Change Management Sample Assignment

Introduction

With the advent of globalization, every sector of the economy is impacted with a lot of changes. It has been faced by both the developing and developed countries all around the world. It is because of the process of breaking of geographical barriers that changes in one part of the word affects other parts of the world at the very same point of time. Changes have also impacted the health care sector like every other sector. There are many models of change management that are used to cater to the changes that impact the healthcare sector including the planned change or emergent change models of change management. Being a leader associated with the healthcare sector for long, I have come across a number of planned changes and in this essay I am about to explain how such a change can impact the employees and the organization as a whole. I have primarily focused on a technological change and used it for explaining the contexts of effective communication, resistance to change and ethical leadership.

Background of Change

I have been working as the Managing director of my hospital for a couple of years and from my experience I can assert that change management in a health care organization is as difficult to manage as much as the situation that occurs in other corporate firms and in other sectors. The changes that are introduced in the technological realm of an organization are usually planned and are designed in order to improve the productivity of the firm or increase the competitive advantage of the firm. Last year one such change was introduced in terms of billing machine wherein the billing was performed in a completely automated manner within the premises of the hospital in order to cater to a larger number of customers in a shorter span of time. This caused a lot of resistance and resentment from the employees who operated under me as per the organization structure although the change was not sudden. The challenges that faced implementation of the change in a successful manner are discussed in the next section of the essay.

Theoretical basis of the Change

The theoretical basis of the change that was introduced can be referred to as planned change and in this type of theory the organization usually introduces a change in order to reach a certain state that the organization has to reach. (Congerv, 2015). The steps of the change are designed in such a way that they lead to a required outcome for the organization (Weberg, 2012). In this case, the change that I am talking about is a technological change that has been designed and implemented in order for the organization to reach a higher level of productivity and growth.

Challenges Faced on Change Implementation

Effective Communication

The change was effectively communicated only up to a certain level of the organizational hierarchy such that the lowest levels was not completely aware of the exact change that was introduced and the timeline within which the desired outcomes from the change were being expected. I think that the change was communicated, however, the reason behind the change and the impact of this change on the different roles played by the different employees operating in the different sections within the entire unit was not communicated. I also feel that the change in the roles as to the rearrangement of the job roles should have been communicated in a better manner. There should have been several formal meetings to make the change in the job roles more clear and transparent.

Resistance to Change

As per my observation, in the beginning when the change was introduced, there was a lot of resistance against the change as the change included change in the job roles of the employees in the service delivery section with the responsibility of billing for the patients. It also included shifting them to other departments and so they were not at all accustomed to the various roles that they were provided with. A number of errors were being committed by them. This caused some of them to even decide to resign. It is then that I had to hire experts in those fields and provide them with training and hands on work for a prolonged period of time until they were able to work confidently and were used to working in those roles. I also had to arrange for meetings and conferences so that the specific problems being faced by them can be solved.

Ethical Leadership

I personally feel that it is very important to provide the employees with the respect and the motivation that they need in order to ease out the process of change and this constitutes a very important part of the entire change management process. In order to carry out the changes in an ethical manner, I provided the employees with all the information and maintained transparency. When there was a switch in the job roles from the previous positions held by them, I tried to place them in the department and with the work that they were the most comfortable with. As a matter of fact, their compensations were not reduced and the benefits that they received were improved so that the goals that were to be met by the organization of increasing the total level of productivity was not compromised with.

Conclusion

In order to conclude I can state that my theoretical knowledge came to use while I was trying to practically manage the reaction to the introduction of change as a part of the management body in a health care organization. I ensured that the introduction of the change was gradual and there was effective communication. I also ensured that in the long run the employees were comfortable with the roles and the benefits that the employees received. Change management is not easy as per my experience but if handled using the correct strategies and techniques can lead to improved performance of the firm.

Bibliography

Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), 6-14.

Baker, G. (2011). The roles of leaders in high-performing health care systems. Paper commissioned by The King’s Fund, United Kingdom.

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.

Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.

Holten, A. L., & Brenner, S. O. (2015). Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(1), 2-16.

Kumar, R. D., & Khiljee, N. (2016). Leadership in healthcare. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, 17(1), 63-65.

Storey, J., & Holti, R. (2013). Towards a New Model of Leadership for the NHS.

References

Conger, J. (2015). Charismatic leadership. Wiley encyclopedia of management, 1-2.