Introduction:
A change is an initiative which is
brought about by an organization to become dynamic and sustainable. In a
competitive environment change is a must an organization. Changes are always
initiated to bring in a win situation for an organization so it has to change
to remain in the macro view of success. Change is inevitable in a growing
environment and so change has to be initiated very carefully and thoughtfully.
Change always brings in new ideas and new innovation and so change has be
implemented very carefully and strategized with utmost clarity so as to invoke the correct response
from all stakeholders.
Effective
change management takes more than just a skilled practitioner assigned to a
project. To achieve the ultimate goal - "employees adopting, embracing and
utilizing a change to their jobs" - a number of players throughout the
organization must be actively engaged in change management, fulfilling their
specific role based on their unique relationship to change. (Cameron and Green, 2004)
The philosophy
of change management in TESCO is very simple. The firm has invested very
heavily on Team Development and Alignment that is expected to bring in
high impacting tangible results such as Faster development and growth of
employees, cost containment on managing and training people, bringing in time
efficiency, adopting very effective communication, strengthening the bottom
line and bench status, improving inter team and intra team relationship and
deriving positive outcome from every conflict that surfaces.
Organizations are always
introducing changes. The greatest impact of these changes are how employees are
impacted by these changes. The most important and critical issue that is
associated with change management is how people are going to transit to new changes.
Projects and initiatives need change management processes to sustain in their
work and environment.
Situation of the change:
The firm which is a manufacturing
unit plans to shift from the legacy system of manufacturing to total quality
management tools. This involves not only changes in processes but also leadership and initiatives
which look at continual improvement using the forces of DMAIC, Six sigma and
lean .The change is necessitated with
new horizons in manufacturing being
evolved and competition being
very strong, cost efficiencies have to set in so that the firm can
sustain itself. The firm also needs to adapt itself to the tools of TQM and set
standards for itself by benchmarking and continual improvement .Change is also
needed because processes have slowly gone out of date and with new tools being implemented
change is inevitable.
Change management at the firm diagnosis:
Change
management as defined is the application of the set of tools,
processes, skills and principles for managing the people side of change to
achieve the required outcomes of a change project or initiative. Change management
involves organization too successfully transit to new systems wholly and also
ensures that at individual levels change
is accepted and embraced as an organizational philosophy .( Cameron and Green, 2004)
Change Management Total Quality Management Assignment Help info@sampleassignment.com |
The appropriate leadership style in a total
quality setting might be called participative leadership taken to a higher
level. Whereas participative leadership in the traditional sense involves
soliciting employee input, in a total quality setting it involves soliciting
input from empowered employees, listen-ing to that input, and acting on it. The
key difference between traditional participative leadership and participative
leader-ship from a total quality perspective is that, with the latter,
employees providing input are empowered. Collecting employee input is not new.
However, collecting input, logging it, tracking it, acting on it in an
appropriate manner, working with employees to improve weak suggestions rather
than simply rejecting them, and rewarding employees for improvements that
result from their input all of which are normal in a total quality setting and
extend beyond the traditional approach to participative leadership.
One of the difficulties organizations
face when attempting to facilitate change is the differing perceptions of
employees and managers concerning change. Employees often view change as
something done to them. Managers often regard it as something done in spite of
employees who just won’t cooperate. Managers who listen to employees can learn
a valuable lesson. It’s not that they dislike change so much. Rather, it’s that
they don’t like how it’s done. The key to winning the support of employees for
change is involvement. Make every employee a part of the process from the
beginning. Give them a voice in how change is implemented. Make sure that
change is something done with employees rather than to them.
Organizations must continually apply
the following strategies:
1. Promote a “we are in this together”
attitude toward change.
2. Make sure all employees understand
that change is driven by market forces, not management. 3. Involve everyone who
will be affected by change in planning and implementing the response to it.
Restructuring and change:
The very words change creates much fear
into the hearts of employees at all levels as restructuring. Change means layoffs,
terminations, plant closings and workforce cuts. However, organizations and
individuals can control how they respond to the changes brought by
restructuring, and it is this response that will determine the effectiveness of
the restructuring effort.
Leadership should manage change by
first looking at the restructuring and transition to TQM philosophy from the
employee perspective. Restructuring can be traumatic for employees. Managers
should remember this point when planning and implementing the changes that go
with restructuring. The following strategies can help maintain employee loyalty
and calm employee fears during restructuring:
1.Take time to show employees that
management cares and is concerned about them on a personal level.
2. Communicate with employees about why
the changes are necessary. Focus on market factors. Use a variety of tools to ensure
effective communication
3. Provide formal outplacement
assistance to all employees who will lose their jobs.
4. Be fair, equitable, and honest with
employees. Select employees to be laid off according to a definite set of
criteria rather than as the result of a witch hunt.
5. Remember to provide support to those
individuals who will be the primary change agents.
Develop a Change Picture
This is one of the best ways to
minimize the disruptive nature of change is to develop a clear picture of what
the organization is going to look like after the change. Managers should
develop a change picture and be able to articulate it. This will give the
organization a beacon in the distance to guide it through the emotional fog
that can accompany change. Use Incentives to Promote the Change People respond
to incentives, especially when those incentives are important to them on a
personal level. Managers can promote the change that accompanies restructuring
by establishing incentives for contributors to that change. Incentives can be
monetary or nonmonetary, but they should motivate employees on a personal
level. An effective way to identify incentives that will work is to form an ad
hoc task force of employees and discuss the issue of incentives. List as many
monetary and nonmonetary incentives as the group can identify. Then give the
members a week to discuss the list with their fellow employees. Once a broad
base of employee input has been collected, the task force meets again and ranks
the incentives in order of preference. The team then establishes a menu of
incentives management can use to promote change. The menu concept allows
employees to select incentives from among a list of options. This increases the
likelihood that the incentives will motivate on a personal level.
Training:
One of the primary reasons employees
oppose change is that it will require skills they don’t have. Training should
actually be increased during times of intense change to make sure that
employees have the skills required during and after the transition period.
Leading people in organizations through
change initiatives require a concerted and systematic effort. The organization
has to adopt a change-implementation model which will help leaders
systematically overcome the various factors that inhibit organizational change.
1. Develop a compelling change picture.
One of the main reasons why people in organizations resist change is fear of
the unknown. Once people become comfortable with the familiar, they tend to
resist anything that threatens that comfort. Consequently, change, which
represents the unknown and unfamiliar, is often viewed by people as a threat.
To counteract fear of the unknown, organizational leaders can develop a
compelling change picture. A change picture is a brief but compelling written
explanation of the five Ws and one H of change: what, where, when, who, and why
plus how. The change picture should be put in writing to ensure that all
organizational leaders convey the same message. Mixed messages during a time of
significant change can quickly undermine the success of the change initiative.
The change picture explains what the change is going to be, where it is being
made, when it is being made, who will be affected by it, why it is being made,
and how stakeholders will be affected by it. The change picture is made
compelling by writing it from the perspective of the stakeholders it will be
communicated to. This means that there may need to be more than one version of
the change picture. (Kotter, J.2011)
2. Communicate the change picture to
all stakeholders: Once the change picture has been developed, it must be
communicated to all stakeholders. A two step approach should be adopted 1. Give
the change picture to stakeholders in writing and
2. Explain the change picture verbally
at the team or department level. Giving the change picture to stakeholders in
writing will ensure that everyone gets the same message, thereby neutralizing
the rumor mill. Explaining the change picture in face-to-face meetings will
allow stakeholders to ask questions, seek clarification, state their concerns,
and vent their feelings.
3. Conduct a comprehensive roadblock
analysis The purpose of the roadblock analysis is to identify all potential
road-blocks that might impede implementation of the change initiative. This
step is accomplished by conducting face-to-face meetings with employees who are
going to have to carry out the practical, day-to-day work of the
implementation. It is important that the personnel involved in this step be
supportive of the change initiative. Experience shows that objectors will use
the roadblock to create roadblocks rather than eliminate them. The philosophy
underlying the road-block analysis is that the employees who are closest to the
day-to-day work of the implementation are more likely than anyone else to see
problems, glitches, or circumstances that could sidetrack the implementation.
4. Remove or mitigate all roadblocks identified.
: Every roadblock that could come in the way of successful change should be
identified. Here the firm is planning to go the TQM way hence it is suggested
that every process and person should be thinking of quality.( Todnem By, 2005)
5. Implement the change.
The change agent has to be identified with a person
who can lead the change. He is called the change leader and he should be an
expert in initiating the change. Change has to be announced to all concerned
with the change. Awareness about the change should be felt all through the
organization. The necessity for a change should be felt spontaneously and
change should be acted upon instantly. The vision and strategy of change has to
be discussed with people and perceptions and concepts. The final destination of
change has to be announced. The vision of the change has to be shared with all
in the organization and there should be organization wide discussion on the
change strategy. This will bring about the necessary effectiveness in the
change process and will allow for feedback on the change thought. It is said
that if employees do not accept the changes there will be stiff resistance to
change. The vision of change makers has to be shared. Every aspect of change
has to be communicated in its entirety to all concerned so that the people who
initiate the changes, people who carry out the changes and people who are
affected by the changes know the change process and the thought for changes as
visualized by the top management.
Hindrances to changes should be
nipped in the bud. It should be communicated that any obstacle that comes in
the way of change will be totally eliminated. It is the vision of the
organization to bring in changes and resistance to change will be dealt with in
the appropriate manner. Change initiatives that happen early on show the
success rate of change and winning change strategies happen only when the early
victories of change are celebrated. Early victories of change cannot be change
makers unless and until the change is followed by people relentlessly. Change
initiatives should not be abandoned half way and it should be purposefully
followed till the vision is reached and realized. Changes should produce more
changes. Organizations generally think of change only when old processes suffer
from irrational and changed forms. Processes slowly die out and people suffer
from stagnation and outdated ideas and customer base slowly loses its vigor.
This is the time when change should be
thought of and initiated by a team of visionary experts who are called the
change agents. Creativity and innovation fosters changes and success of
organizations. Profit happen only when
changes are implemented and organization show growth both horizontally and
vertically.( Phillips, Julien R. 1983)
Regarding change in the organization, it is always better to make a
checklist of processes that are currently in existence and then broaden and
highlight the checklist for changes to be made. The nodal points from which the
changes are triggered off should be pointed out so that everyone understands
the changes that are to be introduced. A draft of the changes to be initiated
should be made and circulated all over the organization so that there is no
secrecy. A team should also be institutionalized to monitor the change and
audit and review the process of change, and should be asked to frame a review
report so that the change process can be measured for its success and study
feedback thoroughly to understand the success rate of change. This
specialization of division of labor would ensure three main objectives for the
employees of any organization. The employees would be recognized as specialists
or generalists according to the work they perform. Every one needed to do his
work though knowledge of other work would be imparted and would be called for
during either a crisis or emergency. The third and most crucial aspect was it
would bring on par the wages of all employees except the management. This was
very crucial because effective work can only be obtained if properly
remunerated and this new management and reorganizing organizational skills
would also mean that parity of wages. This would strengthen the organizational
and working base of the Trust. Many employees would be benefitted by this move
and would work with renewed energy. This new source of inspiration would create
a new work atmosphere and generate greater revenues as it would build up
goodwill and reputation. (Losey, David, Human Resources Techniques P: 147) The
implementation plan contains a comprehensive list of all tasks that have to be
completed, a schedule with deadlines for each task, and a responsible party
assigned to each task. Nothing that has to be done in order for the implementation
to succeed should be left to chance, and nothing should be assumed. There are
no unimportant tasks when implementing a change initiative. Every task down to
the most minor should be identified, put on a schedule, and assigned to an
individual. Developing the implementation plan is similar to conducting the
road-block analysis in that it involves an ad hoc group of stake-holders who
are familiar enough with the situation to know what must be done and to ensure
nothing that must be done is overlooked.
6. Monitor and adjust Once the implementation
plan has been developed, it becomes an invaluable tool for the organizational
leaders who must monitor the progress of the implementation and make any
necessary adjustments to keep it moving. Because every task in the overall process
has been identified and assigned to a responsible individual, organizational
leaders have a definite point of contact for monitoring. Because every task in
the process has been put on a schedule, organ-izational leaders are able to tie
their monitoring efforts to a schedule. By checking with responsible
individuals well-ahead of deadlines, organizational leaders can determine when
adjustments must be made. An adjustment might be a change to the schedule for a
given task or solving a problem that has cropped up unexpectedly and is
imped-ing progress. In any case, even after developing a comprehensive and
detailed implementation plan, organizational leaders should never assume that
the process will simply take care of itself. Rather, they should monitor closely
and quickly take any action necessary to remove impediments so that the
momentum is not lost. The implementation is neither over nor is it successful
until the change initiative represents the normal way of doing
Recommendation:
Transition to total quality sites is a
difficult thing especially if it has to become a philosophy. Hence the change management
should be initiated by a leader who is not only a leads but is a follower too.
There are three phases to change management and if successfully implemented
change could become one of the most important tools of innovation creativity
and sustainability.
Organizational change management is the
process of recognizing, guiding, managing and implementing of a successful change
process that benefits key stakeholders and the organization with relatively
minimal impact to the operational demand of the business. Therefore is
imperative that to successfully effect and manage global organization change, managers
and leaders need to understand the problem and has to apply critical thinking
to the most effective decision models of organization change.
The initial phase of identifying the
key stakeholders, assessing the organization culture and establish
communication strategy and change management.
The second phase is to lead, by
developing leadership engagement, develops and delivers communication;
facilitate creation and delivery while facilitating organization realignment.
The last phase is to sustain the change
initiates and the change process itself; during and after the initiative.
Meeting these three phase will allow managers and leader to overcome barriers
and cope with the chaos that exits during complex change process.
References:
Anderson,
D. & Anderson, L.A. (2001). Beyond Change Management: Advanced Strategies
for Today’s Transformational Leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Retrieved 12/21/11 from
http://books.google.com/books?id=WbpH7p5qQ88C&printsec=frontcover&dq=beyond+change+management&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kEfzTpewMYKpiQLGz5S8Dg&
Cameron, E. and Green, M. (2004).
Making sense of change management. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.
Kotter, J. (July 12,
2011). "Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the
Difference?". Forbes online. Retrieved 12/21/11.
Phillips, Julien R.
(1983). "Enhancing the effectiveness of organizational change
management". Human Resource Management 22 (1–2): 183–99. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930220125
Todnem By, R. (2005). Organisational
change management: A critical review. Journal of Change Management, 5(4),
pp.369--380.
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