People fear change.
Human beings are accustomed to working in patterns and following schedules.
When a change occurs it upsets the natural balance of things and this is what
most causes conflict. However, there are
people who thrive on change and see it as an opportunity. These are people who
understand that change is necessary for the survival of an organization. A good
leader deals with these two conflicting views and presents the change as an opportunity
and focuses on the positive. Dr. Blair outlines, in “Leading change in
organizations”, three stages to change: the beginning stage, the implementation
stage and the after period of the change.
The leader’s role is to ensure that the change is for the better and is
a lasting change, while reassuring members that it is for the good of the
organization.
In the beginning stage there
needs to be, an assessment, a reason for change. During this period the
organization will look at the positive and negative aspects of itself and so members
may appear defensive. Many people do not like to look at the negative aspect
and so might resist change from the beginning. The leader has to have knowledge
of the internal and external environment (Beach, 2006) A good leader’s role
includes the “ability to convince their members of the organizations to follow
them on the paths on this fund of knowledge” (Beach, 2006, 3). She must have a
good relationship with the members to convince them of the change. Dr. Bligh says, in the video program “Organizational
Change”, that the leader must have a good understanding of the culture of the
organization and the status quo before implementing any change. The leader must gather information and
present it in such a form that members can see the threat to the organization
and also the potential opportunities. If members do not trust the leader, and
see the change as negative, there will be resistance. The nature of the change
will also affect people’s reaction. For example, if the company has to
downsize, then there will be strong resistance to that. Providing strong knowledge
from internal and external assessments and reaffirming the vision to the unit
leaders may help with this. Recently our
school made lesson plans mandatory. Every teacher was told that lesson plans
for the week had to posted, on our common drive for principles to see, on the Wednesday
of the week before. The new Assistant Principle of Instruction had made that
decision. She did not initially state the reason behind it. This caused much
stress amongst teachers as each team had already been submitting a quarterly
plan. They saw this as an additional burden. Although there was not open
resistance to the change, there was plenty behind closed doors. A few weeks
later, at a faculty meeting, the API explained that our school wanted to move
from recognized status to exemplary. She explained that research showed, that
detailed planning led to better results and it was a way for leaders to monitor
consistency amongst teams and departments. After the meeting some people were
convinced, but others thought this would not be a long lasting change, that the
principle, API and the APs would eventually stop checking.
The second stage of the
change is the implementation of the change. Even though the leader might have
convinced members of a need for change, the danger is not over. The members
must be convinced that the organization can change successfully (Miller &
Colella, 2009) that the change is beneficial and lasting. If leaders fail to do
this at this stage then members will not be committed to the change. To help
them with this, leaders will have to provide “a compelling vision of the future
(Miller
& Colella, 2009, 494). A good support system needs to be in
place for those that are unsure. Highlighting “quick and highly visible successes
can be helpful in supporting this stage of the change process” (Miller &
Colella, 2009, 494). If members are shown the benefits of change,
i.e. pay raise, they maybe more susceptible to it (Mcallaster, 2004). Leaders and members should understand that
mistakes will be made and that there needs to be a strategy and process in
place for this. The organization will learn whether changes are effective, and
they may have to make changes to the original plan (Mcallaster, 2004).
Sometimes in this stage a reassessment might be necessary. If management and
leaders can continue to support the members and reassure them that success and
failure are part of the implementation, they maybe more committed. Leaders may
have to keep penalties at a minimum as a way of reassurance. In this stage communication is vital
(Mcallaster, 2004). Members need to feel secure and should feel that leaders
and management are not hiding anything. If there are is no communication, then
members will rely on hearsay which could give conflicting information. This
could mean that “moral takes a nosedive” (Mcallaster, 2004, 322). This can illustrated further with my example
of the lesson plans. Once teachers started to post their plans online, they
were given feedback on the quality of the plans and whether teams were aligned
within the department. This communication helped to reinforce the idea that the
lesson plans were all about moving towards exemplary status and not simply a
time filler. The teachers also let the principle know that Wednesday was too
early and that some teachers like to wait till Friday to create lesson plans
for the following week. This was taken into account and teachers were given
permission to submit plans on Friday.
The final stage of the
process is to ensure that change is permanent. This is
the most volatile stage of the process of change. In this stage members must
see leaders and management is firm in the change and remains consistent
(Mcallaster, 2004, 322). Members will look at leaders and management to see if
they still believe in the change or if it is “just another fad they can wait
out” (Mcallaster, 2004, 322). If they to want sustain their credibility, and
then they must persist with the change. This provides reassurance to the
members that the change is for the better of the organization, especially when
it has changed or modified the culture. Members need to know and understand
that it was required and worth it. Again leaders will have to appease the
naysayers and may have to “create minor levels of guilt/ anxiety about not
changing (Miller & Colella, 2009, 493). They will have to put in an accountability and
evaluation system in place to assure members that the change is long lasting. If
members see this, then they will view this as a long lasting change and so will
know that they must continue with the change. Some
months after the implementation of the lesson plans, some teachers stopped
posting them. These teachers were contacted by the principles and reminded of
our goal of exemplary status. A school wide announcement was made that lesson
plans would be part of teacher evaluations.
A good leader is active
during the process of change and one of their most important duties is to
ensure that members see change as positive, even though there may be some
negative aspects. For example, if a company has to downsize and fire people,
leaders need to assure members that this is a necessary step for the
continuation and survival or the organization (Beach, 2006). People may react negatively to change; they
might be stressed and this may manifest itself in poor quality of work or lack
of commitment. Good leaders combat this by presenting: a strong vision, threats
and opportunities discovered during external and internal assessments, and
specifying the necessity for change (Beach, 2006). After almost seven months of creating and
posting lesson plans, many teachers have seen the value of them. It has given
each department chair an idea of what each team is doing and what changes need
to be made to the curriculum so that each grade level is aligned and how it can
reach exemplary status.
Organizational Behavior: A Strategic Approach (2nd ed.) by Hitt, M. A.,
Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. Copyright 2009 by John Wiley & Sons
McAllaster, C. M. (2004). The 5 P’s of change: Leading change by
effectively utilizing leverage points within an organization. Organizational Dynamics.
33(3),
318–328.
Beach, L. R.
(2006). Leadership and the art of change:
a practical guide to organizational transformation. Thousand Oaks,
Calif.: Sage Publications.
Video Program: “Leading Change in
Organizations” Dr. Nancy Blair
Video Program: “Organizational Change” Dr.
Michelle Bligh
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