The success of a company is dependent on several factors and one important factor is its people. Considering that the employees constitute the core of a company’s business, they should be treated with high regard, protected and respected. Management should take into consideration the basic needs of its employees and should learn to adapt to the dynamics of a changing work environment. Managers should be mindful of an employee’s rights including the right to be heard, to be productive and to contribute to the goals of the company according to the best of their abilities. When an employee feels that his basic needs in the workplace are not being met, including dissatisfaction on how he is being managed by his superior, there is high likelihood that this will translate into workplace stress. In fact, the American Institute of Stress (APA, 2006) disclosed that said workplace stress results to employee absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover and even direct medical, legal and insurance fees that involves a significant amount of financial costs to the company.
Employees are greatly encouraged to know when their CEO and other members of top management understand the basic management principles through policies and practices in their company that show support to their welfare and promote their rights as employees. It is important for them to be heard, feel valued and recognized for their contributions to the company. But what if the problem lies with the middle managers?
1. The first case narrates a scenario where the manager employs the traditional “command and control” management style (Seddon, 2005). Here, the senior manager appointed by the corporate headquarters is very demanding and controlling. We can say he is controlling since he requires his subordinates to report back to him every decision and action to be made by his people. This action may also be a manifestation of his lack of confidence or worse, distrust to his people. Said senior manager is, in fact, micro-managing his subordinates.
According to a new study, the practice of the traditional “command-and-control” management style (2005, p.35) could become a liability to employers in the future. Employers or managers who use this traditional style are at higher risk to lose their employees, particularly, the “emergent” group of workers. So who are these emergent classes of workers and how shall we distinguish them from the traditional employees?
Traditional employees are generally the type of workers who are more focused on job security, employment stability and clear path (Harding, 2000). They assume that it is the task of the employer to provide a clear direction for the employees and in return, the employer begets the employee’s loyalty and long term commitment.
The “emergent” employees, on the other hand, are the ones whom we can consider as privileged workers and are driven by a unique set of values. In a study conducted (Wieck, Prydun & Walsh, 2004, pp.283-288), these “emergent” groups of employees can be defined as those who are very choosy in finding work. They do not just grab the first job offer they get. They define loyalty not with the amount of tenure an employee has, but with the excellence and high performance that an employee exhibits. They are achievers, career-driven and they assume personal responsibility for their career development. They are not hesitant if they feel the need to change jobs, especially when they like to seek better opportunities and not happy anymore with their current jobs. They are also motivated by greater challenges even if it entails more stress.
These emergent workers who may be considered as trendsetters are continuously growing with the younger generation joining the workforce (2004, p.283). Furthermore, there are more employees and professionals who think like them and share some of their practices and values (2004, p.283). These workers are in fact more preferred as they bring greater value to an organization considering they possess traits that are more favorable to companies or employers. They are results-oriented, committed to excel and deliver high performance, and strives to continuously improve and grow their skills. They are more independent, possess a take-charge attitude and have a higher tolerance for stress (2004, p.285).
These emergent employees like to work with companies that share their values. In the event that these values are absent in their workplace, they are most likely to be dissatisfied. The study revealed (2004, p.285) that employees who belong to the emergent class prefer companies or employers that would expect them to be resourceful enough to think of better ways of doing things. They expect their employers to value their desire to pursue further education and join more trainings. They also expect their companies to encourage creativity and innovation in the workplace. For the emergent employees, there is no room for mediocrity. That is why they expect their employers to get rid of employees who are not high-level performers, especially those whom they know are not contributing at all (2004, p.285).
Given the traits of the emergent workers mentioned above, the senior manager in this case who is employing a command-and-control management style would most likely elicit negative reactions from the subordinates. Yes, it may work short-term and may improve the team’s productivity considering the employees felt compelled to produce but it is, most likely, not effective in the long run.
2. If the situation in this case is left without intervention and the senior manager continues to employ his controlling management style, the employees’ absenteeism, staff turnover and deteriorating quality of work that the company is already experiencing may still worsen.
Given that the employees are not being given the amount of empowerment that they need and considering that their work environment is too restrictive, these employees will sooner, rather than later, get demotivated, lose their morale and eventually leave the company.
Bad management, unfortunately, is a common scenario among many companies and at the same time, high attrition rate is likewise prevalent (Ezeanu, 2010). Employee turnover has negative effects on the company in terms of financial costs and definitely brings adverse outcome as well on the company’s productivity (2010, p.1). Although there is no hard evidence (2010, p.1), bad management is being linked strongly to employee turnover . Some of the negative effects poor management has and which affect employee turnovers are decrease in motivation, decrease in performance, lack of hope that things will improve any time soon, high levels of stress, bad relationships and lack of trust (2010, p.1). These negative effects, more often than not, give employees a good reason to leave their jobs.
Companies must accommodate the values and philosophy of the emergent workforce (2004, p.285). In this case, it is indicative that the employees under the senior manager were not happy on how they were being managed as evidenced by increased absenteeism, high staff turnover and deteriorating quality of productivity and output.
4. Managers are key to the success of every organisation. It is vital, then, to have good managers that will bring the business where it needs to be based on the company’s vision and goals. Considering also that they manage directly the subordinates, the team’s productivity can largely be dependent on how the manager motivates, guides and directs his or her team. In cases of poor or bad management, loss of morale, decreased productivity and high employee turnover are among the inevitable scenarios.
Some would consider management of a business as whatever that needs to be done just to keep things afloat. But for the businesses to survive and grow, managers should possess at least the basic skills in management and leadership that include problem solving and decision making, planning, meeting management, delegation, communications and managing oneself. These basics serve as the foundation from which more elaborate and more improved practices in management will be developed (McNamara, n.d.).
Learning is a continuous process. There is always a new avenue opening up to learn new things as an individual and as an organization. For individuals and companies to grow, there should always be openness and willingness to grab every opportunities to learn. Organizational learning (Smith, 2001) is a process whereby knowledge is created, retained and transferred within an organization and through which organizational units change and improve as a result of experience. It happens very often within an organization. This is actually beneficial for the company as continuous learning enhances the competitiveness of the organization in today’s ever-changing environment. Among the positive outcomes that this process creates are increased efficiency, accuracy and profits (2001, p.1).
1. The Chief Executive Officer who attended a management seminar, as narrated in the second case, learned about the benefits of organizational learning and discovered that it is a great tool to encourage and stimulate organizational creativity and innovation. Given this, he followed the advice of experts and tried to implement them in his company. However, he eventually found out that the employees are resisting the practices of organizational learning.
Resistance is, more often than not, an inevitable response to any major change (Bolognese, 2002). Considering that change is a necessary part of every organizational dynamics, employees who resist change can adversely affect the organization and can ultimately cripple the company’s operations. There are varying reasons why employees tend to resist change in the organization. These individuals are reluctant to support new policies and directions or participate in new programs. Even with programs that are beneficial to them, they are still hesitant to be active players. Considering this, said employees may not really think that these changes will be harmful to them that is why they are resisting. More often than not, these individuals do not just like to go out of their comfort zone by changing the status quo. They resist change merely because they fear the unknown and do not like to leave the familiar behind by going into the realm of uncertainty. These employees also are not confident enough to believe that they are able to execute the new things they will learn and apply them in the work setting and so, would simply refuse to learn. They may understand the need for change but they are only afraid to fail (2002, p.1).
2. If the company’s management or the CEO, in this case, does not understand and make an effort to work with employee resistance, it can affect all future change efforts intended for the betterment of the company. It can actually undermine change efforts that are noble, well-conceived and created with the purest intentions for the company (2002, p.1).
Organizations that do not deal and do not overcome employee resistance would definitely experience the appropriate consequences (2002, p.1). There’s always a price to pay. Different organizations may suffer varying consequences depending on how much resistance were manifested by their employees (Huang and Huang, 2009). It may be drastic or may just be light. Reactions by individual employees should also be carefully studied, reviewed and monitored since the reactions vary. Some reactions are subtle while others are overt. Some are immediate while some are deferred. Whatever the reactions though, there would always be some amount of pain involving both the company and the employees. If left without intervention by management, this pain being experienced by the employees may amount to some dysfunctional behaviors to be manifested in the workplace that would eventually cause harm to the company (2009, p.1).
Employees resisting change or, in this case, resisting the practices of organizational learning may also suffer from lower morale even though they may be perceived as the antagonists. Given the negative image they generate, they may feel less optimistic about their position in the company and may lose hope for a brighter professional career with the organization. Furthermore, the time spent by employees resisting the initiatives of the company would translate to reduced level of efficiency. Instead of being productive, a significant amount of their time is being wasted. It can also create a disruptive work environment. Resistant employees may display negative emotions and even outbursts that may spread among other members of the workforce. Such negativity may cause unrest in the whole organization (Belcher, n.d.).
On the other hand, managers executing the change who encounter resistance from the employees may develop resentment toward these resisting employees. They may already resign to the fact that nothing is any more going to happen with whatever new initiatives they are proposing considering the persistent resistance of these employees. Given this, they may lose motivation, get demoralized and may stop the efforts of initiating positive changes for the good of the company.
3. In order for management to attain its goal in securing optimal benefits from the changes they initiate, steps should be undertaken by management to create an atmosphere of collaboration and teamwork that would encourage support and acceptance to whatever initiatives they will undertake to improve the company (Brody and Nair, 2014, p.3). This way, any tendency by the employees to resist will be greatly minimized, if not totally eliminated.
Employee resistance to change or initiatives by the company, as earlier discussed, has negative effects to the employees. There are various ways to address and lessen the impact of these negative effects. One method is to hold meetings with all staff by the management so that concerns, clarifications and grievances of the employees will be aired and properly addressed by the proper authorities. There should also be appropriate trainings provided to the employees as well as provision of additional resources in order to help and assist them adapt to the changes or new initiatives being implemented by the company (2014, p.91). This way, employees would get comfortable and be more open to collaborate and participate in positive initiatives such as organizational learnings as initiated by the CEO in this case.
Managers should plan well the changes or any other initiatives to be implemented before announcing to the employees. At this stage, it is helpful to predict possible reactions of the employees to the plans and prepare the appropriate response or strategy to deal with them. Take one step at a time. Do not preempt anything nor make premature announcements to the employees. This way, the employees will not be alerted in advance and prevent them to make plans to resist the proposed changes. Another suggestion is for management to let the plans come out as the employees’ idea. A meeting can be organized with all the staff where the managers will discuss the proposed plan and direct the discussion towards making the idea as one that came from the employees. This way, there is a higher probability that the plan will not be met by employee resistance (2014, p.91).
4. Employee resistance to change or to adapt to something new is not just a simple issue being faced by management in today’s complex work environment (CMI, 2013, p.26). In fact, it has been identified as a very critical contributor to the failure of a lot of well-meaning efforts to create positive changes and significant improvements within the organization.
Organizations and managers should invest in resources that will equip the employees as well as educate them with novel ways to achieve the company’s desired goals (2013, p.29). It is a given that the employees’ tendency to retain the status quo is still more prevalent nowadays. Managers, in this case, should learn to be more resourceful and find creative ways to overcome this natural propensity of employees to stay put within their comfort zone and should promote avenues to bring about the desired improvements for the company.
Managers should also learn to be sensitive to employees’ reactions and responses so they can foresee and address immediately potential problems. Knowing the meaning and implications of certain behavior by individuals could become useful inputs to help plan some troubleshooting measures that can prevent a possible disaster from happening. Furthermore, effective change management should be learned and implemented by the managers to promote a smooth flow of transition from the old practices to the new ones (2013, p.29). With this process of change management, managers should accept the changes and should be able to manage any resistance effected to them.
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