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Major changes are needed in order for American companies to maintain their competitive edge. Organizations are wrestling with total quality, reengineering, restructuring and downsizing. Managers need to be proactive in helping to implement these changes.
However, you may have noticed that the employees seem to be particularly resistant to the changes you feel are necessary. A wise manager might view resistance as a sign one's managerial style could be improved.
For example, staring down an employee and giving his best imitation of Captain Hook the traditional manager states, "Aargh Matey, this is our change and if you don't like it, walk the plank!"
At this point, I can almost hear the autocratic TheoryXrs thinking, "OK, we'll just make them committed! Or else!" Therein lies the rub. Although commitment can be built, true commitment cannot be forced. How then can true commitment be built?
There are specific steps managers can take during a change that will make the change easier on the employees and give management the best chance of gaining the employees' commitment. These can be summed up in 13 simple principles for, managing the employees' resistance to change.
It is important managers develop the ability to utilize all 13 principles. One question which may help managers to actually use these principles is, what stage of the changes are we in? The wellknown researcher, Kurt Lewin, stated there are three stages of implementing a major change:
* Unfreezing
* Making The Transition
* Refreezing
In the unfreezing stage, the manager focuses on loosening up the employees' attitudes, such that they become more open-minded to the possibility there might be a better way. In the transition stage, a series of changes are gradually implemented. In the refreezing stage, the new way is reinforced by changing the company's policies and human resource systems. We have divided the 13 principles into the three stages as follows:
UNFREEZING
Principle 1 -
Provide Your Rationale
Share your reasoning with the employees. Take the time to explain why this change will be useful to the company, how it will help to achieve the company's vision and values, of being, for example, more customer-oriented, quality-driven or safety conscious.
The more that the employees see you are respecting their intelligence the more open...
