Change The Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work.

Change means that there are strong pressures on an organization to significantly move away from the usual way of doing things. Change is something started by a leader to achieve a desired objective by modifying peoples’ behaviors or routines. Models of change used to focus exclusively on how the organization should change. This book looks at: what needs to be changed, who will do the changing, what are the internal and external contexts of the change, and then examines how the organization should change. Employees resist change when they don’t understand it, when they don’t value it, and when they can’t meet the demands on them to change.

Source: Change The Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work.By David M. Herold and Donald B. Fedor, 2008, Stanford Business Books, Stanford, CA, ISBN: 978-0-8047-5875-8.

Four Steps You Must Do To Create And Maintain Collaborative Employee Work Spaces.

Today’s best managers know that they need to create a space in which their employees can collaborate in order for organizational changes to occur. To create a collaborate space, managers need to enroll people who are open and willing to discuss the problems at hand. Next, managers help the enrolled employees to discuss and determine the issues, boundaries, and obstacles involved in solving the problems. Then, the managers help the group of employees to transform into a collaborative, functioning team. Lastly, managers support this newly open, honest, constructive team, where everyone is an equal participant, and there is free flow of ideas, deep reflection, testing, and challenging of each other to solve problems and find solutions.

Source: Yorks, L., Neuman, J. H., Kowalski, D. R., & Kowalski, R. 2008. Lessons learned from a 5-year project within the department of veterans affairs: Applying theories of interpersonal aggression and organizational justice to the development and maintenance of collaborative social space. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44, 352-372.

Employees Accept Negative Feedback More Readily From Managers They Trust

Managers often give feedback to employees to help them change and improve their job performance. Today’s best managers know that employees may be resistant to change when they don’t have a good relationship with their manager. Employees tend to accept negative feedback when it comes from a person that they like, they trust, and who they think has good intentions. However, when employees don’t have a good relationship with their manager, they tend to resist change if the manager tries to force change or threatens them with punishment if they don’t change.

Source: Furst, S. A., & Cable, D. 2008. Employee resistance to organizational change: Managerial influence tactics and leader-member exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 453-462.

Positive Employees Tend To Have Positive Emotions That Increase Attitudes And Performance

Today’s best managers constantly look for ways to improve employee attitudes and performance. Positive employee emotions can influence employee attitudes and behaviors. Four traits help determine whether an employee is positive or not: hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience. Hopeful employees find multiple pathways to success. Employees with efficacy believe in their abilities to get the job done. Optimistic employees expect good things to happen to them. Resilient employees can recover easily from adversities. Being positive can influence positive employee emotions, and that can increase employee attitudes and behaviors.

Source: Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., & Luthans, F. 2008. Can positive employees help positive organizational change?: Impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44, 48-70.

Simple Steps to Help Employees Cope With Organizational Changes

Today’s best managers know that they need to manage change so that employee attitudes and behaviors don’t suffer as a result of the change. Employees who believe that they have been involved in a change process and who feel that they have been included in decision-making will cope more effectively with change than will employees who don’t feel this way. Keeping employees informed and consulted during changes helps create social pressure among employees, and that influences employees to support each other. Giving employees accurate and timely information helps them have a sense of predictability, which gives them more control, and helps them feel more capable during changes.

Source: Jimmieson, N. L., Peach, M., & White, K. M. 2008. Utilizing the theory of planned behavior to inform change management: An investigation of employee intention to support organizational change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44, 237-262.

Positively Coping With Change Can Lessen Employee Sick Time, Intentions to Quit, and Turnover

Today’s best managers know the importance of managing employees’ reactions to organizational changes. Sometimes employees view organizational changes as harmful and threatening. When employees have negative feelings about change, they can then have increased sick leave and higher intentions to quit, and can be more likely to leave organizations entirely. Today’s best managers discuss organizational changes with employees and that helps reduce uncertainty about change. They help employees to vent their feelings about the changes. They also show employees the positive side of changes, such as job security, and new opportunities for advancement, and that helps reduce negative employee reactions to change.

Source: Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Prussia, G. E. 2008. Employee coping with organizational change: An examination of alternative theoretical perspectives and models. Personnel Psychology, 61, 1-36.

Focusing On Implementation Activities Can Help Employees Make Sense Out Of Change

Today’s best managers want employees to react positively to organizational changes. One way to help make that happen is to involve employees in the change process. Letting employees participate in the change can help them make sense out of the chaos that can happen during large-scale changes. Having employees help create actions plans can get employees involved. However, limit the number of tasks to a few, such as helping with implementation activities, to keep employees focused, and to avoid creating even more chaos. Employee participation in plans that involve trial and error can be even more effective in helping employees make sense out of organizational changes.

Source: Stensaker, I., Falkenberg, J., & Gronhaug, K. 2008. Implementation activities and organizational sensemaking. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44, 162-185.

Create Anti-Corruption Entrepreneurs In Your Company To Find and Destroy Corrupt Behavior

Managers know that most attempts to curb organizational corruption begin with enthusiasm and end with cynicism. Today’s best managers know that fighting corruption begins by getting rid of employees who guard the status quo to prevent change to the old corrupt way of life. Create anticorruption entrepreneurs in your company to help curb corruption. Give the entrepreneurs support and resources to help them create a new culture that seeks out and destroys corrupt employee behavior. Help entrepreneurs use economic, cultural, social, and symbolic resources to help change current corrupt employee mindsets.

Source: Misangyi, V. F., Weaver, G. R., & Elms, H. 2008. Ending corruption: The interplay among institutional logics, resources, and institutional entrepreneurs. Academy of Management Review, 33, 750-770.

The Need to Change Organizations Can Decrease Over Time

Mangers used to believe that organizations changed more and more often over time. It was thought that change was like a snowball rolling down a hill that got bigger and bigger. The amount of organizational change increased as managers improved their skills at making effective changes and saw change as an effective way to improve their organization. However, today’s best managers know that successful organizational changes can lead to less and less need for more change. The more that you successfully help change an organization, then the less likely that you may have to help change that organization again in the future.

Source: Beck, N., Bruederl, J. & Woywode, M. 2008. Momentum or deceleration? Theoretical and methodological reflections on the analysis of organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 51: 413-435.

Help Employees Make Sense Of Uncertainties During Difficult Organizational Changes

Today’s best managers know how to help employees make sense during chaotic organizational changes. First, discuss with employees how they can get started. Next, help employees clearly define the problems that need to be solved. Then, help employees identify places where the organization is stuck, and areas that seem impossible to solve. Next, help employees critique and link existing options that may help the company reach solutions. Then, help employees experiment with ways to solve problems, and challenge and motivate employees to try new solutions. Finally, help employees reach a workable, but not absolute, certainty in which everyone can all work successfully.

Source: Luscher, L. S., & Lewis, M. W. 2008. Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 221-240.