Introduction
Today, companies have to adapt to a flexible environment and implement new strategies that may at times completely transform the working process. Some of these new policies, such as salary increases, are welcomed by employees. However, changes in an organization do not always receive a positive response from workers. To transform the employee attitude towards change, an HR specialist must recognize such negative responses and apply specialized skills and knowledge to prevent or react to them.
Globalizing Business
Many Western companies outsource their workforce to cut costs. However, working under multicultural conditions can create additional problems, especially ones associated with the need to change the existing work structure. The book by Shyni and Thattil discusses how Indian workers often do not respond appropriately to changes that are brought on by their Western employers (2). Their corporate culture differs from the requirements imposed by its managers, which increases the level of discontent. The HR department in this case must address the differences that make employees unhappy about the new policies. Usually, this process must include the company’s corporate culture statements. Outsourced workers must realize that they are employed by an organization with foreign standards and understand that they have to comply with them in order to keep their position. However, it is also the role of an HR manager to find alternatives that would make workers psychologically more comfortable with the changes.
The Role of Trust and Justice
Recent research suggests that employees wish to be well informed about new policies and their effects (Heuvel et al. 414). In fact, strong relationships in the workplace can create a positive attitude toward change or at least ease the stress of their implementation. For instance, a management team may decide to more strictly control the time that employees leave the facility. However, an understanding head of the department may let them leave whenever all their tasks have been finished. The job of an HR representative is to ensure that all employees are satisfied with their relationships in the workplace. In addition, he or she is responsible for tracking the employees’ level of motivation, as it serves as one of the signs that a psychological contract is not working. One of the most important features regarding the process of change is justice. Employees tend to evaluate whether the process of change implementation was fair to all participants, and a negative answer typically results in resistance to the new policies (Georgalis et al. 91). HR managers must monitor the level of employee satisfaction and conduct interviews prior to or during the change process to determine whether workers find the new policies fair.
Works Cited
Georgalis, Joanna, et al. “Change Process Characteristics and Resistance to Organizational Change: The Role of Employee Perception of Justice.” Australian Journal of Management, vol. 40, no. 1, 2015, 89-113.
Heuvel, Sjoerd van den, et al. “Does a Well-Informed Employee Have a More Positive Attitude Toward Change? The Mediating Role of Psychological Contract Fulfilment, Trust, and Perceived Need for Change.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, vol. 51, no. 3, 2015, pp. 401-422.
Shuni, Kumari V. K., and G. Simon Thattil. Change Management Vis-A-Vis Human Resource Management. Discovery Publishing House, 2005.
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