Organisational Change (Essay Sample)

Organisational ChangeBy Student’s Name: Course Name: Tutor: University: Department: Date:

AbstractOrganisational change is the sorting out or alteration of the structures of an organisation to conform to the changing times. Indeed the business environment is exposed to many elements such as those of downsizing, reorganizing and cutting costs that the company must continually keep ab it with if it is to survive. Change for any organisation is inevitable if it is to stay relevant in the changing business world. For an organization to retain its relevance in the industry, it must be flexible to change. Sometimes this change may be triggered internally or other times it comes from external influences This can also be observed in conservative institutions; no organisation can escape the pressure to continually adjust its systems of operations be it through change of personnel, technology, management or cultures of the organization. These changes require proper strategy, resources, and the right team to see the project through to completion.

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IntroductionThe management has the role of ensuring that there exists a continuous link between them and their employees to ensure ease of implementation. The transition process should be well designed so as to reduce cases of sabotage. The top management and middle management ought to work hand in hand to ensure that the employees are sufficiently trained and well prepared mentally and psychologically for the inevitable change. This paper seeks to address three issues that touch on organisational change. Firstly, what are the role of the middle managers in the implementation of the strategic policy of the firm and their role if influencing the employee attitudes toward the strategy? Secondly, what is the relation between the leadership behavior and the way the employees will react to the desired organisational change? Thirdly, why planned models designed to institute cultural changes fail
How and why do middle managers support and resist strategic change
Middle managers connect the top-level management and the personnel? They serve the purpose of conveying information vertically between this two parties and also dos the implementation of the strategic decisions (Ayestarán Etxeberria & Guenaga 2011, p67). It is the role of the top-level management to come up with strategies that will direct the while the middle management plays the role of explaining it to the personnel and applying it. It is very essential that the middle management be adequately briefed on any desired changes and that they are on board or in agreement with the desired plans. This is because they may either use their capacity to sabotage or support the strategic policy. They may support the proposed move through adequate training for the employees, proper and prompt communication while they may sabotage through a lack of communication and so on (Senior & Swailes 2010,p89). The middle manager is directly under the top-level management and immediately senior to the frontline personnel. Therefore, they are exposed to information about both parties thus can advise the management the how the staff is bound to react to particular changes best on this knowledge they have about them (Floyd 2002, p78). They may also inform the top-level management concerning the attitude of the employees towards them and whether, the adoption of certain changes would be appropriate with regard to employee attitudes towards them. These manager play a very important role of campaigning for the strategic decisions amongst the staff by giving them the essential tools that are appropriate to ensure consistent implementation of then strategy at hand (Cawsey & Deszca 2007, p90).Middle Managers as Information BrokersThis is the primary role of the middle managers. They ensure that the right information gets to the staff, that they get the proper training and that the staff are completely committed to the transition process. Employees ideally become more skilled, consistent, and committed to using an innovation (Helms-Mills 2009, p63). Middle management has the role of ensuring continuous learning, change management, and quality assessment. Middle managers as the brokers of information implies that they, promote the implementation of the strategic agenda through processing of the information, channeling the information to the right quarters, relating the day to day activities of the organisation to the organisational strategy, and advancing the importance of creativity and innovation to top level management and staff (Ayestarán Etxeberria & Guenaga 2011, p70).Channeling the informationMiddle managers give the staff critical information and to keep the senior level management abreast with the implementation process of the strategy is going on (Gill 2003, p34). For instance, in the implementation of a new technology in the firm the middle managers may recommend some changes to the team carrying out the installation process, where the team does not implement the desired recommendations the middle managers are required to inform the top-level management. In turn, they would compel the installation team to carry out the recommendations of the middle managers (Sharyn & Nerina 2006, p56).
Processing information
Middle managers have the role of simplifying data and information before giving it to the employees. They process the information into what they deem as appropriate as understandable to the employees before dishing it out to them (Spector 2010, p90). It is essential that the employees comprehend the strategic change required and its importance to the organisation growth. In order to help employees understand the new strategy, certain operational changes may have to be instituted. The middle managers may incorporate aspects of the new policy into the old system just to help the employees adjust and get a feel for the new system before its full roll out (Cawsey & Deszca 2007, p60).
Relating day-to-day activities to organisational strategyThe Middle Manager does this by, taking note of tasks that are recommended for the implementation process and putting them to work from a strategic standpoint. This is the use of the organisations operating procedures, done in a manner that promotes the implementation of the strategic policy (Thomas & Hardy 2011, p53). The top management may recommend tasks that the middle management may use or, the middle management may come up with the tasks that they consider best for the implementation of the strategy. This may include attending workshops or having professionals come and practically demonstrate certain activities to the employees (McCann Et al 2008, p67).Promoting innovation implementation. The middle managers are the ones that are best placed to encourage the employees towards the use and implementation of innovation (Senior & Fleming 2006, p76).Middle managers and innovation implementationMiddle managers support is very critical to the successful implementation of the strategy of the organisation (Smollan Et al 2010, p40). This they occupy a strategic position that can influence the company’s strategic endeavors both ways. Their commitment is mandatory because for some tasks they may need to go beyond the limitations of their job description in furtherance of the strategic policy. Where the middle managers are ignored or are not committed the policies issues by the top-level management will have difficulty going through the implementation phase (Conway & monks 2011, p78).Why do models of planned change not bring about cultural change?Cultural change in and organisation refers to the change of belief systems, norms, practices and habits. All organisations exhibit a culture regardless of its location or the industry involved. The culture of an organisation is not established overnight. They are slowly built into the systems of the organisation, and this is the main reason why changing them later on becomes quite difficult (Mccann Et al 2008, p50). Organisational culture represents how the employees of the organisation are used to doing their work. This may be in terms simple stuff like arrival time, availability of overtime and rewarding for goo performance (Herzig & Jimmieson 2006, p12). Cultural change means stopping some of this habits that are so deeply entrenched in the systems of the organisation and adopting new ones. This is the reason as to why cultural change fails more often than not. Knowing the reasons for failure is a good can reduce the resistance and thus facilitate a smoother transition. As previously, mentioned, cultural change takes a while to implement fully. It requires strategy and concerted effort over an extended period to make it happen. It also requires the resolve of the key players that change is necessary for the organisation (Smith & Graetz 2011, p37). This will go hand in hand with the organisations willingness to examine current beliefs, values, and practices critically (Senior & Swailes 2010, p72).No reason for changeThis counts as one of the causes why the cultural change in a firm may fail. The force that propels the cultural change is the same force that propels the desire to retain the old cultural systems. For this reason, unless the desire for change is so urgent and so critical to assume, there will always be employees that...