case while relying on leadership and change theories to make the analysis. The paper will also look at the response of the workers to the change and whether their views were warranted. In addition, there will be an inclusion of a recommended communication plan that the company can use for future change management.
Critical analysis and evaluation of change initiated by the CEO of the Australian coal mine with relevant application of change and leadership theory.
The success or failure of change management highly depends on the leadership during this time. Leadership is defined as a process where influence is intentionally exerted on a group of people with the aim of structuring their activities and relationships (Xiongwei, 2009). Studies show that for successful change management in an organization, there is no one leadership or change theory that can be said to be the best (Xiongwei, 2009). At times, it depends on the situation and, in some cases, there is a need to combine different theories.
In the case of the Australian Coal mine, the management had control over the entire process. Firstly, the change process was initiated by the Chief Executive Officer. However, his initiation was based on his decision alone; he did not seek the advice of other stakeholders. Secondly, the HR manager who was tasked with the role of finding an appropriate performance management system simply settled for looking at other systems that similar mines had implemented. The manager did not take the time to find out the unique characteristics of the mine and its employees and how the system could be designed to improve the productivity of the miners. Thirdly, the management had control over how to handle the situation after their employees resisted participating in the appraisal. However, instead of finding a better way to resolve the situation, they settled for involving the Industrial Relations Committee only worsening the employees’ resistance (Amagoh, 2008).
Situational leadership theory claims that leadership should be based on an understanding of the unique situation and find an appropriate response (McCleskey, 2014). The theory distinguishes between task-oriented and people-oriented forms of leadership. In task-oriented leadership, leaders are keen on giving instructions and establishing communication channels. On the other hand, relation-oriented leadership focuses on reducing conflicts and regulating the stakeholder’s participation (Kirsch, et al., 2014). The use of this leadership style involves the implementation of the two forms of situational leadership depending on how the situation presents itself. For instance, in the case of Australian coal mine, the management would employ task-oriented leadership to communicate with the miners about the implementation of the performance system. Using the established open communication channels, the miners would raise their concerns and their views on what should be used to score a person’s performance. On the other hand, relation-oriented leadership would be effective in the case of resistance (Amagoh, 2008). Using this leadership, the management would focus on understanding the source of conflicts and finding the best way to resolve the conflict without undermining the participation of the key stakeholders.
Social change leadership theory is said to focus on the how, what, and why aspects of leadership. The goal of this form of leadership is to create personal, societal, and organizational leadership (Watt, 2009). The theory is based on three fundamental principles: creating change, seeking collaboration, and civic leadership. Creating change involves doing what is necessary to make improvements while seeking collaboration includes bringing people together in such a way like empowerment and sharing of power. Civic leadership looks past the organization and its people and takes the society into account. Facilitative Social Change Leadership Theory combines Social change leadership theory and transformational leadership (Watt, 2009). A transformative leader is described as one with the level of awareness about the need to attain the necessary outcomes and the way to reach them (Nikezic, Puric and Puric, 2012). Transformation leadership includes inspirational motivation, idealized influence, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (McCleskey, 2014). The four components should be exhibited in different degrees to reach the desired outcomes.
Idealized influence is made up of a leader with characteristics that can be emulated and that are impressive to followers. Inspirational motivation is made up of a leader’s enthusiasm for change. Intellectual stimulation encourages the followers to be more innovative by reframing and creating new frameworks (McCleskey, 2014). Individualized consideration involves the leaders acting as mentors and providing their followers with a supportive climate. Based on these theories, the Australian coal mine can be analyzed through the form of leadership its management displayed. Based on the transformational leadership theory, it is necessary that a leader shows or communicates to the employees the need for change before starting on its implementation (Geiger and Antonacopoulou, 2009). For instance, the Chief Executive Officer would explain the need to find a way to measure people’s performance with the overall goal of increasing productive. By doing so, the management of the mine would have had all the employees contributing to the implementation of change. The employees would come up with the best way to measure performance and the attributes that should be used to score them. The implementation of a successful performance system that was acceptable to the miners and met the goals of the mine would be an example to similar companies in the same field. Based on the social change leadership theory, such an achievement would be of great influence to the society (Kirsch, et al., 2014). In addition, it would increase the value of miners’ work even in other organisations.
Critical explanation and analyses of miners’ general views, in terms of:
Threat to their occupational community
The miners could have felt that their occupation and that of their fellow colleagues was threatened by the change. Employees’ reactions to changes in an organization are usually influenced by different factors. It is reasonable that people have resistance to shifting from a state where they know everything about something to a state of not knowing (Hebblewhite, Mitra and Kirsch, 2015). Change management is often unsuccessful because the management underestimates the importance of some key stakeholders. The interpretation of resistance can be looked at in four ways regarding opinion, conviction, psychological reaction and personality (Amagoh, 2008). The human resource theory is used to explain the resistance of employees regarding opinions. It is common for individual goals to be different from the organization’s goals. The organization’s management have the primary responsibility to persuade such individuals to direct their efforts and make sure they align with the organization’s goals. One of the best ways to deal with such a form of resistance is said to be dialogue (Hrebiniak, 2013).
Varied forces of implications for change resistance
Psychological reactions are the most common when it comes to resistance to change. In the case of Australian mines, this was shown where the change was perceived as emotional and changeable (Lawrence, 2015). In such cases, the human resource in the organization is expected to implement a change management strategy that makes it possible to adjust the changes after negotiating with key parties. Resistance can also be interpreted regarding ethical and moral convictions. The explanation of this form of resistance is based on the whistle-blowing theory, and such resistance is said to be difficult to alter. . In most cases, this form of resistance could either result in layoffs if the employees do not conform to the new changes or the improvement of the organization’s ethics if the employees positively embrace the changes. The last form of resistance is in the form of personality, and it is based on the people’s emotions. Such resistance causes the employees to be irrational, and their opinions are highly contagious (Lawrence, 2015).
Communication Plan
Some issues need to be addressed in the Australian coal mine to ensure that there is an efficient transition of change among the employees and the managers holding the executive positions. The duration of communication is also included in the communication plan. The duration and time frame for the change is another aspect that should be communicated by the managerial team to the employee teams (Grenny, et al., 2013). The following is a communication plan for a continuous change management for both employees and managerial performance at Australian coal mine.
Conclusion
The following are the recommendation for the Australian coal mine case study. To begin with, leaders managing change should identify and analyze an explanation for the irresistible forces resulting from change. Secondly, they should ensure that all the employees understand the bigger and more beneficial purpose of the mining company (Smits and Bowden, 2015). As such, every miner will realize their importance in the management of different innovations. Finally, the management should structure a way of embracing the innovations under the change organization. However, other aspects such as communication should be carefully considered in the change management process. Communication plans should cover all the people affected by the change such as the miners, their supervisors, and all other team stakeholders. It is also recommended that face-to-face method of communication be used.
Respective supervisors should also take up the role of communicating a similar message to their teams to prevent conflicting perspectives on the change management from the employees. The messages should also be framed to impact relevantly to the immediate work situations (Baruch, 2008). The relevance of the change to the community and environment is an important point to begin with in convincing the stakeholders to accept the change. It is also important to reduce the communications on the mission, goals, objectives, and visions of the organization made on paper. Many of the stakeholders are too busy to read more than two pages of instructions. Therefore, all written communications should have a face-to-face follow-up meeting to ensure the effectiveness of all the communications (Baruch, 2008). Finally, the CEO of the organization and the senior managers should ensure that the change management process is well researched and founded on definite leadership theories.
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