Managing Change Effectively

Donald L. Kirkpatrick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781136385759
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

One of the most important skills of successful managers is dealing with change. 'Managing Change Effectively' combines philosophical insights with practical applications to help managers effectively incorporate change with the least disruption. 'Managing Change Effectively' details specific approaches and methods for making change decisions and getting changes accepted. From communication to participation, Kirkpatrick shows managers and executives how to make change their ally. Packed with examples that illustrate the principles and procedures for implementing new ideas, policies and strategies for almost any type of organization, this text is a valuable resource for managers at all levels, especially those in training and human resources.

Approaches to Managing Change

Part One is designed to provide readers with an understanding of some underlying philosophy and principles before methods and techniques for managing change are addressed later in the book.

Chapter One illustrates through examples that changes are constantly taking place, some of which create employee problems that managers must face. One of the main changes deals with the computer and automation. Other common changes concern reorganization, working conditions, personnel policies, and philosophies of management. All of these require managers to consider carefully how they can get them accepted by the people who are affected.

Chapter Two describes the three roles that managers should play in dealing with change. The first is to implement changes decided on by higher management. If the manager feels that such a change is good, he or she should carry it out. If, however, the manager feels that the change is a mistake, he or she should question it, give reasons for opposing it, and offer a counter-suggestion. Managers also need to perform the roles of recommending and initiating change.

In both roles, the manager decides on a change, usually with input from subordinates. When a manager feels that a change should be made, he or she must decide whether to recommend it to the boss for approval or to initiate it without checking with the boss. This chapter describes the important considerations a manager must face in making the decision.

Chapter Three provides insight into the reasons why some people accept and even welcome change–while others resent or resist it. It exposes the myth that everybody resists change. For example, it describes how some people resist a change because they are fearful of losing such things as status, authority, self-satisfaction, money, and even job security. At the same time, other people look at the change and welcome it, usually because they sense that they will gain the things that others feel they will lose. Other reasons for negative and positive reactions are also described.

These three chapters provide a background necessary to understand the methods and techniques that are described in the later chapters.

Note: The term “manager” is used throughout the book. It applies to all levels from first-line supervisors to top executives.

Chapter One The Changes Managers Face

DOI: 10.4324/9780080510859-1

The word change strikes fear into the minds and hearts of some people. To others, however, it brings a ray of hope. And this condition will exist until the end of time. There’s no way to avoid it. Changes are going to take place, probably at an increasing rate. Everyone is affected–in every industry and business. It is happening in every governmental organization and in every home. Those who are in charge must know how to decide on changes and how to implement them effectively or they will fail. The principles for doing it are quite simple. The application of these principles, however, is not so easy.

Examples of Change

In recent years, the introduction and modification of the computer has dominated the list of changes that are occurring. It has affected nearly every business, industry, church, and home. Changes in computers will continue to affect the lives of more and more people. For example, an article in the Wall Street Journal described the rapid change in the home-buying process: “Looking 30 years down the road, housing experts see a national housing market rather than the traditional local market. They predict that computers will offer information about homes nationwide and that computer processing will put a house in its new owner’s hands in one or two days instead of in the usual six to eight weeks. Along the way, financial service networks will mushroom until the real estate agent and the banker melt into one, providing home buyers with one-stop shopping.

In Missan, Japan, for example, the Yamazaki Machinery Works plant is the state of the art in flexible manufacturing systems. It was billed as the first factory in the world that can be run on the phone. It starts with computer-aided design (CAD), and then the numerically controlled machines take over. What 195 workers previously needed 90 conventional machines and five weeks to accomplish, they can now do in three days with 40 workers.

Based on its success, the company developed the MAZATROL program, which is now available in nine languages. The union in Missan, however, was concerned about automation and its impact on the security of employees. They negotiated a contract in which management promised that (1)no high-technology equipment would be installed without consulting the union first, (2) any replaced workers would not be fired, laid off, or paid less, and (3) transferred workers would be retained for new jobs appropriate to their abilities and aptitudes.

Changes are constantly being made to keep us healthy. For example, an article appeared in the Journal of the Wisconsin Dental Association (Tyre and Bojar, 1980, p. 633) that was entitled “New Techniques for the Management of the Anxious Dental Patient”: “It is well known that dental disease is a wide-spread source of distress. As is true in many applied fields of medicine, technology seems to have provided an ample supply of resources for the treatment of disease, and the issue has increasingly become one of getting our patients to comply with what we know to be health-sustaining behavior. Efficient new techniques address the two principal factors interfering with routine dental care: pain and fear regarding dentistry. There are many patients who are quite fearful of the injection procedures required in the use of local anesthetics. Alternative treatments tend to be anxiety-reducing techniques, involving biofeedback, assisted muscle relaxation, behavioral deconditioning for anxiety, and, in select cases, pain management procedures involving hypnosis.”

A recent newspaper article described a transportation change at the famous Inca settlement called Machu Picchu near Cusco in Peru. Tourists are transported by bus from the bottom of a hill to the top and back again. Those of us who have been there remember the young boy, about ten years of age, who runs straight down the hill and yells and waves at the tourists in the bus as it zigs back and forth down the steep incline. At the bottom of the hill, the boy is standing by the door of the bus as the tourists exit. Nearly all the tourists give the boy a tip as he smiles with his hand out. (He probably makes more money than the bus driver.) When the bus is unloaded, the boy hops in and rides back to the top.

Now, however, a cable car has been installed to transport tourists up and down the hill. It will replace the bus drivers, unless they can be trained to operate the cable car. It will certainly replace the boy who has made a good living for himself and probably his family. And tourists will miss the joy of watching and tipping the boy.

Another common change involves the mergers and reorganizations of many companies. Conglomerates are absorbing more and more organizations, often in hostile takeovers. Sometimes drastic changes are forced on the organization being absorbed. Executives from the larger organization may replace those from the one that was taken over. Policies of the parent company may be imposed on the organization that has been absorbed. If no changes are immediately made, people at all levels are expecting them and are reacting positively or negatively in anticipation. Perhaps the changes will come and perhaps they won’t .

Working conditions also often change. Many organizations have built or remodeled their facilities and people are asked (or told) to move into new quarters. For instance, Sears and Standard Oil of Indiana moved many people from old offices to their tall buildings in the heart of the Loop of downtown Chicago. This required many changes in transportation and other aspects of individuals’ jobs.

Policies, procedures, and rules are frequently changed. Continuous changes are being made in organizations in order to become more efficient and profitable. Project management has been around for long time and more and more organizations are using it. For example, a major insurance company is restructuring its organization around the concept of project management. It has created a centralized Project Management Office where a group of employees will be housed until they are assigned to various projects. Throughout the organization, leaders will be given project management training to learn the interpersonal skills and methodologies to manage projects effectively. The initiative for this change started in the information technology (IT)area and is expanding to the rest of the organization.

Organizations have made changes regarding vacations, benefits, smoking, wash-up time, working hours, hiring, promotions, retirement, and dress, among other criteria. Typically, the policy changes have been decided on by top management and communicated through the Human Resource Department. Organizations are finding that the new policy may be better, and certainly better accepted, if a task force of line managers developed the change.

The role of women in society has seen some drastic changes, not only in the United States but over much of the world. Following is a feature story that appeared in a Singapore paper.

Over a period of time, many things change and bring with them new features. The effects of changing times are not limited to the environment alone. They also involve human lives, men and women.

One aspect of change we can easily identify in the Malay women in Singapore is with regard to working life. In the past, they were known to have spent more time behind the kitchen doors; but today almost 50 percent of Malay women are working. Many work in factories as production operators while some are postwomen and office workers. A few are nurses, teachers, principals, journalists, lawyers, and doctors. Although the number of Malay women professionals is still very small, they do affect the social life and awareness of the Malays.

The role of women as the “backbone” of daily family living is being threatened. This is the result of women having to divide the little time they have between the many pieces of work they have to do and their family commitments. The effect is seriously felt. Because of work, household chores can no longer be done as they used to be. The same effect can also be noticed in how present-day women take care of their growing children. This, however, does not mean that working life has made Malay women a less important party in the affairs of their families. Their importance, as women and as human beings, still remains the same but the “fields” in which they play important roles have changed. Previously, husbands were the sole breadwinners in their families. But today, this is no longer the case in many families.

A change in management is an everyday occurrence. Sometimes a manager is replaced because of promotion, retirement, or death. At other times, he or she is fired. The replacement may come from inside or outside an organization. If from the inside, the replacement may come from inside or outside the department. Sometimes, there is no change in the individual who is the manager but only in the style of leadership that he or she provides. Books are written and management seminars are constantly being offered with one objective in mind–to change the behavior of the manager. A manager, for example, who used to be concerned only with production has been trained to be equally concerned with the morale of employees. He or she is taught skills of motivation instead of relying on threats and fear.

Concession bargaining is being used by many organizations in negotiating contracts with a union. The old approach where the company simply reacted to “union demands” has been replaced by management asking (or demanding) certain concessions from the union. Real negotiations are taking place in a give-and-take atmosphere. Some union leaders refer to it as union-busting tactics but go along with it because of the fear that companies will either move or go out of business.

Employees of today are typically very different from employees of 20 or 30 years ago, primarily in regard to attitude. They seem to have less respect for authority and want to be asked and persuaded rather than simply told what to do. They also want their ideas to be listened to, considered, and hopefully used. Many of them want more freedom in doing their jobs. And they thereby provide more of a challenge to the managers. Some managers accept this change and manage accordingly, while others go around moaning, “They don’t make workers like they used to.”

A major change in philosophy has taken place in many organizations. It started with “management by objectives” where managers were persuaded and trained to have subordinates help to set their own objectives. It has expanded to become “participative management” where subordinates become a more important part of all decisions. Specific programs such as “quality circles,” “performance circles,” and “self-directed work teams” have been introduced in many organizations in order to be sure that participation becomes a reality and not just a philosophy.

IBM developed an approach called PRIDE, which stands for “People Responsibly Involved Developing Excellence.” A division of Goodyear has called this approach “EI,” which simply means “employee involvement.” The president tells his managers to do a task but leaves the choice and techniques for implementing the program to them. s. C. Johnson in Racine, Wisconsin, created “Leaderless Work Teams” and changed the title of “Supervisor” to “Coach.”

Four assumptions underlie these participative programs:

1. People who do the work are best qualified to improve it.
2. Decision making should be pushed down to the lowest appropriate level
3. Work participation increases both job satisfaction and commitment to company objectives
4. There is a vast pool of ideas in the work force waiting to be tapped.

One of the most amusing changes relates to a famous pronouncement by Jonathon Swift, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” The January, 1984, issue of National Geographic announced that Arthur D. Little, a management consulting organization, had actually accomplished this feat in 1921 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The silk purse is now in a vault in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Future

What will the future be like? We know it will be different–but in what ways? At a recent meeting of human resource executives, Philip Farash, editor of Industrial Relations News (IRN), presented a profile of human resources for the year 2000. He reported the results of a Delphi forecasting process conducted by IRN among association executives and consultants serving a cross section of business and industry. The purpose was to develop a convergence of opinion on significant trends in human resources, as well as its social, technological, and economic context. Although opinion among participants was not unanimous, here are some of the trends that were identified.

Organizational Characteristics

• Organizations and management systems will become more complex.
• Demand for productivity improvement will come from high business costs, not p...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Pretest: A Self-Assessment of Change Management Knowledge
• Part I Approaches to Managing Change
• 1 The Changes Managers Face
• 2 The Manager's Role
• 3 Why People Resist or Welcome Change
• Part II Methods for Managing Change
• 4 A Step-by-Step Change Model
• 5 Empathy The First Key to Successful Change
• 6 Communication The Second Key to Successful Change
• 7 Participation The Third Key to Successful Change
• 8 Applying the Three Keys
• Part III Case Examples Successful of Change
• 9 Moving into a New Managerial Job
• 10 Establishing Variable Work Hours
• 11 Improving Productivity Through Work Design
• 12 Successfully Implementing Quality Circles
• 13 Getting More Productivity from the Last Hour of Work
• 14 Gaining Acceptance for a new Incentive System
• 15 Converting from a “Batch” to a “Just-in-Time” Production Process
• 16 Reorganizing the Sales Force
• 17 Instituting New Training Programs
• 18 Reviewing How to Be an Effective Change Manager
• Posttest A Self-Assessment of Change Management Knowledge
• Answers to Pretest and Posttest
• Bibliography
• Index