Principles of Managing Change in a Highly Competitive Business World

"Truth is more important during periods of change and uncertainty than 'good news'." Everyone, not just top management, deserves to k now what the future holds when it comes to changes, restructuring, even to downsizing or other changes that will, in the end, make the entire company better. Truth is more than simple honesty. It implies fairness as well. Fairness is a sticking point even with the most liberal of companies, because the term tends to mean different things to different people. Fairness is a basis for empowerment, since it is meant to be the "result of better matches between worker characteristics and organizational needs, and is believed to result in increased satisfaction and productivity." (Leslie et al 1)).

Harvard Business School looks at employee motivation and empowerment as a means of providing a substantive share in the future of that business to the employees. "Employees and shareholders are two important stakeholders in business enterprises. Typically, both share a stake in the survival and prosperity of the organization." (Beer et al 39).

To assure honesty and fairness, a priority here is developing the strongest and most reliable communications network. There are still companies called "the good news company" because, afraid of management wrath, supervisors only tend to communicate good news upward. Everyone who is part of the responsibility for the company's success deserves to be told the truth, and the latest truth, at that! Part of that communications establishment must be to have someone that employees can talk to (in good times or bad). "K.S. is the executive I can go to if I need to talk out a problem. She operates as if her door is off the hinges even though it is still hanging there....I feel more free to say what I really think..." ( Arnold and Plas 221) This communication is not a "here's what you will do!" talk, but a frank discussion about changing the SYSTEM, as necessary, if it gets in the way of people performance.

This goes right along with the second major principle to share: "Thought processes and relationship dynamics are fundamental if change is to be successful." This is why two-way communication during a time of change is critical to success. Change cannot be successfully implemented if everyone is not clear about his or her responsibility.

Change cannot be managed without the support of people. Nom matter what your product or service is, management has to understand new are in the "people" business. Computers and all sorts of technology may make production and distribution, and even the eventual purchase easier,. But it still takes people to conceive, provide and then market it all. People who are skilled at managing change recognize the importance of people: "Success depends to a large extent on commitment of employees towards the organization's aims and on cooperation between them. This means identifying with the company. What benefits the company needs to be seen and felt by the employees as also benefiting them" (Davidmann 2). Davidmannn also states that "Experience tells that the system does not work well if targets are simply imposed from the top downwards" (7). In other words, managing change is a two-=way system of communication. Employees deserve to k now not just the basic truths, but the plans for the future, and management needs to understand the commitment the workers and their supervisory personnel are able and willing to make to see change turn out well.

It is easy to pin some principles of managing change on a bulletin board. Making them work, believing in the basis for thought and working together, from the top down and from the bottom rung up is what turns the written word into reality. There is an often used cliché: "lead, follow, or get out of the way." By emulating these two basic principles in managing change, no one will have to get out of the way, and leaders (that is, those who plan for the future) and followers (those who make the future happen) are together as a team.

REFERENCES:

Arnold, William W . and Jeanne M. Plas: The Human Touch: Today's Most Unusual Program for Productivity and Profit, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993

Beer, Michael Bert Spector, Paul R. Lawrence, D.Quinn Mills and Richard E. Walton Managing Human Assets: The Ground-BreakingHarvardBusinessSchool Program. New York: The Free Press, 1984

Davidmann, Manfred: "Directing and managing Change"

Leslie, Donald, Carol Holtzalb and Thomas P. Holland: "Measuring Staff Empowerment: Devel opment of worker empowerment scale" Thousand Oaks CA: Research on Social Work