Assign4HarveyWeek4.docx

Running head: RESISTANCE AND COMMUNICATION AT UNIFIRST CORPORATION 1
RESISTANCE AND COMMUNICATION AT UNIFIRST CORPORATION 7

Week 4

Resistance and Communication at UniFirst Corporation
Harvey Allen
HRM 560 Assignment 4
Strayer University
Professor: Allan Beck
June 27, 2021

Human beings are naturally known for fearing the unknown and the fact that the results of any change remains unknown makes people to resist the change. Nevertheless, there is no challenge that does not have an effective solution. It has been found that with effective communication, people are able to understand the change and possible outcome. Creating awareness eliminates the fear and instead makes the people to embrace and accept the change. From the situation on the ground, the sales rep that the company relies on intently requires advanced training and development. This goes beyond the tutor-employee training. Employees need to have an all-the-time training strategies for instance recorded training accessible through company website and sales simulation systems. Nevertheless, the company has just planned of the change and it is expected employees upon learning about the change might pose a resistance threat. Effective communication shall be employed as a solution as demonstrated in this essay.

Reasons for resistance to change

Van Marrewijk, (2018) states that there are a lot of factors reasons that trigger resistance to change. The management in any company must be cautious of these reasons as this is the only way they can prevent change resistance even before it can happen. One of the major factors is lack of effective communication. Whenever employees are made to adapt to a change they do not really understand, the psychological fear that comes with uncertainty triggers the need to resist. Secondly, lack of proper communication creates an environment of distrust and the employees tend to feel and believe that they are being cornered creating a good reason for them to resist. Comment by Al Beck: Use SWS in-text citations.
Schuler, (2013) states that politics and internal peer pressure comes are two major factors that works collaboratively to increase the need for change resistance. When some workers are against the change for genuine or deceptive reasons, creates a negative environment that hinder other employee from embracing the change and instead develop negativity towards the change. Further, employees resist change in the case they are demotivated due to different reasons (Grama, & Todericiu, 2016). Whenever the working environment is not suitable, any change is taken negatively as it is perceived like it would only make things worse for instance loss of employment

The potential causes of resistance at UniFirst Corporation and sources of resistance in the change plan

At UniFirst Corporation, it is possible that some resistance might be realized. One of the potential causes of resistance is uncooperative members of other departments that works closely with sale reps. This is a possible cause because in this case, the change would only affect sales team with overall intention of making them train extensively (Grama, & Todericiu, 2016). Some other employees who might not understand the need for the change might influence sales team members to make them feel like the training would attract a huge burden on them attracting possible resistance. The same is also expected from fellow sales team members due to the high number of employees the company has working as sale reps.
At the company, there are trainers that have been taking the sales team through constant training and development. The new idea of having recorded training sessions uploaded in the system might not work properly for the trainers as they might feel that their jobs are being placed on the line (Schuler, 2013). It is possible that physical trainers might do the impossible to make employees resist the change. The last source is the fear from sales team that the new change might threaten their employment opportunity. The more reason is that the new training strategy also raises the expectations and this might make the sales team members that already find it hard meeting current goals and objectives resist the change for fear that they might be fired for underperformance.
In the change plan, there are some possible three sources of resistance the UniFirst Corporation management must remain aware and cautious of. One source is the complexity of the change plan since it might alter the manner in which the training has been done to embrace more technological strategy. The change plan requires employees changing overall attitude and perception and the high demand in the plan is likely to attract resistance. The second source is the manner in which the change requires being implemented. Due to the sensitivity of the change and expected goals and objectives, the implementation is expected to be intense with all sale reps required being proactive (Van Marrewijk, 2018). The extra demand in the implementation is likely to make the sale reps like the change plan is a burden hence triggering the need to resist. The last source of resistance is the leadership skills required in the change plan and this means that leaders would also be affected. Leaders are highly influential and whenever they would feel pushed, they are likely to influence the sale reps to resist the change in to avoid leaving the comfort zone.

Plan for minimizing possible resistance to the change management plan

It is possible to minimize levels of resistance and some causes. The following plan shall be used to lower change resistance as possible. First, to take the sale reps through the change process in to have a supporting team that would be ready to support the change all through while making sure some leaders are in support of the project. Moreover, in the change process, the issue shall be made to sound and appear like a matter of urgency which would make all parties involved to understand the importance of the change (Dubois, et al., 2014). During the implementation process, the management to have ample support such that the employees would not face any challenge embracing the change and starting to realize its benefits as early as possible (Radzi, & Othman, 2014). This would be used to communicate to those resisting that the change is meant to the good of the sales reps and the entire company. The third thing is to encourage those resisting and refrain from threatening them.

Relationship between resistance to change and communication

Communication and resistance to change are highly connected and it is only when communication is done proper that resistance to change is eliminated or reduced (Schuler, 2013). Employees’ minds and attitudes are shaped by the information they have especially on change. Satisfactorily information eliminated doubts and creation of assumptions leading to low or no resistance. But whenever information is withdrawn, employees tends to develop different myths and versions that increases anxiety and discontentment leading to creation of thousand reasons why resistance to change is necessary.

Three communication strategies

· Open meetings where issues would be introduced and extensively discussed (Schuler, 2013).
· Formal presentation is another effective communication strategy which allows the entire project and idea to be presented inform of practical visuals that the audience can relate with.
· Use of emails or letters which comes as a written method of communication.

Recommended communication strategy

The one method that seems to be most effective and might work effectively for the UniFirst Corporation to the point of eliminating change resistance is open meetings. The technique is effective because it eliminates instances of mistrust because the initiator is ready to face all employees and explain the project (Radzi, & Othman, 2014). The method involves involved parties thereby creating a good moment for sharing of ideas. In an open meeting, it is possible to conduct presentations making communication deeper and effective.

Communication plan for UniFirst Corporation change initiative

The company management ought to first identify the communication method to be used during entire change initiative. This first step is important as it dictates other actions to be taken as well as the effectiveness of the plan. Secondly is the determination of the specific messages for the purpose of sharing any confidential information that should not be made public. This is also important because some information should be strictly meant for shareholders due to the sensitivity of the information. Additionally, it is step that ensures adequate information is shared to meet employees’ satisfaction (Grama, & Todericiu, 2016). In this stage, the best language to use is selected with intentions of making sure that the intended message is received by the employees in the right manner to avoid instances of confusion. The last thing is the development of response channel where questions that may arise would be passed and responses given back thereby allowing an open, free, and transparent communication to take place.

ReferencesSources
1.Dubois, C. A., Bentein, K., Mansour, J., Gilbert, F., & Bédard, J. L. (2014). Why some employees adopt or resist reorganization of work practices in health care: associations between perceived loss of resources, burnout, and attitudes to change. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(1), 187-201.
2.Grama, B., & Todericiu, R. (2016). Change, resistance to change and organizational cynicism. Studies in Business and Economics, 11(3), 47-54.
3.Radzi, N. I. M., & Othman, R. (2014). Resistance to change: The moderating effects of leader-member exchange and role breadth self-efficacy. Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol, 4(1).
4.Schuler, A. J. (2013). Overcoming resistance to change: Top ten reasons for change resistance. Retrieved September 24, 2, 2014.
5.Van Marrewijk, A. (2018). Digging for change: Change and resistance in interorganizational projects in the utilities sector. Project management journal, 49(3), 34-45.