Planning for a Change in Organizational Structure
A company can decide to adjust its organizational structure depending on their operations. The change can, therefore, be affected by resistance sources in different instances like the perception, personal background of the workers, and other related differences. However, it is vital to understand the factors to reduce the impacts to the organization. The changes differ in structures where the functional structure resistances are not the same as the matrix structure resistances.
Resistances affecting a matrix organizational structure is based on innovation promotion and speeding up of new development processes. First, the organization suffers from logical resistance accumulated from the time the employees and the management adapt to the proposed changes. In this kind of opposition, they fear to make mistakes, lack experience in the best practices recommended by the organization, and maybe the employees do not care about the good or service since they don’t like it. Additionally, inertia is where the existing relationships are affected, and they can become reluctant in their duties, thus slowing down the organizational change. Secondly, there is the psychological resistance where they can suffer mental and psychological factors. If workers are under pressure to perform according to specific guidelines, they can have stress and other ailments that will reduce their production.
For one to overcome the potential resistance, they should engage employees in all the planning. By involving them in discussions and debates on what the organization wills to participate in, the management has a chance of overcoming opposition and understanding the staff better. Through employee engagement, developing a more listening and less talking mechanism allows the administration to appreciate their worker’s stand. Through open talking and discussions, they tend to communicate more and will lead to the implementation of functional changes in different stages and departments. Also, there should be change management exercises to stimulate the feeling of difference to the employees.