During the recession, many companies are forced to make changes in their organization. It can be a withdrawal from a market, the closing of a subsidiary or a deep change in the way of the company is managed.
In each of these cases, the manager faces people who resist the change. This resistance can be wrenching for the project and create an immobile situation.
Most of the time this resistance is due to two main factors:
- Employees do not know why this change occurs
- Employees are afraid to lose some acquired work conditions
The worst solution is to try to force change, solution which can lead to a direct conflict.
The key tactic to manage this inter organizational resistance is communication. From the first steps of a change, employees need to be aware of a potential modification within the company. However the manager needs to go further and explain the different reasons of this requirement.
Nevertheless, a global meeting is not recommended as a first step. Indeed the manager needs first of all to establish a strong pro change basis which will help him to face the resistance. To do that he needs to find employees who will accept this change and who will relay the message. Those people are easily identifiable by function of their personality. People who are audacious and have initiative will be more disposed to accept the change.
The purpose of this pro change attitude is to make employees feel that the change originates not only from the upper hierarchy but also bottom up from employees. Of course people from the same level of hierarchy can also be more efficient to convince them. It is better to list the different advantages that the company and thus employees can benefit from.
A good way to guide employees toward the change is to integrate them in the change. The involvement of employees in the process of change can solve the problem of resistance because they will become protagonists of this change. The delegation of tasks is the best way to establish this strategy.
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