Page 340 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Coping with conflict
Set and sustain values
By setting appropriate values top management can influence people throughout
the organization. The chief executive of International Engineering constantly
discussed, communicated and supported people working towards a more com-
mercial set of values for the company. The traditional values of engineering excel-
lence were insufficient as a basis for meeting increased and global competition.

Support problem solving and risk
Once again taking the example of International Engineering, here we had a low-
risk-taking culture, an engineering culture which had been managed in a fairly
authoritarian way and in which the operations department dominated, and had
reinforced the ‘fear of failure’ very powerfully indeed. People were afraid to take
risks because the price of failure was known to be high. Directly or indirectly,
people who ‘failed’ felt that they were being punished. Typically, this was carried
out by assigning them poor jobs on ‘low-profile’ work or projects. Such assign-
ments have a powerful impact on career, promotion, job interest and even pay.
This was a ‘reality’ that many managers were not prepared to face. After 10 to 15
years of that style of management, present-day senior managers bemoan the fact
that managerial succession is a problem. Why so? It is clear how that came to be.
Under the circumstances described, the better people try, fail and leave.

Design systems to support action
The most important thing is to get on and do things; to get action. Only then
can people try out new ideas, learn and develop. Pilot schemes can allow for this
approach. Reporting systems should be designed to encourage it. The attention
of managers should focus on action. Plans, targets and milestones should be
clearly defined and consistent with a well-understood longer-term strategy.
Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: In slices.

Focus on the manageable
The excellent is the enemy of the good. Managers rarely start from an ideal posi-

tion and rarely have enough time, resources or knowledge about what they either
can or should do. Thus it is crucial to focus on manageable issues. Managers can
communicate these to their own people; they will be credible and will support
action and progress. It is important to have and to articulate a clear longer-term
vision. But people need to work out how they are going to get there.
In an uncertain world managers cannot be everywhere
They must rely on others. This means that they must create opportunities to help
people develop. They need to support learning and development.
Spend time on the problem/project
There is no better way of focusing attention, effort and energy in support of
change than by top management devoting time. This needs to be done carefully.
Top managers should provide support, interest and resources. They should not
interfere because this will demonstrate lack of trust in the manager on the spot.
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