The three key strategies for helping employees deal with the emotions related to change are:
- Honest and timely communication
- Organizational culture (culture of trust)
- Transformational leadership style
Strategy #1 - Honest and Timely Communication
Research suggests that adjusting the timing and content of the information communicated promotes acceptance of change as employees' experience of emotions evolves in association with the change (Liu & Perrewe, 2005).
Effective communication contributes to employees perceived sense of control during change and allows for richer information sharing. It also gives employees the ability to foresee and make sense of the future. This alleviates a potentially tense climate as employees struggle with uncertainty. A delicate balance of quantity and timing of the communication is crucial in managing the emotional reaction to the information.
Initially, in the primary appraisal of introducing the change, anticipatory emotions contribute to the level of mixed regard and discrepancy associating the past with the current situation. With emotions running high communication should be global with minimal elaboration and detail. Too much information at this stage may give employees the impression that events are going on beyond their understanding and control, which can induce more uncertainty and fear. Information should be carefully reframed with an emphasis on the positive aspects of the change. The positive information communicated will induce excitement in employees in the primary appraisal, while a high level of specific information whether positive or negative will induce fear in employees (Liu & Perrewe, 2005). Information must be communicated early in the change process as employees level of acceptance at this early stage is quite malleable and emotions quite anticipatory.
In the secondary appraisal concerns center around the meaning of the change to “me” and employees begin to think of the change in realation to their own well being. The actual experience of the change is now a reality in daily life. As employees begin to understand the change and the change process, communication can be more detailed. Thus, in the secondary appraisal of the proposed change, communication that addresses the specific concerns and issues of employees is more effective in contributing to employees’ accurate assessment of the change and their response to it. The specific information that is immediately relevant is now more helpful.
Organizations and change agents must also ensure that adequate time for adaptation and sense making occurs when communicating. Employees need time to adjust and leaders should monitor the content of communication to fit the changing needs of their employees emotional and cognitive state.
Communication is a process and not a one-time event in the continuum of change and transition.
Strategy #2 - Organizational culture: a culture of trust
The culture of an organization that compels leaders to pay particular attention to the human side of organizations will inspire a culture that contributes to trust, loyalty acceptance and commitment to change.
When leaders focus on establishing trust, they are better able to deal with both the operational and business component and the human element of change. These leaders understand the emotional discomfort and pain of change on employees, and must be agile and resilient to rise to the challenge.
An organizational Human Resources strategy to help employees adjust to change should consist of polices and strategies the are modeled by leaders. Research suggests that positive organizational support has a positive impact on job satisfaction and affective commitment by employees with experiencing change (Kiefer, 2005).
As Lazarus (1991), suggests, “in so far as emotions are an inherent part of everyday functioning and a legitimate expression of individual experiences, emotional expressions need to be taken seriously by management and responded to in a respectful manner" (Keifer, 2005, p. 891).
As organizations transform, employees' emotional needs in times of change, are viewed more democratically and the emphasis is on empowering team oriented cultures (Pident, 2000).
Strategy #3 - Transformational Leadership
This style of leading change, works from the perspective that leaders transform the values, attitudes and beliefs of followers while creating enthusiasm and inspiring followers in the change process (Podsakoff, 1990). It is a style of leadership that provides supportive leadership for change. The notion that transformational leadership positively influences a recipients’ response to change suggests that this style addresses the higher order needs of employees in organizations during the change process (Bommer, Rich & Rubin, 2005).
The six dimensions of transformational leadership consists of:
- Articulating a vision of the future
- Fostering the acceptance of group goals
- Communicating high performance expectations
- Providing intellectual stimulation
- Modeling appropriate behavior
- Displaying supportive leadership behavior
Leaders that communicate a vision as well as conveying high performance expectations, improve employees' self-efficacy with an implicit conveying of confidence and a sense of empowerment.
Transformational leaders model behaviors that are to be emulated which serves to increase their trustworthiness and credibility for their followers in the hopes of increased participation and articulation of needs during change.
This leadership style respects followers and oversees their development with the utmost concern for feelings and needs during change. These employees will likely respond to the direction of the leader who communicates concern about them as individuals. This is especially fundamental when work conditions are stressful, frustrating or dissatisfying which is typical during a change initiative.
Transformational leadership behaviors stress cooperative rather than individual needs in the hopes of group engagement and a sense of safety in publicizing emotions and feedback with change.