Reference no: EM133211501

Opportunities to Increase Change Readiness / Trust

When implementing any change, it is important to consider where individuals may fall in the change management process. While some are early adopters, many may take more time to understand necessary change. However, an employee's resistance to change compared to one's peers can many times stem from one's manager. Change can be confusing and volatile, however, a leader is supposed to guide you through this time with clear communication, transparency, and patience. Any manager lacking the skills needed to effectively manage the change process may be doing a disservice to their employees. Additionally, some employees may be natural detractors from change with a relatively negative outlook on change. Typically, these folks need to be managed separately to ensure their dissent and resistance do not spread to their peers.

Based on the exit interviews from various employees it appears frustration with leadership made peer-focused dissent is a typical occurrence during times of change (Exit Interviews, 2021). The employee perception showed themes of leadership's inability to accept feedback leading to change detractors who went underground and focused their efforts on spreading dissent through peers (Lewis, 2019). Ensuring that one's peers also have a negative view of changes creates additional resistance throughout the company, ensuring it is not a smooth process.

With middle and senior management being unreceptive to many forms of feedback, upward dissent seemed to be ineffectual as well. This form of resistance is characterized by attempts to influence decision-makers during the change management process (Lewis, 2019). In this case, the decision-makers at the U.S. branch were only following the Singapore standard operating procedure (SOP) without much influence on it. The resistance stemmed from a lack of action being taken on the feedback being given by employees. Eventually, this led to attrition as evidenced in the exit surveys.