MGT701 | Managing Organisations | Organization Change And Management

The factors that drive the organizational change are the competitive business environment, innovation of the new technologies, changing consumer demands, economic condition of the country and the latest government policies (Anderson 2016). Many types of changes are needed within the organization. Some examples can be given like the introduction of new information technology devices in the office and the new business models like virtual collaboration through social media, outsourcing should be handled by deploying high speed internet technologies. The changing policies of the government also nudge the organizations to bring in changes. The changing consumer preferences also direct the organizations to change and provide the consumers with the latest commodities available.

There are various stages that a successful organizational change management needs to think about (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). At first, the managers have to think about at what point they want to see themselves in the next five to ten years. Then they have to fix the strategies on how they would be able to get to that desired place. The strategies have to be implemented as per the plan and the ways the strategies are working should be monitored by the management to judge its effect.   

Hence, there are some aspects that the managers should focus on in this organizational change (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). They have the responsibilities to bring in the changes by employing many strategies. The managers need to have a deep understanding about the layout of the organization and the ways they are operating in the market. The managers have to implement these changes. Some theories will help the managers to assess the conditions of the organizations and what kinds of changes are needed for the betterment of the organization (Burke and Noumair 2015). These two kinds of theories are of perception and theories of personality. In the following segment, one aspect from both the group of theories is going to be addressed.

Theories of Personality

Personality is a very important thing that is needed by the managers in any organization. If an organization needs to surpass through a change, the managers should be capable of showing a stern personality that would influence his subordinates and other members. Emotions are very closely related with the employees as they have to process the imminent changes by assessing both the positive and negative sides of it (Ewen 2014). Thus it can be said that role of personality is very important in an organizational change perspective. The personality traits of the employees help to drive, accept or resist changes in the organization (Ewen 2014). It is very important to assess the dispositional responses of the human beings in their understanding of the organizational change. One of the most relevant theories that can be associated to the personality traits regarding organizational change is the Big Five Model (Leutner et al. 2014).

Big Five Personality Model

Big Five Personality theory or model always helps the human resources managers to deal with the employees and the people associated with the organization. There are five dimensions in this model that help to assess the different personality traits of a person.  These five personality traits are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Aggreableness and Neuroticism (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012).

Openness is the first trait in the Big Five Model that is very important for understanding the employees’ psychology of adjusting with the new organizational changes and environments (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). According to this trait, the people who like or enjoy new things in the new environments and enjoy those new experiences are likely to be more successful in openness of an organization. In Openness, the people have a deep insight into all the relevant matters and they show a lot of interest in many things. They show a large variety of interest in various fields and they are very imaginative as well (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012).

The second trait in this theory is the Conscientiousness (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012). Conscientiousness is a positive trait in this model as the managers who are conscientious have reliability in their behavior and promptness in action. According to this trait, the people are always thorough, sincere, efficient, methodic and organized.

The third trait is the Extraversion (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012). Some people are introvert in their psychology and some are extrovert. The people who are extrovert get their source of positive energy by talking to different people while the introverts get their energy within themselves. The managers have to be extrovert if they want to influence their employees. Extrovert managers are generally talkative, assertive and highly energetic.

Aggreableness is the fourth trait in the Big five Model (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012). The characteristics of this model are the people are very kind, sympathetic and affectionate to other people. The agreeable managers are friendly, cooperative and compassionate to their fellow employees.

The last trait in this theory is Neuroticism (Cobb-Clark and Schurer 2012). It is sometimes called ‘Emotional Stability’. This indicates the emotional stability of a person and his negative emotional traits. People who are more neurotic, often summer from being moody and full of negative emotions. They are generally emotionally unstable. Such kind of managers will not be appropriate for the organizations.

Theories of Perception

Perception is a very useful thing in determining the behavior of the employees in organizational change (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). In general, the word ‘perception’ means the ways how an individual or the group of persons sees the world around them. However, perception is used in organizations in different ways. In business management, the word ‘perception’ implies the ways by which an individual, mainly the managers see the business atmosphere and the employees around them (Burke 2017). This will strengthen the fact on how he will behave in the business perspectives. It can be seen from another viewpoint that how the managers can motivate the persons within the organization. Motivation is a serious concern and it should be made sure before hiring that the persons are fit for the organization and others’ perceptions about him should be good (Ovsiy 2013).  The process of perception in organization goes through five simple stages as receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting and responding. One of the theories that is relevant in this course to be discussed is the Fundamental Attribution Error (Coleman 2013).

Fundamental Attribution Error

Generally, there are two factors or components according to which the personality of a person is judged. These two factors have to be judged closely and then the decision has to be taken regarding to the factors. These two factors are the external factors and the individual factors. When someone does something wrong, it is the natural tendency of the human beings to attribute the error to the person himself for some of his specific personalities. The other attributions are overlooked i.e. the external factors (Coleman 2013). These external factors include the social concepts and ideas and the contextual aspects of the incident. If these influences are overlooked, it is called the Fundamental Attribution Error (Coleman 2013).

In a broader sense, fundamental attribution error means looking into the reason why some event happened. It should not be looked into just by a narrow way of looking into one’s mind and behavior. Just looking into the individual factors is not enough to decide the cause of the reason, and the aspects of external factors should be looked into well. Some problems that can be arisen because of this error are learning problems, communication problems, perception problems, motivation problems and others (Coleman 2013).

This fundamental attribution error can affect the management style as well. The problems which will arise regarding this are problems with leadership style, decision making problems for the managers, conflict between managers and employees and politics between the employees within the organization (Pettigrew 2014).

The managers of the organizations are at the controlling power of everything that happens in the organization (Lunenburg 2012). Many problematic situations may arise in the organization and the managers have to solve the problem as it is their prior responsibility. The managers should not only provide a solution for the problem but they should also look for the actual reason for the misdeed. He should find out who the actual guilty is. A mistake can take place because of many reasons in an organization but it is unfair to hold someone guilty for that only because of his or her behavior (Jackson et al. 2012). He should always look at the scenario why that thing happened under what circumstances. He should consider those circumstances and then should have taken the final decision (Ford and Richardson 2013).

The importance of perception is crucial in terms of organizational change because the managers have to make the employees aware that the organization is going to take some necessary steps for some changes within the organization (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). The employees and other people associated people may take some time in order to adjust to those situations. The managers should give him some time to adjust with the new atmosphere. Managers should not indulge in internal office politics and should not allow the employees to do that as well during changes in organization (Pettigrew 2014). Thus, perception can be relevant in organizational change (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014).

Application of the theories:

From the assessment of above theories, it can be mentioned that organizational change is obvious for achieving continues success in the market. Organizational change allows businesses to make necessary adjustments for handling different market related challenges in an effective manner. Now, in order to adjust with the changes in operational procedure, the managers will have to focus on developing such personality that can help in cope up with the changes. Personality reflects the way managers or leaders will interact with other staffs (Rychlak 2013). Therefore, it is critical to formulate such personality that can allow leaders to mix with the employees easily. Now, managers will have to educate employees regarding the necessity of implementing changes in the operational procedure. It will help organizations to reduce challenges associated with the employee rigidity in an effective manner. As per the article by Gholami et al. (2013), managers need to have capability of thinking beyond the personal benefits or disadvantage. Otherwise, it will directly create negative perspective among the employees regarding any changes in the operational procedure. Now, big five model has highlighted key attributes that managers need to possess for covering all aspect of the organizational change. For instance, openness to change is extremely important for creating positive perspective towards the organizational changes. The openness attributes of managers can also encourage employees to take organizational change as a challenge for handling different future perspectives. As illustrated by Creasy and Anantatmula (2013) continues technological evaluation enforces organizations to make specific changes in the operational procedure for remaining competitive in the market. Therefore, technological changes have become regular cause of actions for the businesses. Hence, it is also important for the employees to remain open towards any changes for providing proper support to the organization. Similarly, other mentioned attributes of big five model can allow organizations to cover all aspect of the business procedure. For instance, managers need to have specific communicational skills for performing all the responsibilities in an effective manner. Therefore, extrovert managers are likely to build strong relationship with all the employees compared with introvert managers (Gupta and Muita 2013). It has been assessed that maintenance of strong relationship with the employees is essential for creating desired impact with the organizational change procedure. On the other hand, proper understanding of employee extraversion perspective will allow managers to formulate specific communicational channel for each employee so that they can able to understand their roles and responsibilities effectively (Tippin, Lafreniere and Page 2012). It will allow managers to provide clear guidelines to all the employees regarding their new roles and responsibilities due to change in the operational procedure. Similarly, agreeableness focuses on assessing the kind, affectionate and sympathetic nature of the people. Now, managers need to develop appropriate affectionate and sympathetic skills towards the employees for handling different errors in the operational process. On the other hand, agreeableness of managers will allow employees to create strong bonding with all the senior executive of the organization. Thus, it will help to create positive work culture, which is essential to handle challenges associated with the operational procedure. In fact, positive work culture allows businesses to develop openness towards any changes in the business process. Hence, it will eventually create positive impact in handling all the activities related with the organizational change procedure.   

As stated by Srivastava (2013) organization initiates change for two prime factors including external and internal factors. Either it initiates changes to maintain competitive advantage in the market or increasing popularity of different disruptive technologies. Whatever may be the case, leaders will have to play crucial role for covering all areas related to organizational changes. Therefore, proper understanding of employee perspectives towards any changes in the operational process is critical for creating desired impact on the market. For that reason, leaders will have to focus on assessing external and individual factors in an appropriate manner. Now, in order to evaluate all the external factors in an effective way, the leaders will have to focus on identifying triggers to change. It will allow businesses to minimize internal resistance of the employees in an appropriate way. According to human psychology, same incident can create different psychological perspective for different individuals (Cohen, Ornoy and Keren 2013). Therefore, it is critical for the businesses to assess all the differences associated with the business procedure in an effective way. Proper understanding of employee perspective allows businesses to maximize the utility of the current resources. Therefore, it eventually will create positive impact on the operational procedures. For that reason, many studies have highlighted the significance of keeping entire workforce motivated towards the provided roles and responsibilities. Now, in order to keep employees motivated and satisfied with the provided roles and responsibilities, leaders need to identify the negative factors in an effective way (Kastanakis and Voyer 2014). Therefore, proper identification of all the negative factors requires effective understanding of employee perspectives. It will help managers to initiate different strategies for achieving sustainable growth in the market.

Recommendations and Conclusion:       

The above illustration has highlighted the significance of assessing the perception of the employees in order to create desired impact with the organizational changes. Therefore, all the managers need to focus on developing specific strategies for understanding the perception of the employees in an effective way. For instance, managers can focus on conducting different individual and group sessions with employees to understand the kind of challenges they are facing in performing all the activities associated with the business procedure. On the other hand, the essay also highlighted the significance of developing specific personality of the managers. The essay has mentioned that manager personality can have serious impact on the motivation and satisfaction level of the employees. Hence, all the managers will have to focus on developing such personality that can able to build strong relationship with the employees. It will help employees to understand the necessity to initiate change in the business procedure, which will reduce internal rigidity related challenges in an effective manner. To conclude, it can be mentioned that appropriate use of perception and personality is critical for fulfilling all the aims of businesses.

References  

Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.

Benn, S., Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

Burke, W.W. and Noumair, D.A., 2015. Organization development: A process of learning and changing. FT Press.

Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Cobb-Clark, D.A. and Schurer, S., 2012. The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics Letters, 115(1), pp.11-15.

Cohen, Y., Ornoy, H. and Keren, B., 2013. MBTI personality types of project managers and their success: A field survey. Project Management Journal, 44(3), pp.78-87.

Coleman, M.D., 2013. Emotion and the ultimate attribution error. Current Psychology, 32(1), pp.71-81.

Creasy, T. and Anantatmula, V.S., 2013. From every direction—How personality traits and dimensions of project managers can conceptually affect project success. Project Management Journal, 44(6), pp.36-51.

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Ewen, R., 2014. An introduction to theories of personality. Psychology Press.

Foley, R.A. and Lewin, R., 2013. Principles of human evolution. John Wiley & Sons.

Ford, R.C. and Richardson, W.D., 2013. Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature. In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 19-44). Springer Netherlands.

Gholami, R., Sulaiman, A.B., Ramayah, T. and Molla, A., 2013. Senior managers’ perception on green information systems (IS) adoption and environmental performance: Results from a field survey. Information & Management, 50(7), pp.431-438.

Gupta, A. and Muita, S.R., 2013. Relationship between entrepreneurial personality, performance, job satisfaction and operations strategy: an empirical examination. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(2), p.86.

Jackson, E.M., Rossi, M.E., Rickamer Hoover, E. and Johnson, R.E., 2012. Relationships of leader reward behavior with employee behavior: Fairness and morale as key mediators. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33(7), pp.646-661.

Kastanakis, M.N. and Voyer, B.G., 2014. The effect of culture on perception and cognition: A conceptual framework. Journal of Business Research, 67(4), pp.425-433.

Leutner, F., Ahmetoglu, G., Akhtar, R. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2014. The relationship between the entrepreneurial personality and the Big Five personality traits. Personality and individual differences, 63, pp.58-63.

Lunenburg, F.C., 2012. Power and leadership: an influence process. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), pp.1-9.

Madsen, T.L. and Walker, G., 2015. Modern competitive strategy. McGraw Hill.

Ovsiy, A., 2013. Motivation in Today's Workplace.

Pettigrew, A.M., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.

Rychlak, J.F., 2013. Personality and life-style of young male managers: A logical learning theory analysis. Elsevier.

Srivastava, S., 2013. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment relationship: Effect of personality variables. Vision, 17(2), pp.159-167.

Tippin, G.K., Lafreniere, K.D. and Page, S., 2012. Student perception of academic grading: Personality, academic orientation, and effort. Active Learning in Higher Education, 13(1), pp.51-61.