Reasons_for_Resistance_in_Business

‘Husband and Wife’ I, Ali’a Hasan, have been employed to prepare a business report to assist the multiple owners of ‘Husband and Wife’ in preparing for the employment of a full time manager and the implications this change may have on the business. I will provide advice on how to avoid undesirable situations and will propose information on the following: reasons for resistance; change in management techniques; roles and skills required of the new manager and; the type of management theory applicable to the business. Reasons For Resistance Even though it is essential for ‘Husband and Wife’ to implement this change, you must bear in mind that it may be difficult to do so. Barriers that must be addressed to effectively create an efficient business environment are: Financial costs: The financial costs of employing a full time manager may be high as he or she may want to modify aspects within ‘Husband and Wife’. Major costs include: * Purchasing new equipment * Redundancy payouts * Retraining * Re-organising plant layout If the new manager brings about change then it’s often necessary to change the way it carries out its activities. Where businesses have been prepared to incur the cost of purchasing new equipment they have coped effectively with change. Jobs may become redundant and therefore to pay staff off is expensive. Adopting a manager means adopting his or her ways of doing things and staff may need to be retrained in certain areas which may be expensive. Adoption of technology may lead to loss of production as staff is being trained. But be aware that although profit may decease initially, it will pay off in the end. If new technologies are adopted, plant layout may need to be changed and this will be expensive. You will need to notify your staff and convince them of the need for this change and train them in using new layout. Increment change is a vital aspect in addressing these expensive costs. Staffing: The partners may be worried about how the staff will take to how the new manager operates and the effects this resistance may have on the performance of the business. Staff may be apprehensive that they are not sufficiently trained according to the new manager. Several long-term workers have the “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” attitude. Many employees concerned about de-skilling and therefore, levels of absenteeism and resignations increase. The manager and you can overcome this by offering programs of retraining and staff development to develop new skills before they are required. Staff may reject the idea of a new manager as they may consider themselves worthy of the position of manager as they have been loyal and hardworking. This can be compensated by well- designed jobs that provide interesting and challenging work so that the job itself provides work satisfaction. Furthermore staff may be displeased as a hefty pay would be allocated to the manager and it will be deducted from their pay. You need to ensure them that profit will increase with the appointment of a manager and their pays will soon increase. The quality of working like must be satisfactory. Inertia of managers and owners: ‘Husband and Wife’ owners may not see the need for a new manager as they may be simply unaware of the problem or fail to recognise that it isn’t compatible with the environment or perhaps they are unprepared to deal with the hostility of the staff as they may have to change the way they do their job and don’t possess the skill to lead a business in a different direction. Cultural incompatibility: Cultural incompatibility may arise after the new manager and the staff may have different approaches to completing a job. The problem is that your workers values have become entrenched. One of the most important strategies for you to do is to weaken the resistance of staff by offering incentives in return for their commitment. Although all of these are integral barriers, financial costs and problems with staff covered in detail because I believe they may be the central forces of resistance in ‘Husband and Wife. Change Management Techniques The sources of change include the impact of economic, geographical, social, legal, political and technological development from the external environment and also the changing nature of markets. The changing nature of internal influences such as the effects of accelerating technology, new systems and procedures and new business cultures are also important. Change is more likely to be effective when managers identify the need for change, set achievable goals, create a culture of change and are aware of the change models. A business needs to change their culture for reasons such as: *It is no longer compatible with its environment * Increasing competitiveness *Direct business at performance *Redefining the relevant environment for the business For ‘Husband and Wife’ you have acknowledged the need to change which is to allow the other partners to ‘get on with their legal work’. Change without a purpose is counterproductive. So hence, setting achievable goals is the next step. The plans should be evolutionary and in setting objectives there are a many things that should be done: *Gain acceptance from people for the need to change and discuss objectives. *Include in the objectives of changes in staff behaviour and values. * Include in the objectives that resources and support systems will be required to consolidate the change. The most effective ways of achieving acceptance from people is to use change agents to generate a teamwork approach to the change. Highly influential people in a group must be targeted as change agents. To execute this you need to: *convince them of the need for change *get them to agree on the nature of the change *give them the power to implement the change effectively You should be aware how the change process works. Kurt Lewin developed two models; one describing a relatively stable environment where occasionally something happens that causes the business to make a significant change and one describing an uncertain environment where there is continuous and unexpected change. Roles and skills required of the new manager Managers need to play the following: Interpersonal Role: The role refers to the duties a manager performs that involve relating to people both within and outside the business. They open new factories, outline goals to employees and set ethical guidelines for the behaviour of employees. When managers represent the public face of the business they are playing a ‘figurehead’ role. When they give direct commands to subordinates they are playing the role of ‘leader’. When they coordinate the work of managers in different departments they are involved in a ‘liaison’ role. Informational role: Managers need information about what’s happening in the external environment and about what their competitors are doing. This is called the ‘monitoring’ role. There is also the ‘disseminator’ role which involves receiving, collecting and disseminating information with staff and the ‘spokesperson’ role where managers have to hold press conferences to launch products or explain future goals of business. Decisional role: Managers also play roles where they are required to make choices. The ‘entrepreneurial’ role of managers is concerned with initiating things like new projects to develop and market new products. The ‘disturbance handler’ role is where managers must take corrective action to solve unforseen actions. They are also ‘resource allocators’ where they allocate human resources, machinery and plant, and monetary resources in the business. They are ‘negotiators’ where they will negotiate with suppliers, unions and distributors. The skills required in general of an excellent business manager include people skills and strategic thinking. Active listening skills, delegation skills, discipline skills will ensure job satisfaction for employees and therefore improve business performance. Creating a vision, flexibility and adaptability to change, self-management, teamwork, complex problem-solving, decision making and ethical and personal standards are strategic thinking skills. Responsibility to stakeholders and reconciling conflicts of interest are also vital skills. Bear in mind that you have hired a manager to allow other partners to get on with their legal work and thus self-management and decision making skills are one’s that the manager should contain. He must take the decisional role. Effective management is important for three reasons: *Key to a more competitive economy and higher performing enterprises *Job creation depends on better management skills *To meet the worlds best practice standards, Australian management must improve. Type of Management Theory applicable to the business By understanding the different management theories, managers have previous sources that they can draw on in order to solve current problems such as how to work effectively with the people in the business. Basically management theories assist managers in what to do and how to do it. The many theories that you can refer to are the classical-scientific theory, behavioural theory, political theory, administrative management theory, systems theory, contingency theory, theory X and theory Y and Lewin’s model of change. Although these are all useful theories I suggest you look at Lewin’s model of change which in my opinion would be the most useful. When the business encounters a change such as the establishment of a new manager in your case, the first thing to be done is to ‘unfreeze’ the existing practices by consulting with people concerned with the change such as the staff and owners. This job would be recommended to the new manager who, while doing this would familiarise themselves with the business and its’ people. The new manager would need to increase the ‘driving force’ by explaining the need to change and attempt to gain acceptance. So in the ‘Husband and Wife’ case, your new manager could explain why he has come and what he could achieve in the business. Your new manager will also need to reduce the ‘retraining forces’ such as fear of losing their jobs or not possessing the required skills because they do not meet the standard of the new manager. The new manager would need to create some form of communication system to assure that a healthy bond of trust is created between the staff and him. This is part of the second aspect which is to implement the change which should also reflect in the worker’s behaviours and actions. They need to adopt new values and behavioural patterns. The third aspect is ‘refreezing’ after the installation of the change by consolidating the changes. In this part the manager needs to provide support systems, resources and skills to ensure that the new environment is stable. The key element is to make sure the ‘driving forces’ override the ‘resiting forces’ as is explained in Lewin’s force-field model.