Due to various external and internal forces, all oganisations must change themselves to be competitive. In this change process, both the employees and organisational culture are affected. This presentation focuses on the impacts of changes, the challenges to change employees' attitude and behaviour, and how to overcome these challenges.

1. Impact of Organisational
Change on Employees and
Culture
Ted Thanh Tran
MBA – Management of Change

2. Ted Thanh Tran
Agenda
 External and Internal Forces of Change
 Conference Change Model
 Employee – Challenges
 Employee – Reaction – Resistance – Resilience Stages
 Employee – Facilitation of Change
 Employee – Continuum of Change Strategies
 Culture – Challenges
 Culture – Facilitation of Change
 Conclusion

3. Ted Thanh Tran
External and Internal Forces
Source: http://www.apqc.org

4. Ted Thanh Tran
Conference Change Model –
Holistic View of Change
Source: Hiam, W. A. (1997), The Portable Conference on Change Management,
HRD Press and Lakewood Publications, Amherst

5. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Challenges
 Change is against human nature
– Uncomfortable with the unknown and uncertainty
– Doubt of their ability to adapt to change
– Perceived loss of status, pay, comfort
 Change adaptation journey is long and eventful
– Reaction stage
– Resistance stage
– Resilience stage

6. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Reaction Stage
 Negative thoughts / beliefs about change
 Feelings: angry, betrayed, shocked, diminished,
unappreciated, anxious, confused, threatened, etc.
 Actions: distrust, withdrawal, self-protection
 Needs: how change will affect them (e.g. benefits, work hours,
family, etc.)
 Management’s Action Plan:
– To address concerns early, not just rationalise reasons for change
– To acknowledge feelings of those affected
– To be supportive

7. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Resistance Stage
 Change alters:
– Explicit contracts: employment agreement, job scope, etc.
– Psychological contracts: unwritten expectations between employees
and employers
 Established level of Personal Compact:
– Formal dimension
– Social dimension
– Psychological dimension
 Misperception of resistance: poor attitude, obstacle
 Value of resistance:
– Force to rethink unsound assumptions
– Compromise of interests of all parties
– Better understanding and more alternative solutions

8. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Resilience Stage
 Feeling: have positive outlook
 Actions:
– Focus on value to be gained
– Be ready to let go the old and try the new
– Be supportive to others
– Take active role (e.g. learn new skills, set goals)
– Be aware of well-being
 Management’s Action Plan:
– To solidify short-term win
– To reward right attitude and behaviour
– To move on to next target

9. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Facilitation of Change
 Employees’ effort to support change must be matched with
right reward system
– Expectancy theory
– Hierarchy of needs
 To communicate the need and context for revising the
personal compact
 To allow employees to participate in revising compact terms
 To lock in commitments
 To employ suitable change strategies depending on speed of
effort, amount of pre-planning, involvement of others.

10. Ted Thanh Tran
Employees – Continuum of Change
Strategies
http://www.harvardbusiness.org/

11. Ted Thanh Tran
Culture – Challenges
 Definition: values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and
behaviours shared by employees of an organisation.
 Culture is deeply rooted
– Formed over years of interaction
– Woven into daily procedure, process and practice at all levels
 Individuals must change their behaviour to create desired
culture
 Cultural change is time consuming
- In mature organisations, individual mindset has become relatively
fixed. It takes time for mindsets to be instilled
 Culture is abstract: stated vs. unstated; sub-cultures

12. Ted Thanh Tran
Culture – Facilitation of Change
 Formal education and training must be available to all
employees
– To understand purpose of change and roles in process
– To be aware of own feelings, necessary method to overcome natural
emotion
– To realise that customer focus is the ultimate drive of cultural change
 To identify role models, encourage them to share their
thoughts
 Formal and informal communication channels must be used
extensively and bi-directionally
– To engage informal leaders
– To ensure smooth flow of official messages and feedbacks
– To follow up with actions

13. Ted Thanh Tran
Conclusion
 Change must be managed holistically
 Timing of organisational change is very important
 Foresight thinking helps to face change in calm and
considered manner
 Management must pay more attention to human dimension
than technical dimension of change
 Continuous change must be part of organisational culture.