Introduction
The 21st century has seen the organizational environment evolve to the level of requiring strong human resource management principles. Constant change in organizations has emerged as a necessity, with managers realizing that change is important in any organization to improve its overall performance and competitiveness. Change management is the process of ensuring that organizational transformation is smooth.
Therefore, it qualifies as an important aspect of any organization that is undergoing change. The personality traits of employees and the management team are important in determining the course of change. Such traits can influence the outcome in organizations undergoing transformation.
Positive personality traits are beneficial to the overall organizational productivity while the negative traits lead to slow implementation of change. This paper looks at change management by human resource departments in organizations. It focuses on the effect that personality has on change management and organizational performance.
Personality
Personality is a contributor of workforce diversity. Its effects on organizational performance have widely been studied in the field of organizational behavior. Personality is one type of organizational diversity that makes organizations more successful in relation to others (Rao 15).
Organizations that are able to capitalize on the diversity of their workforce are described as being more successful than those that are unable to utilize the advantages that come along with this organizational trait (Rao 16). The diversity of workforce includes the individual similarities or differences that employees demonstrate. Therefore, personality is a good example of diversity.
The performance of an organization is dependent on the personality of its workforce in a number of ways. The personality displayed by employees may be beneficial to the overall organizational performance or detrimental to the organizational productivity. The output of an individual is dependent on his or her qualities.
Hardworking individuals are a benefit to the organization in terms of performance. Personality has been a subject of many studies based on its effects on organizational productivity, with researchers such as Judge, Ryan, Simon, and Yang evaluating how personality traits of employees influence their work output. Employees who have a negative attitude towards their work have high chances of performing poorly in relation to those who have a passion for their job.
One trait that researchers established to be a significant positive influence on work performance is conscientiousness (Aswathappa 41). Aswathappa stated that this personality trait was a powerful one in the prediction of organizational performance, with emotional stability being a weaker predictor of organizational performance.
The other three personality traits that together with conscientiousness and emotional stability were considered the big five traits influencing organizational performance include “openness, agreeableness, and extraversion” (Judge et al. 1985). Other researchers have also discovered other personality traits that may be important determinants of organizational performance, including core self-evaluations (Judge et al. 1985).
Change Management
Organizational planning is a key determinant of its performance. In the current age of globalization and information age, organizational environments are changing at a rapid rate. Only organizations that are able to keep up with the change are able to remain competitive, with those that are slow to adapt to change missing the market.
Accordingly, change is a significant disruption or alteration to the expected patterns in any process or activity (Mkoji and Sikalieh 185). Change has been a human principle since time immemorial. It is attributable to the peculiar characteristics of human beings.
Organizations need to plan effectively before instituting any changes since the results of any change determine the expected outcome. Change has led to the evolvement of newer management techniques and organizational structures, with this change being at the expense of several other structures (Aswathappa 41). If not adequately managed, change in an organization has the potential to cause disastrous results.
Therefore, organizations need to be in control of the factors that affect the change process in organizations to ensure that any changes work to the organizational benefit. This desire by the organizational managers and other stakeholders to influence the results brought about by any organizational change has led to the development of change management.
Change management is “Managing the process of implementing major changes in IT, business processes, organizational structures, and job assignments to reduce the risks and costs of change, and to optimize its benefits” (Andriessen and Fahlbruch 27).
Personality and Change Management
Change management requires the management of the organization to be committed to the involved processes. Available structures in an organization need to be adequate to sustain the change. In change management, the involved workers are advised to analyze the impeding changes before they implement them.
They need to develop appropriate programs to alleviate and minimize any predictable extra costs and risks (Mkoji and Sikalie 185). The analysis constitutes the best ways of ensuring that the organization benefits financially to the changes. Personality is important at all levels of implementing and planning change in organizations.
Human resource management is important in the process of instituting change. Important factors such as individual traits influence the way the change is handled. The personality of individuals who are tasked with organizational change determines the way they institute change (Andriessen and Fahlbruch 27).
Some of the employees who are not part of the change may have personality traits that are not compatible with the change. Therefore, they end up frustrating the change efforts. The rate at which change is implemented is also dependent on the personality traits displayed by individuals who are tasked with change management.
The personality of employees and the management team may be a positive influence to the process of change in an organization. People with high self-esteem, responsible, and self-driven are beneficial in the process of change management. They require minimal supervision if any. Therefore, the process of instituting change in any organization benefits from the availability of such personality traits among its workforce.
Some of the major personalities that may not be beneficial to the process of change management include laziness and incompetence at the workplace. However, these personalities can be managed through appropriate and effective planning to ensure that the process of change is smooth.
Human resource management needs to carry out activities such as motivational measures and employee rewarding sessions to ensure that it influences the personality of the organization’s employees in an effort to induce better and desirable traits (Judge et al. 1985). This department has the mandate to recruit employees who are competent in the organizational operations besides being able to adapt to the new changes and/or the change processes in the organization (Aswathappa 41).
Another way of neutralizing personality and its effect on organizational change to fit the organizational requirement is through the formation of teams and participation in teamwork (Andriessen and Fahlbruch 27). There is a positive correlation between the success of change management in organizations and the applied level of teamwork.
Organizational productivity is a product of effective change management and the appropriate personality traits. The measurement of organizational success in the implementation of change is only possible through the organization productivity. As stated earlier, organizations that practice effective change management have a demonstrated benefit.
Human resource departments can influence the personality of individuals through the promotion of an organizational culture that allows progressive interaction between employees. The most basic way that human resource managers can influence the personality of their employees based on how they associate with change is training (Andriessen and Fahlbruch 27).
Therefore, organizations can develop a culture of training their employees and instilling the organizational values. Training on change management may begin as early as when the employees join the organization. Every change should be communicated adequately.
Conclusion
In conclusion, change is a necessity to any organization that desires to improve its overall performance and competitiveness in the 21st century. Therefore, change management qualifies as an important aspect of any organization that is undergoing change. This report establishes that individuality is an imperative feature to consider while dealing with change management since it can influence the outcome in organizations that wish to embrace change. There are positive impacts of personality on organizational change management.
However, the negative impacts need to be avoided for organization to remain on tract in terms of its goals and objectives. Ways to assure positive change management and excellent personality traits of employees include teamwork and employee training. Therefore, organizations are encouraged to embark on training of their employees as a strategy of boosting their personality, especially with regard to their attitude towards their work and workplace.
Works Cited
Andriessen, Erik and Babette Fahlbruch. How to manage experience sharing from organizational surprises to organizational knowledge. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004. Print.
Aswathappa, Kevin. Organizational behavior. India: Himalaya Pub. House, 2009. Print.
Judge, Timothy, Klinger Ryan, Lauren Simon and Irene Yang. “The Contributions of Personality to Organizational Behavior and Psychology: Findings, Criticisms, and Future Research Directions.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2.5 (2008): 1982–2000. Print.
Mkoji, Davis and Damary Sikalieh. “The Influence of Personality Dimensions on Organizational Performance.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 2.17(2012): 184-194. Print.
Rao, Paul. Organizational behavior. India: Himalaya Pub. House, 2010. Print.