Policy Development - The Policy of Change
Policy Development - The Policy of Change
Change is inevitable in any organisation whether the change the incremental or revolutionary depends on a number of factors in circumstances.
The change process by nature is challenging and threatening and elicits a number of different responses from different people inside an organisation. Failure to manage the change process adequately and appropriately can lead to extreme difficulties inside an organisation. Implementation of new policies, procedures, organisational restructuring, rightsizing, mergers and acquisitions all have a significant impact on the staff that are employed within an organisation.
In times of uncertainty organisational responses can elicit feelings of deep fear and uncertainty within the staff group peace feelings if not managed in an appropriate manner can have a disastrous effect on organisational performance, productivity, and staff morale.
One of the key roles of leaders is to create an environment within their organisations where change can be implemented without resulting in staff feeling as though they are threatened. Staff need to be encouraged and appropriately manipulated so that they can thrive in an ever-changing organisational environment. The energy levels required by leaders to implement an effective change process and enormously high and a significant amount of research to show on that a great proportion of this energy is required to help sustain staff morale and confidence. If change programs could be introduced in such a manner as to alleviate the majority of staff concerns and these energy levels can be directed at ensuring a smooth change transition.
Change no matter how well it is managed within an organisation will always create some level of discomfort and in some circumstances anger. It has been stated that culture is the need for felt order in other words organisational culture organisational structure is the need for felt order and security changing evidently changes the balance of felt order and security and as soon as this process is initiated feelings of insecurity, fear, frustration and anger are an inevitable consequences. One of the realities of organisational management is that few managers and supervisors are trained or skilled at dealing with the emotional outburst that is part of the change process. As for the laws of physics where every action has an equal and opposite reaction these same laws can be applied to an organisation. For every action by management and/or staff creates an equal and opposite reaction within the organisation.
Managers discuss the prospect of a new staff roster. Staff reacting relent feeling threatened identifying that they may lose overtime et cetera the negative reaction to the change process in turn creates a feeling of and you can frustration and understanding and supervisors and leaders. If this spiral is not managed in a proper manner the inevitable consequence will be a deterioration in the relationship between leaders of the organisation and their followers. Both groups inherently mistrusting each other making future negotiations and introduction of additional change processes even more complicated and almost doomed to failure before they are commenced.
Organisations see their staff group as the enemy, and the staff group see their leaders and managers in the same light. There are many strategies that can be implemented to help short-circuit and break this spiral of conflict. One of the most effective is to bring short-term change management agent someone who is skilled in identifying organisational issues and has an intimate understanding of organisational behaviour. Consultants can work both with staff groups, unions, and leaders to create a transitional plan that will help ensure a smooth introduction of change processes and change outcomes.
The feelings of anger fear and frustration can oftentimes be transferred to the consultant as opposed to being internalised within the organisation. The consultant working with the organisation for a brief period 1 to 2 months is in a position to become a sounding board for both groups within the organisation. This functionary role can if managed properly enable the organisation to move forward in a cohesive nonthreatening energising manner. There are a number of steps that leaders can take within an organisation that will assist in relieving some of the anger that is inevitable as changes implemented some of these steps are:
Provide early communication with sufficient detail to stop rumours.
Management to hold frequent meetings with staff and conduct both formal and informal surveys.
Create implementation committees made up of management and staff representatives.
Have one central person appointed as information officer to ensure that accurate and timely information is the within the organisation.
Develop strategies to links between top and lower levels of the organisation.
Provide open opportunities for dialogue within the organisation frequent staff meetings.
Understanding that staff are inevitably going to feel anger frustration and grie expect f this is a normal process for change.
The implementation and management of change within organisations is crucial in critical to the ongoing success of the organisation unfortunately a significant number of leaders and supervisors do not have the requisite skills to enable them to implement change process in an appropriate manner. The end result is that change becomes destructive in an organisation is opposed to life-giving. Change processes mismanage create a lifelong organisational barriers that will inhibit the future ability of the organisation to change as is required to change to meet its ever developing consumer and organisational needs.
Policy and procedure manuals need to be developed in detail on the change implementation process these policy should be developed in consultation with staff and union members to ensure a smooth transition to change. The foundation for a change process is an appropriate policy and detailed procedure that is clearly understood and followed. This will not entirely eliminate the anger and frustration at Wolf provide steppingstones that managers and staff can follow to help provide a mechanism for an appropriate change process to be implemented.
Michael D Leonard is Chief Executive Officer of Health Ed Dimensions International and has over 25 years experience in the management of Healthcare Organisations and the delivery of leadership management programs. Michael has worked both nationally and internationally and has lectured for a number of Universities in the areas of Change Management, Organisational Behaviour,Marketing, Leadership and Management, Policy Development and Analysis.
Michael invites you to visit his website http://www.developingpolicy.com where you can read a blog on leadership issues and you can also download a copy of Effective Policy Writing an eBook providing detailed information on the development and implementation of policy initiatives. Michael is available to conduct in-house leadership mentoring programs, leadership coaching or Organisational wide reviews and can be contacted at myknowledgepoint@gmail.com.
Thank you for the time you have taken in reading this article.
Some Excellent C# Development Tools! The Relevance of Spiritual Development to Our Religious Life XDA Development Help Maximize Efficiency With Clinical Development Practice Architectural 3d Modeling An Intro To Architectural Models Development Vanuatu Volunteer: Turtles and Community Development GPS Devices Developments: How More Tracking Could Mean More Freedom The reason for the development of presbyopia Custom development in a nutshell New Faces Development Agency West Lake Will Be Closed Under The Western Development To Solve A 10 The Construction Of Intelligent Community Development Projects On How To Break Through The Having A Personal Development And Prosperity