Role of Human Resource Management in Supporting Employee during Organizational Change

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ABSTRACT

In today's environment, changes are compulsory for an organization in order to survive and stay competitive. The modern commercial environment is one that forces firms to change and adapt if they wish to survive, in order for changes introduced, whether continual or individual, the organization has to be ready for the change. There are a number of theorists which have looked at the aspect of readiness, most of the time it has been as part of the change process. Effectually readiness for change can be seen as the stage required in most change models before implementation takes place. To consider what is meant by readiness and how it may relate to the concept of the learning organization it is necessary to define the term and look at the characteristics of readiness for change and look for commonalities in the ideas. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of managers to support employees during organizational change.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Company Overview4

Research Objectives4

Research Questions5

The Purpose of the Study5

Significance of the Study7

Definition of the Terms9

Change9

Organizational Change10

Readiness for Change10

Resistance to Change10

Structure of the thesis11

Chapter I: Introduction11

Chapter II: Literature Review11

Chapter III: Methodology11

Chapter IV: Analysis and Discussion12

Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendation12

REFERENCES15

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader a brief overview about the research topic and provides the main purpose and aim behind this research study. It comprises of the background of the problem, which provides a brief overview of the topic of the research and the problem.

Background of the Study

Organizations are open social systems that constantly change due to complex internal and external factors. The rapid pace of technological innovation, the emergence of a global society, instability in the U.S., as well as the global economy, are critical factors driving the phenomenal amount of change in modem organizations. Research has documented that ambiguity and uncertainty are key concerns in organizations (Kotter, 1996), because they often lead to confusion, chaos and disconnection in the workplace.

Part of the role of human resource managers is helping employees deal with ambiguity and uncertainty, and helping them feel more connected to organizational change initiatives. The extent of the success of organizational change initiatives depends largely on the leaders' credibility and their ability to communicate the change (Kotter, 1996). Most of what has been written on the relationship between leadership credibility and communication has been theoretical rather than empirical. Few studies have investigated the leader-follower relationship or the relationship between leadership credibility and communication, or explored the relationship between the communication of an organizational change and leadership credibility.

Communication practices are a challenging and problematic aspect of the change process, and organizational leaders do not often see the central role communication plays in the entire change process (Kotter, 1996). In having an effective communication strategy during organizational change, the leadership can reduce or possibly eliminate employee resistance rooted in uncertainty, misunderstanding, fear, misinterpretation, anxiety, stress and other adverse reactions to ...