Moments of organizational crisis or change, create paradoxical feelings among employees. It is a fact that we generally enjoy daily predictable routines, but the business environment is very dynamic and imposes changes so often that it can generate a pathological state of emotional stress on employees. In this post, I will comment about some of the commom feelings associated to the corporate change processes in order to increase awareness of the individual impact that the corporate changes provoke and thus, better emocional preparation to face them in a healthy way:
- Denial: Corporate change processes cause in many people a sense of denial similar to what occurs in situations of emotional loss. So, there is often an attempt to resist change as an attempt to preserve the comfort zone. Although legitimate, the reaction of denial is deeply painful to employees, since corporate changes certainly imposes alteratins in routines that are not negotiable in most cases. A healthy posture in the perception of denial is the detailed understanding of the new proposed routines, its similarities and differences with the current routines, in order to select the aspects that provoke greater alteration of the comfort zone in a conscious way and minimally controllable emotionally.
- Fear of the unknown: A corporate change process can be implemented with alterations in policies and change of management teams, giving employees a sense of fear in the face of the unknown. The lack of awareness about the expectations of a new manager can generate feelings of uncertainty regarding to the acceptance of the work delivered and take away the tranquility of the collaborator. Allied to this feeling, prejudices and pessimistic readings of the scenarios can lead the collaborator to a feeling of hopelessness and demotivation.
- Hopelessness: The lack of motivation and unwillingness to invest energy in day-to-day tasks are the symptoms of hopelessness. The process of change makes daily issues even more difficult to overcome, once the perspective of evolution is set aside in a process of change as new policies, new values and in many cases new management styles are implemented. When this uncertanty occurs only in a short transient process, the anxiety can be overcome if the experience of change turn to be positive, but if the transition is prolonged or the experience of change is negative the collaborator after some time shows signs of emotional stress.
- Emotional stress: Emotional stress is debilitating to the employee, as he lacks the minimum energy required to perform his activities. There is no pleasure in the proposed activities, a feeling of inadequacy and lack of recognition are very present and the performance in the activities declines in quality. It is the moment where many employees feel exhausted from their relationship with the employer and feel compelled to seek a new working environment even if for the execution of the same activity as a way of push back a hostile environment and preserve their psyche.
Although the negative feelings described above are quite present in organizations, a process of change can be very positive if well managed, it can be a source of development for employees.
An adequate presentation of the reasons for change and attentive treatment of individual and collective concerns can guarantee an emotionally healthy corporate change process with retention of talents and confidence building among process members.
Throughout the process, active listening, clear communication and alignment of expectations can transform a potentially pathological process into a growth experience.
Share your comments, in face of a corporate change, your adaptation was positively or negatively experienced?