The Mumbo Jumbo of Workplace changes: Importance of Peer Impact
May 23rd, 2009 | by Ridhima Suri |
Kurt Lewin’s theory revisited
In 1947, Kurt Lewin, a German psychologist proposed a theory of change to facilitate change in organizations. The theory was named ‘The Three Step Change Model’ and became very popular in explaining why changes were necessary and how changes could be implemented in organizational climate. The scope of the theory was to understand group dynamics and inter-personal behavior for managing changes. It is true that many theories on psychology explain how to deal with human psyche while implementing some changes. We will try to apply the model to the following:
· How do people act as ‘natural catalysts of change’?
· How do people help others to adjust to changes in the workplace?
Can change happen automatically?
No, people do not change overnight. They take time to adjust to changes and adopt new behavioral and work-related patterns.
One of the primary facilitators in the change process is peer impact. How do my friends, peers, subordinates, bosses at work react to the change? Do they feel confident about new changes or are they threatened in a way beyond repair?
In line with the theory discussed above, any organization always has three groups of people:
- people who resist changes,
- people who adopt changes quickly, and,
- people who are neutral .
The first group comprises of people who are ‘shy, uncertain of the future, slow adopters and slightly pessimistic’. The second group comprises of natural heroes that emerge from within the layers of the organization. They personally approve of the changes that are proposed in the company; they are ‘optimistic, innovative and are happy’. They become natural advocates and try to convince others that the change is good for the organization. They take charge of the situation and are often called ‘change agents’ or ‘champions of change’. The third group is in the middle of the other two groups. This group swings between the band of champions and rebellions!
We want to know how these ‘change agents’ help the other groups to accept changes and have a positive impact on the overall change effort in the organization.
Peer Impact
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A company can plan many changes: introduce a new product line, hire people with distinctive capabilities, relocate to a new facility or invest more in research and development. The company assumes that all changes shall work in the best interest of the organization. Depending on why the changes are necessary it is hoped that the changes shall help to develop a stronger strategic base and increase efficiency. Ironically it is hard to successfully implement changes without the active and positive participation of the people who are affected by the change. In many recent surveys CEOs have commented that the failure to execute any change is as high as 75%.
Peer impact is very important at work. As the management decides to announce restructuring, changing the skill set, a new strategy or investing more in research, people figure out how such changes are likely to affect their role. They become uncertain and want to avoid such changes. The change agents can help to convince them that the changes are good. These people can also participate in the process of ‘making things happen’. If your software engineer colleague at work thinks that switching from JAVA platform to C++ or vice versa is a good idea you may be convinced (even if you did not agree at the staff meeting two weeks ago). Similarly if a professor feels that teaching four extra sessions is a good idea he can convince some of his colleagues to go the extra mile for a summer program. Often people do not give much heed to what their boss is saying about a new change as compared to what their colleagues or team-mates are saying!These are the ‘catalysts to change’.
In an era marked by continuous change no one and wait and gape. There is a need to be adaptable. If a person finds it hard to change he must gain inspiration from a team mate. In the mumbo jumbo of today’s workplaces it is likely that he will get some quality advice from his peers.
Tags: Change, Change management, Interesting, Management and Business