Organizational Change
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by: nakuru
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Word Count: 1185
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 Time: 7:54 AM
Introduction
Organisation change can occur in various ways in an organisation. There are instances when the overall strategy in the organisation has to be changed. There are other times when the nature of the organisation or industry is also changed. All these things go through various stages. Change rarely occurs suddenly as mostly it goes through various processes. Organisational change almost always brings about positive development.
Organisational change can be initiated by various people. These people include the change agents, management, leaders or even employees in an organisation or industry. (Burnes, 2004)
One of the organizations that have changed from a traditional organizational model to a transformed organizational model is General Electric Company. This was evident in this Company because in the last five years there was the traditional organizational model. In this model there were so many laws and even administrative regulations. Research shows that this Company manager used authoritative type of leadership in the management of the Company. The employees were given rules which they were to strictly follow. When the new C.E.O came in he brought along change and changed from the traditional organizational model to the transformational model.
Transformational model focuses more participative type of leadership. This is whereby the management focuses more on the participation of employees. This is whereby employees are involved in the decision making. Transformed organization model values team work and everybody is viewed as important. This is the directly opposite of traditional organizational model. (Burnes, 2004)
These changes have impacted the Company’s diverse workforce in various ways. One of them is that employees feel that they are valued in the organization. This has had positive impact because employees have become more motivated than before. Research in this Company reveals that since the changes were initiated there were great impacts in the employees because they were motivated to work. This was very evident at the individual level of the employees. They became more aligned to the organization’s goals. The employees took the burden of the Company’s goals as being theirs. This was evident because the Company’s production increased so much. It was also evident in the time that employees came to work. Many of them arrived earlier than the time that they were used to. (Hartley, 2002)
Another aspect is that many of the employees were very willing to work until late.
The other impact on the workforce was that employees developed good relations with the management team in the Company. Initially there was much fear in employees and there were bad relations between them and the management. After the changes occurring such that the traditional organization model was discarded and the transformed organization model embraced, good relations existed between the management and the employees.
This was evident in the employees as they easily approached the management with both personal and job issues that affect them. They were more at ease and communicated their views without the fear of prejudice.
Another impact of this change that was evident in the workforce is that the employees looked at challenges in a very different perspective. When the changes occurred it does not mean that the problems and the challenges in the organization ceased. However the attitude of the workforce towards the problems in the organization changed completely. This was evident in the way that employees handled day to day challenges in this Company. Instead of them seeing like the management had all the solutions, they viewed challenges as a springboard to success depending on how they are handled. When these organizational changes occurred, there was increased teamwork amongst employees. Their relationships one to another improved as they saw that they were trying to accomplish one common goal. Therefore employee relations one to another greatly improved as well as teamwork. (Hartley, 2002)
The changes also impacted the customers in various ways. One of the ways in which customers were impacted is because the production increased and the quality of the products greatly improved. Customers therefore were in a position to enjoy good quality and value for their money. The impact was therefore satisfied customers. This also made the customers to become more loyal than before. This means that the customers preferred buying products from General electric Company than from the other competitor companies. (Thomson, and Rampton, 2003)
This change also impacted customers because employees became more satisfied at work and improved their services. This was evident in the customer care department. The result was that the customers became happier with the after sales service and also the general customer care services that were offered. Employee unions became stronger and this increased the employee voice therein. (Hartley, 2002)
To accommodate the changes, workers need to have more communication skills. This will play a big role in enhancing the positive changes in the organization. Both employees and the management need to have or improve their information technology skills. This will help them to enhance the changes therein. The management team need to have more skills in human resource management as this are very essential and they will go along way in enhancing positive changes therein.
This organization need to put in place support systems that will help in ensuring the overall success of the organization in line with the changes. One of the support systems involves installing information technology. This includes ensuring that every department has got email and also adequate computers. This will make the communication therein to be very effective and efficient. Analysis of the production will also be very fast unlike when these systems are not present.
Other support systems that can be used include incorporating training and development systems in the organization. This will play a big role in ensuring that the changes are successfully implemented. Training and development systems can be carried out in a formal and in informal ways. (Hartley, 2002)
Conclusion
Initially there were traditional organizational model that was used in many organizations. This included employees having to obey the rules and regulations to the later without any question. This was evident in the General Electric Company until the new C.E.O came in. He brought along changes whereby new transformed model was embraced. These changes had various impacts on the workforce. The employees became more motivated and in fact the production improved. The customers on the other hand became more satisfied with the quality of the products and also the improved customer service in the organization. This made them to become more loyal to the General Electric Company. The labour unions gained more strength as there was more freedom of speech for the workforce without the fear of prejudice. Support systems like information technology need to be put in place in order to enhance the positive changes therein. To accommodate the changes workers need to enhance their communication skills for the betterment of the organization.
Reference:
Burnes B. (2004): Managing Change, 4th edition, Harlow: Pearson Education
Hartley J. (2002): Organizational change and development; Psychology at Work, 5th edition, London: Penguin pp399-425
Thomson, C. and Rampton, L. (2003): Human Resource Management; New York; Melbourne press
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