Organizational Behavior: Chapter 18

Overcoming Resistance to Change

-Provide as much information as possible to employees about the change -Inform employees about the rationale for the change -Conduct meetings to address employee's concerns -Provide employees the opportunity to discuss how the proposed change might affect them

Change Agent Characteristics

1) Decisions that disrupt cultural traditions or group relationships. Whenever individuals are transferred, promoted, or reassigned, cultural and group dynamics are thrown into disequilibrium. 2) Personality conflicts. Just as a friend can get away with telling us something we would resent hearing from an adversary, the personalities of change agents can breed resistance. Change agents that display any of the traits of bad leadership are likely to engender resistance from recipients. 3) Lack of tact or poor timing. Undue resistance can occur because change agents introduce change in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time. Proposed organizational changes are more likely to be accepted by others when change agents effectively explain or "sell" the value of their proposed changes. This can be done by explaining how a proposed change is strategically important to an organization's success. 4) Leadership style. Research shows that people are less likely to resist change when the change agent uses transformational leadership 5) Failing to legitimize change. Change must be internalized by recipients before it will be truly accepted. Active, honest communication and reinforcing reward systems are needed to make this happen. This recommendation underscores the need for change agents to communicate with recipients in a way that considers employees' point-of-view and perspective. It also is important for change agents to explain how change will lead to positive personal and organizational benefits. This requires that change agents have a clear understanding about how recipients' jobs will change and how they will be rewarded.

Moderators of Occupational Stress

Managers with a working knowledge of important stress moderators can confront employee stress in the following ways: 1) Awareness of moderators helps identify those most likely to experience stress and its negative outcomes. Stress-reduction programs then can be formulated for high-risk employees. 2) Moderators, in and of themselves, suggest possible solutions for reducing negative outcomes of occupational stress.

A Dynamic Model of Resistance to Change

Resistance to change -An emotional or behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine Why People Resist Change in the Workplace 1) An individual's predisposition toward change - This predisposition is highly personal and deeply ingrained. It is an outgrowth of how one learns to handle change and ambiguity as a child. While some people are distrustful and suspicious of change, others see change as a situation requiring flexibility, patience, and understanding.36 For example, resilience to change, which represents a composite characteristic reflecting high self-esteem, optimism, and an internal locus of control, was positively associated with recipients' willingness to accommodate or accept a specific organizational change. 2) Surprise and fear of the unknown - When innovative or radically different changes are introduced without warning, affected employees become fearful of the implications. The same is true when managers announce new goals without spelling out specific plans for how the goals will be achieved. 3) Fear of failure - Intimidating changes on the job can cause employees to doubt their capabilities. Self-doubt erodes self-confidence and cripples personal growth and development. 4) Loss of status and/or job security - Administrative and technological changes that threaten to alter power bases or eliminate jobs generally trigger strong resistance. 5) Peer pressure - Someone who is not directly affected by a change may actively resist it to protect the interests of his or her friends and co-workers. 6) Past success - Success can breed complacency. It also can foster a stubbornness to change because people come to believe that what worked in the past will work in the future. Resilience to change represents a composite characteristic reflecting high self-esteem, optimism, and an internal locus of control, was positively associated with recipients' willingness to accommodate or accept a specific organizational change

Social Support

Social support is the amount of perceived helpfulness derived from social relationships. Importantly, social support is determined by both the quantity and quality of an individual's social relationships. We receive four types of social support from others: Esteem support. Providing information that a person is accepted and respected despite any problems or inadequacies. Informational support. Providing help in defining, understanding, and coping with problems. Social companionship. Spending time with others in leisure and recreational activities. Instrumental support. Providing financial aid, material resources, or needed services.

Forces of Change

External forces for change originate outside the organization Demographic characteristics - organizations are changing employment benefits and aspects of the work environment in order to attract, motivate, and retain diverse employees. Organizations also are changing the way in which they design and market their products and services and design their store layouts based on generational differences. persistently higher unemployment levels among young people around the world is creating a strong force for change by governments and organizations alike. Technological advancements - Both manufacturing and service organizations are increasingly using technology as a means to improve productivity, competitiveness, and customer service while also cutting costs.I nformation technology is enabling more and more forms of self-service, from Internet stores and banks for customers to online help for employees who want to learn about their benefits packages. Telepresence is a good example of a technology that enables organizations to change the way they deliver products, coordinate virtual workers, encourage employee collaboration, improve communication, and increase productivity. It represents an advanced form of videoconferencing and robotics that in combination makes virtual conversations seem like they are taking place in one location. Shareholder, customer and market changes - Shareholders have become more involved with pressing for organizational change in response to ethical lapses from senior management and anger over executives' compensation packages. Increasing customer sophistication is requiring organizations to deliver higher value in their products and services. Customers are simply demanding more now than they did in the past. Moreover, customers are more likely to shop elsewhere if they do not get what they want because of lower customer switching costs. This has led more and more companies to seek customer feedback about a wide range of issues in order to retain and attract customers. Social and political pressures - These forces are created by social and political events. For example, widespread concern about the impact of climate change and rising energy costs have been important forces for change in almost every industry around the world. Companies have gone "green," looking for ways to use less energy themselves and to sell products that consume less energy and are safer to use. Internal forces for change originate inside the organization. -Low job satisfaction -Low productivity -Conflict -Strikes

Creating Change Through Organization Development

Organization Development consists of planned efforts to help persons work and live together more effectively, over time, in their organizations A change agent is someone who is a catalyst in helping organizations to deal with old problems in new ways. Change agents can be external consultants or internal employees. OD Research and Practical Implications -Planned organizational change works -Change programs are more successful when they are geared toward meeting both short-term and long-term results -Organizational change is more likely to succeed when top management is truly committed to the change process -Effectiveness of OD interventions is affected by cross-cultural considerations

A Systems Model of Change

Systems Approach -Based on the notion that any change, no matter how large or small, has a cascading effect throughout an organization -Takes a "big picture" perspective of organizational change Mission statement represents the "reason" an organization exists Vision a long-term goal that describes "what" an organization wants to become Strategic plan -outlines an organization's long-term direction and the actions necessary to achieve planned results -based on results from a SWOT analysis Applying the Systems Model of Change Two ways to apply the systems model: -Aid during the strategic planning process -Using the model as a diagnostic framework to determine the causes of an organizational problem and to propose solutions

A Generic Typology of Organizational Change

This typology is generic because it relates to all sorts of change, including both administrative and technological changes. Adaptive change is lowest in complexity, cost, and uncertainty. It involves reimplementation of a change in the same organizational unit at a later time or imitation of a similar change by a different unit. Adaptive changes are not particularly threatening to employees because they are familiar. Innovative changes fall midway on the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty. Unfamiliarity, and hence greater uncertainty, make fear of change a problem with innovative changes. At the high end of the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty are radically innovative changes. Changes of this sort are the most difficult to implement and tend to be the most threatening to managerial confidence and employee job security. At the same time, however, radically innovative changes potentially realize the greatest benefits. Importantly, radical changes must be supported by an organization's culture. Organizational change is more likely to fail if it is inconsistent with any of the three levels of organizational culture: observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions

escape strategy

amounts to avoiding the problem. Behaviors and cognitions are used to avoid or escape situations. Individuals use this strategy when they passively accept stressful situations or avoid them by failing to confront the cause of stress

Stress

an adaptive response, mediated by individual characteristics and/or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external action, situation, or event that places special physical and/or psychological demands upon a person Stress is not merely nervous tension. Stress can have positive consequences. Stress is not something to be avoided. The complete absence of stress is death Eustress Stress that is good or produces a positive outcome

Stressors

are environmental factors that produce stress. Stated differently, stressors are a prerequisite to experiencing the stress response. he most common examples of individual stressors are job demands, work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, everyday hassles, perceived control over events occurring in the work environment, and job characteristics. Losing one's job is another important individual-level stressor. Group-level stressors are caused by group dynamics and managerial behavior. Managers create stress for employees by (1) exhibiting inconsistent behaviors, (2) failing to provide support, (3) showing lack of concern, (4) providing inadequate direction, (5) creating a high-productivity environment, and (6) focusing on negatives while ignoring good performance. Sexual harassment experiences and bullying represent other group-level stressors. Stress is higher for people with lower socioeconomic status, which represents a combination of (1) economic status, as measured by income; (2) social status, assessed by education level; and (3) work status, as indexed by occupation.

Hardiness

collection of characteristics, referred to as hardiness, involves the ability to perceptually or behaviorally transform negative stressors into positive challenges. Hardiness embraces the personality dimensions of commitment, locus of control, and challenge. Commitment reflects the extent to which an individual is involved in whatever he or she is doing. Committed people have a sense of purpose and do not give up under pressure because they tend to invest themselves in the situation. individuals with an internal locus of control believe they can influence the events that affect their lives. People possessing this trait are more likely to foresee stressful events, thereby reducing their exposure to anxiety-producing situations. their perception of being in control leads "internals" to use proactive coping strategies. Challenge is represented by the belief that change is a normal part of life. Hence, change is seen as an opportunity for growth and development rather than a threat to security.

control strategy

consists of using behaviors and cognitions to directly anticipate or solve problems. A control strategy has a take-charge tone. Examples include talking to your professor or boss about workload if you feel overwhelmed with your responsibilities, and confronting someone who is spreading negative rumors. control coping was positively related to overall health outcomes. People are more apt to use control coping when they possess high self-esteem, self-efficacy, and problem-solving skills.

symptom management strategy

consists of using methods such as relaxation, meditation, medication, or exercise to manage the symptoms of occupational stress.

Type A Behavior Pattern

is an action-emotion complex that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or persons. It is not psychosis or a complex of worries or fears or phobias or obsessions, but a socially acceptable—indeed often praised—form of conflict. Persons possessing this pattern also are quite prone to exhibit a free-floating but, extraordinarily well-rationalized hostility. As might be expected, there are degrees in the intensity of this behavior pattern.

Lewin's Change Model

it is important to highlight the assumptions underlying this model: -The change process involves learning something new, as well as discontinuing current attitudes, behaviors, or organizational practices. -Change will not occur unless there is motivation to change. This is often the most difficult part of the change process. -People are the hub of all organizational changes. Any change, whether in terms of structure, group process, reward systems, or job design, requires individuals to change. -Resistance to change is found even when the goals of change are highly desirable. -Effective change requires reinforcing new behaviors, attitudes, and organizational practices. Unfreezing -Focus is to create the motivation to change -Begin by disconfirming the usefulness or appropriateness of employees' present behaviors or attitudes Benchmarking -the overall process by which a company compares its performance with that of other companies, then learns how the strongest-performing companies achieve their results Changing -providing employees with new information, new behavioral models, new processes or procedures, new equipment, new technology, or new ways of getting the job done -change can be aimed at improvement or growth, or it can focus on solving a problem such as poor customer service or low productivity Refreezing -Change is supported by helping employees integrate the changed behavior or attitude into their normal way of doing things -Giving employees the chance to exhibit new behaviors, which are then reinforced

psychological detachment

not being involved in work-related activities, thoughts, or feelings during nonwork time. These activities can include making phone calls, answering e-mail, thinking about projects and activities that must be completed in the near term, and just plain thinking and talking about people at work. is positively associated with life satisfaction and psychological well-being, and negatively with emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic complaints.

secondary appraisal

occurs only in response to a stressful primary appraisal and entails an assessment of what might and can be done to reduce the level of perceived stress. During this evaluation a person considers which coping strategies are available and which ones are most likely to help resolve the situation at hand. Ultimately, the combination of an individual's primary and secondary appraisal influences the choice of coping strategies used to reduce stress.

Steps to Leading Organizational Change

prescribes how managers should sequence or lead the change process.

primary appraisal

results in categorizing a situation or stressor as irrelevant, positive, or stressful. Stress appraisals are obviously the most important in terms of our current discussion because they imply that a situation or stressor is perceived as harmful, threatening, or challenging.

Target Elements of Change

the components of an organization that may be changed. A problem exists when managers are not obtaining the results they desire. The target elements of change are used to diagnose problems and to identify change-related solutions. -Organizational arrangements -Social factors -Methods -People