What are the Roles of Managers in Organizational Change (Carnall)?

Carnall's Roles of Managers in Organizational Change theory states that effective management of change depends on 3 management skills:

1. Managers should be able to manage transitions effectively by helping people to learn and by creating a risk-taking atmosphere.
2. Furthermore, a manager should deal with organizational cultures by establishing a more adaptable culture, for example through more local autonomy.
3. Finally, a manager should also be able to handle organizational politics effectively through an understanding and recognition of different agendas.

Only managers with these three mentioned skills will be able to create an atmosphere where risk-taking, creativity and better performance can be implemented (Carnall, 2007).
 

Carnall's Coping Style Model of Change

There are various reasons why employees are reluctant to change. These include: 

• close-mindedness, 
• fear of the unknown, or 
• the fear of not being able to adapt to the new changes. 

Sometimes, employees might reflect an unwillingness to learn and assume that the new changes may not result in improvements. 

According to Carnall (2008), coping with changes takes place gradually. Carnall says employees typically go through five stages during major organizational changes.

• Stage 1 Denial: It represents the first stage in which employees deny that any changes occur in the organization. They attempt to convince themselves that the old ways of working are better and try giving reasons as to why the new changes will never be successful.
• Stage 2 Defense: When employees start believing that changes will occur in the organization, they take a defensive stance by justifying their previous positions and way of doing things. This happens because they assume that the changes are taking place mainly because their old ways of working were faulty and error-prone in someway. It is important to understand that these assumptions held by the employees are mostly irrational and not always true compared to reality.
• Stage 3 Discarding: At this point, employees begin to realize that change is inevitable. They also understand that along with the organizational changes, employees need to change as well. Hence, they find it better to discard their old ways and accept change as the new normal.
• Stage 4 Adaptation: A tremendous amount of energy gets devoted during this stage. Employees spent more time trying to learn about changes in the systems, testing them and understanding new functions. This stage involves learning through adjustments and testing using trial and error. Thus, it often causes frustration and rising anger among the employees.
• Stage 5 Internalization: Finally, in this stage, employees become amalgamated in the new culture and become comfortable with the new changes, systems and the new working environment.

There is a need for managers and leaders to act as a steering wheel for driving change effectively within the organization.