Managing Change: Strategies, Role of Leader, and Assessment by Senior Management Team

Running head: Managing change
Managing change
2018

Managing change
Answer 1. Strategies and motivators
It is studied that resistance to change may impact on the performance and productivity of the
firm. Thus, the company needs to make unique and effective policies and strategies to overcome
the resistance to change at the workplace. Various strategies and motivators can be used to
prevent and reduce resistance to change in the organization. Support and empathy for people
responses is one of the biggest and well known strategies that can be used by managers while
functioning. They need to maintain open and strong communication with workers about the
various managerial changes (Self and Schraeder, 2009).
Managers need to ensure the participation and involvement of wide range of people in the
company and also protect the rights and worth of external stakeholders. If the employees do not
believe they have the essential skills and potential to perform tasks and duties then necessary
training and development coaching need to be provided to them for boosting their confidence
and trust. Along with this, resistance to change can be prevented by rendering adequate and
dynamic resources to the workers for conducting business successfully. Change management is
unique and effective for every company because it leads high success and growth (Choi and
Ruona, 2011).
The other significance strategy that can be used by leaders is SHEER formula. SHEER formula
includes surface, honor, explore, explain and recheck. By using this formula, the top
management can listen and resolve the concerns and issues of the workers. Along with this, a
support system can be built and enhanced by leaders or managers to accept the changes and
decrease resistance at the workplace. New competencies and skills also play a major role in
initiating the changes while functioning. Therefore, skills, potential and new competencies could
be developed to implement managerial changes within the organization (Kotter, 2012).
It is recommended that top management needs to focus on the employee engagement and
commitment to minimize the resistance within the organization. Motivated and engaged
employees have higher employee’s satisfaction that leads to enthusiasm in their responsibilities
as it also increases productivity of the firm. Collecting feedback and reviews can also help in
understanding and analyzing the issues, barriers and challenges that are being entertained by the
employees while working. The top management should include employees in decision making
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Managing change
and planning process to determine their higher involvement. An audit can be done to identify and
analyze the issues and conflicts that are rising at the workplace (Anderson and Anderson, 2010).
It is noted that leaders must increase awareness among the workers regarding resistance to
change. For increasing awareness, the managers need to use social media channels when
implementing new managerial changes at the workplace. SMART goals, roles and
responsibilities must be defined by the leaders in order to decrease the resistance to change.
Emotional intelligence and self assessment programs can be helped to accept organizational
changes in an effective way. The managers need to explain the benefits and role of change
management with employees to minimize negative impacts of resistance to change. All these
strategies and motivators can be used by the managers to avert the resistance to change.
Answer 2. Role of leader or change agent
It has been examined that change agent or leader plays a major role in managing change
effectively. The leader or change agent plays operational, collaborative and advisory role to
initiative the managerial changes efficiently. The leader provides rights and significant guidance
to the followers for accepting the changes successfully. It will further help the company to
achieve desired objectives and goals. They use their own knowledge and experience to identify
and analyze the causes of resistance to change. Change agent or leader maintains direct and open
communication with employees at the workplace. Therefore, they play a operational role in the
organization while functioning (Cameron and Green, 2015).
Change agent or leader sets SMART objectives, roles and responsibilities to grow and survive
the business effectively. Change agent or leader works as a organizational development
practitioners because they make policies and strategies to overcome the resistance in the
workplace. Leader gains support for the activities and engages people to participate. Change
agent or leader manage conflicts and issues by helping different parties see the circumstances
from the other’s point of view and by setting common objectives and goals. Furthermore, change
agent relies on their knowledge and expertise to develop their authority at the workplace
(Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Change agent or leader also finds right and appropriate way to hold people accountable and
make sure that suitable punishments or rewards are managed as necessary. As a facilitator, leader
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