Impact Of Change Management On The Performance Of Employees In Nigeria Brewery Plc

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Recognizing the need for change and leading organizations through that change is one of the most challenging for any leadership. Change is the only constant in today‟s life for individuals and organizations. Some changes can be reversible while others are not hence the risk involved in managing change. Change management should be effective, for example have the ability to move freely, have the ability to influence others, and directing the working forces in the target systems and administrative units (Burnes, 2002). Bernstein, (2009) argue that all organizations are currently undergoing some type of change. Many of these change programs arise from management such as culture change, business process engineering, empowerment and total quality.

This study was guided by stakeholder theory and resource based theory. Stakeholder theory is significant in identifying critical stakeholders in the environment of the change management practices in order to define developments for strategy. Moreover, in the contexts of business ethic and corporate social responsibility, stakeholder analysis has been used to identify important areas of concern. The resource-based theory stipulates that in strategic management the fundamental sources and drivers to firms‟ competitive advantage and superior performance are mainly associated with the attributes of their resources and capabilities which are valuable and costly to imitate (Mullins, 1999).

Banks are operating in a very dynamic marketplace today and this requires the ability to choose the right change opportunities while demonstrating the necessary degree of flexibility to meet the fluid requirements of the organization over time (Barbaroux, 2011). The ability to select change management initiatives that are aligned with the organizations strategic direction is fundamental for success. According to Thompson (1997), strategic change arises out of the need for organization to exploit existing or emerging opportunities and deal with threats in the market. The banking industry has not been left behind in this process.

Change management as defined by (Lewis and Seibold, 2008) is a process involving unfreezing, moving, and refreezing values, practices, and procedures within organizations. Unfreezing refers to the creation of a perceived discrepancy between the existing and ideal state of an organization that generates a desire for change and lowers people‟s resistance to change. Moving refers to the various processes such as training, education, and restructuring that lead to the development of new behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Refreezing regards reestablishing a new state of equilibrium within the organization by stabilizing the new patterns through a variety of support mechanisms. Moran and Brighton (2011) defined change management as the process of continually renewing an organization direction, structure and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers. Burnes (2004) like many others scholars asserted that change is a present feature of organizational life, both at the operational and strategic level. Due to its importance, change management is becoming imperative and needs appropriate managerial skills and strategy.

Most organizational managers today would agree that change has become a constant phenomenon, which must be attended to and managed properly if an organization is to survive. Changes in technology, the marketplace, information systems, the global economy, social values, workforce demographics, and the political environment all have a significant effect on the processes, products and services produced. The culmination of these forces has resulted in an external environment that is dynamic, unpredictable, demanding and often devastating to those organizations, which are unprepared or unable to respond (Burnes, 2004).

When change is announced in an organization, there is a general hope and feeling among the staff that the outcomes will be favorable to them (Kimaku, 2010). The norm indicates that most employees expect a positive outcome and their management will consider their needs. This also applies to new ideas, products or service. Therefore, trust becomes a key factor in determining how employees think, feel and act in respect to the current change (Sikasa, 2004). He further states that trust is the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or confront that other party. Eriksson and sundgren (2005) introduce another angle on the issue of change management where they lay emphasis on organizational culture. Mostly, culture is ignored and assumed to have a life of its own. Behavior determines a large part of the expected outcome of change. According to Davis and Holland (2002) Culture comprises the shared values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are learned from earlier generations, imposed by present members of an organization, and passed on to succeeding generations.

This is hugely exhibited during on job training, where a new worker is instructed that the processes are carried out in a certain way and the same should be upheld. Limitations in change management are associated with the management‟s perceptions of the need for change, the opportunity to change and the way to change Hoffman and Woody (2008). Change agents, usually managers and change recipients, usually employees need to work together to drive change (Gakere et al., 2012). This is usually not easy to achieve as change recipients are known to bring up unreasonable obstacles or barriers that block the change process. This assumption gives away change recipients as a weak link, hence easily blamed for failures.

Employee performance is attitude towards work-related conditions, or aspects of the job. Senge, (1990) was of the view that employee performance is more of a response to a specific job. Employee performance is an important element from organizational perspective, as it leads to higher organizational commitment of employees and high commitment leads to overall organizational success and development (senge, 1990). Employee performance has been found to be associated with organizational trust and help increase employee performance ( Arnett et al., 2002). Employee performance also serves as a significant predictor in organizational commitment and retention (Kim et al., 2004). When employees are satisfied with their job, they are more willing to provide service that exceeds customers‟ expectations and positively influence customers‟ attitude towards their service. In contrast, employees who are dissatisfied with their job are likely to have more occupational stress and be less productive (Skinner and Champion (2008). Thus, highly committed, high performing ,and happy employees are valuable resources to the hotel sector.

1.2 Research Problem

Many organizations are occasionally faced with challenges that force them to adjust or change (Burnes, 2004).Development organizations, in particular, regularly have to go through change processes when having to respond to new development scenarios or simply as part of their expansion or restructuring processes. Increasing market pressures force companies to implement drastic organizational changes in order to remain competitive. Commercial banks overall performance is affected by individual and group performance of its employees. The sector now faces major challenges in preventing the loss of employees to its competitors. These challenges have, therefore, created the need to change in the management to be more supportive to the newer technology, while, at the same time, finding innovative ways of retaining talent (KIPPRA, 2010).

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study was to evaluate impact of change management on the performance of employees in Nigeria Brewery PLC

The study sought to achieve the following specific objectives

1. To identify the factors influencing effectiveness of change management in Nigerian Brewery
2. To assess the effectiveness in implementing change in Nigerian brewery
3. To assess the impact of change management on performance in the Nigerian brewery.
4. To make recommendations for improvement of the management of change significance of the Study

1.4 Significance of the Study

The study will help in theory development by giving insights to the best practices to adopt to manage change in the Nigerian brewery, Other studies on change management have been done mostly in developed world and in other sectors other than the Nigerian brewery. This study will highlight insights of best practices to adopt to manage change. The study also acts as he study acts as a guide in coming up with frameworks of critical factors that influence strategic change management. Such frameworks are available for future theory building and empirical testing.

The research will be useful to future researchers, students and academicians in understanding the effect and importance of the different changes in the management on performance. By exploring how this study will reveal new findings and adding to the existing knowledge. The study will be beneficial to the researcher in pursuit of knowledge about challenges of change management and the practices to adopt to manage the challenges of change within the organization. The result adds value to the literature available in implementing change management initiatives especially in public sector in Nigeria.

The study will also be useful to leaders and managers in organizations by employing leadership styles in relevant situations effectively. This would help reduce social accidents, wastage of and internal conflicts in the working environment.

1.5 Definition of Terms

1.5.1 Change

The Oxford Dictionary defines change as an act or process through which something becomes different. Organisational change is the movement of an organisation away from its present state and toward some future state to increase effectiveness (George and Jones, 2009:621).

1.5.2 Management

Management is a practice which involves directing, organizing, and developing people, technology, and financial resources to effectively achieve organizational objectives (Robbins, 2004:4). The importance of management can never be overemphasised as the success of an organisation is attributed to sound management. The key management functions which include planning, organizing, delegating, communicating clearly, motivating employees, adapting to change and constantly generating innovative ideas are therefore crucial (Sidikova, 2011:12).

1.5.3 Change Management

Change management is an approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisations to a desired future state (Kotter, 2011:1). The English Collins dictionary defines change management as a style of management that aims to encourage organisations and individuals to deal effectively with the changes taking place in their work.

Change agents can be managers or non-managers, employees of the organisation or outside consultants. According to Robbins (2004:558), change agents are persons who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing change activities in the organization. Organisations may hire the services of outside consultancy for advice and assistance if the change efforts are major. The advantage of hiring out is that consultancy can initiate more drastic changes as they do not have to live with the repercussions after the implementation. The challenge is they usually have an inadequate understanding of the organisation’s history, culture, operating procedures and personnel (Robbins, 2004:558).

1.5.4 Planned Change

Changes can either be planned or unplanned. Changes in the tax administrations may arise reactively in response to problems or externally imposed requirements such as legislative changes or proactively from seeking improved efficiency and effectiveness. This study will focus on a planned change embarked by Nigeria brewery Region 1 from 2010 to 2013. Planned change is a term first coined by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s to distinguish change that was consciously embarked upon and planned by an organisation, as opposed to types of change that might come about by accident or by impulse or that might be forced on an organisation. Lewin’s planned change approach to change consists of four interrelated elements: Field Theory, Group Dynamics, Action Research and the three step model of change (Burnes, 2009:600).
George and Jones: 38) state that this perspective is grounded on the assumption that organisational change is a process that “moves from one ‘fixed state’ to another through a series of pre-planned steps.”

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