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Organizational change refers to change in the environment of
work place. It is one of important change that is required in every
organization. Every organization should have capability to change or otherwise
it will be left behind and other powerful organizations will sweep it away. The
change is progressive and inevitable as many organizations are modern, dynamic
and versatile now. Organizational change is a principle change through which a
company undergoes to evolve. The organizational change can be short term as
well as long term. Organizational change requires change in the behavior of
employees. Change can result in disturbance of equilibrium of the organization
which can affect the work place environment and condition of the organization.
If the changes are unsuitable, it will be resisted.
Organizational change can be in methods of operation,
technologies, structure, strategies as well as the effects this change have on
it. Change can be due to internal or external pressure. Small organizations
have to bring changes in order to compete with big competitors. The study of
organizational change can cover several criteria such as management, economics,
psychology, sociology, banking, finance, political science and psychology.
Organizational change is not something to be afraid of but it is something to
be confident about, it is needed to be embraced. There can be several reasons
which drive organizational change which can be external pressures or internal
pressures. When new technologies are introduced in market, such advancements
result in external pressure on organization so it has to change with respect to
external change.
Change of economic climate is another factor, this change
occurs due to change in economic conditions. Lifestyle of people change and so
does their way of shopping and work. It changes with the customer demand. New
technology is the main cause, organizations change to meet the demand.
Organizations have no control over political and social conditions therefore
government and business change and bring social equality this is why change in
organizations takes place. Internal
factors like change in organization head or managers can change the
organization too because no two leaders have same sense of leadership. Every
manager has its own style. If an organization is going through a rough time
then policies are changed in order to cope with deficiencies and bring
healthier change to the organization so it can grow and develop in positive
manner. Sometimes organizational changes fail. There can be many reasons behind
this failure which can be poor leadership, inflation, lack of cooperation from
staff members, lack of knowledge and modern facilities.
Normally, there is a step wise pattern which is followed to
lead an organization towards change. These great change initiatives can lead to
failure. Very little attention is paid to aspects of relations of an
organization. The complicated and ever changing power of people can greatly
affects the organization. It will either facilitate the change or it will
constrain it. The power and organizational change have an actual relationship.
Working together brings great organizational change and in attitude of people.
People organize themselves to work together to achieve certain target and for
that powerful upper hand is required. The organization of people requires
operation of people among group. This power allows people to work and agree on
what is needed to be done and who is responsible for doing particular task.
Working together brings changes and achievements. Power is
an ability to influence functioning of an organization with dialogue and hard
work. Power comes from making knowledge which helps in codifying of knowledge.
Prof. Greet Hofstede studied values in work place and how they affected by
national culture and its power in change programs. He defined it as, it is the
collective programming of different minds that collaborate while having
distinguishing mindset and this highlights one group from another. The Hofstede
model has six dimensions. I.e. power distance, individualism, masculinity,
uncertainty avoidance, indulgence and long term orientation.
Firstly, change in organization is mandatory as it allows an
organization to grow, prosper and meet up to the demands of the public. Secondly
having power to make choices, decisions, and collaborations and combining
people together. It only helps an organization to flourish. Thirdly the
Hofstede viewpoint of national culture and its effect and power in change
program only brings out the best positive results from an organization.
Content of Organizational Change
Introduction to power used in change programs of
Organizational Change
Power is an effective tool to understand surrounding and
achieve goals. Power allows an individual to make things happen despite the
obstacles. Power plays a vital role in business and organizational change, it
dictates the way employees should behave and work in order to achieve certain
goal. Power has nothing to do with scale of an organization. Whether the
organization is big or small, impact of power depends whether the power is
positive or negative to influence people at workplace. Power has ability to
encourage productivity.
TYPES OF POWER of Organizational Change
There are different types of power to bring change in
programs. It comes in different forms the leader should just know how to deal
with each type. There were five types of power to carry out to change but now
two more types are added. Therefore, seven types of power are present to bring
out change.
Legitimate Power of Organizational Change
In this type of power the person of an organization is in
higher position and has authority to control people in lower position.
Coercive Power of Organizational Change
In this type the person with power force others to do work
on force and with threats. It does not bring out loyalty or long term
relationship of employees with their boss in organization.
Expert Power of Organizational Change
It is the power which one experienced or skilled person has
in an organization.
Reward Power of Organizational Change
The person with power is a great motivator and allows raise,
awards and promotions on achieving certain goal for organizational change.
Informational Power of Organizational Change
This power is short term and it does not bring any type of
credibility or influence as it is the power of a person who only needs
information.
Connection Power of Organizational Change
It is a power which someone gains after getting a strong
connection with a powerful person. It is an acquaintance power which has
everything to do with networking.
Referent Power of Organizational Change
It is ability more than a power. It allows the sense of
acceptance or approval. This is very powerful and valuable kind of power which
is earned through positive qualities like charisma, integrity and honor.
Use of power in change programs of Organizational Change
The influence of power can generate productivity from
employees of changing organization. The use of such power can be negative or
positive.
Positive aspects of use of power in change programs of
Organizational Change
It encourages employees to be more productive.
Employees have power to make their own decisions.
Employees with best performances are rewarded.
Giving promotion to employees who perform strongly well.
This builds confidence and motivates employees to work
harder.
People in higher positions earn respect and better
communication of employees working below them which is far better than coercive
power.
Increased retention rates due to better coordination and
increased confidence of employees.
Negative aspects of use of power in change programs of
Organizational Change
Leaders lose respect of employees of lower ranks if they are
too controlling and possess negative power.
Such leader threatens the employees and forces them to do a
particular task.
Favoritism becomes common without realization of hard work
of several other employees.
Work quality decreases.
It leads to higher turnover rates for an organization.
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of Organizational Change
The Hofstede’s Cultural dimensions are developed by Greet
Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist to describe cross culture communication.
It describes the values and culture of society and how it affects the behavior
and change. He developed a way of factor analysis to determine the world wide
survey of employees via IBM between 1967-73. The work of Hofstede gave birth to
traditional research of cross culture psychology. It is part of research of
several researchers from field of communication and international business.
The original theory of Hofstede gave four dimensions.
Individualism Capitalism
Uncertainty Avoidance
Power distance (strength of social hierarchy)
Masculinity Femininity (personal orientation)
Later Hofstede included two more dimensions to original
paradigm to cover grounds which were left uncovered by earlier dimensions.
Power related aspect of Hofstede’s dimension of
Organizational Change
Power distance is the belonging of people to a particular
cultural society to view power and relationships. The power distance dimension
describes how power in unequally distributed in society. The major issue is the
lack of ability of people to handle that power in a society. People of a
society accept the power difference as a hierarchical power; it tells that
people in society have a place where they belong and there is lack of
justification. Societies that have low power distance work for equal distribution
of power and ask for justification for unequally distributed powers. As we go
towards understanding of world economy we should have knowledge about powers
distributed among the world population.
A person’s perspective on the kind of power he possesses has
great impact on his business deals and his performance in an organization.
Using a low power distance on someone accustomed to greater power can backfire
and be productive. The opposite is true as well. Business employers from all
over the world were given questioners to fill, score above 70 showed high power
distance while score below 40 showed lower power distance.
US = 40, it shows lower power distance.
Guatemala = 95, it shows very high power distance
High Power Distance of Organizational Change
Mindset of people who live on high power distance
It looks like reality of life.
It comes with belief of Hierarchy power.
Mindset of having unequal distribution of power.
Paternalistic power relations.
Superior has the power because he inherited it.
Follow a leader.
Orders are seldom.
Low Power Distance of Organizational Change
Mindset of people who live in low power distance
Unique traits.
Power is democratic, consultative and participatory.
Leader is equal regardless of position.
Confidence in decision making.
Belief to have right to participate in politics and work.
Earned respect.
Compare and contrast the power related aspects of Hofstede’s dimensions between Australia and Singapore
Power distance of Organizational Change
“This dimension says that
individuals are not equal. It expresses the inequality.”
Australia has low score of 36 on this dimension. Information
is provided by both managers and employees as the communication is direct and
efficient. The power distance in Singapore is great as all individuals are not
equal. Power distance score of Singapore is as high as 74. Centralized powers
as employees rely on their managers or leaders to provide information.
Individualism of Organizational Change
“It is defined as
image of an individual that whether he sees himself as “I” or “WE”.”
In this dimension score of Australia is 90. Decisions of
hiring or promotions are based upon merit. Singapore has a collectivistic
society. They see themselves as “WE”. So the score of this dimension is 20.
Masculinity of Organizational Change
“This dimension shows
that what motivating factor is there to make people best versions of them.”
Score of Australia in this dimension is 61.
Score of Singapore in this dimension is 48.
Uncertainty avoidance of Organizational Change
“This dimension shows
that how society deals with the fact that future is unknown and is the
threatened by the ambiguous.”
Australia has optimum score of 51.
Singapore scored 8 in this dimension which is very low.
Long term orientation of Organizational Change
“This dimension sates
how good a particular society is with keeping links with its own past”
Australia has score of 21.
Singapore has score of 72.
Individualism of Organizational Change
‘This dimension is
about self-control. To what extent an individual can control his desire”
The score is 71 in Australia.
Conclusion on Organizational Change
The organizational change is an important factor. The change
in wok environment can be very progressive and modern as it fulfills the need
of everyday changing environment. With changing economics and growing
competitors and updated organization is necessary. Organizational change open
gates for better opportunities. The organizational change can be positive or
negative, it can go right and it can fail if there is lack of proper
management. If it goes right the organization can grow and get updated according
to customer demand.
For proper organizational change hard working team, right
management, equality, communication and many other team working skills are
needed. Organizational changes can be due to external influence or internal
influence. Power in organization is another factor. If the authoritative power
is used in right way within an organization it helps organization to grow. The
power can be positive as well as negative. Positive power has positive impact
on employees and organization, negative power has negative impact. Positive
power produces positive and productive results. There are seven types of power.
Hofstede’s cultural theory includes seven dimensions which are; power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, indulgence and long term orientation. Power distance is the main focus. This dimension describes the understanding of an individual towards power which is affected by the culture and society he lives in. a comparison of power distance between Singapore and Australia is clearly stated. All dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural theory are evaluated by distributing questioners among employers across the world wide.
References of Organizational Change
Cmoe.com. The Effects of Organizational Change.
2017. https://cmoe.com/blog/the-effects-of-organizational-change/.
Courtney, Fionnuala. 6
Steps to Effective Organizational Change Management. 2016.
https://www.pulselearning.com/blog/6-steps-effective-organizational-change-management/.
Expertprogrammanagement.com. The
5 Types of Power. 2018.
https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/06/the-5-types-of-power/.
Gartenstein, Devra. What
Is the Meaning of Organizational Change? June 27, 2018.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/meaning-organizational-change-35131.html.
Geerthofstede.com. The 6-D
model of national culture. 2018.
https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/.
Inc.com. Managing
Organizational Change. 2018. https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/managing-organizational-change.html.
Mindtools.com. Hofstede's
Cultural Dimensions. 2018.
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm.
Walkme.com. DO YOU KNOW
ALL 5 TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE? June 30, 2017.
https://blog.walkme.com/5-types-of-organizational-change/.
Zaleznik, Abraham. Power
and Politics in Organizational Life. 1970.
https://hbr.org/1970/05/power-and-politics-in-organizational-life.
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