Please respond to the three uploaded discussion responses with one peer-reviewed source each in APA format.
Thank You

Tatraya’s Response

An organization in my industry that continuously undergoes change is the operating room department. Due to the fact that surgical procedures are constantly advancing due to research and technology. The department encounters change on a regular basis. An essential system necessary to facilitate when continuously introducing new change initiatives to a department is stakeholder interest balance. When constantly adding changes to a department, it is important to make sure stakeholders are always on board. Having many successful completions of change processes can increase the chances of keeping shareholders interested in more change. “The key feature of a truly sustainable change must be renewal and regeneration – of other stakeholder organizations, of individual employees and of society and the biosphere” Brannmark, Benn, 2012, p.233). This suggests that the surgical department must work hard to complete successful change in order to continue to gain support from investors. The main way to keep stakeholders’ interest is to facilitate change without compromising quality or causing burnout from employees. Each change should be properly evaluated and spaced out to ensure employees feel satisfied from the successful completion of each change. Because this is a health care setting, the quality of each change is important because if not executed correctly, it can be detrimental to patients. Therefore, after every change, there should be a proper evaluation done of the process before initiating another change. Also, there should be celebrations of each milestone to decrease the chances of employee burnout.

When facilitating change, it is important to keep in mind certain factors to make sure the changes made become permanently embedded in the organization’s culture. One important factor to keep in mind is effective communication. “Clear, effective communication is a critical component of successful change management. It is impossible to over-communicate when an organization is going through a change” (Malik, 2020). Utilizing effective communication helps everyone to remain on the same page and the chance to continue successfully within the organization. Another key factor to consider is to create a culture of change. “Creating a culture of change embeds the changing mindset into the organization, which surfaces in day-to-day operations” (Malik, 2020). This helps to make change stick by changing the mindsets of staff members to expect a change in order to keep the success of the organization thriving. Another factor to consider when making sure change will stick long term is to measure the impact of the change. When measuring the impact of the change, leaders can determine if it was a large or minor change before introducing new change processes to avoid employee burnout. All changes should be evaluated and fully put into action before introducing a new change to ensure the change sticks.

References:

Brännmark, M., & Benn, S. (2012). A proposed model for evaluating the sustainability of continuous change programmes. Journal of Change Management, 12(2), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2012.672449

Malik, L. (2021, April 7). Six factors for making change stick. Thought Ensemble. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://www.thoughtensemble.com/six-factors-for-making-change-stick/

Seth’s Response

I work in the property and casualty insurance industry, which is highly regulated in term of both the rate adequacy as well as fair market competition. With constant litigation regarding market conduct and pricing the industry should be considered a stable and certain market whereby a mechanistic organizational form and reporting structure would be the most appropriate (Ford, 2008). With the proper structure in place, an organization should evaluate and consider the differences in absolute or planned change and continuous change. Ford (2008) suggests “Planned change is goal-oriented, rational and intentional. Continuous change, on the other hand, consists of small adaptations that emerge from improvisation and learning” (p. 174).

There are many factors a company should consider ensuring that change does not cause unnecessary strain on employees and lead to suffering engagement or burnout, however I believe the 3 most important factors to be: active ownership, competent leadership and engaged participants. Active ownership simply stated is the senior leadership of the organization committing the appropriate resources and support for the change to succeed. “If employees perceive that management’s commitment to the change programme is lacking, their engagement in the change process is likely to diminish, making it difficult or even impossible to continue the change programme” (Brannmark & Benn, 2012). In addition to leaders actively owning the process, they must be fully competent not simply in terms of industry trends and changes needed to keep up with rapid changes affecting the company, but well versed in the ability to lead through change at a high level. Motivating individuals and keeping them well informed of the progress is a critical component of this step. Finally, to successfully create a culture that can sustain continuous change, an organization must have an engaged workforce (participants). This step is so critical in that the best laid plans could fail to come to fruition without proper buy in from the team that is responsible for executing change. Brannmark & Benn (2012) note “goals and visions are the sought consequences of a change programme, which then need steering together with learning processes and engaged participants, and competent leadership, using feedback to monitor their progress, to assure that the change initiative is developing in accordance with the goals and vision” (p. 238). Through these critical steps, an organization can ensure that change not only occurs, but that it is done so in a manner that allows for continuous, ongoing change embedded in organizational culture.

Reference

Brannmark, M., & Benn, S. (2012). A Proposed Model for Evaluating the Sustainability of Continuous Change Perogrammes. Journal of Change Management, 12(2), 231-245. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/14697017.2012.672449

Ford, R. (2008). Complex Adaptive Systems and Improvisation Theory: Toward Framing a Model to enable Continuous Change. Journal of Change Management, 8(3/4), 173-198. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/14697010802567543

Karen’s response

I typically welcome change with open arms and have even been known to say I thrive on chaos and change, I get bored easily. I’m always looking for opportunities to improve or “stir things up a bit.” As I have matured, I am more cautious about creating change and try to focus on being very intentional and making sure my actions are meaningful. Makeda Penny Cooke published a blog post series regarding change and in one part of that series, she discusses personal tools to help navigate change that you all may find interesting. One of the biggest, and sometimes hardest, tools is truth-telling, “Always tell yourself the truth, even if you’re lying to everyone else.” It may be accepting a situation that we are in or going along with things because we “should be happy” where we are. Sometimes we have these gut-feelings or intuitions about situations, but we lie to ourselves for a multitude of reasons. Whether this be our true engagement and support of an effort, or the validity or ethics of our organization in return for the paycheck that supports our lifestyles. We have to be very real with ourselves regarding our beliefs, our strengths and weaknesses and our motivations and values. That takes courage. Risking vulnerability and having a real support system in place that is available to us without shame or judgement, or bias. Spiritual practices are of utmost importance. No matter what your belief system is, be strong in it-find ways to attend to spiritual matters. I pray a lot more than I tell people I do, and probably not near as much as I should. But, divine guidance is a big part of my decision-making and how I navigate change with as much peace as possible. I have also learned to rely on mentors, coaches, leaders and even therapists during times of great change in my life.

Confidence, courage, prayer and awareness are tools that I use daily to help myself navigate changes, whether it be in my personal or professional life.

Reference

Pennycooke, M. (2018, December 6). Tools for Navigating Change [web log]. Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://makedapennycooke.com/tools-for-navigating-change/.

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Solution

Response to Karen

The process of organizational change usually causes fatigue and stress among staff. According to Mukerjee et al. (2021), change initiatives disrupt interpersonal relations, identities, and routines at work; induce uncertainty, and necessitate adjustments to novel strategic goals and work relationships. Therefore, change is usually experienced as stressful. Change involves moving from the known to the unknown and it comes along with a sense of precariousness in an individual’s meaning of life and survival in the organization. Change leads to the adjustment of organizational structure, processes, goals, technology, work tasks; which are all main hindrance stressors for staff.

However, change initiatives are not always hindering, particularly to individuals who embrace change. Successful change occurs only when individuals embrace change and change their behavior. Mukerjee et al.(2021) .indicate that change initiatives also offer the possibility to improve present work conditions, learn new skills and competencies, and more effectively perform their job along with the opportunity to attain meaningful and valued outcomes at work. This paradox male it vital to understand the way individuals deal with such demanding events while maintaining positive functioning and contributing to the success of change initiatives.

References

Mukerjee, J., Montani, F., & Vandenberghe, C. (2021). A dual model of coping with and commitment to organizational change: the role of appraisals and resources. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 34(5), 1144-1161.

Response to Seth

The attitude of employees towards change significantly influences the success of change initiatives. Change can solely be managed successfully to the degree that staff adopt new ways of working and new processes by altering the way they behave, feel, and think.  According to Albrecht et al., (2020), for change to be implemented successfully and efficiently, beyond simply being receptive and open toward change, the staff needs to be ready to actively and positively engage in the process of change.  This is so since continuing organizational change requires staff who feel rejuvenated by change,   who are ready to try out change, and who actively adopt and support new initiatives by changing their behavior and attitudes.

Employees who are engaged with change have positive change attitudes such as commitment to change, openness to change, or readiness for change. Employee engagement is important because involved, motivated, and enthusiastic employees are a vital source of competitive advantage. Engaged staff feel positive and are engaged in their jobs and are willing to work to achieve organizational and work role goals (Albrecht et al., 2020).

References

Albrecht, S. L., Connaughton, S., Foster, K., Furlong, S., & Yeow, C. J. (2020). Change Engagement, Change resources, and Change Demands: A Model for Positive Employee Orientations to Organizational Change. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 531944. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.531944

Response to Tatrayass

Communication is very important during a change process.  A come scheme of overcoming resistance to change is to inform employees about change in advance. According to Nilsen et al. (2020), predictability is important for health care professionals to perceive organizational change as successful.   People are able to alter their behavior accordingly when they are prepared.   Thus, it is important for managers to communicate information to prepare staff for changes in the organization.  When individuals are not prepared, they experience difficulties aligning their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings with the expectations of change leaders.  Organizational readiness to change relies on the resolve of the members of the organization to pursue the course of action in executing change, as well as their beliefs in their abilities to perform these actions.

It is important for the management to communicate the motives for change. According to… change is likely to succeed if staff consider the change is well thought out.. and respect the managers with the responsibility for the change, while there is a greater chance for resistance to change if staff consider the change managers to have no or little value for them.  Also, it is important for change initiatives to rest on sound and coherent critical thinking. Employees who do not have an understanding as to why change is being pursued will be unwilling to abide by the managers’ requirement for change.

References

Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: an interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20, 147. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4999-8