Mod 1

Scenario (fictional):

You are in a leadership role as the director of product development at UTXL, a consumer products company. You are tasked by the CEO of UTXL with changing the company from a profits-only driven company to one that prides itself on producing quality products addressing customers’ preferences. The latter is a huge change, as the existing mindset of this company is to produce record profits every quarter above all else. But since UTXL’s competitors have focused on their customers, your company has begun to lose market share. As the leader of this task, you want to start by retraining the workforce to focus on product quality. However, the sales division is resisting this effort because sales bonuses are primarily based on company profits. The CEO and marketing, on the other hand, consider this change necessary for the survival of the company and want the training to start right away.

Assessment Checklist:

· Review Exhibit 15.9 from your textbook.

· Provide the goals for this project the CEO has tasked you with.

· Based on the information provided in this scenario, draft a persuasive essay that identifies what you believe will be the four most effective ways one might manage resistance to change in implementing the new training program.

· Prepare an implementation plan using the four change management methods you identified, prioritizing the steps needed to manage the resistance to change.

· Explain your choice of each tactic and how it is most appropriate in this circumstance.

· The paper must include an introduction and conclusion and be at least two double-spaced pages in length, using 11-point Georgia font.

· Your submission must include a minimum of two references. The first being the course textbook, and the second is an article from the database ABI/INFORM Collection in the PG Library. Any additional articles must also derive from the database ABI/INFORM Collection. Cite using in-text citations where appropriate. Your sources and content should follow current APA format and citation style. Visit the Academic Success Center found in the Academic Tools area in your course for further assistance.

[email protected]Book: Exhibit 15.9

You can try to command people to change, but the key to long-term success is to use multiple approaches.84 Developing true support is better than “driving” a program forward.85

Most managers underestimate the number of different ways they can influence people to care about a change,86 as summarized in Exhibit 15.9.

•Educate and ­communicate—Management should educate people about upcoming changes before they occur. It should communicate the nature of the change and its logic. As COVID-19 spread in early 2020, public officials and workplace managers announced policies to shelter in place and work remotely, and conveyed the reasons for doing so.87 The logic was obvious to some people and less so to others. Public health and the economy seemed to oppose one another—a false choice if results could be optimally balanced. Decision makers continually reconsidered the costs and benefits of closings and openings as circumstances, risks, and uncertainties kept changing. Leaders sent mixed messages, and their logic was often unclear, with widely varying results.

•Involve key stakeholders— For important changes, the people who are affected by a change should participate in its design and implementation. For major, organizationwide change, involvement in the process can extend from top to bottom.88 People who participate in decisions understand them more fully and are more committed to them.

•Provide support and resources—Management should make the change as easy as possible for employees and support their efforts. Facilitation can include providing the training and other resources people need to carry out the change and perform well under the new circumstances. Change is stressful, so managers need to help employees by listening to problems, understanding if performance drops temporarily or the change is not perfected immediately, and showing consideration during a difficult period.89

•Offer incentives to change—When necessary, management can offer concrete incentives for cooperating with the change. Perhaps job enrichment is acceptable only with a higher wage rate, or a work rule change is resisted until management agrees to a concession on some other rule (say, about taking breaks). Job assignments and reward systems perhaps can be restructured to reinforce the change.90 Managers can make sure people know their own benefits from the changes.91

•Use covert tactics when needed—Sometimes, managers use more subtle, covert tactics to implement change. ­Co-­optation involves giving a resisting individual a desirable role in the change process. For example, management page 364might invite a union leader to be a member of an executive committee or ask a key member of an outside organization to join the company’s board of directors. As people become involved in the change, they become more familiar with what’s happening and often less resistant.

•Force the change—Sometimes managers resort to using punishments or threats against those who resist change. A manager might insist that subordinates cooperate with the change and threaten them with job loss, denial of a promotion, or an unattractive work assignment. Sometimes, you just have to lay down the law.

Exhibit 15.9