How Change Impacts Various Individuals in an Organization
An organization has previously communicated with its customers through phone and email. After an evaluation, the company has decided email communications are often confusing and require several additional contacts, where a phone call would likely solve the problem in one step. As a result, the company will be phasing out email communication over the next sixty days.
Imagine how things would be for:
The CEO
Upper management
Lower management
Lower level employee (salary)
Hourly waged employee
Part time employee
Note: In your response you should discuss the impact of the change, not whether this is a good idea or not.
Solution
The Impact of Change Across the Organization
Organizational change is an aspect of great importance at all levels of the organization, given the impact that it has on the normal operations. It is important to note that it is the people in the organization who change and not the company. As such, the impact of the change process on the various parts of workforce ought to be established in order to effectively implement the elements of the change.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is at the helm of the organization and hence the prime decision maker. He or she also links the organization to the shareholders or owners. The change involving a shift from the use of e-mails to the use of phone calls may affect his leadership approach and require a change in the form of leadership, as unlike emails, phone calls involve immediate response and directly addressing the needs of the customers. The CEO may be required to shift to a more transformational style of leadership in order to gradually develop a culture of good etiquette and know-how of all the aspects of the company’s business among the employees (Goksoy, 2015, p. 225).
The Upper management on the other hand is responsible for establishing the strategy through which the change will be implemented and allocating the necessary resources towards the implementation of such a change (Pasmore, Noumair, Shani, & Woodman, 2013, p. 249). It is important to note that strategy is important in determining the course of any change process and hence the upper management are faced with the task of ensuring that proper planning has been put in place towards achievement of the organizational goals and objectives.
On the other hand, lower management is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the change. The teams run by these managers are responsible for ensuring that the change process is a success (Benn, Dunphy, & Griffiths, 2014, p. 306). As such, these managers assign tasks to the employees, ensuring that all the aspects of the change are implemented. The managers also effectively communicate the change to the employees, including the impact of the change on them and liaising with such employees. They would also further advocate for the change and manage resistance.
The lower level employee will be required to directly implement the change and effect the switch from email communication to phone call communication (Benn, Dunphy, & Griffiths, 2014, p. 315). For this case, the employees may need to be retrained in order to major on phone calls as a way to interact with the consumers. There may be a change in shifts as phone calls require prompt response as compared to the use of emails. The salaries of the employees may be revised upwards considering how tasking it is to handle the employees through phone calls as compared to emails, through which one may send the same response to a number of recipients.
It is also important to note that the hourly waged employee will be affected by the new change due to the increased demand for time given to the customers. As such, most of these employees may have their tasks increased, an aspect that will require revision of their salaries. These employees will also require additional training to ensure that they are well equipped to handle customers on the phone (Benn, Dunphy, & Griffiths, 2014, p. 289).
Some of the part-time employees are likely to lose jobs in the case of organizational change as the organization seeks to minimize cost and increase the productivity of its permanent employees (Oreg, Michel, & Todnem, 2013, p. 15). As such, in the case of the switch from email communication to phone calls, some of the employees that initially dealt with emails are likely to lose their jobs as that arm is will be no longer functional.
References
Benn, S., Dunphy, D., & Griffiths, A. (2014). Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability. London: Routledge.
Goksoy, A. (2015). Organizational Change Management Strategies in Modern Business. 225: IGI Global.
Oreg, S., Michel, A., & Todnem, R. (2013). The Psychology of Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employee’s Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pasmore, W. A., Noumair, D. A., Shani, A. B., & Woodman, R. (2013). Research in Organizational Change and Development. Bingley, UK: Emerald Books.