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Organizational change takes emotional toll on employees
Author: Corporate Communication / Korporatiewe Kommunikasie
Published: 26/05/2017

Changes in an organization can often take an emotional toll on employees and it is important that managers take this seriously.

This was one of the viewpoints of Prof Mias de Klerk of the University of Stellenbosch Business School in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) in his inaugural lecture on Thursday (25 May 2017).

De Klerk said organizational change is emotionally more intimidating and disturbing than managers and consultants typically assume.

He added that any forced changes to jobs or work structures involve some sort of loss as it requires departure from well-known practices, or the social construction of a new identity.

"The difficulties encountered in implementing change do not simply result from being resistant to change. The immense negative affect experienced during change is likely to predispose employees negatively to the change and to become averse to the change and goals set by executives."

"Yet, the deeply experienced emotions are mostly being ignored in the discourse on resistance to change."

De Klerk said most of the studies about downsizing interventions focus on employer concerns, such as the costs and benefits of downsizing and the performance of the survivors.Intreerede_Morgan_DeKlerk1.jpg

He added that the loss, subsequent emotional experiences change holds for individuals and its underlying psychological mechanisms tend to be underplayed.

"Organizations tend to be indifferent and reluctant to acknowledge the severity of employees' perceived losses."

"Organizations need to be concerned about emotional trauma, grief and mourning when enacting change."

De Klerk said managers must embrace people's powerful sense of loss and help employees to adapt to the trauma of loss if they want to improve change resilience and change success.

"Ignoring the severity of perceived losses and disenfranchising the grief may conveniently suppress executives' anxiety. However, unless the severity of loss is acknowledged, grief is enfranchised and mourning is encouraged, change resilience and change success remains inconveniently unlikely."

He added that indifference and carelessness of leaders can compound emotional trauma.

"By acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, leaders leave people feeling as if the organization does not recognize them as human beings. Organizations must build a capacity to allow grieving and mourning what is lost in order for the employees to heal and move on past the change."

De Klerk said we have much to learn about the ways people can be helped to reconstruct their psychological world after a loss that resulted from change.

  • Main Photo: Pixabay
  • Photo 1: Proff Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, Michael Morgan who also delivered his inaugural lecture, Mias de Klerk and Johan Malan, Acting Dean of EMS, at the event. Photographer: Amanda Matthee