Organizational discussion 5: Background Information Welcome to the discussion. In this course you will be introduced to a topic in the discussion. The first week of the module you will write about your initial thoughts after reviewing the resources. The initial post should be at least 600 words. During the following week you will reply to at least two of your classmates. The replies should be at least 200 words. See the discussion rubric for more details on grading. Discussions should always be completed prior to "class." If you are in an online class or an on ground course this is prior to the lesson portion of the week. Are you ready to begin? Initial Post (600 words) People respond to incentives, especially when those incentives are important to them on a personal level. As a manager or leader, what incentives to promote organizational change would you use? Why?

Reply Posts (2 200-word posts) Do you agree or disagree with your classmates' posts, or can you offer different insight? Reply to 2 students. Student#1: The first statement “people respond to encouragements, especially when those incentives are important to them on a personal level” is very true. Whenever we speak about incentives in an organizational setting, we often think of monetary benefits. While it is true that for most of the employees, salary is a very important inspiring factor, it is not the salary alone that motivates and/or drives an employee. Often, the employees are driven by other factors than salary or monetary benefits. Now, to understand this and to relate it to the organizational change that is mentioned, we need to approach the incentive program in two stages. First, the organizational change. At this point, we need to understand the key determination for the organizational change and what kind of change is taking place. In simple words, we need to examine why the change is needed and what exactly will be the suggestion of the change. Some of the common changes that seem in organizations are trimming, lean management, moving towards a more technology focused approach, variation of products and services, and others. These are the “what” of the change. However, there is also a “why” factor for such changes. As a manager and leader, it is very important to understand the “why” factor and to prepare the team members accordingly for the change. Understanding and analyzing these two aspects will allow any managers to correctly identify the gaps of skills. When we speak about gaps of skills we refer to the gaps between what kind of skillset is needed for the new organization and the current skillset available with the employees. Depending on identification of these gaps, as a manager, it becomes easier to design the incentives in order to inspire and drive the team members. So, the first part we complete analyzing the organizational change and valuation of the organization. Secondly, we need to take a hard look at the employees themselves. This means, we should identify the employees/team members’ strengths and weaknesses. In addition, as a manager, we also need to find out their motivators and personality characters. The key point to recall here is that, employees are not motivated with only money. Incentives should be design in such a way that they can make the employees better. Many managers often set impossible targets as qualifier for incentives which in return discourages employees. Sometimes the sole reason to do such thing is to save cost for the company. However, in the long run, a motivated employee yields better return than the amount of money that is saved by setting impractical targets. Hence, after we have done measuring the change (first part) we need to identify the motivating factors for the employees. Motivating factors could be things such as new responsibility, increased authority, promotion, transfer options, goodies/gifts and others. As a manager it is important to not only focus on the money but also on these factors as incentives. Having said that, I would first determine the personality arrangement of my team. If the team has a clear majority in terms of a specific personality (it is possible for teams such as sales or analytical departments), then I would identify what the team members desire the most. I will of course keep the monetary part of the incentives but that will be about 60% of the weight while the other drivers will be the rest 40%. In addition to this I will also make sure that the targets to reach this motivation is not impossible. While it will take certain effort, it will be possible for the team members to achieve their goal and win the incentives. Student#2: Change means giving up something. What are you willing to give up to move forward? Stop resisting change, even if it hurts. The way you look at a changing situation, or even a person who is changing, determines your reaction. Think about the times you have changed in your personal life without the support of your friends or family. It hurt, right? But with or without them, you made the change happen. You knew it would work out, even though it was painful. Consider the following reasons for resisting change: Defend the old ways. Fear of the future. Uncertainty. Unexpected change. Are any of these reasons holding you back, causing you to negatively affect a situation, yourself, or other people? The four phases of change are: Denial: You deny the change is happening. Anger: You become angry at the change. Bargain: You bargain for the “old ways” instead of the change. Tackle: You accept the change. You may notice lower productivity in your own performance or from others, along with lower morale if you or they are in the denial, anger, or bargain phase. What is critical is how quickly you can adapt and bring quality and quantity above the pre-change level, before the denial phase. Take the time to know yourself and how you manage change with steadfastness, practicality, and creativity. You are always in a position to make a difference. Control your attitude by monitoring your self-talk. Take some ownership of the changes by considering a central part of your job description to be personally responsible for managing change. Choose your battles carefully. Upper management catches a lot of criticism during times of change. Now you have a chance to show your loyalty and commitment. If your organization waited until the change could be made perfectly, it would never happen. Advertisement You should practice good stress management techniques because adjusting to new circumstances is a drain on your psychological energy. Keeping your sense of humor is a step in the right direction, as is taking good care of yourself physically. What about organizational change? “Organizations should reward risk-takers, even if they fall short once in a while. Let them know that promotions and glory go to innovators and pioneers, not to stand-patters who fear controversy and avoid trying to improve anything,” wrote Captain D. Michael Abrashoff in his book, It’s Your Ship. There are three types of organizational changes: Adaptive: You reintroduce a familiar practice. Innovative: You introduce a new practice used elsewhere. Revolutionary: You introduce a new practice that has never been used before. Any one of these organizational changes should include vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plans from beginning to end to identify specific goals, authority, control, and status. With this approach, an organization can address employee questions and reactions to avoid confusion and resistance. Continuously communicate about changing roles, responsibilities, and expectations, and provide active, visible support to departments. Do not create a culture of fear of failure. Expect and learn from the mistakes, because they will happen. After empowering employees, become less directive by stepping back and letting them perform. An organization should enforce changes through rewards and flexibility until the they become stable and permanent. “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” Most organizations today are in a constant state of flux as they respond to the fast-moving external business environment, local and global economies, and technological advancement. This means that workplace processes, systems, and strategies must continuously change and evolve for an organization to remain competitive in my point of view we can promote organization change by more techniques