Page 253 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Chapter 13 ■ Managing major changes
so on. While it is often said that not enough training is done, it is too easy to be
beguiled into introducing formal training programmes too early.

Rebuilding self-esteem

The ground covered in this section is summarized in Figure 13.1. Simplifying
somewhat, it suggests that individuals have four main categories of need if
they are to rebuild their self-esteem amidst a programme of organizational
change. They need intelligible information. They will probably need to develop
new skills, if only the skills of dealing with new people as colleagues or super-
visors. They will need support to help them to deal with the problems.
Encouragement to try out new systems is important. Provision of short work-
shops planned to achieve part or all of the work discussed in the preceding
section can help. Technical support to aid solution of problems is often
needed. Access to people who can help is useful. Control over the rate of per-
sonal learning should be possible. All these things can help. First and fore-
most, empathy (understanding) is a key issue and Kirkpatrick (1985) rightly
sees it as one of the key skills for managing change. Pierre Casse (1979) defines
empathy as follows:
Empathy is the ability to see and understand how other people construct real-
ity, or more specifically how they perceive, discover and invest the inner and
outer worlds. We all use empathy all the time. We constantly guess what peo-
ple think and feel. The problem is that in most cases we guess wrongly. We
assume that what is going on in somebody else’s mind is somewhat identical
to our own psychic processes. We tend to forget that we are different.
Sometimes, drastically different. To practice empathy is to recognize and take
full advantage of those differences.
We see the skill of empathy as the struggle to understand. We can never fully see
a situation as others see it. But we can struggle to try and individuals will
respond to that struggle. They will also respond to someone who clearly does
not try. Generally their response will be to ignore them if possible, to resist them
and certainly to approach dealings with them cynically. Making information

intelligible to its recipient requires these skills. We need to try to see things as
the recipient will see them in order to communicate. Often we do not try; we

Empathy

Self-esteem
Support
Action
Skills
Self-knowledge
Intelligible
information
Figure 13.1 Rebuilding self-esteem

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