Change Readiness Assessment

Change Readiness Assessment

Visuals

After a careful analysis of the employee engagement survey, there are various areas of concern in need of change at the US branch. The first is the issue that only 7.5% of the respondents were given a merit increase. A merit increase offers a sense of excitement with increased career loyalty and guidance (Diabe et al., 2018). The above elevates a person’s desire to stay and keep contributing to the business’s overall success. Since 90% of the employees received no merit increase for the past two years, the employees at the US branch lack proper training.

The second is the employees’ lack of interest in the organization’s vision, mission, and values. Only 26% of the respondents are familiar with the organization’s values and vision, 36% have a clear comprehension of the company, and another 26% believe the organization is transforming for the better. The above indicates a lack of open and clear communication from the management to the workers about the organization’s vision and values and reasons why change is happening. The leadership needs to address the above issues, establishing an open and concise statement that benefits both the employees and the customers.

Going further, there is a lack of trust between employees and management. Lack of trust between the management and employees can certainly destroy an organization. Lack of trust means no communication, resulting in workers resisting change, assistance, and high employee turnover. If there is no communication between the managers and their juniors, issues cannot be resolved (Diab et al., 2018). It is the duty of the management to ensure that the workplace is a positive team environment where all employees are ready for success.

In addition, the company lacks the attitude of inclusion and diversity. Only 18% of the participants believed that the company supports different opinions, styles, and perceptions. 41% of the participants supported that the organization attempted to promote discrimination and a harassment-free environment. The above needs immediate change. Regardless of their gender, age, race, or ethnicity, all employees need to feel welcome and safe in their workplace (Diab et al., 2018). If changes are not implemented soon, the above red flag could lead to a lawsuit for the company.

Employee’s Confidence

Change can be a hard pill to swallow, particularly if a person is doing something that has worked for them for several years. Besides, it is harder for a person to accept that the world around them is evolving. However, to remain relevant in the world today, one has to grow with the evolving world and strive to stay a step ahead (Lewis, 2019). In our case above, after carefully reviewing the engagement survey of the employees, it is evident that the employees are not highly confident with their leaders. The employees’ low participation in the survey is one indication of their lack of trust in their management. Out of 140 employees, only 40 took part in the survey, a rate of 28.5%.

The employees do not trust the management, and they are not confident that the management is looking out for what is best for them. If the company wants to be successful in its change initiative, it first needs to change the relationship between the management and the employees. The above needs to be executed urgently because of the lack of trust. Otherwise, there will be a rise in employee turnover, and those who remain behind will keep spreading negativity, bringing down any change the organization wants to implement.

The management should build a team of employees to assist with the change initiative. The above will foster communication between the employees and the administration. The team should comprise employees with an age range. Research has indicated that older people face more difficulty in adopting change (Lewis, 2019). Thus, if the older generation can be filled in on change and allowed to give their input, they will be brought on board, reducing the negativity that could arise.

Cultural Considerations

In the 1970s, Geert Hofstede came up with a framework of cultural dimensions surrounding cross-cultural communication. The dimensions mentioned above detail the relationship between values and behaviors of societies based on structure.

According to Hofstede’s dimensions, there is a misunderstanding caused by cultural differences. For instance, let us consider the first dimension, power distance. The above dimension refers to the inequality that is accepted and exists between people with and without power (Favaretto et al., 2016). In high power distance, it is known that people accept the inequality of power. However, it is challenging to identify who has authority in instances of low power distance. The above power can be given to older people since their age gives them authority.

Hofstede’s fourth dimension, masculinity/femininity, can further cause misunderstandings. The above dimension opines that masculine societies prefer heroism, assertiveness, material reward, and achievement for attaining success from males. In a masculine culture, there is barely any overlap between males and females (Favaretto et al., 2016). On the other hand, femininity prefers modesty, quality of life, caring for the weak, and cooperation. In feminine societies, there are high levels of overlap.

References

Diab, G. M., Safan, S. M., & Bakeer, H. M. (2018). Organizational change readiness and manager’s behavior in managing change. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 8(7), 68-77.

Favaretto, R. M., Dihl, L., Barreto, R., & Musse, S. R. (2016, September). Using group behaviors to detect Hofstede cultural dimensions. In 2016 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) (pp. 2936-2940). IEEE.

Lewis, L. (2019). Organizational change (pp. 406-423). Routledge.

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Scenario

You have been contracted as an HR consultant by a U.S. LLC in Wilmington, Delaware, to solve their internal issues. This U.S. LLC is a branch of a Singaporean software solutions provider with 140 employees and $1M revenue per year. The CEO of the Singaporean headquarters wants to open new markets in the United States, gain access to new customers, diversify risk, leverage resources, and increase profits. To meet these goals, she tasked a VP to establish and take charge of the U.S. branch.

Unfortunately, the newly formed U.S. branch has been facing several problems from the beginning.

Employees at the call center and the sales and marketing division are disengaged and emotionally fatigued as a result of contradictory communication between the branch’s leadership and the leadership at the Singaporean headquarters.

The branch team members feel frustrated and undervalued as a result of conflicting feedback from their VP and management team. Messages from leadership lack consistency, especially regarding policies and practices related to human resources.

There is no training for team members.

Communication problems between the Singaporean headquarters and the U.S. branch are resulting in low employee morale.

Overall, the standard operating procedures (SOP) followed successfully at the headquarters office in Singapore could not be replicated at the U.S. branch. As a result, the CEO’s vision of successfully furthering expansion into the U.S. market remains unfulfilled.

Prompt

Perform the change readiness/needs assessment audit for the U.S. branch and submit a report of your findings to the VP in the course scenario. As the HR consultant, this would help you identify the readiness of the U.S. branch employees to adopt change plans. In this report prepared for the VP, you will discuss the change readiness of the workforce and leadership, willingness, and capabilities for change, and any historical barriers to change from past planned or unplanned change management experiences.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

Based on the Employee Engagement Surveys data, create visuals that illustrate areas in need of change at the U.S. branch. Your visuals should address the following: Appraisal, job-role stagnation, and promotion or recognition

Apathy or disinterest regarding the vision, mission, and values of the organization Lack of trust in managers, especially senior leaders

Impressions about the organization’s attitude to inclusion and diversity

A justification of your selection of data points from the Employee Engagement Survey results Discuss employees’ confidence in change management practices:

Consider the information available through the Employee Engagement Surveys and Leaders’ Self-Evaluations. Do employees have a high degree of confidence in the company’s leadership? Explain your reasoning.

Explain the urgency for change at the employee and leadership level.

Analyze the middle managers’ (team leads’) role in creating an adoption mindset:

How would they serve as a bridge between the senior leaders and the frontline staff? Are they ready to take ownership of the proposed change? Explain your reasoning.

How do leadership styles and power distribution impact change readiness?

Identify opportunities to increase change readiness/trust at the U.S. branch:

Why are some employees more accepting of change while others might be more reluctant? How does the Forms of Resistance Grid explain the common reasons for resistance to change?

Refer to the Exit Interviews and explore the Forms of Resistance Grid to discuss any two forms of resistance from this list: ambivalence, peer-focused dissent, upward dissent, sabotage, and refusal/exit.

Use Hofstede’s cultural dimension model and the Exit Interviews, Employee Engagement Surveys, and Leaders’ Self-Evaluations to explain cultural considerations that may have created difficulties for the employees of the U.S. branch to adjust to the Singaporean headquarters’ SOPs:

Summarize the importance of cultural considerations using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model in the context of the U.S. branch and the Singaporean headquarters.

Explain how Hofstede’s model helps analyze cultural differences based on specific evidence and not on pre-conceived notions about different cultures. Discuss how differences in specific dimensions of Hofstede’s model may result in misunderstanding and change management frustration or failure.

Discuss individualism and one other dimension from the list below that might impact the cross-cultural communication and business practice differences among the American and Singaporean employees:

Uncertainty avoidance Power distance

Long-term orientation