Managing organizational change is much more complex than traditionally taught in management courses. The unique environment and culture of each organization presents challenges to practicing organizational change theories outside of a classroom setting.

Traditional change management courses present various challenges with generic solutions, however, the complexity in each organizational setting often presents unique challenges. Research on organizational change has identified some common issues that can help the change managers anticipate challenges and effectively overcome them in almost any situation. Continue reading →

Many organizations across the globe are seeing continuous changes.  Change can range from leadership changes, new technology implementation, or extensive mergers and acquisitions.

With change, employees are impacted throughout the process by the leadership they experience.  Without proper leadership, employees will not follow their leader and the leader will not establish “buy-in.”

The leadership role in managing employees’ responses to organizational change is critical for establishing successful change.  Generally, two leadership styles can be used to manage organizational change: transformational and change leadership.

Transformational v. Change Leadership

Transformational Leadership refers to a long-term relationship established between the leader and the employee through many interactions.  Transformational leaders have a more organizational or strategic orientation and tend to engage in transformational behaviors that paint a vivid, positive picture of the future that typically focuses more on change in the “big picture” sense, which can have an impact on attitudes about specific changes at work.  Transformational leaders also tend to encourage employee empowerment in general.

Change Leadership refers to the “here-and-now”, with a focus primarily on enacting the specific change at hand and how the leader is handling it from a tactical point of view.

Change leadership involves the engagement of behaviors where the goal is to efficiently implement change. However, some change leadership behaviors that can be linked to the transformational processes include: communicating the plan for change, building rapport, and providing support and developing a rationale for change.  This does not imply that this is the core of change leadership, but merely different tactics to implement change.

Therefore, transformational leaders manage by establishing a relationship with employees and building a common “vision” for change.  Change leaders, on the other hand, focus on the specific change occurring and how to effectively implement the change.

Overall, although each style shares some commonalities, the differences of each style have a differential impact on establishing employee commitment to change; specifically, transformational leadership yields the best outcomes in establishing commitment to a change.

Developing Commitment to Change

Employees want to feel confident in their leader’s commitment to change and rely on the views of their leader.  They want solid answers to their questions:

• Do I buy into the leader’s vision?
• Is the leader credible?
• Do I share values with the leader?
• Is this the kind of leader who can help me navigate the turbulent waters of change?

Through the ability to engage employees and motivate support for the leader’s decision, transformational leaders build the confidence of followers, thereby establishing more “buy-in” in times of change.

Implications for Practice

Organizations implementing change should consider the following:

• Ensure the proper leadership in times of change.   Generally, transformational leadership will establish more “buy-in” and increase the effective implementation of change.
• Establish the ability within leaders to display the characteristics of a transformational leader.  This can be done through training that educates managers on their current styles and enables them to alter their behavior to fit transformational leadership behaviors.
• Evaluate employees’ commitment to change in times of change.  This can be done by simple paper and pencil evaluations which establish employees’ feelings toward the change in process.

Although transformational and change leadership styles share some similarity with regards to establishing employee commitment to change, transformational leadership is more effective.    Transformational leadership may not be as focused specifically on a given change at hand, but through the ability to engage and motivate employees transformational leaders build the confidence of and rapport with those around them. The result is increased employee “buy-in” to effectively implement the change.

Interpretation by:

Adam Bradshaw

The DeGarmo Group

This was a summary of the research and practice implications from: Herold, D.M., Fedor, D.B., Caldwell, S., & Liu, Y.   (2008). The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees’ commitment to a change: A multilevel study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 346-357.

Employee self-service (ESS) technology is a term used to describe a group of emerging web-based technologies that are quickly gaining popularity. These technologies empower employees to perform a variety of data management and transaction processing functions that once required the use of separate personnel resources, such as HR or administrative staff.

Examples of ESS include technologies that allow employees to manage benefits, register for trainings, update personal information, or report on hours worked. The benefits of these technologies can add up quickly in the form of cost savings and efficiency gains for an organization.

Challenges

Though advantageous to the organization, ESS technologies are usually less directly beneficial to employees, particularly because the ESS technology is rarely related to employees’ essential job functions. This can result in reduced motivation by some employees to fully learn and adopt the technology. In order to maximize cost and efficiency gains, organizations need as many employees as possible to utilize the full functionality of ESS technologies.

There are two broad factors that influence employees’ acceptance of, and intent to use, new ESS technologies: attitudes toward the technology and managerial influence.

Attitudes

Employee attitudes are extremely predictive of intentions to learn and adopt a new technology. Attitudes towards a new technology are influenced by how useful the technology is perceived to be and how easy the technology is to use.

• Perceived Usefulness – If employees believe that the use of a new technology will enhance their job performance, they will be more likely to hold positive attitudes toward that technology.
• Ease of Use – The easier a new technology is to use, the more likely employees will hold positive attitudes toward that technology.

Managerial Influence

Managers play an important role in setting expectations for the use of a new technology. In addition, employees who perceive that they are supported and valued by their organization are more likely to be influenced by managerial pressure to adopt new technologies.

Practical Applications

As ESS technologies become more prevalent in the workplace, managers should be aware of several strategies they can use to increase employee adoption of these technologies.

• Because perceived usefulness plays such an important role in employees’ attitudes about new technologies, organizations should focus on providing their employees with information about how the new technologies can benefit them.
• Provide adequate training to employees about how to utilize new technologies. This will increase perceptions of ease of use and increase adoption of the new technology. After initial implementation of the technology, provide periodic training updates or refreshers.
• Managers should use their influence to encourage organizational norms about the adoption of new technologies.
• Increase perceptions of organizational support in order to increase the level of influence that managers have over adoption of new technologies.
• Organizational norms and perceived support remain relevant after the introduction phase of the new technology. In fact, managerial influence may be more important during this time. Managers should continue to support organizational norms about the use of ESS technologies.

Employee self-service technologies are great ways to increase efficiency and cut down on administrative costs. By adequately preparing and supporting employees during the implementation of these new technologies, organizations can ensure a successful adoption.

Interpretation by:

Michelle Toelle

DeGarmo Group

This was a summary of the research and practice implications from: Marler, J. H., Fisher, S. L., & Ke, W. (2009). Employee self-service technology acceptance: A comparison of pre-implementation and post-implementation relationships. Personnel Psychology, 62, 327-358.

Person-organization fit focusing on values has become a hot topic recently. Values are personal beliefs about what is important and what actions ought to be done (or not done). These beliefs help shape personal goals and the behaviors directed towards achieving those goals. Value fit occurs when organizations and their employees share similar values and is associated with several important work outcomes, such that greater fit is related to higher performance and less turnover.

However, because basic values are deeply rooted and difficult to transform, leaders can have an arduous time trying to align employee values to be consistent with organizational change initiatives. Recent research indicates that a particular type of leadership, called socialized charismatic leadership, can affect the success leaders will achieve in developing new values in their subordinates.

What is “Socialized Charismatic Leadership”?

Socialized charismatic leadership (SCL) is a type of leadership characterized by a leader’s altruistic intent and helping others internalize his or her values. SCL is part of the broader concept of transformational leadership, which involves leaders inspiring their followers and acting as ideal figures after which others can model themselves.

The Role of Occupations in Value Fit

As mentioned above, values are deeply rooted and have a strong influence on behavior. An example of the influence of values on behavior is occupation or career choice. People are attracted to and stay in occupations that are driven by values that are similar to their personal values. For example, people who strongly believe in helping others are more likely to become therapists, social workers, nurses, or doctors. People who strongly value competition are likely to seek out jobs in industries where those values can be pursued, such as sales or marketing.

SCL and Organizational Change

The key to understanding how successful changes in organizational values will be transmitted to employees is knowing that failure will result if the new values are in conflict with deeply held employee values. Leaders high in socialized charisma are better able to align new values with employee-held values than are leaders low in SCL.  Socialized charismatic leaders may be good at achieving this alignment because they frame the organization’s values in such a way that they are consistent with or complement employee values. Framing values in this way can help followers be more accepting of change than they otherwise might be.

Implications for Practice

Some suggestions for how to utilize the concepts of SCL and value fit for organizational change include:

• Consider value fit in recruitment and selection. Employees are attracted to jobs and organizations that match their values and withdraw from those that don’t. Be upfront about your organization’s values in order to attract those with the greatest likelihood of staying and thriving in their jobs. Also, consider using validated selection measures to hire those applicants who best fit with the organization’s core values.
• Understand the values underlying each position. In order to successfully screen based on values, it is first necessary to understand what values are associated with the work in question. Determine if the work is associated with helping others, getting ahead of others, accumulating wealth, creating new innovations, etc.
• Don’t promote values that contradict commonly held employee values. Understanding employees’ underlying values is also important when organizational change initiatives are being developed. Conflict may be reduced or preempted by framing company values in such a way that they are likely to be regarded as complementing those held by employees.
• Identify organization change leaders. In times of change, it is important for the organization to have champions that can build support for the needed transformations (i.e., leaders high in SCL). Have systems in place for identifying, mentoring, and grooming such champions so that they can be in positions of leadership to best move the company forward through transition periods.

Achieving value alignment between leadership and employees can be difficult in times of change. An organization can help maximize its success by having policies in place that bring the best fitting employees on board and develop internal charismatic leaders to make current and future changes to the status quo go as smoothly as possible.

Interpretation by:

Don Johnson

DeGarmo Group

This was a summary of the research and practice implications from: Brown, M. E., & Trevino, L. K. (2009). Leader-follower values congruence: Are socialized charismatic leaders better able to achieve it? Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 478-490.

Constant change in organizations is a given these days, with the rapid evolution of technologies and business practices that is prevalent across industries. Change brings with it uncertainty and is often resisted by employees for several different reasons, including loss of security and preference for the status quo (i.e., what is familiar).

Gaining employee cooperation is crucial for the success of a change implementation within an organization, whether the change is big or small. Managers face a unique challenge in that they are responsible for motivating employees to accept organizational change, which can be difficult.

Exchanges between managers and employees (i.e., leaders and members) affect the success of using different types of managerial influence to lower employee resistance to change. Specifically, how successful or not a particular technique is at decreasing employee resistance depends on whether the employees and managers have high- or low-quality relationships.

Employees form unique relationships with their managers and supervisors by way of the many exchanges that occur between them. Employees may have relationships with management that are characterized by loyalty and trust, while other employee-manager relationships involve more antagonistic exchanges between those involved in these relationships.

The exchanges (good and bad) managers have with their employees create expectations for how managers will act towards employees. If an employee has a good relationship with a manager, then the employee is likely to attribute positive intentions to actions taken by that manager, including actions related to organizational change. However, if an employee has a poor-exchange relationship with a manager, then the employee may attribute negative intentions to the manager’s words or actions, and thus be suspicious of, or even angered at, the manager. With such negative perceptions of managers, employee resistance to change efforts is not likely to decrease and resistance could even increase.

Several influence techniques can be used by managers to gain cooperation from employees, for example: sanctions, legitimization, ingratiation, and consultation. The first two techniques are hard tactics, while the second two are soft tactics:

• Sanctions involve administering punishments for not cooperating.
• Legitimization occurs when managers explain how change is congruent with the organization’s needs and practices.
• Ingratiation involves praising employees for their cooperation with the change.
• Consultation occurs when managers ask employees for their input during the change process.

Implications for Practice

Managers must be selective in the methods they use to encourage cooperation with change. They need to be aware of how their relations with their employees can affect attempts at reducing resistance. It cannot be stressed enough how significant good manager-employee relations are to effectively decreasing resistance to change.

Managers should take steps to improve difficult relationships or maintain good relationships with all of their employees. Effective managers will try to customize how they encourage change in a way that is most compatible for each employee in order to maximize acceptance. When selecting a technique for motivating acceptance, recall that less coercive strategies (rather than hard tactics) are effective.

Finally, giving employees a voice in the change process may also be effective in reducing resistance within the organization. By prioritizing functional work relations between managers and employees, organizations will be proactive in implementing the changes that are critical to their growth and success.

Interpretation by:

Don Johnson

DeGarmo Group

This was a summary of the research and practice implications from:  Furst. S.A., & Cable, D.M. (2008). Employee resistance to organizational change: Managerial influence techniques and leader-member exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 453-462.