ASSIGNMENT 8-1

Analysis of Organizations Change Management

Assignment 2: LASA

Karen Crump

Argosy University

External conflicts refer to struggles between characters in an organization with an external character. (Arnold, 1993). External conflicts can be caused when an organizations management or a business owner does not satisfy employees in some manner. It is also worth noting that conflicts are capable of causing both positive implications as well as negative implications. It can help a management of an organization to identify some of its weaknesses and loopholes and to the contrary, it can also cripple the operations of an organization if not well evaluated.

When employees in an organization are not happy or dissatisfied due to a specific action by the management, their morale to provide excellent services to an organization becomes low hence affecting the end product being provided to the customers. With this kind of trend, an external conflict may start to arise between the customers and the company. Customer’s complaints will be the order of the day in the company and the companies overall profit may start to decline day by day due to poor products or poor services. When this continues for a while in the organization, the economic status of the organization will be seriously impacted affecting all another key areas of operations in the organization. This conflict may also touch on the legal areas of an organization. The poor quality of products caused by employee dissatisfaction may lead to legal actions being taken against the organization.

With the economic crisis looming in an organization, a conflict between the organization and the suppliers’ is bound to arise. The economic crisis in an organization will put the organization in a situation where it will not be able to pay all its suppliers effectively. This will again lead to legal actions being taken against the organization for not being able to pay its suppliers

The stakeholder group that will be affected most by the company’s action of downsizing are the employees leading to a differences in leadership styles type of conflict. Arnold, (1993) refers to the difference in leadership styles as a type of conflict that arises when the employees working under a given leader do not go well with the leadership style of that specific leader. In our case, the employees were not happy with the leadership style portrayed by the management to establish a staff reduction of 15% across the board. This reduction did not go well with the employees as they were the ones affected most. It is therefore important for the management to establish a clear understanding between them and all the stakeholders who will be affected before initiating such actions. The leadership should ensure that it sets a concrete set of principles and values that will provide a mechanism on how all stakeholders will be involved in such decisions. It is therefore important for an organization to have a team leadership that is able, skilled and capable of handling and actively managing conflicts in an organization.

Marquis & Huston, (2009) defines Team Leaders as individuals mandated to provide direction, guidance as well as instructions to a given group of people or “team” with an aim of accomplishing specific goals. It is, therefore, important for a team leader to know all his team member’s behaviors and character. He should be able to evaluate the team member’s weaknesses, strengths and what motivates them. With an adequate knowledge of strengths, weaknesses and motivational factors of team members, team leaders will be in a position to manage the teams effectively to accomplish the set organizational objectives

Team leadership in an organization plays different roles in preventing and effectively managing conflict in an organization. It is important for team leadership to ensure that they are familiar with all the areas conflicts may arise from within the teams. Some of the areas to note are; some conflicts may arise from subgroups within a team. This is a situation where each subgroup has its own opinions and will stick together whatsoever to protect their opinion from being ruled out by the other teams or by the team leader himself. Another area to watch out is in situations where the entire team may disagree with the team leader. This can cause disorganization as the team members fail to follow the directions of their team leader causing a serious conflict between the members of a team and their team leader. Some conflicts may also arise between a given team and other teams within an organization or other departments in an organization.

In an attempt to manage and prevent conflicts, team leadership should be able to identify some of the symptoms of conflicts before they become a nightmare to an organization. One of the popular team conflict symptoms is lack of communication. Lack of respectful communication is usually identified when the teams start to fail in having meaningful meetings (Likert & Likert, 1976). It causes a situation where team members attend the meetings but silence prevails throughout the meeting with the only team lead talking throughout the meeting. Lack of communication can also be identified when team members do not get along and to extreme cases fail to talk to one another.

Lack of trust is another symptom that team leadership should watch in managing and preventing conflicts. When the team members start to doubt one another then a looming trust crisis is underway. When trust issues emerge in a team, the habit of blame games becomes the order of the day as team members try to protect themselves and their opinions. Team lead can identify trust issue when he observes frequent gossips going on in the team with frequent side conversations. This leads to enmity within the team (Likert & Likert, 1976).

Another symptom of conflict in teams that team leadership should be able to identify is when the team members have opposing agendas. It is important for team leads to identify and be able to differentiate opposing agendas with different opinions. Members having different opinions can be very healthy in getting work done if the opinions are well managed. However, opposing agendas is where two or more team members are fiercely having totally different approaches to a given situation. Opposing agendas can lead to confusion in a team and can make the team lose sight of the intended goal (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks, 2001). Teams must always work towards a common goal to ensure the set objectives are all achieved at the end. Team leadership should, therefore, strive to identify all the symptoms of tea, conflicts within their teams and work round the clock to ensure they are timely resolved as well as managed to the advantage of the success of the team.

The overall effectiveness of teams in preventing and managing conflicts can be achieved when a team starts to be able to work together as a team towards increasing the productivity and effectiveness of a team. It is important for team leadership to be able to understand the various aspects of teamwork that can assist in conflict management and resolution. To maintain the effectiveness of the group to avoid conflicts, the team leader and all the team members should ensure that there is an adequate practice of equality within the team. This will help the team to identify all the methods of delegating activities which will be equally effective to all team members. Equality prevents team members from alienation feelings hence helping in building the team purpose as well as uniform distribution of responsibilities.

It is also important for a team to clearly identify its own hierarchy. This will help keep the group running effectively to avoid conflicts. The team leader needs to provide principles and values that will help members to have respect for the hierarchy. The team should also ensure that there are laid down strategies for replacing weak leadership before they emerge as serious conflicts. This can be done by re-examining the team hierarchy and exercise voting system to make changes to the group hierarchy to help resolve and prevent conflicts.

Support and feedback is also another way team leadership can ensure group effective and avoid conflicts. The team should identify its own way of supporting team members and provide timely feedback to them. Lack of team support and feedback on performance in a team may bring a lot of conflicts as the members will not be aware of their performance in the team as well as whether their performance is acceptable or not. it is important for team leadership to ensure that a there is effective communication of how the team is performing to the team members. This can be achieved by having weekly meetings where team members can discuss their performance and assist each other resolve workplace issues.

Diversity is another source of conflict in the team. Whenever there is no tolerance to the diverse background of team members it can lead to conflicts. It is important for team leadership to ensure that all team members understand one another and dismisses intolerant behaviors. There is also diversity in the experience where some team members may feel to have a lot of experience in their duties than others causing others with less experience to feel to feel inadequate. The teal leadership should ensure that he does not use same members for important tasks throughout. There should be a rotation to that effect to help every member realize his value in a team hence lowering chances of conflicts.

In managing the group conflicts, team leadership should ensure that they exercise the right timing for their actions. Rupesinghe, (1992) identifies that the right time to take action in a group to avoid conflicts is when there is solid evidence on the subject in question. Team leads should realize that leadership is all about taking actions before it is too late or before you lose the respect of your members. It is also important for team leadership to exercise respect for differences. It is to the value of the group when a team leader is capable of seeing things from different points of view and respecting every member’s opinions. Rupesinghe, (1992) identifies that respecting differences in people can assist in understanding how to manage team conflicts and it is worth noting that each team member represents unique skills necessary for accomplishing team objectives and goals.

For team leadership to be able to effectively manage conflicts, they ought to ensure that they exhibit certain characters and qualities within them. An effective teal leader must exhibit a variety of traits that will encourage his team members to respect and follow him. One key trait is communication. In conflict management as well as making a group effective, a team leader must be able to communicate clearly. Quality spoken and written communication skills allow team leadership to present his expectations to his team members in a way that every team member understands. Effective communication exhibited by the team leader also allows the members to be able to listen to the inputs of other members.

Effective communication by the team leader helps in eliminating confusion among the team members and can enhances a healthy working environment. Effective communication also enhances work to be done faster and effectively.

It is important for team leaders to develop organizational skills that will assist them in running their teams smoothly as well as managing any conflict that might arise. Organizational skills help team leader to plan strategies and objectives in a way that team members can perform to their very best. Organizational skills give a team leads what it takes to present team strategies in a manner that is acceptable by everyone reducing chances of conflicts arising in the team. The skills assist team leads to come up with strategies that maintain order and which guides the team members towards meeting the goals and objectives of the team.

Effective team leaders must also ensure that they exercise respect to others. He must ensure that there is a lot of respect for him and the team members. According to Bradley, Anderson, Baur & Klotz, (2015), a respectful leader encourages employee by offering them with an ample opportunity to express their opinions freely on issues and decisions that affects them. Team leaders also need to be fair and kind while dealing with the group members with regards to rewards and recognition within the group. Team leaders must ensure that all members receive the same and equal treatments at all times. This will greatly help in preventing conflicts within the groups.

Team leaders must also exhibit traits of willingness to delegate. Effective team leaders must be able and be willing to share some potions of leadership with the rest of the team members through delegation. The team leader should always delegate certain responsibilities to trusted members of the team. This allows the team leaders to concentrate on certain important activities of the team which are inline with the goals and objectives of the team. Team leaders must also strive to be powerful facilitators. This will assist members to identify the team goals as well as action plans that facilitate the achievement of set goals and objectives.

Team leaders must also be skilled negotiators. Team leaders must acquire negotiation skills so that they can be able to achieve results as well as reach an understanding in cases where team conflicts arise. Effective team leaders are also able to use negotiation skills to improve the decision-making process in the team for the best interest of all team members. Team leaders must also exhibit traits of confidence. Team leaders must also be confident in their abilities and also the abilities of their team members. This will help reassures his authority within the team.

A team leader also needs to have what it takes to build a productive team. Team leaders should, therefore, come up with strategies and steps for building a solid team that can help him achieve the set goals and objectives. One of the best ways of building such teams is appreciative. It’s important for team leaders to often appreciate those in his team. Team leaders can achieve this by trying their best to connect with all the team members while making an effort to learn about their personalities and interest as well as what motivates them most and some of their dislikes as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

The team leader can also build a very productive team by teaching his team to be superstars. The team leader can achieve this by providing a continuous training to the team members. This will help the team members build their skills and self-confidence in handling tasks as well as in making concrete decisions that improve the operations of the group and the business at large. The team leader can also ensure he conducts weekly or monthly team workshops to help in teaching the key elements and procedures pertaining to the operations of a business and the team. Through constant training on job aspects, employees find themselves becoming accurate and the best that can be.

Making team members feel as important as they truly are, is also a way of building productive teams. Team leaders can achieve this by leaving members to constantly think about the problems the organization is facing. This will give chances of such employees identifying opportunities for improvements which can never be identified by the team leader. This aspect can also be enhanced by avoiding negative responses to team members whenever they give inappropriate ideas or suggestions. Instead, the team leader can find a way of gently turning down such ideas while giving compliments to the efforts made to think outside the box. Team members often enjoy working in a team where their efforts are recognized (Bourne, 2016).

Building a solid and productive team also requires the team leader to offer rewards and gifts whenever there are positive results. Team leaders should strive to set targets for all the team members. Targets normally motivate employees to work even harder. Once a set target is met, the team leader should ensure that he offers rewards and gifts to appreciate such results. The team leader should also strive hire have the right talent in his team and also fire time waster who pulls back the efforts of the team back.

Organizational change according to Bourne, (2016) refers to the process of reviewing and modifying certain structures and processes of the organization due to some internal or external demands. Organizations worldwide strive to make organizational changes to adapt to the ever-changing business environments. Companies that do not embrace change may collapse. Change is, however, difficult to execute but at the same time very essential in the existence of an organization. An organization may face resistance to change from its employees and other stakeholders of the organization. To successfully execute organizational changes, it is important for an organization to maintain a good relationship with all its stakeholders as they also determine whether the change will be successful or not.

Before making any attempt to proceed with a given organizational change, it is important for an organization to come up with strategies for maintaining relationships with all its stakeholders. There are a number of benefits that may accrue when this relationship is maintained throughout the organizational change. One being that the organization will be able enhances its capacity to innovate through a transparent gathering of policies and ideas that can help in making the change a success. When relationships with stakeholders are maintained, an organization stands a chance of having a variety of ideas from different stakeholders making it easy to execute changes.

Maintaining relationship with stakeholders also will enhance the organization's ability to account for investments of funds and resources in the project. There will be no questions raised later regarding the funds and investments on the project because every stakeholder will be aware of how the change has been executed hence no disruptions caused that may jeopardize the success of the change. Stakeholder relationships will also assist the organization to improve the confidence of the community by making them realize the initiatives taken by the organization in executing the organizational change.

Relationship with stakeholders also improves the quality of decisions made by the organizations towards the success of the organizational change. With all stakeholders involved and engaged. An organization is likely to make concrete decisions regarding the changes that need to be affected when there is a range of ideas into play. This range of ideas cannot be achieved when stakeholders are not involved. Their ideas and viewpoints will also be important especially when an organization wants to make certain improvements in the process of change.

Maintaining relationships with stakeholders is also important in risk management during organizational change. By engaging stakeholders, an organization will be able to improve on risk management practices by allowing the associated risks to be identified in time hence reducing possible occurrence of future risks that may affect the execution of organizational change. Stakeholders coming together are able to identify every loophole in the changing development which may cause risks hence it is to the value of an organization to ensure that it maintains the relationship with its stakeholders all throughout the organizational change.

It is equally important to maintain a relationship with stakeholders so as to get financial assistance if such cases arise. Executing organizational changes in many cases requires some huge amount of funds. When stakeholders are involved and the expected change receives a drawback that needs some money, it is possible for the stakeholders to come together to give contributions to that effect hence boosting the organization's capability to execute changes. When stakeholders are not involved and such extreme cases arise, the organization can possibly lack otherwise and drop the change

There are strategies that should be taken into account for the organization to ensure effective management of unforeseen conflicts during the process of downsizing. Number one strategy I may recommend for this organization is to set clear communication mechanisms. The organization should ensure that the communication with all its stakeholders is one that is very clear and productive. Clear communication will prevent the organization's stakeholders from gossiping about the change and instead will help the organization to come up with policies which will lead to the success of the change. Clear communication will also assist the organization to explain in detail all the aspects regarding the change hence reducing the possibilities of resistance to change.

Another strategy is to set clear expectations. Setting clear expectations to assist in creating awareness of what needs to be done among the stakeholders and what needs not to be done. The best way to achieve this is to ensure that all the organization's stakeholders are aligned to the visions and missions of the organization as well as the key objectives that need to be achieved from the change. This will make them be aware of the reasons why the organization wants to downsize. Likert & Likert, (1976) once said that never assume everyone knows what you want.

The company should ensure that it comes up with strategies for embracing conflicts. The company management and the stakeholders should be aware that conflicts do occur and they should be prepared to embrace it instead of running away from it. Having the strategies and what it takes to embrace conflicts will help in managing conflicts. Embracing conflicts will give the organization the power to turn around a negative experience to a positive one.

Another way to prevent conflict is by avoiding provokers. The organization should conduct a survey of all its stakeholders including employees and identify those stakeholders who are more provokers of conflict than the rest. Arnold, (1993) cites that trigger groups are those groups or stakeholders who do all that is within their power to engage others in a conflict or to initiate a problem that can lead to conflict. It is therefore important for an organization to identify such stakeholders and come up with a way of dealing with them before they make situations go out of hand.

The organization should ensure that it acquires the right leadership to effect the change. Skilled team players are capable of maneuvering between difficulties to give an organization the best change implementation. It is therefore very crucial for an organization to acquire the right talent capable of handling all the tasks related to the change. Having the right talent for the team lead will also ensure that all the procedures that are associated with downsizing the organization's operations. There should also be set guidelines for quality. The organization should ensure that it expresses equality in all its operations. With equality, no stakeholder will feel that the downsizing affects them the most than other people. They will, therefore, accept and support the organizations initiative to downsize.

It is also important for an organization to come up with ways of maintaining and building stakeholder relationships. An organization should ensure that it understands who the stakeholders are. Many projects often fail due to the organizations failure to identify who the stakeholders are. With identifying the stakeholders, an organization will be able to identify all the insights and requirements essential for the success of a given project they want to execute. It should go a head and ask the other already identified stakeholders if there are anyone who still needs to be involved.

Another way to build and maintain stakeholder relationships is by identifying stakeholders with high levels of influence and power. This approach will help the organization to identify those stakeholders to direct most of their efforts at. This should be done by evaluating those with the power to define the project, or those with the ability to influence the direction taken by a project as well as those stakeholders with the ability to help the organization move the project forward.

Communicating with clarity and honesty can also help deepen the relationship between an organization and the stakeholders. Stakeholders often want to know the true status of the project, the influence of the project on them as well as what they can possibly do to help move the project to success. This should be done through continuous update of stakeholders on the progress of the project. This can be done through monthly status reports as well as through weekly executive summaries.

Building relationships also requires organizations to demonstrate their level of competence to their stakeholders. This can be done by organizations continuously delivering its promises as well as walking it talk in all aspects of the project. It is also important for organizations to strive to understand the stakeholder’s world in an attempt to build a good relationship with them. Stakeholders will only open up to an organization when they feel their world is fully understood and that the organization has their interests at heart.

Reference

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