Managing Change in a Workplace Requires Very Specific Skills

Managing Change Having the skills and savvy to manage the many challenges in today's workforce does not come automatically, nor does it always come easily. It is a fact that many employees resist change, and hence this makes the task of leadership more imposing. This paper reviews several current challenges that executives and managers must meet with competency in order to bring their organizations through a period of change.

Three challenges in particular are covered in this paper: assuring employees change is a necessary event in order to continue to be profitable; giving employees the skills and leadership to help them overcome doubts; managers must know how to communicate the vision the company has decided to set as a goal. Resistance to Change -- How to Overcome Resistance Botezat Elena -- with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oradea -- lists several obstacles that are often present when an organization resists change.

First it is true that often the "goal of the change is not clear," and if the workers are not absolutely certain of which direction the leadership is taking them, they will usually put up resistance (Elena, 2012). Secondly, the "rewards of the change" do not necessarily coincide with the additional effort that must be invested in order to bring about the desired change; thirdly, because change is often "imposed by coercion," that is clearly a situation in which employees are going to resist in some fashion (Elena, 998).

In a fourth scenario, Elena notes that change sometimes requires an effort and a commitment that is substantial, and many employees are not sure they have the resources and the resolve to carry it out (Elena, 998). The reason that change doesn't go smoothly, rounding out the four scenarios that Elena presented, is often because the skills involving "positive communication and motivation" are not employed successfully by management (998). There is a great difference between being a leader, and being a manager, the author explains.

A manager is trying to get people to do "what needs to be done"; but being a leader means having the skills and savvy to "…convince people to want to do what needs to be done" (Elena, 999). Looking closely at those two descriptions one can clearly see just doing a manager's tasks -- pushing people towards what he or she perceives needs to be done -- is not going to help make a transition to a "change of procedures and systems" a smooth one (Elena, 999).

In fact when a strategic change is being attempted, people need new skills and new knowledge, and so the task of a leader goes further than just articulating what the goal is; workers actually need new training and they will only do that without stiff resistance if the leadership of the company communicates "…a vision, a direction to align its people" to actually become leaders themselves (Elena, 1000).

Managing Change Successfully Jennifer Wilson writes that because of the advances in technology, the changing of business standards, and the realities brought to light by the global economy, leaders are facing huge challenges in navigating "ever- accelerating changes" (Wilson, 2014). Moreover, in the global economy managers must take into consideration new cultural values that must be understood and responded to.

As Elena pointed out, the leaders of a company that is attempting to implement serious (or strategic) change must "…strategically design, execute, and communicate their change strategy with the same focus and intent that they spend conceiving of the change" (Wilson, 38). Along with communicating a vision that the company expects to reach in terms of serious change, the management must "…acknowledge those who have made the transition" successfully, and provide strong encouragement "for those who are lagging" (Wilson, 39).

Certainly there are going to be employees that will be slower to accept and embrace the change, so giving encouragement to those individuals is paramount in terms of moving the whole company into a new alignment. That point made by Wilson becomes even more pertinent when the cost of hiring and training a new employee is taken into consideration.

During the transition, leaders must become aware -- through well-designed assessment techniques -- of what progress has been made and where progress has been slow; and where progress has bogged down, which it inevitably will in many cases, managers must re-focus and make appropriate changes to their initial strategies. Employees must be brought to a point where they believe "they will gain an advantage or benefit personally from the change," Wilson explains on page 40.

Also, the new skills, or actions, or behaviors that employees are expected to adopt with the change must relate to something "…they are familiar with" (40). Moreover, if employees are informed of others who have had success with the change, it will be easier for them to make the adjustments needed, Wilson continues (40). Hearing about organizations and people who successfully made difficult transitions "…can provide powerful assurance to those uncertain about the change" (Wilson, 40). Management as Controlling vs.

Management as Shaping Ian Palmer and Richard Dunford explain that managing change in an organization may depend on the "underlying image one has of both management and change" (Palmer, et al., 2002). The view of management that is controlling is a more classic form of management, and it entails "…planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling".