Introduction
Change management is a term that has several definitions; the term does not contain any definite explanation. According to some authors, change management is a technique for facilitating the implementation of complicated processes in a very organized way that leads organizations towards the contribution into the organization. ElMaraghy (2011), in his book, defined change management as a redesigning of the structure of procedure with the aim of coping up with internal and external organizational changes. It is a process of constantly renewing the structure, direction, and capabilities of organization with the purpose of serving the ever-changing needs of internal and external customers (ElMaraghy, 2011). Kotter defines the change management as a process of protecting the organization from potential risk that can occur in result of organization change. He, for successful implementation of change, proposes eight-step plan for change management (Akdeniz, 2016).
Background of the case
The assignment is based on the analysis of the case “Resistance to Threatened Identities Unexpected Reactions to Orthodox Change”. The case is about the initiation of change that has been made for the appraisal of workers’ performance in the Coal Mine Company of Australia. The case discloses the fact that the new appraisal system was introduced by the chief executive officer of the company without having and collaboration and consultation with employees. Therefore, the chief executive officer when attempted to implement the change has to face the problem of resistance. Workers were not ready to accept change and therefore, creating problems in its implementation. The purpose of management behind the initiation of the change was to improve the operations of the organization, and the initiative was backed by the research and evaluation of broad business environment. As the employees were not aware of the change and they were not informed, therefore, they were considering this initiative as the breach of their identities. They were considering that the system is an attempt to misuse them and is an affront to their identities and physical attack to their dignity. Miners perceived the initiative as a divide between management and them and found this change as a way of favoritism, discrimination, and based on limited understanding.
The paper aims to analyze the change or sort of change that the chief executive officer of coal mine Australia. The paper is an attempt to apply leadership and change theories in the case to analyze that how change could be successful. The paper assesses the general views of miners and proposes a communication plan for miners.
Normally change can be divided into two main categories such as planned change and unplanned change. Planned changes come with predicted change, and unplanned changes come with chaotic results and sometimes lead to resistance from employees. Planned changes are the outcome of informed external changes. However, unplanned changes are the result of the continuous change process. The chief executive officer of Australian Coal Mine did not consult with miners before the change initiative and its implementation. The change that was initiated by the chief executive officer was an initiative to better the organizational process, which is a constant effort. The change type was unplanned and imposed (Nelson & Quick, 2014). The imposed change has to face the greater resistance from employees because they were not the part of decision-making process. Resistance occurs due to the ways the change is introduced. If management fails to give, significant attention to the implementation of change, then resistant is common (Parkin, 2009). The implementation stage includes to engage employees in the change process, inform them regarding the change, and encourage them to adapt change. The chief executive officer of Australian Coal Mine failed in implementing the change because neither he consulted with employees when initiated the change and nor he informed them before the implementation.
The response of workers to the management imposed change was the common phenomenon because of lack of communication they were taking the change as a threat to their dignity and identity. The management or executive officer of Australian Coal Mine should communicate the change to employees, should adapt the leadership style in which employees are involved in the decision-making process (Lawrence, 1969). The resistance occurs due to some specific blind spots and it happened with the coal miners, they were not aware of the benefits and reason of change that encouraged them to resist.
The overall situation communicated that workers were reasonable in resisting change, as they were not communicated with the benefits and purpose of change. It was the failure of management that it could not implement the change successfully and faced resistance.
Theory of change and leadership that could be adopted to drive success
Change is a common phenomenon and in this rapidly changing world, no organization has an exception from change. This is the concept that most widely and rapidly used by all organization for being competitive and innovative. Different organizations manage change differently; for the successful change implementation, it is vital that people of the organization understand the change and its need for the organization. Change and resistance are strongly associated, and it is the responsibility of managers to take a seat of leaders and lead the change through encouraging and influencing people to adopt change. The chief executive officer of coal mine should have adapted participative leadership style and should have included miners in decision making process, this process enhance understanding of change and commitment of employees towards change (Cassidy & Kreitner, 2009; Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2010). For the successful implementation, it is essential that a proper change model is adapted. The chief executive officer of coal mine could adapt the Kotter’ eight steps model through the deployment of this model the CEO could create the sense of urgency, guide to the coalition, could develop change vision, communicate the vision to employees, could remove the obstacles to change. The CEO through rewarding employees for their participation in change could encourage them others not to resist, and could incorporate the change into the culture (Bourda, 2013).
Critical explanation and assessment of the miners’ general views that initiated change asa. Threat to their occupational community
It has been determined that the lack of communication does not allow employees to understand the purpose of change that pessimistically affect organizational change in the result of resistance (Meliorate, 2013). Change brings different fears for employees with it; employees feel the threat of losing their jobs in the result of not successfully adapting change and a threat to the professional or occupational community. The case demonstrated that before the first round of the appraisal, the chief executive officer of Coal Mine face immense resistance that was not expected by the CEO. Employees were resisting the change at each stage of implementation because they have a fear that this change would misuse them and affect their dignity. It has been realized that after the first performance reviews’ round, the performance of miners dropped, and their confidence level decreased, and because of the perceived threat the relationships of people that were involved in the change process got tensed (Acevedo, 2012). Miners were uncomfortable with the change practices, as they were concerned that their performance was rated in their absence, and they would not be provided a chance to change the score even if they are justified (Keams, 2010). They had the treat that all benefits they were enjoying would be taken from them, and they would not be considered as dignified miners. Even some were worried about their job safety or security
b. Varied forces of implications for change resistance.
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis is a tool used by organizations to determine the forces that affect the implementation of change (Lunenburg, 2010). It is a useful decision making tool that helps organizations in making decisions that either they should pursue the change or not. This technique helps organizations in communication the reasons due to which they pursue change. Forces that affect change implementation can be divided into two categories such as positive and negative. Some examples of negative and positive forces comments are as follow:
(Lorenzi & Riley, 2013)
Force field analysis helps organizations to determine the emotions of employees that enable them to better communicate the reasons for not resisting the change and adapt the appropriate approach to deal with the resistance issue. Through encouraging positive forces, organizations create ease for implementing change.
Communication Plan for continuous change management for both employees and managerial performance
List of References
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