Employee resistance to change and organizational role systems pose challenges to organizational leaders. Fortunately, many leaders have a choice of how they might address resistance to change. One way to overcome employee resistance to change is to impose process reengineering autocratically—to tell employees how the organization will engineer the process without seeking their input. This idea, however, runs counter to contemporary models of what most consider effective management. Today, managers are more likely to be good listeners and coaches to employees, motivating staff through employee involvement. Creating a strong system in which all members of an organization are informed and committed to their roles has a significant influence on motivation and team performance and ensures organizational success. As an agent of change, how might you identify problems and analyze role systems within organizations?

To prepare: Review this week’s Learning Resources. Read “Activity 16–2: Planned Change at General Electric.” (attached in PDF)

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 3 a brief description of the overall planned change approach and phases led by Jack Welch. Using the case study, identify and briefly describe the major characteristics of the Work-Out Program. Identify and briefly describe the nature of organizational learning and the key features of learning mechanisms that were created. Examine how the organizational culture changed. Include in your examination what caused the change and what effect that the culture change had on human behavior and organizational performance and effectiveness.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources as well as additional peer-reviewed, scholarly resources.