Change is a trait of life. In Today's business environment there's a lot of dynamic changes in Technology, Competition, markets, demands, customer expectations …etc.

Organizations should respond to change for greater performance with various programs. Each change designed to overcome obstacles and enhance business performance.

Commonly, such programs fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Structural Change.
• Cultural Change.
• Process Change.

                                         is always needed.

Planned change is that critical process of conducting preparing the whole organization, or a big a part of it, for brand spanking new goals or a replacement direction. This direction can ask culture, internal structures, processes, metrics and rewards, or the other related aspects. While constant change is that the new normal and therefore the best companies embrace it, not all change is planned. Frequently, organizations will suddenly adapt to new

.market demands and heightened competition

It’s also worth remarking that planning for change and planning for innovation aren't an equivalent . The role of designing for change is to take care of stability and incorporate certainties into the organization

Defining change management

Efficient change management has a complete process and tools to help any company manages the internal and external situation while aiming and moving from a situation to another desired one that achieves the proposed business

.outcome

Change management helps in utilizing techniques that will make personal, tangible and non-tangible transitions easy and effective through the entire

.stages of resistance, realization then adoption of the new culture

.Introduction about change and its role

Change is inevitable but resistance is optional so that effective leaders must anticipate that resistance and promote good culture to be sure that the company can reach its goal or new goal easily by the new plan, methods,

.people, machines or materials that should be changed

All companies will face particular moments where change is a crucial process

..that should be done or the whole organization will fail

Kurt Lewin’s three-step change model

Lewin’s change model provides a general framework for planned change which incorporates three basic steps:

Unfreezing – or reducing forces that keep things within an .1

organization the way they are. Unfreezing happens through so-called "psychological disconfirmation." for instance , running an organization-

.wide innovation survey and evaluating the results

 

Moving – or shifting the organization’s behavior. This involves an .2

.intervention

Refreezing – or stabilizing the organization in a new state of .3

equilibrium. This step is not possible without support mechanisms. For

.example, building a solid corporate innovation capability

To thrive, a corporation must unfreeze the driving and restraining forces, introduce an imbalance (increase the drivers, reduce the restraints – or both), and, finally, refreeze the forces. This final step brings a ".corporation back to "quasi-equilibrium

 

 

 

- Five-Step Change Process:

 

A PROCESS FOR LEADING CHANGE

 

By the end of 2011, the time I joined a new project in 6th of October City - via individual diligence (informal) - we started 1. Awareness OF THE NEED FOR CHANGE

Creating this awareness in others demands that you the leader communicate why the change is necessary:

• Tell your people the truth.
• Communicate the current situation.
• Identify the implications of doing nothing.
• Be brutally honest.

Unless resistance can be overcome change will never take place.

 

 

• CREATING A CHANGE MINDSET IN OTHERS

 

During this whole process: you must be aware of the anxieties that exist. People will be fearful of the unknown:

• For their jobs.
• For the future.
• Changes in their routine, role and responsibilities.

Getting commitment from others is a time-consuming process. It will demand patience and understanding on your part.

Listening is probably your biggest ally at this stage of the change process.

You must listen not only with your ears but also with your eyes, observing what’s going on around you and being totally aware of how others are responding and acting.

 

 

 

• COMMUNICATING THE CHANGE MESSAGE

 

• Being absolutely clear about why change is necessary sharing the truth about what has caused the change to take place, even if that means admitting your own failings.
• Looking back at what has been successful in the past and how change has also been part of past success.
• Looking forward to share your own vision of the future and to encourage others to contribute to that future and the vision.
• Identifying and setting objectives, goals, boundaries for change people need to know when changes are beginning to happen and what the consequences of them are.
•   Providing opportunities for people to review and reflect on the process to enable any changes to be confirmed.
• PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR CHANGE

Change usually means that people have to learn new skills, new ways of working and how to deal with different situations.

As a leader you must provide opportunities for people to develop and try out new approaches. Your support role here should be to:

• Reward
• Celebrate
• Provide feedback
• Confirm new skills
• Provide the resources to develop
• Act as a coach or mentor
• Allow mistakes and learn from them

CONFIRMING THE CHANGE

 

Inevitably, change will mean that new processes and practices are necessary as part of your day-to-day routine and/or organizational life.

It is important for the continuation of the change process and to confirm change as a new competence for all those involved that successes are celebrated and rewarded.

You should:

 

• Publicize outcomes of the change, especially success stories.
• Reward both individuals and the organization for success.
• Confirm new processes and practices as part of organizational life.
• Ensure that everyone regards change as part of their everyday life and that it is exciting and rewarding to be part of it.

In the year 2000, I joined the company I work for until this moment; CRC, whichwas established in the Fifteens of last century.

 

Letters and messages then were Sent and Received manually or via fax and were stamped (SENT) or (RECEIVED) with date of sending or receiving. This was the handling method until 2011.

using e-mail for transferring messages, letters, files, shop-drawings …etc.

That was through personal e-mails apart from the company system and continued for around four years.

In early 2016, such an issue was reported to the newly hired CEO, sooner as he was entitled; His title was new in our Company's Organization Chart. The issue was reported by the Commercial Director and HR Manager.

Accordingly, the CEO instructed the HR Manager to initiate a new department for Information Technology (IT) with skilled staff to care about all matters concerned with PCs and Laptops all over the company headquarters and projects in Egypt and outside Egypt as well, care for the IT system networks and E-mailing system and company Servers and Domains.

Later, the IT Department was instructed to initiate e-mail address for each individual in the company. This became one of the HR procedures while hiring anybody in the company (to initiate an e-mail addressed with his/her name).

In resistance to such a change event, aged and old experienced employees who were stuck in their comfort zone didn't like the idea and didn't feel like it to be applied to them. Until this moment, a few of them escaped from having e-mail addresses in the company domain name. (I call them Lazy Anti-Technology Employees).

In fact, the newly hired people understand the system well and welcome such a system with ZERO Resistance.

The IT department role was the awareness of people for the importance, ease and high speed of receiving and sending (exchanging) messages, mass attachments instead of large hard copies such as shop-drawings.

Scanning documents to PCs is same as copying them but scanning is more beneficial since documents become easy to send by e-mail and also to be saved on PCs (software) instead of the huge quantities of hard copy files and numerous shelves.

All Top Management Persons, Project Managers, Titles of High Importance and of course all Office Managers, Secretaries and Document Controllers (DCs) are entirely involved in the IT System, none of them can escape of course.

A few number of employees - mostly don't depend on PCs in their work or of low importance in communicating messages - are still without e-mail addresses.

Office-boys and drivers are normally out of that system.

I see that the Change was very important, extremely logic and keeping up the normal development in technology of communication world so, it succeeded and always developed and updated by the IT Head of department and IT skilled team to better benefits for the company and employees' performance as well.

• In early 2020, the quota of e-mail attachment volume was multiplied by ten times of the previous quota before. This made it much more easier to transfer mass volume attachments without any need for using any website to upload such a mass volume attachment. (WeTransfer.com for example)
• Around a year ago, the IT Department initiated a company magazine can be browsed via mobile application showing latest news of the company's activities, events and projects.

Thanks

Question# 2

 

 

 

 

The    following   diagram   shows    the    stages    of    forming   and    maintaining Organizational Culture.

ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING CULTURE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forming of organizational culture includes the following: 1- Founder Value and Preference:

This is the early culture or original culture in the start-up time.

The Founder has beliefs, values, vision for example he could be people- oriented or could be production-oriented.

That would be reflected on employees' tasks and performance.

• Industry Demands:

This is the requirements of the organization's industry norms, for example the dress code for technicians in an Automotive Center couldn't in a WHITE color but it could be blue or grey …etc.

For physicians in a hospital, the dress code is always in a white color, it's never in a dark color.

Both of the above points form the early Organization Culture (Early values, goals, assumptions …etc.)

Maintenance of Organizational Culture indicated in the following points:

These are HR Tasks performed during recruitment process

Attraction: candidates will be attracted to the organization they feel it is similar to them and would fulfil their needs, Career dreams … etc.

Selection: After screening CVs and accomplishing interviews with candidates, the organization will select people similar to its culture. This is another filtering process

Attrition: by the time you might recognize a previously selected candidate who is not similar to the organization culture or who couldn't adapt with it. So, you'll take the right action or lay him/her off.

By adopting ASA, the organization would be able to keep people who are similar its culture or adapted to it. At the same time, lay off people who are not similar or adapted to the culture and maintain organization's  own culture ID.

This process includes introducing the organization to the candidate and give him/her the chance to recognize it and combine him/her to be a part of the organization culture.

This should be done perfectly on a proper time and could be done via:

• A formal training program.
• Floating within the organization to recognize and observe by him/herself through a round inside the different departments of the organization.
• Shadowing, i.e., to be a shadow for an older employee and do his/her work and perform his/her tasks.
• A combination of scheduled tasks and floating.

Leaders should always reflect and stress the Organization culture while dealing with their teams.

Competition among team-works should be linked with a reward system to assure motivation for achieving goals and fine competition among teams.

Culture should be always maintained otherwise it could be changed by time and by turning over of the employees (unintended change).

Culture has the upper hand on both Strategy and Structure of the Organization so both of them should be compatible with Culture.

If the Strategy is anti-culture, strategy would fail. The same applies to the structure.

In case market conditions enforced the organization to adopt an anti-culture strategy, what the action should be taken?

CHANGE MANAGEMENT is the solution (Culture Change particularly).

Cooperation:

Through providing shared values and assumptions, organizational culture would maintain goodwill and mutual trust, motivating cooperation.

Decision Making:

Shared values and certain beliefs gives and provides members with a clear and consistent set of critical and basic presuppositions and assumptions which can lead to much effective efficient great Decision-Making steps and process because of little disagreements.

Control:

Control is provided by:

• Bureaucratic Control Mechanism: depends on formal authority. The control process consists of adjusting rules and regulations and issuing directives.
• Clan Control Mechanism: depends on shared beliefs and values. Provides a  map that members can rely on to choose appropriate course of action.

Justification of behavior:

Culture may help all organization individuals and members make sense and attachment of their daily behavior by giving and providing justification to it.

Communication:

Culture reduces communication problems in two ways:

• No need to communicate in matters for which shared assumption already exist (things go naturally and smoothly without saying).
• Shared assumptions provide guidelines and cues to help interpret messages received.

Commitment:

Strong cultures foster strong identification which results in commitment.

Perception:

What an individual sees is conditioned by what others sharing the same experience say they are seeing.

e

 

 

 

Following are the main four roles for managers in the organization:

• Organization's culture will determine the way plans are developed (by teams or individuals).
• Culture will determine the degree of risk taken concerning plans.
• 
  Culture will determine the degree of environmental scanning involved in planning.
• Organization's culture will determine the way tasks done (by teams or individuals).
• Culture    will    determine    the    degree   of   interaction    among   various department managers.
• Culture will determine the degree of autonomy involved in employees' jobs.

• Organization's    culture    will    determine    what    leadership    styles    are appropriate.
• Culture will determine the degree to which managers are concerned with increasing employee job satisfaction.
• 
  Culture will determine the degree to which all disagreements should be eliminated (even constructive ones).
• Organization's culture will determine what criteria should be emphasized in employee performance evaluations.
• Culture will determine whether to impose external controls or to allow employees to control their own actions.
• Culture will determine what repercussions will occur from exceeding one's budget.

Question# 3

 

 

 

Conflict is a fact of life. It happens where diversity of people, goals, needs …etc. exists.

In organizations it's a double-edged sword. If properly handled, it would yield benefits but if wrongly tackled, it would result in unbearable costs.

Conflict promotes growth:

Through learning to overcome challenges in unity with others, as the process of resolution overcomes the stagnation of the status quo.

Conflict promotes creativity and innovation:

As solutions are suggested to overcome the differences between the stakeholders.

Conflict promotes the development of interpersonal skills:

As individuals try to get on with each other in spite of their differences.

Conflict promotes mutual understanding of different values, aspirations and cultures:

Sometimes people are not trying to be difficult, they just have a different mind-set, which promotes social change and progress, as society changes and develops and a culture unfolds.

Retain your top performers:

• It helps to strengthen supervisory relationships.
• It keeps your teams engaged and openly communicating with each other.
• Empowers your people to make a positive difference.

Manage risk:

• Prevents aggression, violence, sabotage, and vandalism amongst disgruntled staff.
• Mitigates legal risks.
• Fosters a better public perception of your organization's brand and reduces bad word of mouth.

• Higher stress amongst the parties
• less productivity as certain effort and tangible resources  are directed in the conflict and away from the tasks in hand
• Lower interpersonal cohesioas individuals and their supporters take sides and begin to stereotype each other
• Time spent in resolution is taken away from other, more important matters
• Inappropriate bad decisions are done to sustain and support the different causes & positions of different parties
• Ego becomes more important than reason and reality
• The possibility of increased costs to cover negotiation preparation, negotiation time, mediation and/or arbitration costs and, perhaps, legal costs.

Employee turnover

• A poisoned workplace

Whilst in a hurry moving site offices into a villa in another location

of our project site in Cairo New Capital, the Planning office hadn't got a window in that villa (No fresh air and no sun rays), the HR Office was besides the planning office with a larger space and almost a balcony. The planning office wanted to have a part of that balcony. They introduced to the Projects Manager an Architectural proposal (drawing) showing how it could be divided between the two offices keeping firm borders between the two offices. But the HR office was hesitant and didn't want to lose any of the balcony space.

The Architectural proposal was highly accepted by the projects Manager and he used his POWER together with some MEDIATION (gentle discussion to convince the Head of HR office) to resolve the conflict.

The balcony was divided between the two offices after acceptance of HR office.

 

 

 

Conflict

Action

Result

 

 

Start by the higher level management then middle and first line managers before asking employees to move on and tell them how their actions, activities and attitude is important to the main plan and never forget the human beings tend to know how to help and contribute in any success plan.

 

 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Recognize the existence of the conflict and its effect on individuals and the organization Appreciate the perspectives and concerns of all involved ... View the full answer