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Module 6 Capstone Assignment: Engaging Employees in Organizational Technology Change

Employee Engagement in Organizational Change

Technological Trends Impacting Small Business

Globalization, swift technological advancement, and the COVID-19 pandemic have set the stage for significant challenges for small businesses all over the world. In this way, technology and innovation can help companies swiftly adjust to the trends and tendencies prevailing in the market today. Implementation of new marketing strategies based on social media communication and data analytics is one of the primary drivers for small businesses during the coronavirus pandemics.

Globalization provided an opportunity for the companies to expand their customer segmentation, thereby appealing to a more significant number of clients worldwide. Creating accounts on various social media platforms, particularly on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, can serve as a beneficial tool for reaching out to clients and establishing with them more efficient and credible communication. Not only can companies sell their products and services online via social media, but they also have great opportunities to create a sense of value and strengthen brand recognition. Social media marketing also refers to the enhanced analysis of the primary company’s audience and leads to a more thorough understanding of the market. In this regard, the company can create meaningful relationships with customers based on mutual interest, trust, and innovation. The ability to acknowledge the significance of the clients’ feedback and recognize opportunities for unconventional thinking can transform into a foundation of the competitive edge for the business. Given stiff international competitiveness and socio-political instability associated with the COVID-19 pandemics, small businesses can receive support from local and global communities while reaching out to various client segments.

When it comes to strengthening the company’s presence on the Internet, data analytics constitutes one of the most efficient tools for improved marketing strategies. Customer acquisition and retention of loyal clients should be in the spotlight of businesses’ attention. In this way, data analytics can become a beneficial mechanism to explore possible limitations and challenges facing the business from a short- and long-term perspective. It consists in the ability to explore the hidden patterns in the company’s operations and implement better decision-making strategies (Akpan, Soopramanien & Kwak, 2020). At the same time, the deployment of data analytics in the everyday operations of the organization requires competence and experience in efficient and productive data interpretation. On the one hand, analytics of online activities and processes can eventually transform into a strong competitive advantage for the company, thereby revealing potential issues and possibilities for its growth and development. It also helps build more efficient and well-justified strategic financial planning. On the other hand, small business owners can to be reluctant about implementing a much-needed change when it comes to data management. This tendency partly stems from a lack of specific knowledge and competence in finding hidden patterns in data. A failure to use data analytics for enhanced business functioning can have an adverse impact on adjusting to the market trends and creating more beneficial relationships with clients.

Technology Change for Small Business

Successful change implementation requires specific strategies designed to support and maintain the transformation. There is an opportunity to bring innovation to the business functioning by appealing to the company’s employees. The strategies on the effective transition to the organizational change refer to:

1. Establishing clear and transparent communication. Productive, credible, and transparent interactions among the team members refer to an indispensable part of technology implementation. The ability to reach a consensus can be defined as one of the primary characteristics that helps ensure sustainable progress and beneficial discussion of controversial and complex issues on the way to more innovative functioning. Team leaders and business owners should establish open and direct communication among the participants of organizational change projects to drive improved results. In addition to credibility and transparency, leaders should also create a sense of motivation and commitment. Inspiring employees to engage in more profound use of technology in a small business can bring unconventional thinking and improved focus on enhanced marketing practices.

2. Setting achievable and clear-cut goals for a specific timeframe. The ability to achieve progress in organizational change implementation defines the future failure or success of the project. Project managers should communicate clear goals to their employees so that they can have a thorough understanding of what is necessary for the change implementation. Vague and inconsistent demands can result in lower productivity and decreased motivation to engage in using social media or data analytics in the everyday operations of the business. In addition to a clear explanation of change implementation goals, it is also crucial to communicate why specific steps are necessary for achieving certain results. Team cooperation on the vision of the change and technology can guide the small business to more productive operations and better results.

3. Proving sufficient training and support. While amid technology implementation, the team can face insufficient knowledge and incompetence in certain knowledge areas. In this way, there is a strong need for the organization to ensure that employees have access to necessary information on how to enhance their vision of the new technology processes and ultimately improve their performance. When it comes to the small businesses, creating training programs and advancing the knowledge of employees can become a challenging endeavor due to the financial limitations. At the same time, a variety of online platforms and free resources provide opportunity to necessary skills for social media marketing and data management. The question of these tools successful implementation is closely connected to the ability to motivate and encourage employees to acquire new knowledge and commit to the change. A failure to provide support and conduct training programs can lead to a misunderstanding of the goals and necessity of technology innovation.

4. Accumulating feedback and dealing with change resistance. Technology and new ways of digital marketing can face resistance of the employees. Successful innovative strategies should be built on mutual trust and understanding among the management and employees, which is closely intertwined with feedback and knowledge sharing (Henley & Song, 2019). In addition to training programs, the small business can use the feedback of employees to create a more clear understanding of the grand scheme of factors influencing the future of the change in question. It is crucial to use cooperation and communicate controversial issues related to a specific change. This approach can eventually result in a reappraisal of view on social media and data analytics in a particular company.

5. Monitoring change implementation. The company should track the technology’s implementation progress to understand whether it accumulates a positive impact on the company’s functioning. The process of monitoring and supervision should not limit and negatively influence the team members’ participation. Instead, it should become a tool for a more comprehensive analysis of how using social media and data management impact the company’s marketing strategy and communication with customers. Monitoring refers to an integral element of organizational change as it provides an opportunity to implement new transformations and adjust technology to the needs of the company in a specific period.

Reviewing the Effectiveness of Technology Implementation

Reviewing and monitoring technology implementation requires a step-by-step strategy. It can encompass an analysis of specific variables and factors that are related to customer feedback, sales, revenues, and overall company profitability. Changes in these variables should demonstrate the impact of a particular technology on the company’s operations. Tracking qualitative measures can involve questionnaires, surveys, feedback forms, or interviews of stakeholders. The supervision of employee performance can also serve as a tool for assessing implementation effectiveness and risk elimination. The willingness of team members to commit to a specific project and their involvement in its discussion can indicate the chances for the future of the project. Monitoring change progress can significantly contribute to the understanding of the company’s future focus. It helps efficiently analyze potential changes in the funding of the change in question, compare planned and actual results, and enhance team engagement. Last but not least, a focus on team members should be the primary driver for change as managers and leaders should clearly communicate a need for the technology and justify its use in specific conditions of the company’s functioning.

Conclusion

Given the stiff realities of international competition, the small business should use technology for greater results and an enhanced competitive edge. The ability to use social media and data management can transform into an effective tool for more engaging and productive communication with clients. At the same time, change implementation can become a daunting challenge for small teams. Transparent and direct discussions, clear vision of the particular goals, training programs, feedback accumulation, and project monitoring are integral steps for improved functioning of the company. Regardless of the organization’s scale, a sense of change and unconventional thinking can become a driver for more significant results.

References

Akpan, I., Soopramanien, D., & Kwak, D. (2020). Cutting-edge technologies for small business and innovation in the era of COVID-19 global health pandemic. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 1-11. doi: 10.1080/08276331.2020.1799294

Henley, A., & Song, M. (2019). Innovation, internationalisation and the performance of microbusinesses. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 38(4), 337-364. doi: 10.1177/0266242619893938