Changing Organizational Culture Cultural Change

Question: Discuss about the Changing Organizational Culture for Cultural Change. Answer: Introduction: People resist change as they feel that they have lost control over their work. Besides this, people also resist change as they have a fear that they cannot be able to perform well when the change is implemented in the organization. In addition to this, if the desired change to be brought in the organization is not properly communicated to the members who are affected by the change, then also people resist to change as they do not have the knowledge regarding the change to be brought in the organization and its implications on their performance and productivity. In addition to this, employees have low trust on the companys management regarding the implementation and management of the change in the organization in an effective and efficient manner (Ford, Ford and DAmelio, 2008). People also resist change if they do not have the information regarding the need for bringing change in the organization. Besides this, people also resist change if they have a negative feeling regarding the change at the end of the change to be brought in the organization. For example, adoption of a new technology in the organization to automate the processes is being implemented. The employees resist to change as they have the fear that their performance will be affected by the change in the technology used as they do not have the knowledge regarding the way in which the assigned tasks have to be performed.It is requisite for the managers and leaders to properly communicate the information related to the need for change in the organization in order to reduce the resistance to change among the employees of the organization (Dembo and Seli, 2004). There is also a need to provide information related to the benefits of the change to be brought in the organization. It is also necessary for the leaders to involve employees who are directly affected by the change in the decision making process as it facilitates in gaining information regarding the problems faced by them in the existing processes and procedures in the form of thoughts and opinions. It also helps in gaining information regarding the process through which the change can be implemented in the organization. Participation of the employees in the decision making process results in building trust among them regarding the capability of the organization to implement change in an effective manner (Fernandez and Rainey, 2006). It is also requisite for the managers to provide training to employees to upgrade and develop new and existing skills for the purpose of performing in a well manner after the change has been implemented in the organization. It is necessary for the leaders to establish a common communication platform through which employees can share their views and ideas with one another which helps in improving their performance and reducing their resistance level in the organization towards change to be brought in the organization (Lapointe and Rivard, 2005). Critically examine the key theoretical concepts of resistance considered in this subject and how they arelinked to the two key theoretical ontologies used in this subject. There are various theories associated with change management such as Kotters 8-step change model, Lewin three stage model. 8 step Kotters change model provides information related to implementation of the change in the organization in a successful manner. In the first step, there is a necessity to provide information related to need for change and convince employees to adapt to the change. In the next stage, there is a need to encourage a team to lead the change effort. After this, there is a requirement of creating a vision and strategies to implement the change effort in the organization. The next stage determines that it is the responsibility of the change agent to gather as many people as they can accept the vision and strategy formulated. There is a necessity to eliminate different obstacles that hinder the implementation of change in the organization and encourage employees to take risks and adopt non- traditional activities in the organization (Mento, Jones and Dirndorfer, 200 2). The next step is to establish short term objectives that can easily be visible and helps in recognizing the employees by the way of rewards. In the next stage, there is a necessity to use credible change management systems, policies and procedures that are not aligned to vision. In the next stage, it is essential for the change agent to incorporate the change into the business culture. The Kotters 8 step model is based on empowerment, communication and focus. There is a necessity to incorporate new approaches so that employees do not revert back to old practices. There is also a necessity to monitor and receive feedback regarding the change from the employees. It is linked to the theory underpinned by Maturana related to ontologies (By, 2005). The main focus of this theory is the observer who observes the activities carried out in the organization. It emphasizes on the language and communication of the information to the associated parties. In a similar manner, the change agent has to communicate the relevant information regarding the upcoming change in the organization. It is also necessary for the change agents to engage employees and consider their opinions, thoughts and views on the desired change in the organization. This facilitates in reducing the resistance to change of the employees. The other theory which is linked with the theoretical concept of change management is Albert Elliss Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. This theory entails that the different emotional and behavioral problems that are faced by the employees due to occurrence of the change should be mitigated (Proulx, 2008). The main reason behind it is that it poses a negative impact on the performance and productivity of the employees. There is a necessity for the change agent to listen to the problems faced by employees in the organization and provide practical solutions to their problems. This facilitates in building trust and loyalty among employees towards the organization and leaders. It also enhances the commitment level of the employees.In addition to this, it also focuses on the involvement of the employees in the implementation of the change in the organization so that the change can be implemented in a successful manner and results in increasing the productivity and performance of the employees in the organization (Park, et al. 2011). Critically examine the relationship between power and resistance, and the ethical issues that these raise in relation to the managerial and resistant positions. There is an existence of six sources of power namely physical power, position power, expert power, referent power, information power and reward power. Physical power is more frequently present in the organization. There are people in the organization that have highly vocal and physical intimidating that results in the occurrence of the resistance of people towards change. Power plays a significant role in the occurrence of resistance in the organization. The Position power as the name suggests refers to the power obtained due to the position of the employee in the organization. This power facilitates in controlling the actions of the people through different procedures, orders and rules. When employees perform well in the organization they receive rewards which is considered as a reward power (Lawrence, 2014). The referent power is the power that a person gets when he is being associated with another powerful person in the organization. This power helps in establishing clusters in a team. Expert power is the power that a person gains due to presence of immense expert knowledge in their service domain. This power is achieved by working for long time in the organization. Information power is the power that an individual attains by accessing to the information available in the organization. The behavior of individuals who resist change are influenced by the powers of change agents. Power has both positive and negative aspects related to change in the organization. When top level management implement change without considering the opinions of employees then it may result in resistance towards change. But if change agents uses power such as expert power then they communicate the information pertaining to change in the organization (Parker and Craig, 2008). This results in overcoming the resistance to change and its implementation in the organization in a successful manner. In the fire service, the change is implemented immediately for the purpose of responding to the outside force or demand. This results in the occurrence of resistance and resentment towards change as it is considered as a reactive change. Immediate implementation of the change in the organization without providing proper information to the affected members results in the occurrence of accidents and injuries due to the reason that training is not provided to employees. Besides this, stakeholders are not involved in the change process which also results in the failure of the implementation of the change in the organization (Have, et al. 2016). For example, there would be an occurrence of an accident when a driver backing up the motor vehicles into an object, the next day a new policy has been implemented in the organization that a driver would not back up their vehicle without the presence of a back up person who can guide a driver. This type of change is the result of the incident. Such type of ethical issues is faced in the managerial and resistant positions. In case of a proactive change, information from the stakeholders have been gathered related to the change. This helps in increasing the acceptance of people regarding the change to be implemented in the organization (Mills, et al. 2008). Critically discuss the implications of power and resistance for the role of the change agent in ethically managing change, in both the dialogical and problem-centric approaches to change management A change agent has a power to manage different change activities. The change agents have different positions in the organization such as manager, executive and leader of a particular team. Besides this, the person can be outsourced from outside regarded as outside consultants in order to implement the desired change in the organization. Change agents have the ability to building trust among the employees of the organization towards them (Dievernich, Tokarski and Gong, 2014). Outside consultants are paid heavily for the purpose of bringing innovative ideas in the business for the purpose of transforming the organization. Change agents facilitates in bringing change in the structure of the organization. It also brings change in the authority relations. In addition to this, change agents implement improved versions of tools and techniques. For this purpose change agents communicate information related to the change to be brought in the organization. For the purpose of overcoming resistance among the employees, change agents spread information regarding the benefits of the change to be brought in the organization (Harvey and Broyles, 2010). Change agents consider the views and opinions of the employees regarding the change to be brought in the organization. This facilitates in overcoming resistance among employees in the organization. For example in case of British Airways, the CEO of the company has provided the information regarding the changes to be brought in the organization and provide reasons for lay off employees in the organization. This has helped in reducing the resistance of employees in the organization towards change. Such leaders influence the actions of the employees . Besides this, companies have adopted new technologies to automate processes. In these companies, people resist to adopt the new system to carry out different business operations (Hayes, 2014). The main reason behind it is that they do not have the proper knowledge regarding the implications of the change. Thus, the change agent has to provide information related to the advantages of the adoption of the new technology. For example, the adoption of new information technology helps in reducing the time to be spending on performing a particular activity. Besides this, it also eliminates duplication of the information to be recorded. It also eliminates the use of paperwork. Hence, it facilitates in improving the performance and productivity of the employees in the organization. These are the reasons behind the ethical behavior of the change agents in overcoming the fresistance and power of employees gin the organization (Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2015). References Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S. 2015.Changing Organizational Culture: Cultural Change Work in Progress.Routledge. By, R.T. 2005. Organizational change management: A critical review. 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