Assess the degree to which staff privately accept organisational changes
because you need the full effort of each employee to succeed.
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By SCOTT BELLOWS
In Summary
Last week in Business Talk, we discussed a situation
with Jepkemoi whereby she needed to decide on which consulting firm to
engage to carry out change initiatives in her cement business.
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Now, fast forward six months. Jepkemoi chose the
consulting firm and implemented the changes. However, as the CEO of the
cement company, how does she know whether her company really
institutionalised the change or not?
She must look at five factors to determine whether a
change initiative gets institutionalised. As an executive, you
certainly want any change scheme that you put forward to concretise so
that change stands a greater chance of sticking for the long term.
So for Jepkemoi, she decided on change initiatives
that she hoped would both improve efficiency so that products would
reach markets faster as well as improved customer service by her sales
team towards clients. If successful, Jepkemoi should realise faster
sales with happier customers. She cannot do it herself. She needs the
full effort of each of her employees.
In order to alter efficiency and improve customer
relations, employees need to change their behaviour. So, the first
indicator of institutionalisation entails knowledge.
What extent have employees understood the behaviours associated with an intervention? It is concerned with whether members know enough to perform the behaviours and to recognise the consequences of that behaviour.
As an example, Jepkemoi could try job enrichment
for her staff that would include a number of new behaviours, such as
performing a greater variety of tasks, analysing information about task
performance, and making decisions about work methods and plans.
Gauging the employees’ knowledge of their new tasks
could give an indicator as to whether the behaviour will stick from the
change initiative.
Second, judge the change initiative by performance.
The performance will show the degree to which intervention behaviours
are actually performed. Jepkemoi may measure performance by counting
the proportion of relevant people performing the behaviours.
As an example, if 70 per cent of her staff members
perform the particular job enrichment behaviours in order to improve
efficiency and customer service following only six months, then Jepkemoi
might consider that a success. However, after a full two years after
the change initiative, only 70 per cent would be far too low to be
considered successful.
Another measure of performance is the frequency
with which the new behaviours are performed. In assessing frequency, it
is important to account for different variations of the same essential
behaviour, as well as how institutionalised behaviours are performed.
Then, account for variations from what you desire.
Third, utilise preferences.
Assess the degree to which organisation members, like Jepkemoi’s
employees, privately accept the organisational changes. If you only
observe employees, you may see them behave in the desired manner
commensurate with the change initiative because of the organisation’s
rules or sanctions and due to group peer pressure.
However, if you ascertain the degree to what staff
surreptitiously feel in their hearts, you may judge the success of your
change initiative.
Private acceptance usually manifests in people’s
positive attitudes toward the changes and you can measure it by the
direction and intensity of those attitudes across the members of the
work unit receiving the intervention.
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