Bonanza Offer FLAT 20% off & $20 sign up bonus Order Now
Background
With globalisation enterprises operations have become complex and more adverse to changes taking place in external environment like government policies, technological advancement and shifting requirements of people (Trompenaars and Woolliams, 2004). Hiatt and Creasey (2003) explains change management as a process under which companies transforms their strategies to meet the alterations taking place in global operations. Bakar (2013) argues that these changes have significant impact on behaviors of employees where if they are not involved actively in the activities of companies it can result in low motivational level. Non-efficiency of managers to engage employees can often create confusions and makes them unsure regarding their job responsibilities. In the opinion of Wellins, Bernthal and Phelps (2015) uncertainty and role conflict increases labor turnover and impact performance of enterprises like low profitability. Employee engagement covers emotional and behavioral aspects of employees towards corporate environment and determines how inspired they are to attain desired outcomes within time (Kahn, 2010; Carbonara, 2013). Positive attitudes of personnel working in companies are beneficial as it often leads to superior performance and low absenteeism (Wellins, Bernthal and Phelps, 2015).
Need of the paper
Employee involvement has been categorized under various heads like highly, moderately, passive and actively disengaged employees. Actively disengaged employees feel disconnected with their work and experience dissatisfaction with poor attitudes towards obtaining higher performances (Kahn, 2010). Past studies have emphasized a positive relationship of employee engagement with individual and organisational performance (Bakar, 2013). Change management has become common in today’s business environment where leaders must involve people in decision making process and must be capable to create positive motivation among them for overall superior performance. Through this essay, different factors that contribute to workforce engagement, types of changes, issues faced and effective approaches that can be implemented by companies will be assessed. The objective of the essay is to analyse different issues that companies face in employee engagement during change and to evaluate approaches to have better coordination.
Factors that contributes to workforce Engagement
Managing changes in entities is complex process and is influenced by various factors related with employee engagement that are further going to be discussed in this section.
Corporate Values: Corporate values of companies are guiding principles on which activities of firms are done and that influence the behavior of personnel working within (Bakar, 2013). These values impact the choices, beliefs and personalities of workers where leaders must try to have positive relationship with them that improve their job satisfaction. Mortimer (2010) argues that leaders when use appreciation and reward system to support their employees it results in higher level of motivation and employee engagement as these value makes them feel as important part of companies.
Nature of the Job: Specialization or division of labors in companies must be as per their capabilities and skill failing which can result in poor performance of people (Bakar, 2013). Workers when are aware of what type of work they are required to complete and how it can be done they gain self-confidence to deal with complexities. However, in opinion of Mutunga (2009) offering employees with challenging tasks is more helpful in improving engagement level as they gets chance to prove their capability.
Communication and Immediate Manager Working Relationship: Change management in companies must be implemented with prior knowledge of employees as unplanned approach can result in further complexities where people built fear for not being able to cope up with these modifications (Kahn, 2010). Employee engagement is found to be high when they are continuously informed regarding every minor detail of the enterprises which is possible only when managers shares amicable relationship with subordinates (Aon Hewiit, 2013). Mutunga (2009) agrees that leaders who do not permit people to offer their suggestions in decision making can lead to negative reactions where persons often creates grudges against leaders and company.
Level of employee engagement depends on type of changes that are taking place in companies, like:
Tactical Alliance: Companies in order to have larger customer base and higher profitability is entering new and emerging economies with the help of various modes like acquisitions, joint ventures and partnership with local enterprises. For instance, in 2010, Apple has entered into various contracts with Sony, Motorola and AT&T to have better operations (Czaja, 2016). Recently, it formed partnership with Clearwell’s e-discovery platform for its iPad (Czaja, 2016). When an entity joins its activities with several other diverse enterprises whose work culture and processes to initiate tasks are different from one another, it can result in low employee involvement (Carbonara, 2013).
Restructuring: Restructuring in companies takes place when higher authorities terminate employees from their posts that affect the motivational level of remaining personnel in varied personal and tangible ways (Aon Hewiit, 2013). Current employees may feel insecure with a fear of losing their jobs in future and can stop giving their additional efforts to improve the goal accomplishment process. However, Wellins, Bernthal and Phelps (2015) suggests that leaders can use this change as a technique to inspire remaining people that a good scope of growth opportunities are being given to them where they can improve their career advancement through excellent performance.
Strategy Transformation: Enterprises working in technology, automobile and FMCG sectors requires modifications in their strategies at regular intervals as these are largely impacted by new techniques and changing customer requirements as compared to other fields (Aon Hewiit, 2013). Leaders must be capable of implementing two-way communication process with employees and should ensures that proper training are being offered to them for higher involvement and performance (Aon Hewiit, 2013).
Proper accomplishment of desired outcomes and creation of competitive edge is only possible when employees are motivated to work actively in the companies. However, it has been found that changes like restructuring affects the perceptions and attitudes of people negatively that can be managed only with the help of strategic leadership (Cameron and Green, 2015; Reiss, 2012). Some of the key issues faced by companies in attaining proper workforce engagement during change and motivation are:
Organisational Readiness: Changes in organisations are implemented in order to improve the effectiveness of operations that generates value as per the fluctuations occurring in external environment (Blackman, O’Flynn and Ugyel, 2013). As per research, companies in spite of adopting various initiatives for changes are not being successful at their approach where the failure rate has been found to be over 70% (Blackman, O’Flynn and Ugyel, 2013). Leaders often while implementing modification in the enterprises overlook the importance of communicating the reasons behind change with people working in it. Dealing with change initiatives have always been complex and stressful for individuals where they fear of not being able to cope up with new expectations of the companies. Previous studies have proved that people during changes are not actively involved as they often become confused regarding their career path (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016). Therefore, it is important that leaders create organisational readiness before implementing change where employees are willing and ready to accept the alterations then only they can perform well.
Motivation: Previous studies undertaken by researchers suggest that change agents often fail to look after the expectations and concerns of employees that often results in lack of motivation (Siddhanta and Roy, 2010; Cook, 2008). Maintaining motivational level of personnel has been identified essential and challenging as changes like restructuring often creates insecurity among people for their work. In order to have better employee engagement leaders can implement varied approaches like seeking their suggestions and feedback as new policies are being set up by senior executives.
Influence on employee engagement during different type of changes
A survey was conducted by researcher to evaluate the impact of varied types of corporate changes taking place in enterprises on employee engagement whose results has been illustrates in table 1. It was found that percentage of actively disengaged employees were greater as compared to highly involved subordinates where during restructuring only 10% of people participated in changes as compared to 19% non-engaged employees.
Figure 1: Impact of Different type of Corporate Change on Employee Engagement
(Source: Aon Hewiit, 2013)
The above figure illustrates different changes taking place in companies like restructuring with significant impact on jobs, strategy transformation with influence of tasks and acquisitions made by companies with no interconnection with activities performed by employees. It was found that employees’ engagement level is highly impacted by changes taking place through mergers and acquisitions where greatest difference between highly engaged and actively disengaged employee was observed (5% and 21% respectively). On the other hand, the percentage of highly engaged employees increased when companies’ mergers’ do not have significant impact on jobs (highly involved 13% as compared to 11% actively disengaged). The percentage of employee engagement through this graph reveals that changes occurring in companies’ impacts employee engagement with respect to the level these modifications impact their jobs.
Clarifying the motive behind changes: Enterprises while implementing change must define their underlying motives behind change and how it will assist people in achieving better career growth and performance (Carbonara, 2013). Different types of changes have varied influence over employee engagement where leaders are required to interact with people for having positive motivation level (Kahn, 2010). For instance, in strategy transformation, employees will need to understand a new business direction and model that the company needs to serve the shifting customers’ preferences better.
Empowerment: Bird and Mendenhall (2016) have identified empowerment as an effective technique to improve employee engagement as when people are given importance in ownership where they can implement actions as per their decisions. Wei and Yazdanifard (2014) argue that empowering personnel with greater responsibilities creates a perception that their actions are governed by them rather than being directed by others on small matters and a trust factor is achieved. Creating trust has always being the most efficient way to have better performance of individual and companies as it gives people an opportunity to deal with things on their own (Watkins, 2013).
Leadership and Relationship Management:
During changes it is observed that people often shift their jobs for better career advancements that results in high turnover of those entities that are not being able to implement good retention strategies (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016). Markos and Sridevi (2010) have identified strategic leadership as the most effective way to promote employee engagement during complexities occurring in internal and external factors. Researchers claim that transformational leadership under which leaders modifies people personalities for their own development is advantageous during change administration (Wei and Yazdanifard. 2014). Moreover, leaders must practice friendly relation with followers to make them understand the importance of changes that is being implemented for their own benefit.
Cross-Training:
Cross training is an approach under which leaders’ trains their employees to manage different jobs at a time to gain more flexibility and learning prospects (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016). During changes, people motivational level is seen to be low as they do not actively participate in company’s activities. Cross-training can be effective measure to improve engagement level of employees as they it generates higher responsibilities among them (Kahn, 2010). For instance, Mercadona and Costco, well known retailers of U.K and China respectively, in order to have high employee engagement implements cross-training where people are made responsible for various positions at a time like administering cash registers, stock shelves and rearranging the stores (Deloitte, 2016). This has helped these companies to develop a group of highly empowered teams that have freedom to complete tasks based on their suitability.
High and positive employee engagement is essential for companies as it assists them in attaining better profitability and sustainability. The essay has identified corporate values, nature of job, communication and immediate workers relationship as important factors of empowering engagement. Changes in enterprises have become very normal in enterprises these days due to shifts taking place in external environment. Alliances, restructuring and strategy transformation are three types of changes that takes place in companies and needs to be taken care by leaders efficiently to have high employee engagement. However, it was observed that entities face complexities in managing engagement during changes due to improper coordination and low morale of employees. Based on these issues, various approaches for instance clarifying the motive behind changes and cross-training has been discussed where companies like Costco were able to increases personnel involvement with the help of these techniques. Companies that support and empower people with responsibility to make their own decisions and handle activities on their own have found to have high engagement level. Therefore, in order to administer change and motivation efficiently a company must have strategic leadership and training techniques.
Aon Hewiit. (2013). Managing Employee Engagement During Times of Change. [online] Aon. Available at: http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2013_Managing_Engagement_During_Times_of_Change_White_Paper.pdf [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Bakar , R.A. (2013). Understanding Factors Influencing Employee Engagement: A Study of the Financial Sector in Malaysia. [online] Research Bank. Available at: https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eserv/rmit:160447/Abu_Bakar.pdf [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E. (2016). From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.
Blackman, D., O’Flynn, J. and Ugyel, L. (2013). A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Organisational Readiness for Complex Change. [online] Anzam. Available at: https://www.anzsog.edu.au/media/upload/publication/131_Flynn-and-Ugyel-Diagnostic-Tool-ANZAM-2013.pdf [Accessed 5 September 2016].
Cameron, E. and Green, M. (2015). Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and techniques of organizational change. 4 th Edition London: Kogan Page.
Carbonara, S. (2013). Manager's Guide to Employee Engagement. New York: McGraw Hill.
Cook, S. (2008). The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement: Better Business Performance through Staff Satisfaction. London: Kogan Page.
Czaja., J. (2016). Examples of Successful Strategic Alliances. Hearst Newspapers [online] p.A1 Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-successful-strategic-alliances-13859.html [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Deloitte. (2016). Becoming Irresistible: A new Model for employee Engagement. [online] Dupress. Available at: http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-strategies/ [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Hiatt, J. and Creasey, T.J. (2003). Change Management: The People Side of Change. USA: Prosci.
Kahn, W. (2010). The essence of engagement: lessons from the field’ in Simon Albrecht 2010, Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Markos, S. and Sridevi, M.S. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), pp. 89-96.
Mortimer, D. (2010). Employee engagement: 5 Factors that matter to employees. [online] HR Review. Available at: http://www.hrreview.co.uk/analysis/analysis-wellbeing/employee-engagement-5-factors-that-matter-to-employees/8221 [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Mutunga, C.N. (2009). Factors That Contribute To the Level Of Employee Engagement In The Telecommunication Industry In Kenya: A Case Study Of Zain Kenya. [online] Erepository. Available at: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/bitstream/handle/11295/12682/Full%20Text.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Reiss, M., 2012. Change Management. Norderstedt: Books on Demand.
Siddhanta, A. and Roy, D. (2010). Employee engagement -Engaging the 21st century workforce. Asian Journal of Management Research, 1(1), pp. 170-189.
Trompenaars, F. and Woolliams, P. (2004). Business across cultures. US: John Wiley & Sons.
Watkins, M.D. (2013). What is Organisational Culture? And Why Should we Care? [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
Wei, L.T. and Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The impact of Positive Reinforcement on Employees’ Performance in Organizations. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 4, pp. 9-12.
Wellins,, R.S., Bernthal, P. and Phelps, M. (2015). Employee Engagement: The Key To Realizing Competitive Advantage. [online] Available at: http://www.ddiworld.com/ddi/media/monographs/employeeengagement_mg_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf [Accessed 1 Sept. 2016].
MyAssigmenthelp.co.uk is the best option for those who are looking for reliable academic writing services. To show our genuineness, we submit only high quality assignments so that students never lose out on important grades. Our mission is to provide plagiarism-free solutions at very affordable prices. Students can get academic writing help on any subject or topic from us.
Upload your Assignment and improve Your Grade
Boost Grades