CHANGE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

PART-A

Answer 2:

In recent years, changes in the economy and the business environment have forced
some organizations to change the way they do business. Whether we like it or not,
managers and supervisors are the ones who have to implement the changes. In
addition to the other, more traditional skills we possess as supervisors, it is critical
that we understand our role as leaders, or change agents, in these rapidly changing
times.

Unfortunately, employees do not all respond to change with the attitude, "Fantastic
. . . another organizational change, and I'm excited to be a part of it!" Given that
change is here to stay, why do some people seem to dig in their heels and resist it
at all costs?

1. Fear of failure
Resistance to change may be rooted in fear. During periods of change, some
employees may feel the need to cling to the past because it was a more
secure, predictable time. If what they did in the past worked well for them,
they may resist changing their behavior out of fear that they will not achieve
as much in the future.
2. Creatures of habit
Doing things in the same routine, predictable manner is comfortable. Asking
people to change the way they operate or think is asking them to move
outside their comfort zone.
3. No obvious need
Some employees may see a change only from the perspective of the impact
it has on them and their particular jobs. Not seeing the big picture, they may
fail to recognize the positive impact of the change on the organization as a
whole. Thus, they may find the change disruptive and totally unnecessary.
4. Loss of control
Familiar routines help employees develop a sense of control over their work
environment. Being asked to change the way they operate may make
employees feel powerless and confused.
5. Concern about support system
Employees operating within predictable routines know their support system
will back them up during challenging times. Changing the organizational
structures may shake their confidence in their support system. They may
worry about working for a new supervisor, with new employees or on
unfamiliar projects because they fear that if they try and fail, there will be no
one there to support them.
6. Closed minded
Some employees seem to have the attitude, “Please don’t confuse me with
any facts or supporting documentation about this change–I’ve already made
up my mind!” Employees with this attitude approach the change process
with their minds firmly made up, muttering, “No way!” during discussions
and explanations of the future.
7. Unwillingness to learn
Some employees, hesitant to try new routines, express an unwillingness to
learn anything new. They may say, “I already know all that I need to know.”
Like resistant employees who have already made up their minds that the
change won’t be productive, employees reluctant to learn something new
impede the organization’s growth and adaptation to change. They also
hinder their own personal growth and development.
8. Fear that the new way may not be better
If things have been going well, some employees may resist change because
they fear that the change will not result in improvement. Focusing only on
their part of the operation, they fail to realize that change is needed in order
for the organization to stay competitive. They may resist forward movement
because they are satisfied with the way things are going. Their current status
is quite sufficient, and they wish to maintain business as usual.
9. Fear of the unknown
Employees may resist change simply because it is something unfamiliar. Not
knowing much about the specifics of the change, they may imagine a worst
case scenario, which can be very scary. They let fear of the unknown
become their rationale for not giving the change a chance. These employees
may acknowledge that a problem exists and agree that a change might
improve it. However, they worry that the proposed change might actually
make things worse! Their fear causes them to place roadblocks in the
movement toward change.
10. Fear of personal impact
Viewing change from a personal standpoint, some employees may respond
by asking how the change will benefit them directly. Will it make their job
easier? Will they have to work harder? Will the change put their job security
 in jeopardy? Will the change force them to work with different people or
learn a new job?

Answer 4:

One of the least mentioned effects of change relates to how it affects the manager
leading that change, and his or her ability to undertake the leadership role. We
have already talked about the effects of change on the individual employee, and of
course managers are subject to the same reactions, resistances and strains. Some
types of change, such as restructuring, or downsizing can put considerable strain
on the leaders of an organization.

Stress, Stress & More Stress

One primary concern regarding change is the stress it imposes on those undergoing
the change. Managers, because they have obligations to their staff, not only have
to deal with change as employees but also need to carry some of the concerns of
their staffs. In the case of downsizing, the stress levels can be extremely high,
because the manager is charged with conveying very upsetting information.

Stress is part of the job, but in times of change, it is critical that you recognize that
it may cause you to act in ways that are less effective than usual. As with anything
connected with change, the major concern is not short term but long term. If your
stress levels result in marked loss of effectiveness, the risk is that a vicious cycle
will be set up, where ineffective leadership results in creating more long term
problems, which increases your stress, which reduces your effectiveness even
more.
Avoidance -- A Common Response

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A common response to unpleasant change is to ignore the situation. Avoidance

can take many forms. Most commonly, the avoiding manager plays only a
minimal role in moving the organization through the swamp. After announcing the
change and doing the minimum required, the manager "hides" from the change,
through delegation, or attending to other work. This tactic involves treating things
as "business as usual".

The outcomes of this tactic can be devastating. By avoiding situations, the

manager abdicates any leadership role, when staff needs it most, during and after
significant change. In addition, the avoidance results in the manager becoming out
of touch with the people and realities of the organization.

While avoidance serves a need for the manager in the short run, it destroys the
manager's credibility, and results in poor decisions. The long term consequence of
such action is that the organization tends to deteriorate in terms of morale,
effectiveness and productivity. Sometimes this deterioration is irreversable.

Denial -- Another Ineffective Tactic

Sometimes the manager deals with change by denying its impact. Usually, the
denying manager takes a very logical approach to change. Decisions get made,
systems are put in place, or new procedures are developed. Unfortunately, this
"logical" approach denies the impact of change on the people in the organization.
The denying manager tends to refuse to understand "what the big deal is", and
shows little empathy with employees in the organization.

As with avoidance the denying tactic tends to drop the manager's credibility and
destroy any personal loyalty on the part of employees.

Key Points

1) Managers are put under stress by change, and that stress, if mishandled can
result in loss of managerial effectiveness. Managers need to be alert to the signs
of stress upon their performance.

2) A common management tactic is to avoid involvement in change when that

involvement is unpleasant. The affects of this withdrawal can be lethal to the
organization and to the manager.

3) Another common tactic is denial of the effects of change. Managers who do

this tend to under- estimate the impact of the change, and demonstrate an inability
to respond to employees' emotional reactions to change.
Answer 6:

Both coaching and mentoring are processes that enable both individual and
corporate clients to achieve their full potential.

Coaching and mentoring share many similarities so it makes sense to outline the
common things coaches and mentors do whether the services are offered in a paid
(professional) or unpaid (philanthropic) role.

• Facilitate the exploration of needs, motivations, desires, skills and thought

processes to assist the individual in making real, lasting change.

• Use questioning techniques to facilitate client's own thought processes in

order to identify solutions and actions rather than takes a wholly directive
approach

• Support the client in setting appropriate goals and methods of assessing

progress in relation to these goals

• Observe, listen and ask questions to understand the client's situation

• Creatively apply tools and techniques which may include one-to-one

training, facilitating, counselling & networking.

• Encourage a commitment to action and the development of lasting personal

growth & change.

• Maintain unconditional positive regard for the client, which means that the
coach is at all times supportive and non-judgemental of the client, their
views, lifestyle and aspirations.

• Ensure that clients develop personal competencies and do not develop

unhealthy dependencies on the coaching or mentoring relationship.

• Evaluate the outcomes of the process, using objective measures wherever

possible to ensure the relationship is successful and the client is achieving
their personal goals.

• Encourage clients to continually improve competencies and to develop new

developmental alliances where necessary to achieve their goals.
 • Work within their area of personal competence.

• Possess qualifications and experience in the areas that skills-transfer

coaching is offered.

• Manage the relationship to ensure the client receives the appropriate level of
service and that programmes are neither too short, nor too long.

Answer 5:

A positive motivation philosophy and practice should improve productivity,

quality, and service. Motivation helps people:

• achieve goals;
• gain a positive perspective;
• create the power to change;
• build self-esteem and capability,
• manage their own development and help others with theirs.

there are five steps that will motivate people follow change:

1. Awareness of the need for change. They can only make genuine changes if
they understand the underlying purpose and reason. This is at the
intellectual, reasoning level.
2. Acceptance of the need for change. This is at an emotional level. Real
change comes from internalising the problem and accepting responsibility
for doing something about it.
3. Commitment to change. Real change will come when people really believe
that they need to change their behaviour
4. Learning and planning. Absorbing knowledge and new skills - and the
opportunity to practise them - needs to be broken down into manageable
stages. One suggestion is a three part 'learning model':
o Purposes - why they are doing the task
o End results - what they hope to end up with
o Success criteria - how to measure how successful they have been
5. Feedback. People need objective information from their managers,
colleagues and subordinates to tell them just how and how much they have
changed. It's not easy for someone to assess this themselves.
 Change management requires acceptance planning

To get people to accept change, the first step is to understand what, from
their perspective, they feel that they’re losing. If you can empathize with
their feelings—and possibly compensate for the loss—you’ve taken a giant
first step toward acceptance.

Here are four more factors—the four C’s—to promoting acceptance of

change:

1. Caring. Listening and responding to people’s reactions is just as

important as explaining the reasons for change.

2. Control. People want input into how change will be implemented. But
never ask for input unless you plan to consider it.

3. Choice. Employees feel better if they are given options as part of the
change process. The more choices they have, the more they feel in control.

4. Competence. Workers are happier about change if they feel they have the
skills and abilities to succeed after the change. The faster you can help
someone move through the learning curve, the faster they will accept the
change.

Kotter's eight step change model can be summarised as:

1. Increase urgency - inspire people to

move, make objectives real and relevant.
2. Build the guiding team - get the right
people in place with the right emotional
commitment, and the right mix of skills
and levels.
3. Get the vision right - get the team to
establish a simple vision and strategy,
focus on emotional and creative aspects
necessary to drive service and efficiency.
4. Communicate for buy-in - Involve
as many people as possible, communicate
the essentials, simply, and to appeal and
respond to people's needs. De-clutter
 communications - make technology work
for you rather than against.
5. Empower action - Remove obstacles,
enable constructive feedback and lots of
support from leaders - reward and
recognise progress and achievements.
6. Create short-term wins - Set aims
that are easy to achieve - in bite-size
chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives.
Finish current stages before starting new
ones.
7. Don't let up - Foster and encourage
determination and persistence - ongoing
change - encourage ongoing progress
reporting - highlight achieved and future
milestones
8. Make change stick - Reinforce the
value of successful change via recruitment,
promotion, new change leaders. Weave
change into culture.

PART – B

Answer 3:

Building the vision

• Develop a clear vision

• Make it people clear about what a change involves and how they are
involved in it

• What is involved
• What is the proposed change
• Why should we do it
• What the major effects will be
 • How we can manage the change

Plan the change

• Devise appropriate strategies to introduce change
• Design the change
• Identify the significant steps in the change process
• Discuss the need for change and the full details of what is involved
• Allow people to participate in planning change
• Communicate the plan to all concerned
• Produce a policy statement
• Devise a sensible time scale
• Produce action plans for monitoring the change
• Allow people to participate in planning change
• Get all parties involved in and committed to the change
• Inspire confidence by forestalling problems and communicating
regularly.

Devise a sensible time scale for implementation of change

• Anticipate the problems of implementation
• Understand why change is resisted

Implementing the change

• Check on and record progress
• Make sure that change is permanent
• Evaluate the change
• Improve on any weak areas
• Overcome resistance
• Involve all personnel affected
• Keep everyone informed
• Devise an appropriate reward system
• Be willing to compromise on detail
• Ensure that strategies are adaptable
• Select people to champion change
• Provide support and training
• Monitor and review
Answer 4:

Accepting change is probably the hardest thing any of us will ever have to do. But
it's also the most important! According to Carl G. Jung, "We cannot live the
afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning, for what in the
morning was true, will in evening become a lie."

That is, life is always evolving. We're always moving into new experiences and
new possibilities. This constant change makes us feel unsettled and out of control,
instead of secure and stable. But because of life's evolution, security and stability
are really illusions. The reason we feel out of control is because life is fluid--
always changing. Trying to hold on to this fluidity by not accepting change is what
causes us pain and makes us unsettled.

Life becomes joyful when we can open to its constant flow and ride freely with it.
This means we have to let go of the need to control. We need to learn to trust.

Wayne Muller asked the following question: "Can it then be that what we call the
'self' is fluid and elastic?" And his answer was: "It evolves, strikes a different
balance with every new breath."

And author Patrice Vecchione said: "We're never the same; notice how you're
called to write something entirely different about a topic you responded to weeks
or months ago."
So, whether it's a career change, a new baby, a different hobby, or even just a
detour on the way to work, learning to accept and even embrace these things will
make life much easier and more enjoyable.

Change is inevitable. So, why fight it? Although accepting it is certainly easier said
than done, it's the best thing we humans can do for ourselves in the long run. Look
at all the things we could prevent if we just accepted change: worry, stress,
physical and mental illness, the urge to hurry and get everything done, lack of free
time, and much more. If you want to regain these things, start taking small steps to
accept all the changes in your life. You'll feel much better and enjoy your life more
just by doing this.
Changes in life are inevitable. One who accepts them and changes with them is the
one who succeeds in life. There are instances in life when everything gets blocked
and you find yourself helpless. In such a situation one who accepts it and tries to
fight out new ways to overcome the situation emerges in flying colours. One who
thinks that such a change has in fact left him to do nothing, can do nothing but
brood over his misfortune. Working in a new directions helps one find light.
Changes make life challenging and without a challenge life is boring. It is also very
important to notice small changes early so that you can adopt to bigger changes
easily. It is better to try new things than remain in a hopeless situation. Old beliefs
do not lead you to new ideas. Hence, it is necessary to change. If change is
anticipated, monitored, and quickly adapted to, then it becomes enjoyable as well.