Leadership & Change

Introduction

It is said by Mullins that nothing can manage the change of individual’s resistance. This blog will firstly analyse this debate and then explain what value managers can bring when they adviod resisting change. In addition, some specific examples from e-commerce industry will be given to support the debate and I will also point out the management modle I recommend to leaders before drawing a conclusion.

Part 1

Absolutely, the only thing for unchanging in the world is change. So how to face the problem of change has become a heat topic for persons nowadays. Some people think change can bring them motivation and accept new challenges easily. However, some of them worry about the differenciate lives though changing and want to keep a comfortable situation. Based on Mullins’ statement, the reason causes it happen is the personal character. The individual habits and the selective perceptions are two main ways to lead to individual resistance (Mullins, 2005). What it means is if a management can solve or reduce these problems, it will be a good choice to aviod the resistance to change. According to an article, to commnicate the change is one of the approaches to minimize this issue (Heathfield, 2015). Specifically, any changes of the work environment might affect the performance of employees. If the manager can try to contact them by using heart, the change problem may be reduced and the relationship between employers and enployees can be more close. On the other hand, it is clear that is not easy for a leader to deal well with the change problem to his subordinates. That is why Mullins said lettle management can prevent it happen.

Part 2

It is undoubted that what a leader should do to overcome resistance to change is to understand the issue, find the best method to solve it and remove the concerns from subordinates (Siviter, 2011). To be more specific, when facing the problem about resisting change, the manager firstly need to understand the root reasons for resistance. Next, to communicate with other members and focus on the root cause is the key step for the leader. After that, the leader should pay attention on the continuity of the change issue because change happens every day. However, to make sure the value of resistance is quite useful for leaders to prepare the better managements of an organization. Significantly, some key reasons such as loss of job and lack of reward make employees resist change (Adenle, 2011). According to these reasons, leaders can easily to catch their wokers’ minds and set some approaches which have well-directed. Moreover, I will recommend the Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model to help managers handle the change problems. Absolutely, eight clearly procedures show to leaders step by step. It is obvious that this model, as a guidance, can assist managers how to make a decision from creating urgency to anchor in an organizational culture (McArdle, 2006). But it has to say that some limitations exist in Kotter’s model. To be more specific, it is difficult for users restart any steps of the model because it similar looks like a top-down straight line. What it means is the flexibility of this change model might block the creativity from both managers and other members. From the point of my view, I suggest those leaders using this change model can make these eight steps as a continuous cycle to reduce the impact of limitations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as the second largest e-commerce company in IT industry, Amazon can be a good example to demonstrate the debate I mentioned above. As we know, customers are the most important part in running an e-commerce business because they can provide feedback and tell what they demand to sellers. Therefore, to know and control the change of buyers has become a skill for managers from Amazon to promote their achivements (Seal and Kavanagh, 2015). In another word, the minds and emotions from customers can be predicted if the organization prepares well in doing researches on targets in the market. In my opinion, both individual and organization changes could be managed in e-commerce in industry. For instance, as the most successful e-commerce company in China, Alibaba foucus on both employers and enployees in order to put them more closely and create a convenient platform to manage them (Liu and Avery, 2009). Last but not least, though a few managements can resist change, I think some effective skills may help managers to solve the change problems.

References

Adenle, S. (2011). 12 Reasons Why Employees Resist Change in the Workplace – Catherine’s Career Corner. [online] Available at: http://catherinescareercorner.com/2011/07/26/12-reasons-why-employees-resist-change-in-the-workplace/ [Accessed 23 May. 2011].

Heathfield, S. (2015). How to Manage Resistance to Change in the Workplace. [online] About.com Money. Available at: http://humanresources.about.com/od/resistancetochange/a/how-to-reduce-resistance-to-change.htm [Accessed 14 June. 2015].

Liu, S. and Avery, M. (2009). Alibaba. New York: Collins Business.

McArdle, G. (2006). An eight-step change model. [Alexandria, Va.]: ASTD Press.

Mullins, L. (2005). Management and organisational behaviour. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.

Seal, C. and Kavanagh, D. (2015). Organizations Don’t Resist Change, People Do. Organization Management Journal, 12(3), pp.123-124.

Siviter, B. (2011). Overcoming resistance to change. Primary Health Care, 21(10), pp.11-11.