Managing Organizational Change: The Benefits And Challenges

Benefits of Planned Changes in Management and Internal Processes

In a company I was working for, the board decided to bring in new managers to improve the internal processes and competitiveness. The organization was losing its market share and faced inefficiencies in which were leading to increased opera rational costs. For this reason, the board elected to replace the top management whose contractual term had come to an end.

The new management team introduced a raft of changes in the organization. To begin with, they introduced the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to help improve and track organizational processes by 40 percent. They also introduced automation processes to reduce the cost of production by and quality management system to improve product and service quality for competitiveness in the market.

The change in management and the replacement of internal processes are transitional changes which can be broadly classified under planned change (Kotter, 2012). Planned change is one where an organization is conscious of the outcome within a specific time frame. In this case, the company wanted to reduce production cost by 40% and increase product competitiveness in the market within the 5-year contract term of the new management (Hayes, 2018).

To begin with, I acknowledged that change was necessary to the organization. Either that or the organization would be forced to close down due to inefficiencies and loss of market share.

I also sought guidance and support from the new management to identify the areas that would require change. This also helped me to understand the benefits the changes would bring to the company.

I faced my fears for the changes and began to assess the learning ability and skill development opportunity that the changes would afford me. In addition, I volunteered to be part of the change. Within the Human Resource department, I became part of the team leaders who would undergo the first training of the intended changes to help other employees integrate into the change.

I became flexible and took an interest in the processes that the management intended to introduce. This had the added advantage of being able to communicate effectively with other staff on the planned changes (Peacock, 2017).

I developed a new skill in the management of an enterprise resource planning system which hitherto would not have happened. The skill helped me to fully integrate human resource processes with other company processes such as customer relationship management, supply chain management, and production management processes (Thomas, Sargent & Hardy, 2011).

I was also able to be innovative by contributing new ways that the company could improve its internal processes to reduce the cost of production for, instance, I proposed just-in-time production which cut down on company material wastage.

On the other hand, the negative impacts included anxiety due to looming job loss, fear of the unknown, mental stress in anticipation of the impacts the changes would bring into my personal life and reduced motivation to work (Werner, 2012).

Firstly, I feared that the changes would bring redundancies and downsizing in the company. It was explained from the onset that many manual processes would be replaced with automated processes. This would lead to job losses and I naturally feared for my job security. At first, I dreaded allegiance to new management without first understanding their mandate. Thirdly, I feared that I would end up working more and longer hours than before and finally, I figured that reducing the cost of production would mean a reduction in job allowances and other benefits (Hon, Bloom & Grant, 2014).

Challenges of Managing Organizational Change

Part 3 section 16 and 17 of the amended Occupational Health and Safety Act provides for the formation of the Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committee (JWHSC) and Health and Safety Representatives in Alberta Workplaces (Government of Alberta, 2018).

Under the amendment, all workplaces with over 20 employees are obligated to form a JWHSC to represent the employees in all matters concerning safety at the workplace. This requirement is mandatory for all employers who have staff working for a period of 90 days and above. On the other hand, all workplaces with 5-19 employees expected to work for 90 days or more, are mandated to have a health and safety representative to observe the employees’ safety interests (Wolch, 2018).

Section 22 depicts the composition of the JWHSC. It requires that the committee shall have at least four people. It also requires that the committee shall be formed from full-time workers, part-time workers, and self-employed workers if any from equal proportions of those groups (Government of Alberta, 2018).

At any given time half the workers on the JWHSC should not be from the management. Additionally, the committee is required to have 2 co-chairs of whom, one is chosen by employer members and the other by the workers at the worksite. The members must be directly from the worksite where the JWHSC is formed. Employers can appoint one worker to represent their multiple worksites (Government of Alberta, 2018).

According to Pozzobon (2018), the names of the members of the committee or the health and safety representative should be posted clearly by the employer. The membership term shall not last less than a year but they can be reappointed successively within the course of operations at the worksite.

Advantages

The first advantage is that the Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committee or the Health and Safety Representatives will relieve Human resource managers from safety oversight duties. This means that HR professionals can channel their energies towards other production duties.

The amendment offers an environment for the Human Resource personnel to learn on ways of motivating the workers from the minutes made by members during the JWHSC meeting. Secondly, the amendments provide standardized watertight adherence to health and safety culture at the workplace. This, in turn, will alleviate injury cases and resultant medical expenses not refunded under the insurance policy excesses. Moreover, this will result in fewer litigation cases against companies.

The amendment gives third parties an opportunity to leverage on company trade secrets. This is because the JWHSC structure which composes of both company staff and non-company staff gives express authority for members to scrutinize company procedures, processes, and systems. Non-company staff can easily auction this information to competitors.

Another disadvantage is that the amendment creates additional workers for the company and duplicates roles where one job site can have multiple JWHSC depending on the parties involved, for instance, the client, the main contractor, and the subcontractor (Pozzobon, 2018).

The amendment also usurps some of the duties of the human resource personnel. It, for instance, enables committee members to draw company job descriptions for workers, company policies and staff accident reports which traditionally are cornerstones of the human resource function. 

Formation of Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committee in Alberta Workplaces

The vision of the plan

The vision of the plan is to impart knowledge to the human resource management team to ensure seamless integration of the amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act with the company strategy.

The Human Resource team will learn the amended changes using technology-based learning. The amendments can be explained through interactive videos packaged for the company and also through web tailored educational programs (Anderson & Anderson, 2010).

On the job training is also another channel that will be used. The team can learn of the amended changes through reading company manuals, updated company safety policies and through job induction, observation and learning from operational section heads (Peacock, 2017)

Another potent channel is role-playing. The amended sections such as JWHSC will be learned by the HR team taking the roles of other staff under the supervision of a committee member and the section head (Thomas et al., 2011)

Use of coaching and mentorship programs. This method will be used so that the HR team can get direct training from an experienced law practitioner or a staff of the safety council (Pozzobon, 2018). 

Other methods that will be used to impart knowledge to the HR team include the use of managerial games, use of instructional videos, using formal training methods such as classes paid for by the company and lastly using case studies detailing the amendments (Kotter, 2012).

Creating awareness on the need for change

This is an obvious strategy since the change is a requirement of the amended OHSA. The purpose of creating awareness is to ensure that consultations are done across the board to ensure everyone feels consulted on the need to change.

The management will be involved to ensure that they support all implementation of the amendments in the company. This will be ensured by asking for endorsement of employee records as required by section 14 of the Employment Standards Code. The management appointees in JWHSC will have more than one year of experience in the company as required by section 22 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

This strategy will be utilized to ensure that employees understand every step of the implementation of the occupational health and safety act. It will also ensure they are trained and understand why their names will be conspicuously posted. All the time allocated in the amendments will be factored in the employee payment as per section 13.32 of the Employment Standards Regulation.

All changes will be communicated as and when they will be implemented including the training that will be undertaken to prepare the employees. Communication is also important in getting feedback on the progress of change management (Anderson & Anderson, 2010).

 Implementation and measurement

All the implemented changes to the OHSA will be communicated and feedback taken from all the members involved. Similarly, data collection will be part of the follow up to gauge the effectiveness of the implemented changes (Peacock, 2017).

The presentation will be done using PowerPoint and word applications. The timeline for implementation will be 2 months and the items with the tentative timelines are as indicated in the table below.   

Table 1. The implementation timelines. Source: The Author (2018)

Item (Implementing change on Occupational Health and safety Act)	Time required
Identifying the need for change	3 Days
Management involvement	1 Week
Implementing change	3 Weeks
Communicating the change	3 Days
Training of workers on requisite skills	2 Week
Providing support mechanism to withstand change	1 weeks
Measuring the outcomes of change	1 week
Total	2 Months

(ii) The budget for the implementation will be $30000 for the JWHSC, $20000 on violence and harassment amendment to Part 27 of the OHSA.  

Table 2. The budget allocation. Source: The Author (2018)

Item	Allocated amount (Canadian Dollar$)
Implementation will be  for the Joint worksite Health and safety Committee (JWHSC)	30000
Training on Violence and harassment  amendment	20000
Training on benefits of change management	10000
Miscellaneous expenses	5000
Total	65,000

(iii) The positive behaviors to watch will be the eagerness for teamwork, confidence in executing duties, willingness to participate in change activities, punctuality in the company and reduced absenteeism.

(iv) Minimizing resistance to change

Firstly, to minimize anxiety, in-depth communication will be undertaken for all the employees. Secondly, it is necessary to involve employees in the process through representatives or union groups. It is then important to encourage and reward teamwork or esprit de corps. A very important method to alleviate resistance to change is by training the employees. Involving the employees’ leaders is also necessary as is motivating employees who undertake exemplary duties. Finally, the threat of firing may be used as the last option (Hon et al., 2014).

(v) Metrics to support the amended occupational health and safety act

The first metric is cost. It is expected that the cost of operation will significantly drop since there will be no injuries hence fewer expenses on hospitalization. There will be reduced downtimes due to injury hence a reduction in sick off payments (Peacock, 2017).

The number of working man-hours is the second metric. It is anticipated that the workers’ attendance will increase due to a reduction in injuries and occupational diseases. For this reason, the number of man-hours worked will increase alongside the productivity at the company (Hayes, 2018).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the report critically reviews the change management and examines the pros and cons of change in an organization. It also simulates a change in the perspective of the amended Occupational Health and Safety Act of Alberta within an organization. The report investigates ways to implement a change strategy complete with budgetary allocation and a tentative timeline.

References

Anderson, D., & Anderson, L. A. (2010). Beyond Change Management: How to Achieve Breakthrough Results Through Conscious Change Leadership (2nd ed.). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.

Government of Alberta. (2018). Occupational Health and Safety Act. Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=O02P1.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779800865&display=html

Hayes, J. (2018). The Theory and Practice of Change Management. London: Palgrave Publishers.

Hon, A. H., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. (2014). Overcoming Resistance to Change and Enhancing Creative Performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), 919–941.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Peacock, M. J. (2017). The Human Resource Professional’s Guide to Change Management: Practical Tools and Techniques to Enact Meaningful and Lasting Organizational Change. New York: Business Expert Press.

Pozzobon, A. (2018). Changes to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Legislation Take Effect on June 1, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?article_id=707522&type=mondaqai

Thomas, R., Sargent, L. D., & Hardy, C. (2011). Managing Organizational Change: Negotiating Meaning and Power-Resistance Relations. Organization Science, 22(1), 22–41.

Werner, S. (2012). Managing Human Resources in North America: Current Issues and Perspectives. New York: Routledge.

Wolch, S. (2018). Recent Amendments to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code Bring Big Changes to Alberta Workplaces. Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://www.mccarthy.ca/en/insights/blogs/mccarthy-tetrault-employer-advisor/recent-amendments-albertas-occupational-health-and-safety-code-bring-big-changes-alberta-workplaces