HRM Training Proposal

HRM Training Proposal

Name

Institution

HRM Training Proposal

1. Organizational Changes and Characteristics

            Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services (Mercy Care) seeks to adopt a more responsive and robust EI driven performance appraisal system that effectively evaluates the tangible contributions of an individual employee towards the realization of set organizational goals. The switch from the traditional performance review model was necessitated by the apparent misalignment between performance and compensation as well as the design of the appraisal tool. Change initiative requires the top management to conduct comprehensive training to create awareness about the new performance appraisal model targeting all employees to increase the chances of its acceptance and adoption. Managers and supervisors will be trained to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the new model and then they will guide their subordinates to minimize the level of resistance (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The change will ensure that Mercy Care management makes objective HR decisions.

            The change initiative is necessary since the traditional performance assessment tools provided an extremely one-dimensional evaluation: it was subjective, unfair, and unrealistic since the supervisors failed to objectively assess the employees. The multi-rater feedback or 360-degree appraisals make performance rating more accurate, fairer, and more balanced compared to the old ones (Mone & London, 2014). Since both internal and external sources will be used, it brings together diverse perspectives and allows assessment of both task and behavioral performance. Employees might demonstrate skepticism or resistance to the change; hence, managers must take into consideration major organizational characteristics that will influence the decisions on how change initiatives will be implemented. Such characteristics include clarity of organizational goals; level of cooperation as opposed to control; ability of self-management teams to implement change; leadership development and training; and system of feedback or communication (De Waal, 2013). 

2. Developing Effective Change Leaders and Followers

            The complexity and administrative burden of the change initiative require effective leadership to ensure its successful implementation. Introducing the 360-degrees performance appraisal model can face stiff resistance since an employee might be apprehensive of being assessed by many sources (Buckingham & Goodall, 2015). The change sponsor, change agents, and all stakeholders must work together to make the vision of the change a reality. Training is a critical component of change implementation process since it enables the employees to facilitate organizational adaptation and reduce resistance to the proposed change. Comprehensive training increases the success rate of any change; besides, it allows the change leaders to create a base of loyal followers with a voice and commitment towards improving individual, team, and organizational performance (Hayes, 2014).

            Effective change managers and agents must use their leadership skills and behaviors rather than their leadership style to influence their followers to accept/embrace the change. They must prioritize the application of flexible leadership style, management support, accurate evaluation of the change processes, and constant communication as well as encourage employee involvement to realize a sustainable change (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Effective change leaders instill confidence and a sense of urgency in their followers; besides, they must perform organizational analysis to manipulate factors that promote learning, trust, and collaboration to deal with all demands or burdens of the change process.

3. Change Resistance Management

            Most organizations, including Mercy Care, find it very challenging to implement a change initiative due to stiff resistance from different stakeholders. The organization seeks to be more objective while evaluating its employees to make informed HR decisions like promotion, compensation, and training (Bititci, 2014). Hence, it seeks to adopt the 360-degrees performance appraisal technique. All line managers and supervisors are expected to undergo training to facilitate the successful implementation of the new model. Nonetheless, the management expects resistance due to various reasons like low tolerance to change since employees think that the change may impact them negatively. Other reasons include the need to maintain status quo because of self-interest; a belief that the change is not essential due to misinformed assessment; lastly, misinterpretation of the change and its implications due to lack of trust and misunderstanding (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

            There are different strategies that can be applied to deal with change resistance. The change leaders must focus on education and communication to create awareness about the change initiative. Firstly, details about the new assessment method can be communicated through various channels like reports, memo, group presentations, one-on-one discussions, and e-mail/intranet. Secondly, the change agents can focus on employee involvement and their participation in the whole process (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Alternatively, the change managers can opt for negotiation and agreement by offering incentives to potential or active resisters to compromise on a win-win situation (Hvidman & Andersen, 2013). The managers can engage in manipulation and co-optation by giving the active or potential resisters a leading role in the change process to get their endorsement. Lastly, the change agents can engage in explicit and implicit coercion to seek employees’ submission, especially when the change is urgently required.

4. Ethical Issues in Change Management

            There are many ethical issues which affect the change management process. Hence, there is a need for change managers to adopt ethical values that support the realization of the desired change vision (Daniels & Tapscott, 2012). Since such a change is initiated by top management, it can be perceived that they are totally in control. Additionally, such change creates great ambiguity and uncertainty forcing the employees to pursue stability through conformity to the desires and wishes of those in control. Such realities create ethical dilemmas that managers might face as they initiate organizational change or transformation. The manager might be forced to engage in situational and psychological manipulation or coercion and use other old authoritarian biases to deal with resistance to change (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

            Furthermore, the manager can play with employees’ emotions or use lies or flattery to seek their submission. Such manipulative tactics involving dishonesty, secrecy, fear, threats, and deception are unethical since they limit the employees’ pursuit of independence, autonomy, and equitable treatment (Hayes, 2014). The change managers must endeavor to use communication and education to deal with all ethical challenges. The change ideals and values must be effectively communicated to all stakeholders through training and other communication channels to secure their buy-in. Employees must actively be involved throughout the change process; in addition, there is a need to formulate a code of ethics that will guide all parties to act adequately.

5. Future Trends that Might Impact the Change Initiatives

            Mercy Care seeks to abandon the traditional performance review in favor of the more objective and robust 360-degrees performance appraisal system. Despite the efforts to ensure a smooth transition, the managers must acknowledge the fact that the appraisal system change is prone to paradigm shifts in performance management that affect the organizations globally (De Waal, 2013). Lately, companies are eliminating all the annual employee review programs and conventional performance ranking methods to be more competitive in the market. The firm might be forced to eliminate the objective cascading and 360-degrees feedback models, ‘Rank and Yank’ system, as well as ‘Once-a-Year’ performance reviews which are considered old and time-consuming. There are several modern performance management techniques like the ‘Frequent Feedback’ program or ‘Regular Check-ins’ with no rating/ranking policy (Daniels & Tapscott, 2012).

            Individual departments will establish the rate of the Feedback methods and ‘Check-In’ discussions while taking into consideration the work cycles. Such appraisal techniques increase the employees’ self-esteem as they feel valued; besides, they cultivate a performance-driven and goal-oriented workforce (Hayes, 2014). The new trends will allow team leaders and members to discuss ongoing priorities/tasks, offer training options, and review the recent work. Other trends include the use of data-driven, real-time performance mobile applications (Performance Review Apps) that allow employees to monitor their performance against their tasks/goals as well as enabling them to give and seek peer-to-peer feedback (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).