BUS 576 - 5 Culture and Change Mangement

Should You Change Yourself at Work?

When I started my first professional job at UPMC, I thought there was a certain way I needed to act. I am young and being on my best professional behavior seemed to be the best way for other to take me seriously. I never wanted to share too much, talk about my personal life too much, or act like I do when I'm around my friends. I am in a work environment where things need to be taken seriously and I should act accordingly. I then met another woman who threw all those dangerous half-truths, according to Pfeffer and Sutton, out the window. She was herself all the time and sometimes I looked at that as a weakness. Her actions seemed inappropriate at times and I wondered what everyone else thought. She also sometimes dresses questionably. Then as the only women on our team, I feel that we need to keep our emotions in check. The common thought is that women get too emotional and sometimes need to be treated differently. The question is "Should work and the rest of life be separate?" There is a way to integrate them to 'meet in the middle' without sacrificing too much of one. The benefits from keeping work separate are things like making decisions based off the information provided, not personal relationships or other nonfactual information. There is also more control over the employees and less role conflict. Then integrating work with the rest of life has benefits like building commitment because the companies care about not only the employees, but their families too. It also helps when recruiting new employees as current employees' family and friends are first on the list. Then, employees are more authentic in their roles as leaders and just being employees. It is easier to be honest about how you feel than how you're supposed to feel. With all of these benefits on either side, there are still actions that are no appropriate in the workplace, but are in everyday life. It is easy to get caught up in getting comfortable at work, but there are still things that need to be done. Don't change yourself completely for work. Putting your own spin on things can help with efficiency and productivity (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2007).

Is Change Good or Bad?

When I think of change in the workplace, I think that some upper level management found something wrong with a current practice. They know most about what is going on from a macro view. This has recently happened to me at work. There are two different video conferencing systems that were being used for t telemedicine. My office created their own and we were licensing out another system from another vendor. For each service line, the main system being used was my office's and the backup was the one we were licensing out. Everything was going fine when one day we were called into a meeting. Upper level management decided they were no longer going to use my office's version and we were going to use the licensed out application as the main system.We had no say in this change and just had to start planning for the transition as many people would need to be notified and trained. There were pros and cons to each side, but it was a big change that would affect our day-to-day jobs each day. We had to push our other projects on the back burner and move this transition up to the main priority. When looking over Pfeffer and Sutton's 'What to ask before launching a major organizational change,' I realize even though it is a big change that is disruptive, it will probably be better in the long run. It's not always about 'change or die,' but answering the questions to see if the change is really necessary and helpful. First, I think the practice was better than what we were currently doing, but now we don't have a backup. The change is worth the time because they were ultimately losing money with the in house system. It will enhance the performance for telemedicine patients, nurses and doctors who are involved. Overall, I think the change is good for me and the company as a whole. I didn't have enough power to make the change happen, but upper level management did and they saw what the affects would be. People are a little overwhelmed with the change, but most users already know how to use the system since it was the backup. The new workflow may just take some time to get used to. The new main system is simpler to use and should be easy for users to catch on. There is no failing now, because this change is because of a previous failure. Going through these steps can help in making a decision to see if it will positively or negatively affect the company. There are always pitfalls we can't see until we are in them. These questions can hopefully help eliminate things we can't initially see. 

Critique

In the article from Inc.com, 10 Tips for Communicating Change, the author gives 10 tips on when planning and implementing a change. Each tip is bold with information as to why it is important underneath. Each tip sounds like it makes sense, but no evidence of these claims is cited or mentioned. At the end of the article, there is a couple sentences that these tips are just 'food for thought.' Under that, it gives the author's credentials as a way to back up each claim. This is not evidence-based research, but more past experiences. They author is going with what she learned over the years and that's it. This might be good information for some people, but implementing a positive, successful change in a company is crucial. Going off of information that people have learned over the years may not be aligned with your company. There needs to be more supporting evidence that can really show what works. 

Reflection

As the class end quickly approaches, I realize how helpful the Pfeffer and Sutton book is. I find myself more interested and intrigued with each chapter. I feel that I can use what is in the book for my professional career and I'm really excited to put it to the test. There are things I never really thought about or knew about before and this book is delving into these topics and giving concrete examples of what other companies did and are doing. Also, I really liked the chapter on how to integrate work and the rest of life. I have had trouble with these because there is a fine line. I found a friend at work and we talk about everything. I feel lucky in that aspect because there are no filters or judgement. With other co-workers, I have learned what to share and what not to share. It is good to have a work relationship, but going beyond that could be detrimental to my career. It is good to know that you can integrate the two and it is accepted.

Resources:

Fenson, S. (2000, Jun 1). 10 Tips for Communicating Change. Retrieved 

Jul 28, 2014, from inc.com: http://www.inc.com/articles/2000/06/19312.html 

Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. (2006). Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, & Total Nonsense. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.