Employee loyalty and commitment at the workplace demands continued effort from the management in various ways. An organization’s management team could promote employee motivation and engagement through providing incentives such as weekly or monthly rewards, paid vacation, free gym memberships among others. While such techniques help manage employees’ behavior at the workplace, they might not have the desired impact in the event of change. The volatile nature of markets which is partly due to constant developments in technology, creates a demand for change in companies. Change brings about resilience and allows for the creation of a competitive advantage for a company. However, knowledge of how to manage the phenomenon in question while reducing resistance among employees is fundamental towards successful change implementation. A potential way of ensuring that there is positive reaction towards change is through creation of short-term goals alongside continued efforts to assert the importance and need for the specific change in a company.
Creating Short-term Wins
Kotter and Cohen (2008) noted that part of successful change efforts involves empowering individuals to create short-term wins. The idea is to reinforce and nourish their faith in the change effort while emotionally rewarding those who work hard and creating momentum. The authors warn that without early wins which are meaningful, unambiguous, visible and timely, efforts towards change might be thwarted due to, for instance, internal resistance (Kotter & Cohen, 2008). In this regard, the essence of creating short-term wins is somewhat to keep employees focused and realizing the benefits of, for instance, their transition from one way of operating to another. Therefore, in my organization, I will introduce various short-terms which are, in part, the outcome of a critical evaluation of barriers to change as demonstrated in the previous project. The barriers to change which were discussed were such as psychological and informational obstacles, an unsupportive system, as well as barriers due to hierarchy.
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Improving Soft Skills
One of the challenges associated with dealing with bosses is that they use their position in the company to undermine or dismiss input from junior workers. In such a case, junior employees feel disempowered and limited in that they cannot demonstrate their full potential at work. However, the ability to communicate effectively is vital. It is advisable for junior workers to avoid a “know it all” attitude which pushes those in higher positions to disregard their input or advice on critical company matters (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The idea is to demonstrate to the boss or manager that the changes being demanded to one’s work are a way of improving performance. Through soft skills, junior workers will be able to acknowledge that bosses have a concept of real design and that their critiques are constructive.
Creating Formal Feedback Processes
Some situations demand different ways of approaching issues and communication with those in senior positions. However, the potential for those in senior positions to undermine the efforts of junior workers could affect the organization’s productivity. Improving and investing in communication is a critical aspect especially during change implementation. During such a transition, the company can adopt formal feedback processes such as having suggestion boxes (Bolamn & Deal, 2017). The idea is to allow employees an avenue where they can give their feedback, a clear demonstration that critical input is accommodated. Furthermore, the employees will remain anonymous thereby saving them from any repercussions that a boss might want to impose. Through a formal feedback process, employees will feel that their suggestions have been communicated. The idea is to solicit a reaction from their bosses but through a formal and anonymous process.
Regular Presentations and Benchmark Tours
Batshalom (2013) noted that employees feel overwhelmed when they do not experience the results they were expecting in a project. Continued and consistent efforts from workers should be recognized and recorded as part of their desire to see the company in a positive trajectory mode. Therefore, creating an avenue where the employees could give regular presentations on their specific projects alongside conducting benchmark tours could help propel successful change implementation. The sole purpose of using such a strategy is to communicate to workers, showing them that their efforts are recognized (Asamany & Shaorong, 2017). Furthermore, presentations and benchmark tours also allow for constructive criticism whereby coworkers might give their suggestions on how best to accomplish certain goals. Through the proposed short-term win, employees will not only become motivated and engaged, but will also develop a sense of belonging with the company.
Don’t Let Up
Kotter and Cohen (2008) warned that sagging urgency undermines the momentum for continued focus on the need for change. In this respect, success becomes less visible as employees, for instance, might not demonstrate the same effort to promote change as was the case after realizing the proposed short-term wins. Further, Shin, Seo, Shapiro and Taylor (2015) explained that the commitment of employees to change is a predictor of behavioral support alongside turnover intention. Thus, after the first set of short-term wins, the management should remain focused on ensuring that the drive towards successful change implementation remains. Employees should be kept motivated such that the momentum to effect change remains. There are various ways of ensuring that workers within the company remain focused on their obligation towards successful change implementation.
Revamping Leadership
It is unavoidable that leadership plays a vital role in managing employee-employer relationships. Further, a leader can influence workers positively making them realize certain aspects about their work that they were not aware of before. Scholars Aarons, Eerhart, Farahnak and Hurlburt (2015) emphasized that leadership can be used to promote compliance in the labor force. Leaders can promote creativity in employees thereby allowing for innovation. For instance, through continued provision of constructive feedback following regular presentations and benchmark tours, leaders can motivate employees thereby keeping them engaged. The feedback given could come out as a form of intellectual stimulation on workers hence whereby the leaders act as not only mentors, but also individuals who have experience in knowledge in certain key developmental areas. Amidst the wave of change, employees would wish to have individuals whose behavior and expertise they can emulate. Therefore, there is an inherent desire in workers for inspirational motivation which leaders can provide as they are better-placed to have such an effect on junior employees.
Proving Employee Incentives
Employees feel recognized when they are rewarded for their efforts. Therefore, as part of the strategy to maintain the momentum towards change implementation, employees should be given rewards to incentivize them (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Rewards could be in the form of money, free gym memberships or car parking space, paid leave, among others. Through such a technique, employees will remain focused on ensuring that the proposed change has been realized successfully.
Conclusion
The inevitability of change in an organization pushes for a forced change in strategy, restructuring of work process, or even a shift from one location to another. Thus, it is important that employees understand the need to conform especially due to high competition in the market. Various ways in which the management could maintain the drive towards change in my organization are such as promoting effective communication. Other approaches are such as investing and improving leadership techniques alongside provision of incentives to keep workers engaged and motivated.
References
Asamany, A., & Shaorong, S. (2017). The ripple effects of performance management on Employees’ perceptions and affective commitment among small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). International Journal of Business Administration,9 (1), 55. doi:10.5430/ijba.v9n1p55
Batshalom, B. (2013). Putting the Management back in Change Part 5: Removing Obstacles; Empowering Others to Act. Sustainable Performance Institute . http://www.sustainable-performance.org/putting-the-management-back-in-change-part-5-removing-obstacles-empowering-others-to-act/.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership . John Wiley & Sons.
Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2008). The heart of change . Sage Publishers.
Shin, J., Seo, M., Shapiro, D. L., & Taylor, M. S. (2015). Maintaining Employees’ Commitment to Organizational Change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science,51 (4), 501-528. doi:10.1177/0021886315603123
