Technology Change, Managing Change and Resistance to Change

We will also discuss resistance to hanged and how to eliminate resistance and get employees buy In and commitment to change.

Technology processes and programs change very rapidly. It Is Important for a management to be able to recognize the need for the change and any obstacles that may appear with It. This change could hurt the organization If not Implemented properly, by Implementing the change too quickly, or met by too much resistance from employees. Literature Review active environments, organizations must be willing to use considerable amounts of energy in examining basic questions to the organization.The growing interest in the theory of planned change and resistance to change has been moved, in part, by the rapid and uncontrolled changes in our culture. Despite great changes, resistance will still be in the areas in that many people want change to occur, thus creating a blockage to the current importance on the change process.

Noel Itchy (1982) categorizes the forces that exert pressures for change on organizations in three management areas: technical, political and cultural. Technical refers to pressures for change brought about by changes in technology and economic conditions; e. , advanced high-tech equipment, changing interest rates, and increased competition. Because of the emphasis on promoting change and reducing resistance to change in the past, less attention has been paid to the need for stability, particularly after a successful change process. However, Lenin (1947) noted the tendency for group performance to slip back to original levels after a period of rapid change and considered stabilization efforts part of the change process.

Therefore, when considering change, it is equally important to consider stability and its role in the change process.As a change agent and building on the theoretical and practical contributions of his predecessors, Ryan (1996) developed a seven-step intervention's plan (though his intervention plan was specifically geared towards change agents in the public sector, the ideas can be applied to change agents in an organization). The following are practical interventions that managers can utilize in being an agent for change: "1 . Setting a new leadership style: Managers should use a new leadership style, called "participative leadership" to describe the involvement of supervisors, managers, and leaders as partners. Creating a shared vision for quality results: Managers need to recognize the importance of involving customers and representatives of the workforce in the command's strategic planning sessions. 3.

Establishing process improvement through department teams: Mangers need to value teams. The establishment of teams at the department level can introduce employees to the concept of continuous process improvement and helped them to understand how individual units support the organization. 4. Fostering employee buy-in through empowered work teams: Managers must empower teams through training. Specifying measurements to observe systems in action: Managers need to provide team members training to help them gather meaningful data about their work processes so that analysis and improvement could begin.

6. Incorporating leadership and teamwork-skills training: Managers should provide training on team problem-solving skills and leadership training for supervisors. 7. Continuous improvement through ongoing feedback and review: Managers can initiate a customer satisfaction survey to serve as a report card for the work teams so that they can identify opportunities for improvement. Howsoever, 2010) Change will take as long as those who are initiating it want it to take.

If the change agent is really committed to the process and dealing with the resistance to change and building a strategy to overcome it, they can overcome the wall of resistance and the benefits of change realized as quickly as possible. One of the biggest problems in establishing change in organizations is working with and managing the resistance you will come and promoting new company behaviors. Employees must deal with leaving behind the old culture and values and becoming accustomed to the new ones.The pleasures they received from the old culture may not be present in the ones being implemented at the present time, you must convince them that it will be good for them in the long run.

The initial resistance to change comes about because most employees have become comfortable and familiar with their working environment, which makes them feel competent in their work. Change has the ability to affect the employees comfort zone, which requires them to learn new ways to work and accept new responsibilities.Facing these new changes, employees go through a lot of motions, which could be compared to the death of a loved one. Management must be familiar the grieving process in order to properly deal with and convince employees to accept the new change process. Change Management Model In less than a decade, the rapid growth and evolution of information technology has changed the foundation of the American economic background.

As the economy has changed from a manufacturing economy to an information economy, the nature of work has been changed and the workplace has had to undergo a dramatic change as well.The change in information technology has to explore what issues and concerns just be addressed by managers and employees to better understand the new order of work and to better function in the new environment. Organizations have to change in a new economy and how these changes affect both the function and structure of organizations have changed the role of individual workers, as well as their relationship to the organization. The work most companies put on mission and vision statements is marginal at best and most need more work than not.The same is said for most company value statements as well, most of them are very generic and do not really stress the company's true value.

The company needs to be serious about identifying the true values to help guide the company. There are four basic values that will make a company a true competitor in its industry. "First, produce high quality goods that add real value to both customers and consumers. Second, be a good place for employees to work. Third, behave in a publicly responsible manner. Finally, provide those that own the business with a good return on their investment".

The verbiage can be changed to meet the ideas and operating conditions of the organization. This comment on mission, vision and values statements is not intended o say that these elements will be helpful in all cases but rather that the company will have an extremely hard time reaching the point where they add value that will help guide the employees' behavior Today's organizations face a number of challenges resulting from the development of new technologies, changing employee demographics, global economic competition and economic shocks related to the instability of both domestic and global financial markets.The ability to quickly and adequately adapt to these environmental challenges has become a crucial factor for the success of an organization. As a result, an organization's competitive advantage no longer primarily depends on its production facilities or financial strength but rather on its capacity to embrace change and innovation. "Change management can be defined as the introduction and management of initiatives designed at "renewing needs of external and internal customers" (Moran/Brighten 2001: 111).

Due to the fact that employees are ultimately responsible for executing change initiatives, and change succeeds or fails depending on employee behavior (Ramekins/ Bodleian 1999), leading employees to support the changes is critically important for the success of any organizational change initiative. However, since the introduction of organizational changes is usually met with employee resistance (Check/Snicks 2000), this article first explores why and under which conditions employees are likely to react with resistance before discussing the antecedents of support for organizational changes.Both theoretical explanations, mostly from social psychology, and empirical evidence specific to organizational change management are Provided" (Pees, 2009). Discussion and Conclusion As changes in innovation are critical to mission success metrics, you must remember he fact is that business is not a standing enterprise. There are few things that require as much flexibility as effectively increasing profits, revenue, and brandishing the company's brand in their marketplace. I would go as far to say if I was a CEO, if you are not constantly restructuring the elements of your business in today's business climate you must have a perfect business.

Companies that are using systems with outdated technology, which have a high cost of maintenance, operations and upgrades, are in dire need of a change process. The systems which utilize applications where the information does not flowed back and forth, must face the workforce with newly coming change processes. To remain cost efficient and meet today's challenges in the marketplace the company's strategy needs to offset competition is to continue delivery reliable products and use technology to allow efficient business processes.The next thing a company must do is to leverage technology cost. The company should look at a range of factors.

They need to identify their needs and decided on ways to proceed and implement with their employees. They should also examine ways to update their software and systems. The company should see effective information management as an essential element in its company's strategy and decide on ways to accomplish the way to reengineering the legacy system to bring them into the 21st Century.The organization's decision to implement new computer system was a good one. They ensured that they had a champion who flowed down the information from top to bottom, identified the core areas of change, had regular meetings for reality checks and made sure that there is sufficient training for the employees. Months after the system was deployed they are still flowing information down.

A new collaboration tool was established where employees could post helpful ways to do their Jobs more easily and efficiently in the new system.They also established a messaging tool which allowed users to have open discussions with other system users, helping each other to learn their way around.