Managing Communication and Change - Essay Example

Satish Kumar. G November 20, 2005. Managing Communication and Change. Communication and Change is an inevitable part of life, especially more so incorporate life. But, my experiences during times of change haven't been particularly good.There are several examples that have been listed in the book 'Managing Transitions' by William Bridges. But, not all of them describe all the concerns of an employee during times of change. It is a more complex process than what has been written. Credit should be given though, for wonderful examples which explain many real life situations in detail and in understanding the psyche of the employee to a large extent.

Not, at all times are changes good for an organization. I was moved to three different processes in a span of 15 months in an attempt to bring about a change in the new processes. All this only resulted in frustration because I felt my opinions weren't being considered in terms of my expertise being utilized in a particular process. I had to go through the ordeal of learning new concepts which I wasn't too keen on. The worst part of this was the management's ineffective communication. This in effect didn't show any great results.

The downside to it is the loss of a few team members as they found the change too much to deal with. The 'tipping point' comes into the picture here. Upon hearing that a particular company was not as 'experimental' as ours and that an employee had got a great salary along with a promise of better future prospects, several team members quit the company. This led to drastic measures being implemented to retain people and also had the management discuss the problem individually with all the employees identified to have been having problems adjusting to change.

This new method of communication, to an extent, did succeed. Thing were back to normal after that and the organization didn't show poor results. I am still unhappy about the time I had to lose, because the organization believed it had to change just for the sake of it. The results were good even after continuing with the older practices. It is agreed in general that change is good for any organization but it is not true in all cases. The book does give an insightful account of the several employee concerns, but emotional issues take precedence over all other issues.

If I wasn't emotionally attached to my organization, I would have resisted the change the very first time and looked for another company. The communication of the seniors or the lack of it rather, made matters worse. Personally, I believe change is good but my experience was not to be so. I was, at one stage, so depressed about the all the different changes that I limited myself to my seat even during the breaks because I didn't want to discuss it, which I knew, would only aggravate the bad feeling.

Bibliography1) William Bridges. 'Managing Transitions.' Chapter 2. 11/20/2005. < http://www.wmbridges.com/resources/books-mt_chpt_2.html> 2) Leader to Leader. William Bridges and Susan Mitchell. 'Leading Transition: A new model for change.' 11/20/2005. http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/L2L/spring2000/bridges.html3) Malcolm Gladwell. 'The Tipping Point.' 11/20/2005. http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/guide/chapter1.html.