Data Analysis Change Process Paper Organizational Change Readiness via Urgent Development of...

Running head: DATA ANALYSIS AND CHANGE PROCESS PAPER 1

Data Analysis & Change Process Paper: Organizational Change Readiness via Urgent

Development of Communication, Culture, and Structure

Dena M. Rosko Grand

Canyon University March

4, 2013

DATA ANALYSIS AND CHANGE PROCESS PAPER 2

Table of Contents

Discussion ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Eight Steps for Change ............................................................................................................... 5

Recommendations ....................................................................................................................... 6

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 8

References ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Appendix A: Quantitative Analysis Resource Stage II Questionnaire ........................................ 12

Appendix B: Online Focus Group Interview Questions .............................................................. 19

Appendix C: Participant Transcripts............................................................................................ 20


Data Analysis & Change Process Paper: Organizational Change Readiness via Urgent

Development of Communication, Culture, and Structure

This paper will assess organizational change readiness of Data Imports, Inc. by

explaining quantitative and qualitative data, by applying Kotter and Ratherberger's (2006) eight

steps for change (see also "Action Plan," 1997), by positing recommendations for how Data

Imports leaders can prepare employees for change, and by presenting frequency distribution

figure, results table, and Appendices of data to support conclusions. Qualitative findings

indicated a moderate to high readiness for change as openness to Kotter and Ratherberger's

(2006) steps involving communication and structure; whereas, quantitative findings suggested a

low readiness to change that leaders must offset with communication and structure.

Discussion

Qualitative findings suggested a moderate to high readiness for change of Data Imports,

Inc. (see Table 1) provided that change efforts first involved developing a communicative and

participatory culture with education and resources to help constituents enact deliverable-related

change (see Table 1). The latter effort aligns with organizational health and well-being needs for

employee resources to recontextualize stress and perform required deliverables (see Bakker &

Demerouti, 2007; Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008; Lovelace, Manz, & Alves, 2007). The

communication component concurs with Sekerka's (2009) finding that routine or everyday

communication moderates leadership efforts. The education element resonates with Senge's

(1990) emphasis on learning organizational culture. The participatory emphasis speaks to

structure and time, each of which appeals to a horizontal and collaborative model instead of a

top-down hierarchy, such as via self-managed teams with management delegates.


Table 1

Perceptions, preparations, moderator, and outcomes of constituents' readiness for change

Category Theme Specifics Compelling responsesPerception Credibility Tested or modeled

by proponent; Honesty at onset

Affective Feelings of value, support, respect, ownership, being heard, trust, anticipation, and preparation

Preparation Communication Communicated to all levels; Inquiry of all levels for consensus or suggestions; Rational content

Structure Closeness to supervisor; Collaborative; Participatory; Not top-down hierarchy

Recourse Feedback channels to state grievance or submit suggestion

Moderator Time Rational process; Not immediate

Outcome Consequences Unnecessarily high financial costs; Support via promotion or compliance; Passive resistance via compliance or neglect; Daily impact

"Capable organizations have tried the program out for themselves first. They aren't taking a program that they have never seen in action and tried to push it on you" (p. 6).

"Employees need to feel valued and respected" (p. 7).

"I think the most successful changes have to happen for clear, well-defined reasons that have been explained thoroughly to the employees" (p. 9).

"I would advise that leaders should involve all levels in the change discussions so that they have ownership of the change. When this happens, everyone feels like it is their changes that are being implemented." (p. 9).

"They provide public and private forums for receiving feedback, providing some time for people to fully formulate their questions" (p.4).

"Can the change be rolled out incrementally or is it necessary for multiple departments to implement the change simultaneously?" (p. 5).

"I went about my business as usual and ignored any changes taking place around me" (p. 7).

Note. Adapted from APA sample word table (American Psychological Association, 2010, Table 5.16, p. 149). Quotes originated from Grand Canyon University (2012).

Fre

qu

en

cy


In contrast, quantitative findings suggested a moderate to high resistance to change (f=14

and 16) primarily given that employees indicated that they resist change internally and

externally at work by speaking negatively about the change to co-workers, or voicing complaints

or concerns about the change and management to people outside of work (see Figure 1). Top

frequencies of somewhat disagree (f=16) to somewhat agree (f=14) with four strongly agreeing

indicated that respondents would passively resist change. Put together, respondents will accept

change if management implements an internal communication structure and learning culture.

Figure 1

Frequency of respondent self-reported predictions of readiness for change

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

1 2 3 4 5 6

Score

Eight Steps for Change

This attention to structure, communication, and culture suggests that respondents

perceive their organization to lack these elements, or five of eight of Kotter and Rathgeber's

(2006) steps, i.e., create a guiding coalition, develop a vision and strategy, communicate the

change vision, empower broad-based action (two to five), and anchor changes in corporate

culture (eight; see "Action Plan," 1997), so the organization lacks the foundation to generate

short-term wins and consolidate gains while producing more change (six and seven).


Recommendations

The organization must emphasize Kotter & Rathgeber, 2006 steps two to five and eight

for communication, structure, and culture to build capacity for change, and then integrate the

remaining three steps with a tone of urgency throughout (see Kotter International, 2012,

February 6), or create a guiding coalition, develop a vision and strategy, empower broad-based

action, generate short-term wins, and consolidate gains and produce more change (see "Action

Plan," 1997; Kotter & Rathgeber, 2006). For instance, management can appeal to the urgent

need to collaboratively communicate a vision and restructure their management as participatory

(see Choi, 2011). To elaborate, management must implement communication strategies to

provide employees with recourse channels for feedback (see Table 1), and to inquire of

employees their concerns for change (see Figure 1). This way, management can fashion an

informal norm, which drives organizational culture (see Sekerka, 2009), where employees

convey concerns to management instead of to each other or outside of work.

For steps two to five and eight, or those involving structure, communication, and culture,

management must build constituent readiness for change prior to deliverable success (see Hicks

& McCracken, 2011; Soumyaja, Kamalanabhan, & Bhattacharyya, 2011). Constituent readiness

involves individuals indicating a dispositional readiness for change (see Cinite, 2006). Change

readiness involves clarity, engagement, adequate resources, systems alignment, leadership,

communication, and tracking (Bevan, 2011). Without such readiness, individuals may not adapt

to change regardless if management follows Kotter and Rathgeber's (2006) steps. Therefore,

management must utilize a variety of approaches, such as planned and iterative change, creating

a shared discourse about change, and building a flexible infrastructure and a learning culture

(Buono & Kerber, 2010). Management must fashion this learning culture by a collaborative


stakeholder approach that shares information, encourages questions and experiments, values

alternative viewpoints, and tolerates mistakes (Buono & Kerber, 2010). Note that respondents

predicted resistance to change in the event that management failed to establish the

aforementioned preparedness conditions (see Table 1). Respondents anticipated change

resistance passive aggressively (non-management) by keeping their routine and ignoring change

efforts, or privately (management) by conferring one-on-one with management, or speaking

externally (see Figure 1). Thus, the organization must monitor when all constituents shift

attitude from passive-aggressive to communicative during the preparedness process. For

instance, if employees still resist change after preparedness, then management can inquire on

perceived needs, and initiate supportive co-workers to persuade the employee of change benefits

(see Montani, Odoardi, & Battistelli, 2012). Management must establish such cooperative norms

to supply constituents with the perceived need and ability to change (see Ordanini, 2011), a

move which might reduce learning costs and time (see Claycomb, Iyer, & Germain, 2005) and

quicken implementation. Management must fashion such positive psychological conditions to

sustain change and prepare for deliverable-initiatives.

For step seven, or consolidating gains and producing more change, the organization needs

to develop a large and broad base of supporters, such as by engagement and inclusion of all

levels, and skilled leadership groups, such as by demonstrating expertise, communicating

frequent information, and fostering collaboration and participation (see McNamara, 2010; Table

1) while celebrating step six's short-term wins (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). Organizations drive

this momentum by cultivating a supportive ethos on teams where constituents bond with each

other via horizontal relationships of employee to employee, and not just vertically from

management to employee (see Montani, et al., 2012). The passive-aggressive resistance (see


Figure 1; Table 1) suggests the need to assess constituents' intentionality as a key aspect of

change readiness (see Robitschek, Ashton, Spering, Geiger, Byers, Schotts, & Thoen, 2012). For

instance, management can align organizational change with personal growth intentions by

integrating constituents' self-interest, e.g., career goals or satisfaction, with the change effort so

that constituents desire the change (see Robitschek, et al., 2012), such as via efficacy

expectations (Robitschek, 1998) for personal growth (Robitschek, 2003). Here, management

must inquire with a coaching stance to gain insight and seek clarification for what employees

want from the change, and then positively reinforce this desire by expressing optimism about the

employee's ability to change (see Hicks & McCracken, 2012). Management must model this

positive intentionality by cultivating and humanizing change capacity in others (see Senge,

Scharmer, Jaworkski, & Flowers, 2004; Soumyaja, et al., 2011). Building from Quader (2011),

doing so might impart perceptions of experience to improve trust in peers as leaders, and so

offset passive-aggressive resistance if a constituent feels dissatisfied with change efforts.

Respondents indicated that they would market the change once on-board (see Table 1), so such

helpers will likely be in ample supply.

Conclusion

Data Imports, Inc. must develop a communication and collaborative, learning, and

participatory organizational structure as a foundation for their change efforts provided that

management relays a tone of urgency throughout. Constituents will likely regard these changes

as improvements, which will then ready the organization for its deliverable-related change effort.

Then, management can integrate Kotter and Ratherberger's (2006) remaining steps.


References

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Bakker, A.B., & Schaufeli, W.B. (2008). Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees

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Bevan, R. (2011). Keeping change on track. Journal for Quality & Participation, 34(1), 4-9.

Buono, A.F., & Kerber, K.W. (2010). Creating a sustainable approach to change: Building

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https://lc.gcu.edu/

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Kotter, J., & Rathgeber, H. (2006). Our iceberg is melting: Changing and succeeding under any

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Lovelace, K. J., Manz, C. C., & Alves, J. C. (2007). Work stress and leadership development:

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Montani, F., Odoardi, C., & Battistelli, A. (2012). Explaining the relationships among supervisor

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Ordanini, A. (2011). The ties that bind: How cooperative norms and readiness to change shape

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http://www.youtube.com/watch


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Appendix A: Quantitative Analysis Resource Stage II Questionnaire

Data Imports, Inc. is a company located in San Antonio, Texas. Organizational leaders

recently decided to consider a sweeping change initiative that will significantly change daily

operations at the company.

In order to determine whether the time is right for this change, the company’s CEO,

David Long, decided to collect some data. First, he asks the employees to complete a Likert

Scale survey designed to measure individual employees’ readiness for change.

Employees were instructed to answer the questions based on how they personally had behaved

towards change (based on a survey from Cinte, 2006). The survey went to 12 employees; 8

returned the survey.

Respondent #1

Question StronglyDisagree

1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree

6I complain about change to

my coworkers. X

I speak negatively about

change to everybody at

work. X

I complain about change to

people outside of work. X

I voice concerns about my

boss to my friends. X

I voice concerns about X


managers above me in the

hierarchy to my friends.

Respondent #2


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers. X



work. X


people outside of work.X


boss to my friends.X

I voice concerns about



X

Respondent #3


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree

6I complain about change to X


my coworkers.



work. X








X

Respondent #4


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers. X



work.

X


people outside of work.X

I voice concerns about my X


boss to my friends.




X

Respondent #5


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers. X



work. X








X

Respondent #6


Disagree SomewhatDisagree

SomewhatAgree

Agree StronglyAgree


1 2 3 4 5 6I complain about change to

my coworkers. X



work. X








X

Respondent #7


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers. X



work. X

I complain about change to X


people outside of work.






X

Respondent #8


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers. X



work. X








X


Summary Table


1

Disagree

2

SomewhatDisagree

3

SomewhatAgree

4

Agree

5

StronglyAgree


my coworkers.

4 2 1 1



work.

1 3 3 1


people outside of work.

1 4 3


boss to my friends.

3 3 1 1




1 2 3 1 1


Appendix B: Online Focus Group Interview Questions

1. When you experienced a change initiative at work that you felt committed to, what did

you do to demonstrate your commitment?

2. When you experienced a change initiative at work that you were indifferent to, what did

you do to demonstrate your indifference?

3. When you experienced a change initiative at work that you were resistant to, what did

you do to demonstrate your lack of support for the change?

4. In general, what do you think organizations that are capable of implementing successful

change do? (specific examples of actions would be great here)

5. What kinds of things do organizations do that would lead you to think they are not ready

or capable of implementing successful change? (specific examples of actions would be

great here).

6. Think of an organizational change that you have experienced. What advice would you

give to organizations with regard to successful change management and unsuccessful

change management?


Appendix C: Participant Transcripts

The number listed before each response corresponds to the number of the interview

question (see Grand Canyon University, 2012).

Participant 1:

Gender: male

Age: 62

Education: college degree

Management experience: senior manager

1. I emphasized the change and supported it to my full ability.

2. I voiced my indifference if asked and supported it.

3. Any change I was resistant to received my full verbal opposition to with reason if asked

or not and then supported it. If too onerous would have resigned except while in the

military.

4. They have leaders with established creditability that get all the facts, listen, and make

changes. A major expensive shift in power plant fuel from natural gas to coal and oil.

Today it should be just the opposite.

5. Organizations with poor leadership who lack experience and credibility. Bexar Met in

San Antonio, a provider of water, compared to SAWS is with the same conditions, rates

are 50% higher than SAWS.

6. Again, good leaders with established credibility, who get all the facts and “sell” their

changes to subordinates.

Participant 2:

Gender: female


Age: 55


Management experience: project manager

1. Jumped right in. Learned what I needed to do to help make the initiative a success.

Cooperated. Positive Attitude. Did whatever needed to be done. Encouraged others to get

on board and prove what we could do.

2. My answer here is pretty much the same as an initiative that I’m committed to. Positive

attitude, Cooperate, do what needs to be done to be successful.

3. Asked questions, voiced concern, had less of a positive attitude. However, once decision

was made and answers received, continued to do what needed to be done to meet the

timelines and to make the project a success.

4. Educate the workers about the change and explain why the change is needed, how they

anticipate the change to help, and where they see the company headed. Answer questions

from workers, being as truthful and honest as allowed at that time. Encourage and

respond to questions. Let the workers know “what’s in it for them.” Companies have

feedback boxes where suggestions actually are considered and/or implemented.

Management appears to be ‘in sync’ with each other.

5. They don’t share a vision for the company. They don’t encourage workers to ask

questions or give the reasons/importance of the need for change. No requests for

feedback are asked for. Upper management doesn’t seem to get along with each other.

6. For successful changes - Meet with all levels of workers to explain the change and the

reasons for the change. Let the workers know how they can contribute and why the

change needs to be successful. Answer questions. Communication and openness are the


key. For Unsuccessful changes – Management stays ‘tight-lipped’, doesn’t explain why

the changes are needed. The change is just pushed down the line, with little

communication.

Participant 3:

Gender: male

Age: 56

Education: unknown

Management experience: yes

1. First, I communicated to the management chain that I believed in the new direction and

offered whatever services I could provide to the cause. Second, I emphasized to my

subordinates the importance of the change. Third, I tried to communicate progress toward

the goal both to my subordinates as well as to management.

2. Many times decisions are made for which I do not have all the relevant information,

therefore when a change is made that I do not understand (and therefore am indifferent

to) I do not try to visibly express that indifference. I will however seek to question the

wisdom of the decision with my management and try to gain clarification. Occasionally

changes are made that management cannot control. For example, if your company is

merged with another then some changes are inevitable and those changes may not be

optimal for one's specific situation. However, one should pick battles where one has a

chance to make a difference and rebelling against change for the simple reason of

inconvenience is not wise.

3. I discuss the matter with my manager, in private. The goal would be to understand the

motivation, explain my concerns, and determine if the initiative might be modified in


some way to be more accommodating. If my manager cannot convince me that the

change is in the best interest of our common goals, I discuss it with his manager, using

the same goal. If I cannot change the initiative or modify it to make it more palatable

after two or more escalations in management, I either accept the change or find a new

job.

4. a) They explain to their people why change is necessary and listen to their concerns about

it. b) They provide public and private forums for receiving feedback, providing some

time for people to fully formulate their questions. c) They address concerns expressed in

the forums with explanations of why the change is necessary and if or how it can be

modified to address the more serious concerns expressed. d) They identify the most

troublesome resistors and either convert them or eliminate them.

5. Signals that a company is not ready or capable of implementing successful change:

Has the company considered how the change will affect day-to-day operations of

their employees?

How will the change affect loosely related processes or operations?

If the change involves a supply line, how will the change affect vendors? Is it

compatible with their systems?

Who are the key people affected by the change? Have they been consulted to

determine compatibility with other operations?

Can the change be rolled out incrementally or is it necessary for multiple departments

to implement the change simultaneously?

6. My experience of this is most vivid in the occasions where my company was purchased

and merged into a larger company. In some cases the purchaser may have a corporate


climate that is vastly different from the purchased company. If the purchaser determines

to force the purchased company into a new "mold" then the results may be devastating

resulting in key employees leaving and generally poor moral. Another example is when

the purchaser starts integrating the purchased company's IT and business systems into the

purchaser's systems. This will always lead to procedural changes that disrupt the

purchased company's operations, and if this activity is not well planned and well

advertised it can lead to large losses in productivity. My advice is:

Change for its own sake is usually bad.

Always consider the impact of the change on the people you depend on to execute

it.

Sometimes change is difficult for some people. Consider what you will do with

these people if they have difficulty with the change - and firing them is not the

answer.

Consider carefully the entire cost of the change, including equipment required to

carry it out. For example, moving to a new CRM system may be enticing for the

flexibility it provides, but it might also cost you dearly in IT support costs and staff

sizes. Look at the whole picture.

Participant 4:

Gender: female

Age: 25

Education: unknown

Management experience: none


1. When I am committed to a change initiative at work, I get started with it right away.

Usually it is something that I am excited about and have been wanting and waiting for. I

immediately sit down with my team or by myself (depending on the situation) and start

making a plan in which to implement the change successfully. As we're implementing the

change I'm studying its effects on all the people involved and am continually adapting my

plan to the needs I see.

2. In these situations, I would probably wait until some sort of accountability or plan to

make the change were put into place for me. I might try the change initiative but I

probably wouldn't put too much of my time into trying to make it work.

3. Usually, I don't do anything. I might implement a piece of the change but because I don't

have much belief in it, it doesn't work. Then I will sometimes take that data back to the

people trying to make the change and share my frustration about the change with them

through that outlet.

4. Capable organizations have tried the program out for themselves first. They aren't taking

a program that they have never seen in action and tried to push it on you. My specific

example would be of a classroom management program that was introduced to us this

past year. The first thing the teacher presenting the program said was that she used the

program in her classroom (while she was still in the classroom) and that she recently took

time away from presenting to be a long term sub in a classroom to see if she could

successfully still use the program and could use it in a different environment than what

she had previously used it in. Every time she presented a new piece of the program, she

gave specific and recent examples of how she used it. Because of her experiences, I was


able to see how it might work in my classroom and I was excited to experiment with it

myself.

5. These types of organizations, talk to you about what you should be doing. Sometimes

they almost try to guilt you into seeing that what you're doing is not working. Then they'll

give you random information that might sound great but in the back of your head, you're

thinking, "This person has no idea what I'm working with. They don't know my students.

They don't know the system my school follows. They don't even know what I'm supposed

to be teaching." They usually come across as pretty harsh to me. They are like the used

car sales man that doesn't really know what's under the hood of the car. They are just so

ready to make a deal (probably because they are ready to taste some success and haven't

had the opportunity to yet). They can't give you specific examples of how to make their

program work and they don't take the time to hear your real life situations so that they can

help you tailor their program to your reality.

6. Recently, our principal completely reorganized our grade level teams. She made sure that

every team had a change implemented in their staffing. The successful part of her change

was with the people that were actually being moved to new grade levels. They were all

called into her office and she gave them her reasoning for the change. These people were

comfortable and willing to be part of her team and help out by moving to a new grade.

The rest of us were left without any explanation which led us to create our own

explanations. We immediately started to think that the people who were being moved

were being moved because they had had problems with their previous teams. We were

very hesitant and unwelcoming to the new team member. Because of our attitudes, we

couldn't function as a team for a long time because we weren't sure about this other


person. We had a lot of trust issues, not only with the new team member but with the

principal because we never heard her reasoning for making the change. Since then, we

have had to overcome some major issues that probably wouldn't have even been existent

had we had the same conversation that the people who did the moving had with the

principal.

Participant 5:

Gender: female

Age: 52

Education: unknown


1. I went to the leadership people and offered to help in any way I could.

2. I went about my business as usual and ignored any changes taking place around me.

When management approached me, I told them I was too busy to help with anything, and

asked if they needed me to do something.

3. I went about my business as usual and ignored any changes taking place around me. I

told them I was busy and didn't have time to help them. Then I asked them about the

changes, and they had a discussion with me as to why these changes were needed and

basically had to sell me on the idea. I wanted them to hear my perspective as well.

4. As I learned from my HR Mgmt classes, organizations do not take into account the

people who they expect to make those changes happen. Before change is even

announced, management needs to sit with each department, and ask how things are going,

and see if there are any ideas for changes that would help make their department more

efficient. Good communicators can target areas they know are going to be affected, and


sneak in some suggestions to get the employees talking and thinking of ways to improve

their area. This way the employees feel valued and that they are a part of the change.

5. When some guy at decided our school needed to be co-located, they didn't realize until it

was too late how much money they would have to write off in furniture that we owned.

Because they were afraid the people would be upset that we had nicer furniture, we had

to buy all new furniture, and then give away all of our solid wood furniture. Corporate

didn't seem to realize how much we had spent and how much they would have to write

off. The initial savings they thought they would have, ended up being much less than they

had hoped. The guy who came up with the idea sold them on his idea, made a bunch of

money based on the idea, and retired to an island somewhere. In the end, we ended up

splitting up and having separate campuses like we should have always had.

6. Employees need to feel valued and respected. Don't just say you want our support and

hold meetings and say you will tell the upper management, and then not tell the powers

that be. They treat employees like children who don't have a clue, and are doing nothing

but blowing smoke at us. They fail to realize how much of our lives are invested in our

work, and how much those jobs mean to us. All the secrecy about upcoming change is

toxic and causes nothing but bad feelings towards the company and the leadership team.

Be up front with employees from the beginning.

Participant 6:

Gender: female

Age: 45

Education: unknown



1. I worked as hard as I could to help with the change and encourage others to do the same.

I researched different ways that the change could be implemented and shared them with

colleagues.

2. I suppose I was slow to respond and gave it only half my attention. If I felt it was not

really relevant, I ignored it as much as possible.

3. I spoke up against it to my superiors and discussed it with my other teachers to try to find

an alternative that was more palatable.

4. Organizations that are capable of implementing successful change involve their

employees in decision making – employees on all levels, not just in supervisory

positions. Employees need to believe they have a voice in their work lives/work spaces.

Our school held regular faculty meetings to discuss problems and solutions to those

problems. When we changed to individualized reading instruction headed by a UT

professor, teachers and principals were part of the planning for the program and received

intensive training to prepare us for the change.

5. Those organizations hand down orders from the top management without input from

employees. Our school district supervisors decided that all teachers would implement

computer teaching, but did not require or offer training to all teachers to prepare them to

do this. Some teachers were technologically phobic and resisted or refused to do the

teaching. (Of course, you realize that this was over 18 years ago! Most of those teachers

are retired now.)

6. To make successful change, an organization must have the support of those who will

implement it. Or it must educate the workers of the necessity of the change. If all this

fails, an organization must work with the resistant ones to convert them, relocate them, or


fire them. The route to unsuccessful change management is an edict from upper

management with no advance warning, preparation, or education.

Participant 7:

Gender: male

Age: 22



1. If I am personally committed to a change, then I am going to try my best to get all of the

other employees to see the change from my perspective. I feel like this will make the

transition easier and the change last.

2. I hop on the bandwagon that has the most support.

3. I try to express my discomfort with the change but try to be careful not to step on too

many toes. If I don't get my way, I don't want to have created any enemies.

4. I think the most successful changes have to happen for clear, well-defined reasons that

have been explained thoroughly to the employees. The desired outcome of the changes

must also be explained to demonstrate how the proposed changes will solve or help to

reduce the problems that were present in the first place.

5. Organizations that try to implement change unilaterally without any support from the

employees or customers are generally not successful. In order to make successful changes

that last, all parties involved need to see the reasons that brought about the change as well

as understand how the proposed changes will solve the problem.


6. Make sure that everyone understands the reasons behind needing to make a change as

well as how these changes will solve the problem that is at hand. Mandating change from

on high will cause resistance and resentment regardless of the reasons for the change.

Participant 8:

Gender: Male

Age: 48


Management experience: CEO

1. I try to encourage others to see the reasons or benefits of the change.

2. I guess I would look at both sides of the change and probably cooperate if it would

benefit those that had influence over me.

3. I probably did not actively not support it, but did not do anything to help either.

4. They get everyone to see the benefits to them individually or the group in whole, thus

benefiting the individuals.

5. If the leaders are not committed and on the same page, it shows to the rest of the

organization.

I would advise that the leaders should involve all levels in the change discussions so that they

have ownership of the change. When this happens, everyone feels like it is their changes that are

being implemented.

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