Introduction
Managing change at any level or type of company is a complex process that affects all aspects of employees’ personalities. The transition to a new strategy or system of working methods implies that employees leave their usual mode of work, which is often a comfortable space. This tendency is especially pronounced in federal companies, where global management changes are relatively rare. The transition to a new policy leads to staff dissatisfaction with their work, as they must make many moral and ethical decisions to adapt to the new environment.
General Reasons for Dissatisfaction
Change management in federal organizations encompasses several aspects of employees’ personalities and behaviors. First, the reconstruction of the work process is always interconnected with changes at the ideological level, which determines the overall approach to work. If an employee is accustomed to performing long-term tasks independently, bearing full responsibility, it won’t be easy to adjust to the need for collective work afterward (Karp & Helg, 2018). The quality of work will deteriorate initially because the psychological mechanism, which is adjusted to individual work, will resist the development of delegation skills.
Secondly, change management is inextricably linked to the characteristics of the specific work that individual employees perform. When receiving new instructions and algorithms of actions, each specialist needs to adapt to the new instructions and acquire new, specialized professional skills. Employees with a long work history may experience significant psychological challenges in adapting to new material.
Thirdly, organizational changes have a significant impact on how employees interact within a department or company (Karp & Helg, 2018). Since the processes of interaction between colleagues in federal corporations are significantly regulated, the transition to new algorithms of joint work can provoke moral dissatisfaction with the process. This is associated with the emergence of dilemmas in the need to break established business contacts and build new ones with unfamiliar employees.
Finally, a complex consequence of organizational change is the transformation of personality traits. When many aspects of work change, the personality must demonstrate a high level of flexibility, responsiveness, and attentiveness. Their development of people accustomed to a stable work mode can be accompanied by considerable stress (Karp & Helg, 2018).
The latter leads to various mistakes and, consequently, dissatisfaction with the work. It is important to note that organizational changes are reflected at all levels of the company’s organization. If the transformation occurs on a large scale, it initially affects the culture of the whole production. The latter, in turn, affects the restructuring of work within teams and the collaboration between different departments. At last, but no less importantly, changes affect each employee’s personal work.
Responsible managers at all the stages mentioned face difficult tasks. They need to understand the need for change and examine the prospects for the company, as well as the risks if the process does not work properly. A significant moral and ethical dilemma arises when an employee with subordinates disagrees with the new policy (Karp & Helg, 2018). In this case, it becomes challenging to relay management’s position to employees because the person has to go against their personal view of the company’s needs.
Mistakes Leading to Dissatisfaction
Employee dissatisfaction may arise when change management fails to adhere to basic rules and principles. For example, if there are logical errors or inconsistencies at the goal-setting stage, employees may face unclear requirements or performance that does not match management expectations. An important prerequisite for a transformational policy is that everyone involved in the process clearly understands the current situation in the industry, the company as a whole, and individual departments (Karp & Helg, 2018). If this rule is not followed, there may be insufficient resources to implement the planned changes in production or individual units.
Moreover, there must be clear planning for each level of the organization for each stage of the restructuring. In doing so, all employees must understand the timeframe and adjust their work accordingly. Otherwise, employees cannot anticipate the short- and long-term work-related perspectives without understanding the process’s duration. Finally, a prerequisite for implementing change is to keep all people thoroughly informed, regardless of their role in the corporation (Karp & Helg, 2018). Transformation at any level can occur successfully and relatively painlessly for the psychological climate within the team only when employees are aware of all aspects of the company’s new work.
Conclusion
Thus, the policy of change is a multidimensional process, the positive aspects of which are often offset by difficulties in adapting personnel. Psychological and moral problems arise at the individual, collective, and organizational levels. Often, these difficulties arise as a natural consequence of leaving the comfort zone. In this case, it is important to have competent support from the management.
However, job dissatisfaction can be triggered by specific mistakes in the organization’s transformation process. The latter includes inaccuracies in goal-setting, illiterate planning, insufficient research into the company’s background, and a lack of staff awareness. All of the aspects mentioned above shape the work process and impact its quality, as well as the attitude of employees toward their responsibilities and performance.
Reference
Karp, T., & Helg, T. I. T. (2018). From change management to change leadership: Embracing chaotic change in public service organizations. Journal of Change Management, 8(1), 85–96.