Change Experience - Essay Example

Change Experience

A change is meant to bring about improvement in an organization by changing how people carry out their day-to-day tasks. Although changes are aimed to benefit an organization and particularly people involved in decision-making, most people do not appreciate changes. This is because people want to retain their traditional methods or ways of operation. Introducing an information system in pharmaceutical marketing has been a challenge to my colleagues and me. Although the system was meant to improve our operations by enhancing the accuracy of our prescriptions, we preferred working without the system.
The new information system was designed in such a way that a pharmacist only needs to insert the code of the certain product, the system then gives prescription information, price, and details about the product as an output (Bodenheimer, & Grumbach, 2005). During our training, we were taught how to use the manual system that requires the person to have all information concerning a particular pharmaceutical product. A person working in the pharmaceutical industry was therefore expected to have as much information as possible about all pharmaceutical products. Although this system is beneficial to players in the industry it is of little economic benefit and hence not sustainable. I was introduced to the new system immediately after I started my industrial operations.
People are always ready to resist change in an effort to retain their well-known methods of operations. Resistance to change was the main challenge of the new information system in pharmaceutical marketing. People offered both intentional and unintentional resistance to the new operating system in their operations. Intentional resistance involved avoiding using the system intentionally. This meant that people adopted the traditional method to obtain information about a certain product. In such cases, people were fully aware of the benefits of using the new system but they opted to bypass it. In unintentional resistance, people developed a negative attitude toward the new system. The negative attitude was developed from consideration of the cost and the efficiency of the new system. Although the conventional method of prescription is efficient and fast it lacks accuracy. The new system, on the other hand, enhances accuracy but it is time-consuming and hence inefficient (Rokeach, 1973). Learning new ideas is always a challenge to many people and, this had an effect on the new system. Although the system is user-friendly, most people working with the system were incompetent and, this contributed to their resistance.
Having been trained using the traditional operation system meant that the new system was a challenge to both my career and industrial operation. Throughout our training, we had been taught how to have as much information as possible concerning a certain pharmaceutical product (Borkowski, 2005). This meant that we had used all our resources and time learning, and memorizing information about the pharmaceutical product. When I first encountered the new information system, I felt betrayed. This is because I considered my education system a waste of time and resources. I considered the new system as a nullification of our education and experience in the pharmaceutical industry. I also felt betrayed since any ordinary person could use the new information system to perform a similar task as that performed by a trained pharmacist.
Revolutions resulting from adopting technology in various firms and industries are inevitable. This indicates that learning or adopting new technology is the best method of enhancing sustainability in the modern business world (Funigiello, 2005). This awareness challenged me to learn how to use the new information system. Despite the challenges and feelings of betrayal, I had to learn how to use the new information system in order to save my profession. Learning how to use the system involved substituting my ordinary knowledge about prescription with the working of the new system. The second action involved accepting changes or revolutions caused by the new information system in the industry. In addition to acquiring information about the operation of the system, I also considered practicing the acquired knowledge. This involved using the new system more often in all my business operations. I also challenged my co-workers to adopt the new system by informing them about the benefits of using the new system.
Although this example presents as much information as possible about incorporating an information system in pharmaceutical operations, it does not exhaust all the benefits. If I had, a second chance to redo the example, I would first start by analyzing the benefits of the new information system as compared to the ordinary methods of operations. My analysis would focus on the cost aspect of the two systems.
In conclusion, changes are important in any operation, however, people are not ready to accept changes. Learning the benefits of change and the costs of ordinary operational methods can be an important strategy for implementing changes. Read More