OB: Ch 13: Change and Stress Managemetnt

change

the actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes

6 forces of change

• Nature of the workforce - more cultural diversity, aging population, increased immigration and outsourcing 

• Technology

  • Faster, cheaper, and more mobile computers and handheld devices

  • Emergence and growth of social networking sites

  • Deciphering of the human genetic code

• Economic shocks

  • Rise and fall of global housing market

  • Financial sector collapse

  • Global recession

• Competition 

  • Global competitors

  • mergers and consolidations

• Social trends

  • Increased environmental awareness

  • Liberalization of attitudes toward gay, lesbian, or transgender employees

  • More multitasking and connectivity

• World politics

  • Rising health care costs

  • Negative social attitudes toward business and executives 

  • Opening of new markets worldwide

resistance to change

• Individual sources

  • Habit

  • Security 

  • Economic factors

  • Fear of the unknown

  • Selective information processing

• Organizational sources

  • Structural inertia

  • Limited focus of change

  • Group inertia

  • Threat to expertise

  • Threat to established power relationships

overcome resistance to change

• Change threatens the status quo, making it an inherently political activity

• Politics suggest the impetus for change is more likely to come from:

  • Outside change agents

  • Employees new to the organization who have less invested in the status quo

  • Managers slightly removed from the main power structure

tactics to overcoming resistance to change

• communication

• participation

• building support and commitment

• develop positive relationships

• implementing changes fairly

• manipulation and cooptation

• selecting people who accept change

• coercion

learning organization

• There exists a shared vision that everyone agrees on

• People discard their old ways of thinking and the standard routines they use for solving problems or doing their jobs

• Members think of all organizational processes, activities, functions, and interactions with the environment as part of a system of interrelationships

• People openly communicate with each other (across vertical and horizontal boundaries) without fear of criticism or punishment

• People sublimate their personal self-interest and fragmented departmental interests to work together to achieve the organization’s shared vision

Lewin’s 3-step model

argues that successful change in orgs should follow 3 steps: unfreezing the status quo, movement to a desired end-state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent

• unfreezing - must happen 1 of 3 ways:

  • increase driving force (direct behavior away from the status quo)

  • decrease restraining forces (hnder movement away from equilibrium)

  • a combo of both

• movement - keep the momentum going, employees begin learning new systems and behaviors

• refreezing - the new behaviors and processes are stabilized and reinforced so they becomes the normal way of operating

kotter’s eight step plan

expanded lewin’s ideas into a more detailed process for org change

• has 8 steps for managers to successfully implement change

steps for kotter’s plan

1. establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is needed

2. form a coalition with enough power to lead the change

3. create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision

4. communicate the vision throughout the org

5. empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving

6. plan for, create, and reward short-term ‘wins’ that move the org toward the new vision

7. consolidate improvements, reassess changes, and make necessary adjustments in the new programs

8. reinforce the changes by demonstrating the relationship between new behaviors and org success

action research

a change process based on the systematic collection of data and then selection of a change action based on what the data indicates

• its value is in providing a scientific methodology for managing planned change

• steps: diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action, evaluation

organizational development - OD

a collection of change methods to try and improve org effectiveness and employee well-being

• process consultation

• team building

• intergroup development

• appreciative inquiry

process consultation

A meeting in which a consultant assists a client in understanding process events with which they must deal and identifying processes that need improvement.

team building

High interaction among team members to increase trust and openness.

intergroup development

Organizational development (OD) efforts to change the attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that groups have of each other.

appreciative inquiry

An approach that seeks to identify the unique qualities and special strengths of an organization, which can then be built on to improve performance

how stress unfolds in the workplace

• environmental stressors, organizational factors, personal factors

• leads to strains:

  • physiological, psych, and behavioral

conservation of resources

suggests that employees strive to obtain, foster, retain, and protect the resources and things they value

• resources - Factors within an individual’s control that can be expended toward fulfilling desires, attaining goals, or meeting task demands.

• stress caused with resource loss —> irrational pursuit ti regain resources

effort-reward imbalance model

suggests that employees will experience strain when they put in a great deal of effort for little reward. In turn, employees are motivated to resolve this discrepancy by either (1) putting in less effort or (2) working to maximize or increase the reward

job demand-control-support model

suggests strain is a function of three factors: demands, control, and support

• demands - Responsibilities, pressures, obligations, and even uncertainties that individuals face in the workplace

• control - the degree to which employees have discretion over how to do their jobs

• support - perceptions of assistance provided by the org

job demands-resource model

suggest that demands and resources both contribute to performance through their distinctive effects on strain (e.g., burnout) and engagement

org approaches to managing stress

• redesigning jobs to give employees more responsibilities, more meaningful work, more autonomy and increased feedback

• enabling a remote work option

• offering recovery experiences

• wellness programs - org support programs that focus on the employee’s total physical and mental conditions

work-life balance

• Physical Tactics - Establishing time boundaries, Marking work spaces,Facilitating boundary transitions

• Psychological Tactics - Prioritizing and goalsetting, Making compromises

• Behavioral Tactics - Setting expectations, Negotiating resources