Introduction
Employee morale and motivation are very crucial in an organization to ensure job satisfaction. Change is very important in a company and the leaders have a keen interest in initializing organizational change. Change management is a very strategic approach that offers comprehensive training and support to guide the employees and train them through a transition. In this case, the XYZ company is going through a tough time after a shutdown in their internal systems and their technology failed for 24 hours. Leaders have the responsibility to bring their employees together in such times by helping them maneuver through organizational changes. Organizational leaders have the expectations to maintain their sense of perspective while focusing on the goals and activities that are required. This process requires the leaders to acquire skills and address the problems at hand such as the attitude to change by employees, encouraging morale and motivation to the workers. By the organization conducting the change management, it attempts to increase efficiency by allowing it to achieve its goals and grow the company while embracing any changes that come and surviving through them. There are different change management theories and perspectives that help to implement change in struggling organizations such as the XYZ company. The change management theories are more reliable on the psychology, social dynamics, and disciplines that help the business deal with the issue of change management.
Theories and perspectives to help in employee motivation
Creating blurry visions
Communication between the employees and the leaders is very effective in changing situations as those experienced by XYZ company. The company should cultivate people-oriented leaders who are more involved with the workers rather than just focusing on their goals. Carton & Lucas (2018) argue in their book that for an organization to be successful, they can inspire their workers through a communication of the vision of the future. The authors argue that one can achieve this by incorporating image-based rhetoric which includes words and phrases that are readily envisioned in the mind of the human being. Most successful companies such as that Bill Gates had a vision of a computer in each home while others such as F. Kennedy of NASA and the Henry Ford company succeeded in this. These leaders have succeeded in the companies by creating a compelling purpose that pushes them to focus on their goals and the greater good. The leaders themselves should have a perspective and a sense of purpose which will inspire their actions and which later they can influence others to achieve a common purpose. One important trait that leaders should possess is the ability to have a sense of purpose that helps to propel the rest of the employees in achieving their goals. The XYZ company leaders should navigate a way that creates a blurry vision of how they would complete the unfulfilled responses to their customers despite the technology failure.
As the CEO of the company, articulating a compelling purpose such as an act of getting the work done by creating a vision that would aim for excellence by encouraging them to achieve a certain goal. The image-based rhetoric can help engage the employees by considering their emotions and help to provide a shared point of reference. Creating a vivid vision may help to boost the motivation for employees in the XYZ company to feel more connected to the organization defining purpose as the employees feel that their daily bases work is more connected towards serving the clients and attaining a good reputation for the company. The image-based rhetoric visions can help cultivate clear goals and encourage collaboration between the employees and the organization’s leadership to achieve these goals. Implementing a people-centric organizational change by incorporating the visional element may help the XYZ company to get in line and can help the employees to meet the end goal.
Kotter’s Step model for change
Kotter’s step model of change can be a theory that can be applied to the situation in the case of the XYZ company. The model works around eight steps of management and implanting change such as the case of the technological failure f the company which forces them to the unresolved volume of work and employee burnout. Implementing the eight stages of the model may help to spark motivation between employees and work toward their goals the leaders can help the employees to navigate through the changes and boost their motivation toward customer response. In creating a sense of urgency, the XYZ leaders can meet up with the employees to discuss the ongoing technological crisis and which requires them to respond quickly to customer services. The CEO of the company should be in charge to inform the employees of the ongoing crisis which can lead up to losing their jobs due to unsatisfied customer service and hence requires the employees to make the necessary commitment to adapt to the situation. Since the employees understand what is at stake, XYZ company leaders could select a few leaders who would help and influence the rest of the employees and see the changes through. The selected employees would help to provide the necessary direction and training to help develop and maintain new ways of responding to customer responses.
Incorporating the eight steps would help to create a vision for the company which would help the employees to understand the changes and the leaders must be in a position to communicate the vision with the employees to know what is in it for them. The change management model helps the employees to remain focused on the main objective which would in return transform their production and create an environment where the employees feel motivated and directed to their goal. Celebrating the small wins would help the XYZ company to reduce the volume of the workload and prevent employee workload. This method helps the employee to gain skills of adaptability and flexibility when another crisis such as a technological failure occurs. XYZ company leaders can create a sense of urgency that would help the employees recognize the need for change and succeed in change implementation.
Strategic transformational changes
Strategic leadership is very crucial in implementing changes in an organization. Leadership can define and influence either the positive or negative direction of the company. The leaders are tasked with the responsibility. According to Caves Lonzo (2018), lifelong learners ay influence organizational change. Strategic transformations can help the organization to change and redefine through other large-scale and small-scale changes. These changes can best be applied in the planning stage by identifying the long-term goal and structuring the plan around it. XYZ company needs to in a long-term plan to avoid such a technological crisis which would increase their high success rate. The company needs to create a strategy where the leaders need to listen to the employees to make the necessary changes and those that align with the company’s mission goals. To solve the issue of employee and customer complaints, the company can tackle the situation by having a problem-solving mentality that keeps the morale high and the customers happy. The leaders should create a way that deals with customer complaints and meet the customer deadline despite the challenges faced. The leaders can combine the different talents of people with various variety of backgrounds to enable change in the organization which can create opportunities for the company to meet its goals and deal with employees either at a personal or group level to discuss the necessary changes.
Conclusion
Organizational change is very crucial for a business and it directly affects the organization such as in the case of the XY company. The organization can implement various change management theories, models, and perspectives to help them deal with the necessary changes that come. The XYZ CEO leader can help boost the morale and motivate the employees by creating a vision that enables them to reach their focus and manage through their work. Imploring the John Kotter model of change gives the company a step-by-step process to handle and adapt to the changes. The organizational leaders are in charge of developing strategic changes that would benefit both the employees and transition the leader’s vision to reality. Struggling companies should pick on the best practices for the organization and effective production These changes include thoughtful planning and effective communication between employees and the organizational leaders. Other practices may include training and monitoring progress to achieve its goals.
References
Carton, A. M., & Lucas, B. J. (2018). How can leaders overcome the blurry vision bias? Identifying an antidote to the paradox of visual communication.
Caves, L. (2018). Lifelong learners influencing organizational change. Studies in Business & Economics, 13(1), 21–28.
Doll, Y., & Miller, B. (2018). Applying the Kotter Model: Making Transformational Change in a Large Organization. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture, and Change Management: Annual Review, 8(1), 53–60. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9524/cgp/v08i01/50438
Kotter, J. P., Akhtar, V., & Gupta, G. (2021). Change: how organizations achieve hard-to-imagine results in uncertain and volatile times. Wiley.
McGurgan, H. (2018). How to Train Employees to Deal With & Handle Customer Complaints. Smallbusiness.chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/train-employees-deal-handle-customer-complaints-31559.html
Nichols, C., Hayden, S. C., & Trendler, C. (2020, April 2). 4 Behaviors That Help Leaders Manage a Crisis. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/04/4-behaviors-that-help-leaders-manage-a-crisis
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