Free Custom «The Organizational Change» Essay Paper

A change in any organization is defined as changing the mode of daily operations. In addition to this, Dawson defined change as the analysis of the past problems in creating a better future for the organization. In addition to this, Kanter defined organizational change as part and parcel in change that shows diversity. The diversity is usually measured by the degree of change and the effects that it has on the environment. This can also be measured by effects that it has on the interaction of the human activities and technical abilities. The above mentioned parts always have an interaction centre in the organization. It is notable that the attitude of an individual or employees as a whole is usually hard to change after they have learned it for a long time; this is according to Lührmann & Fay (2004). Being accustomed to something has an effect that cannot be ignored since it is important to become entrenched in a system. The resistance that always comes in such cases is usually magnanimous and that is why it is essential to study the organization and the change process. The bulk of the resistance in any organization always comes from within the organization. This resistance may result in a number of factors. A case example may be substantive change in job; there is also the risk of reducing the economic security and psychological threats. In addition to this, there may be risk of lowering the employee status and disruption of the overall social activity. Nevertheless, the attitude that employees present towards change always vary and that is why it is imperative to study it at that level. There are some individuals who are more resistant to change than others while others are more open to the change presented. In a research by Ramanathan (2009) he found out that the outcomes are obviously due to the forecasted gains or losses if the change actually occurs.

According to numerous researches, there are three types of responses that individuals give towards organizational change. They are affective, instrumental and cognitive. Affective response is the type of response that involves being anxious to examine change or being overly linked to satisfaction to change. Cognitive response is the opinions that are related to the necessity, usefulness and the knowledge that are usually required to handle the change. Finally, instrumental response is the actions which have already been put in place to handle the change. In addition to this, Durham also suggested that there are three types of attitudes that employees present towards organizational change and they are behavioural, cognitive and affective. The affective attitude is the evaluation and emotional view that the employee has towards change and therefore, it means that the employee can either have positive or negative response. The cognitive attitude that an employee presents is the information that he or she has about the issue and believes which cannot be easily changed. This is according to a research by Shani & Woodman (2010). The behavioural attitude is the perceived way that a person is born to react towards the change. Studies have provided various clues to the way a change in organization is bound to affect the employees depending on the size, age of the organization and momentum of the organization’s employees and the effectiveness that it is born to have on the environment both internal and external. Other studies have tried to link the outcome in terms of receptivity and resistance and the failure or success of a business. If employees of an organization readily accept the change, the organization in return increases its harmonious industrial relations and in addition to that the commitment is also increased. In addition to these increments there is also the inclusion of education, job security and employee satisfaction. Therefore, the employee’s acceptance to change is beneficial since it decreases an overall conflict and tenure. In a research by Yousef in 2000, it was found out that there are certain dimensions in a business that directly or indirectly influence the organizational change. The dimensions are also responsible for the creation of job security either directly or indirectly. This is the reason as to why organizational change is always influenced by the attitudes which are presented forth by the employees. In addition to this a research was carried out by Charles and it was found out that the relationship which an employee has with his or her superiors in the organization is always a determining factor in the way they will accept or deny the change. The attitudes that employees present towards change is always in line with the attitudes that their supervisors or group leaders present. Therefore, the relationship that the employee has with his or her superiors is a determining factor in the change that is presented in the organization.                           

Organizational Culture

Culture is defined as the combination of various attitudes the employees have in the organization and the way they perceive it will affect their behaviour. Organization culture is defined as the way the members of the business carry out their daily activities and the attitudes they have towards the need of creating a better environment. It is noted that culture is something that takes a long time to breed and therefore, it is something that has consistency. Culture is something that is historically constructed and hence, this means that employees are the key players in determining the culture that revolves in the organization. It involves the beliefs and behaviours that are considered rightful in the organization. It consequently exists in three levels. It therefore manifests itself in a number of features in the organization and that is why it is a serious factor when there is the organizational change since there is organizational culture involved. In order to create a better understanding of the term organizational culture, there are several typologies that have been created. The most common one is the creation of a society on several bases. This is according to a research by Singh (2007). They are sociability and solidarity. Sociability is the closeness that employees have towards each other in an organization. It is valued since it has an indirect impact on the performance of an organization. This therefore means that values and favours shared in the employees have a direct impact since they determine the way they take action. From the foregoing literature it is noted that the ties the employees have with the seniors which can be graded under sociability have a great impact on the employees’ reaction towards change. Solidarity is defined as the ability of employees in the organization to pursue several interests that would always act for the better of the organization. This means that heads of the organization do not care about the individual impacts of change or the relationship between them but rather the overall effect of the change.

Therefore, solidarity is essential since it gives out the direct impact the employees would have on the good of the organization. In addition to that this factor also enhances quick response and the unwillingness to accept downward performance. In a solidarity type of setting, the roles of each and every employee are defined and they all are held under high regards. Therefore, in this type of situations the employees foresee that they have a high chance of being treated well and therefore, they trust their employers (Lührmann & Fay, 2004). When two types of culture are put in a diagram, four different cultures are additionally defined. They are:

1)      Communal culture

2)      Fragmented culture

3)      Networked culture

4)      Mercenary culture

Therefore, it shows that culture is a framework or the correlation of the employees. Contemporary organizations have two types of cultures intertwined. The solidarity and sociability are put equal and in these organizations the reaction to change is quite different as it would have been in bigger organizations. It therefore follows that when an organization follows different paths, there is a likelihood that it would have different perceptions and that is why in this regard the organizational change faces different feedbacks from different types of organizations depending on the aforementioned factors. The feedbacks might be either positive or negative depending on the situation that is presented. The difference in reactions therefore means that culture employed by the employers or employees and the way they perceive the organization really has a great impact on the way they think and would react in different scenarios. Therefore, it implies that the organizational change always has two possible effects on the employees and they are either positive or negative, according to Shani & Woodman (2010).                            

Research Question

The research questions employed in this research would be:

1)      Does the employee’s reaction towards organizational change affect the performance of the organization?

This question is important since it touches on a wide variety of matters and therefore directly influences the goals of an organization and performance that it has both in the long run and short run.