Question

Your company employs about 600 employees with various department functions such as payroll, marketing/sales, customer services, research and development. Many of them have worked with the company since it began 15 years ago. Those employees are comfortable performing the same work and tasks they’ve been doing for all those years. As a business owner you know that there are challenges of implementing an Enterprise Information System such as a CRM or ERP to your company. How would you tackle and overcome these challenges? In other words, what are your solutions to these challenges? Please explain in detail for each of the items listed below. Describe an example for each of the challenges listed below, and describe your solution for each.

(HINT: You can get more details on Pg. 275 of your textbook)

1. Transition problems?
   1. Describe an example of this challenge -
   2. What possible solution would you use to overcome this challenge -

2. Employee resistance?

1. a. Describe an example of this challenge -
2. b. What possible solution would you use to overcome this challenge -

Answer 1

a. Employee Transition is an employee's movement from current position to a new one with the right to have the same or alike pay range, the same level of tasks, and comparable job responsibilities and duties. For leaders and managers, managing employee transition well is difficult. In most cases, they have no control over the planned organisational change and often disagree with what is happening. Few will have experience of closing down an organisation and the unique challenges this presents. And anxiety about their own job security and that of their staff means their decisions may be influenced by emotion.

An example is changing employees from one department to another or changing the organisational policy

b. There is no single formula for managing transitions in the workplace. It is important to work closely with your employee and to follow their lead. Ask your unit’s Human Resources Consultant to be involved in the process and share with your employee the specific support the HR consultant can offer (such as medical leave information).

As you develop the plan, understand that controlling the flow of information is very important in managing the transition process; confidentiality is a primary concern.

Step 1: Determine together who should be informed of the change:

• Employees/co-workers
• Leadership team
• External/internal customers

Step 2: Create a timeline together, considering:

• Target date of the employee’s “official” at-work change
• Timing of administrative process in name changes, directory updates, records update
• Possible leave needs as determined by employee and their health care provider

Step 3: Discuss these considerations:

• How would they like their team/clients to be informed? e.g. tell people individually, team meeting, written communication from employee and manager or local HR etc.
• What workspace changes need to be made? E.g. name plates, floor directories, team photos?

Step 4: Attend to the details

• Check in with employee about system name changes and assist them with dealing with any problems, challenges with UW NetID, Workday or other systems.
• Create your own plan for the day that the employee will officially present their gender change to the workgroup.
• For the first day of the employee’s official gender change, you should ensure that all elements are in place – in the same way as for a new hire or transfer employee, including employee records, name updates, and all identifying indications in the workplace.

Additional manager responsibilities:

• Offer ongoing support to employee with whatever bumps they may encounter in implementing their transition at the UW.
• Consider the best way for you to state and demonstrate the University’s and your own support for your employee. E.g. include your own written communication, mention name and pronoun changes and the expectation of respect in a team meeting, involve senior leadership if appropriate.
• Consider how to review, present and emphasize relevant non-discrimination policies.
• If needed, consider possible ways to provide education and training to your team.

c. Resistance to change is the act of opposing or struggling with modifications or transformations that alter the status quo. This resistance can manifest itself in one employee or in the workplace. Employees put up a wall when they are poorly introduced to changes when it affects how they work and when they don't see the need for the changes. They also experience resistance when either not involved in the decision-making process or if they are left out of the procedural aspects of the process.When employees believe their input is considered, they are less likely to experience resistance to change.

An example may be an employee who works under the same management for many years may refuse to work under a changed management with different policies

d. Employee resistance can be managed in many ways

• A solution which has become increasingly popular for dealing with resistance to change is to get the people involved to “participate” in making the change. But as a practical matter “participation” as a device is not a good way for management to think about the problem. In fact, it may lead to trouble.
• The key to the problem is to understand the true nature of resistance. Actually, what employees resist is usually not technical change but social change—the change in their human relationships that generally accompanies technical change.
• Resistance is usually created because of certain blind spots and attitudes which staff specialists have as a result of their preoccupation with the technical aspects of new ideas.
• Management can take concrete steps to deal constructively with these staff attitudes. The steps include emphasizing new standards of performance for staff specialists and encouraging them to think in different ways, as well as making use of the fact that signs of resistance can serve as a practical warning signal in directing and timing technological changes.
• Top executives can also make their own efforts more effective at meetings of staff and operating groups where change is being discussed. They can do this by shifting their attention from the facts of schedules, technical details, work assignments, and so forth, to what the discussion of these items indicates in regard to developing resistance and receptiveness to change.