My
Consulting Experience with Bramma
Resistance to Change!
When we analyze the major roles of a consultant,
every management book speaks the same language that consultants are
organizational change agents! It also mentions that change is not an easy
phenomenon to happen where lots of obstacles and hurdles are there on the way
of change, which is to be cleared by a consultant. Among all obstacles, EMPLOYEE RESISTANCE to change acts as
the major challenge in organizational change management as far as consultant is
concerned, according to conventional
management books. But here, I would like to share my personal experience in SME consulting arena, which speaks a slightly different story comparing to the
conventional theories!
I do
agree with the fact that employee
resistance is a major challenge I faced in organizational change management
process. But when I analyze the
consequences and level of impact in the change management process, I rate EMPLOYER RESISTANCE TO CHANGE as the
most difficult and alarming constraint I ever faced in the process. It is quite
surprising to see employer resist themselves in the change process. I am sure
that it may not be the same scenario in large scale business, but in the case
of SME, where 99% enterprises are promoter driven business, it is much visible.
Let’s go deep into some real case examples.
As
far as every change process is
concerned, change should start from top to bottom. So, organizational change
should start from organizational structure and management style. We used to
analyze irregularities and interlinked communication process in organizations
while conducting initial process study in an organization. Then we suggest
structure revamp and try to bring professionals in the organization in order to
drive the process. Most of the companies lack professionalism which pulls them
back in the growth process, and that’s why professionals are much required on a
long term basis. But as I mentioned earlier, here we face the major challenge,
the EMPLOYER RESISTANCE TO CHANGE!
Most of the employers fail to assimilate the
change happening in the management style. They are not able to gel with the new
people come aboard. Issues start from the
point where they fail to understand the new roles and a consultant struggles to
act as a lubricator here! A consultant needs to be diplomatic in such
situations, but in some cases, we had to put our foot down where we see things
move in the opposite direction.
For
e.g. In a
company we brought a new professional as Head
- Sales, and he was assigned to streamline the sales activities which were
on a pathetic stage till then. Sales people were not following the reporting
system and also they failed to generate the desired outcome. The new person
implemented some reporting system and also he started tracking the system very
strictly. But all of a sudden the key person started involving in the process
and he started violating the system by himself. Communication process went
scattered where he started spying and receiving communications from the
employees directly where the Head was missing many! As a result of frustration,
Head resigned the job and went out of the organization.
This is a simple example but we faced even extreme
circumstances where the employer himself asked us to frame strategies to terminate
new comer professional, only because he was not able to gel with him!
There are plenty of such cases available in our
case files. But what could be the reasons? We tried to analyze the reasons and
find out major reasons for such cases,
- · Most of the employer lack a well defined organizational vision
- · They fail to delegate authorities to employees
- · They fail to develop trust factor in their people and system
- · They fail to come out of self entrepreneurship to entrepreneurship
People force is the major driving force in every
organization. It is a must that you have quality manpower in the front to lead
the process, when an organization is looking for growth or business development
with a professional approach. Nowadays it is not that difficult to get quality
manpower in SME, as many of them are willing to work in Kerala. But the real
challenge is to sustain them with the organization in a long run. It is purely
depended upon how employer treats them and maintains them, without disturbing
the new environment. And for that an entrepreneur should have good vision and
broaden mindset to accept changes, unless the scenario never changes!
-
Deepesh M
Manager – Consulting
Bramma Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Mob: 9847896265
Phone: 0484 2705535
Absolutely good one..
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