Resistance to technology adoption can negatively impact any organization in today’s dynamic world, especially when the staff’s resistance can lead to the company’s slow growth and development or no growth. This article will discuss compliance issues and the importance of technology adoption in the public healthcare system.
Managing change is crucial for every organization to achieve its goals and developments. It is sometimes hard to navigate changes and adapt to new workplace technologies, including the public health care systems. However, some models are designed to help manage the changes in organizations. (Harrison,2021) The models enable the management of the restraining forces of change and help an organization to grow. Lewin’s change of model theory is an example organizations should implement to help address change resistance. The theory states that when the forces are restrained, they tend to influence how individuals and groups behave and eventually will decide the influence of change. Lewin’s model has three stages: unfreeze, change, and finally, refreeze. The stages will help the employees adapt to the organization’s new technology changes. The first stage, unfreeze, deals with the management’s perception, and its goal is to prepare the organization’s stakeholders for the upcoming change. In this stage, it is crucial to note that communication is the critical component that helps the team members adapt to the technology’s changes. Activities in an unfreezing stage may help in the process of adapting to the changes. They include creating strategic visions and change, obtaining the buy-in of the organizations, addressing the employees’ issues effectively and transparently, and communicating the importance of adapting the changes compellingly.
The second stage of Lewin’s theory is change. Harrison (2021) argues that this stage involves implementing the change. It consists of finding a better approach to help you get feedback from your employees to have a smooth transition. The activities here include ensuring a continuous flow of input from your employees to ensure you have support from them. Secondly, ensure that some workshops and programs talk about the management of change, and lastly, empower your employees to adapt to the new changes in the organization. The last stage of Lewin’s theory of change is refreezing. In this stage, the employees reach the stabilization stage, where they accept the changes. The stage where the leaders implement the changes should be firm, and the change should be reinforced to create a culture in the organization. The activities to aid in change support are the change leaders identifying the change champions and rewarding them; they should make the collection of feedback from their team members a culture; and finally, provide training support to the employees on demand. There are other change models, such as Kotter’s change model, but I suggest that Lewin’s model will be effective in the public healthcare system (Harrison,2021)
Apart from the change models that can help adapt to the new technologies in the public healthcare system, we should also look at the types of adopters and communication strategies. Looking at the varieties of adopters and communication initiatives will help understand the employers more and help in change management. There are various types of adapters. They include innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (Mrnuštík2022).
Innovators
Innovators are a group of individuals who are eager to try the upcoming innovations. These individuals are open to technologies. They have financial resources and are ready to implement the new technologies, even if unsuccessful. These types of individuals will have a positive impact on the organization. The leaders can help the innovators by communicating to them the benefits of the technology and how the technology will help improve the organization’s success. Providing early access to new technology to the innovators will also encourage them to be open to change (Mrnuštík2022).
Early Adopters
The early adopters are a group of individuals ready to implement the new changes, but they must see proof of the success of the technology at stake. Before embracing it, they must prove that the technology is very effective and works perfectly. Early adopters have a history of successful reputation, which is essential in implementing technology change. The leaders can help the early adopters adapt to the new technology by providing proof of success stories. You can also provide them with opportunities to interact with the new technology and offer to receive feedback.
Early Majority
The individuals of the early majority are more careful in adopting innovations, especially technological ones. This kind of person needs assurance that the intended technology to be implemented has a history of success and will not cause distractions and damage to the existing system. The leaders should encourage the early adopters by having coherent and transparent communication to solve their concerns and offer training and support programs to support them (Mrnuštík2022).
Late Majority
The late majority are a group of individuals who are very skeptical about change (Rath, 2022). They need to be more resistant to adapting to new changes in technology. Here, the type of leadership style that will apply to help them is coaching leadership. The leader will be responsible for providing all the support, including the personalized one, and may include emphasizing the benefits and consequences of adopting the technology. The leader will also help them understand how the new technology will help them remain competitive and successful in their roles.
The Laggards
The Laggards, like the late majority, are most resistant to change and may require similar support to the late majority (Rath, 2022). As a leader, offer them more support and emphasize the benefits of the new technology and how to bring success to the organization.
Therefore, to address the importance of adopting new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in public healthcare systems, leaders must develop implementations and communication plans that might help conquer the challenges in the healthcare systems (Alblooshi,2021). Firstly, the provision of training programs will help the employees to get used to AI technology. Training sessions include providing resources such as video tutorials to help the sessions run more smoothly. Secondly, continuous support will help establish a support system that immediately solves upcoming issues. Here, the leader can bring in mentors for additional assistance. Thirdly, the leaders can make feedback part of their organization’s culture. It will help improve their communication with their team members and help in the change adoption process. Another way of communicating and addressing the change adoption process is creating a documented compliance that outlines the guidelines, and failure to comply will have consequences. In addition, engaging the stakeholders in adapting to the new changes is crucial. They explained how the new technologies can improve healthcare services (Alblooshi,2021).
For example, new technologies such as Electronic Medical Records will help collect a patient’s records easily. All past paperwork will be got rid of. The technology will also help public healthcare institutions reduce medical errors—technologies such as clinical decision support help reduce medical errors in healthcare facilities. The technologies will also help to have better patient care. The utilization of technology will help in the management of patients’ engagement and hence improve overall healthcare services. It is also important to note that the technologies will help educate the patients according to their specific needs. There is some software like patient electronic portals that help patients get access to their preferred online healthcare assistance. Moreover, implementing the technologies in public healthcare systems can help reduce costs. For instance, reducing medical errors affects the cost directly to the patients and healthcare professional specialists (Yaqoob et al., 2021).
In conclusion, although there are challenges that might be there when implementing the new changes, there are benefits of the new technologies that will improve public healthcare systems if they are well addressed and implemented. Challenges such as resistance to change and cost might hinder the adoption of the new technology, but addressing all the challenges will improve the services in the public healthcare system. Growth and development will be there in the organizations.
Reference
Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for change management, improvement, and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management models in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 85-108.
Mrnuštík Konečná, M., & Sutherland, L. A. (2022). Digital innovations in the Czech Republic: developing the inner circle of the Triggering Change Model. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 28(5), 577-600.
Alblooshi, M., Shamsuzzaman, M., & Haridy, S. (2021). The relationship between leadership styles and organizational innovation: A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis. European Journal of Innovation Management, 24(2), 338-370.
Rath, D. J. P. (2022). Causes of Resistance and Overcoming These Resistances: A Descriptive Study on Change Management. Rajasthali Journal, 2(1).
Yaqoob, I., Salah, K., Jayaraman, R., & Al-Hammadi, Y. (2021). Blockchain for healthcare data management: opportunities, challenges, and future recommendations. Neural Computing and Applications, 1-16.
write