Good Example Of Change Essay

Introduction

The organizations are continually thriving towards change management in order to manage the transforming needs and requirements of the external and internal environment. Even though many believe that management is a technical venture, but there are many important considerations that impact upon everything that a manager end’s up doing within an organization (Sonenshein, 2009). It is important to realize that the managers deal with human beings and play an integral role in shaping the lives of both internal and external stakeholders of an organization. In this, they are responsible to the public as well as their employees in order to handle the change management in an ethical manner, but no matter how the ethical considerations are taken care of, the wish and decision of managers are generally imposed upon the employees. Since the employees are bound to follow the managers and top management they, act in the manner their executives require them too (Sonenshein, 2009).

The ethical issues organization faces when managing change

One of the integral responsibilities of every organization during change and innovation in the company is to keep their employees perspective and point of view in consideration in managing change. It is crucial that employees should be able to play a positive role in change management and smoothly undergo the transition. The ethical dilemma, that occurs in general organizations, is that the decisions are imposed by the top management without considering the needs and requirements of the employees of the company. It is important that once a company takes a change initiative, it should take into consideration the impact it have on the employees and their well-being (Schulman, 2006).
Most change initiatives within an organization tend to focus on increasing the power of the top management as compared to the other staff in the organization. This occurs for many reasons. First the strategic change is decided by the top management and is rarely discussed with other employees. This gives a clear message that the top management is implicitly in control and also has the right to control the situation. Second, the planned strategic change also tends to create ambiguity and uncertain circumstances in the company. In order to over the uncertain situation, the employees will want to meet the wishes and desires of their managers so they feel that the employees are able to fit and adjust to the changing environment. Third concern arises when the management defines that change has occurred, and this is the new reality for the employees of an organization. The ethical arises because the management decides that it has the right to define the order and is in charge of the situation (Schulman, 2006).
It is obvious that stating the change initiative in this manner makes the manager more prone to the possibility of engaging in ethical issues that the managers might have to face in transforming or changing the organization. At some point of this transformation, the change can become a coercion and the influential attitude of the top management can become a manipulative for the employees and the fine line between the two is really thin (Sonenshein, 2009). Even though the organizations these days avoid following the coercive way of change management and have a dislikeness for the old authoritarian way of dealing with the change, but some managers tend to follow the activities that lowers the morale of employees, have a devaluing impact and can even dehumanize their employees. If the managers are aware of these ethical dilemmas, it is certainly easier for them to be more sensitive and thoughtful towards employee responses and their issues in change initiative of the company (Sonenshein, 2009).
The issue of manipulation, as discussed above, is a serious ethical concern in change management. Manipulation can be defined as when someone’s playing with the emotions of others in order to achieve their own means and desires, or fooling around with someone doing some task with lie or flattery. Like coercion, the manipulation is deception, secrecy, and dishonest behavior and should definitely be considered unethical by the top management. The act of manipulative behavior is certainly difficult to identify as it is closely related to persuasion of the wish – a notion that does not have a negative consequence as that of manipulation. On the other hand, when change occurs in an organization, the manipulation and coercion of actions are a part and parcel of the development and change process and it certainly requires a fine line between the personal values against the personal will of the employees (Mc Namara, 2010).
The concept of dehumanization is another ethical issue that is raised with change management because it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of innovation and also promotes an environment where the conflict and arguments are taken as negative and not in a positive manner to improve the organization’s efficiency.

Conclusion

Change management in an organization is a critical step and can lead to many issues in the future, but it is the responsibility of the top management to realize that they are dealing with humans and the change can lead to many ethical issues and concerns which should be dealt in a timely manner, in order to avoid the dissatisfaction and lower motivation level of employees.

References

Mc Namara C. (2010) Organization Change and Development http://www.managementhelp.org/misc/fp-self.pdf
Schulman M. (2006) Incorporating Ethics into Organizations Strategic Plan http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/strategic-plan.html
Sonenshein S. (2009) Emergence of Ethical Issues During Strategic Change Implementation, Organization Science, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p22. http://sonenshein.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/Publications/Sonenshein_emergence%20of%20ethical%20issues%20during%20strategic%20change%20Org%20Science.pdf