MANAGING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHANGE

Managing Personal and Professional Change

Managing Personal and Professional Change

Various Change Strategies

There are various change strategies which can be identified. They are as follows:

Empirical/Rational :

People are rational beings and will follow their self, interest, once it is revealed to them. Successful change is based on the communication of information and the proffering of incentives. For the most part, people are reasonable and they can be reasoned with. In short, they can be persuaded. Value judgments aside, they can also be bought.

Normative/ Re-educative:

People are social beings and will adhere to cultural norms and values. Successful change is based on redefining and reinterpreting existing norms and values, and developing commitments to new ones. For the most part, most people do want to "fit in" and "go along." They will "go with the flow." The trick here is figuring out how to establish and define the flow. (Walsham 2006)

Power/Coercive:

People are basically compliant and will generally do what they are told or can be made to do. Successful change is based on the exercise of authority and the imposition of sanctions. This can range from the iron hand in the velvet glove to downright brutality. "My way or the highway." The basic aim here is to decrease people's options, not increase them. Surprisingly, in many situations, people actually want and will readily accept this approach, particularly when all feel threatened and few know what to do. This is the "stick" side of carrot and stick management. (Pfeffer 2005)

Environmental/ Adaptive:

People oppose loss and disruption but they adapt readily to new circumstances. Change is based on building a new organization and gradually transferring people from the old one to the new one. This strategy seeks to shift the burden of change from management and the organization to the people. It exploits their natural adaptive nature and avoids the many complications associated with trying to change people or their culture. Essentially, this is a strategy of self:

cannibalization, that is, you set out to eat your own lunch before someone else does. Also known as "the die-on-the-vine" strategy, this hinges on the commonplace observation that, although people are often quick to oppose change they view as undesirable, they are even quicker to adapt to new environments. (Pettigrew 2007)

Comparison Of Personal And Professional Change

A major change is taking place in the personal and professional lives of leaders as many of them aspire to deeply integrate their spirituality with their work. Most would agree that this integration is leading to very positive changes in their relationships and their effectiveness. Further, there is evidence that workplace spirituality programs not only lead to beneficial personal outcomes such as increased positive human health and psychological well-being but that they also deliver improved employee commitment, productivity and reduced absenteeism and turnover. Recent studies have shown that companies perform higher if they emphasize workplace spirituality through both people-cantered values and a high-commitment model of attachment between the company and its employees. And, there is mounting evidence that a more ...