ADAPTABILITY TO CHANGE

Adaptability to Change



How to Help Nursing Employees and Nursing Department to Be More Adaptable to Change?

Introduction

In today's world the only thing that is constant is change. In order to meet your steps with rest of the world it is imperative to adopt these changes. But adoption of change is not an easy thing especially in healthcare organizations. It becomes difficult in a healthcare organization to adopt and accept changes because in a healthcare organization nurses work together in a particular setting and whenever change is introduced to them they resist these changes. The main reason behind this is that nurses do not possess any experience of management and organization. Managers of healthcare adopt variegated forms, techniques and method to implement the change. Bringing a change in a healthcare organization affects each and every aspect of the organization. This paper discusses what can be done for nurses and the nursing department so that they become more adaptable to the change.

Change Management

Change management is a systematic process whereby an organization responds to and adapts to the forces in its micro- and macro-environment in order to increase its effectiveness and ensure its survival. In short, managing change is all about moving an organization from its current state to some future desired state (Robbins, 2001, 36). The changes facing health care organizations in the following vignette are not uncommon. Managing change is a critical competency all organizations must master (Northouse, 2007, 33). Increased competition, globalization, changing market dynamics, and pressures from stakeholders move business leaders to consider new strategies and how to improve performance (Mullins, 2010, 119).

Change Theories and Approaches

Scholars and practitioner have presented variegated theories and approaches to manage changes. These change theories and approaches are as follows;

ADKAR Model

The focus of the ADKAR model is on the specific tasks that the team that is facing change is supposed to perform. The positive point of this model is that it measures the employees' resistance, helps out employees to pass through the stage of change and to develop a plan to manage change by taking into consideration employees' perspectives and difficulties. This model is very employees centered (Prosci, 2006, 14). The following figure shows the key elements around which the ADKAR model revolves:

Figure 1: Prosci, 2006, 14

Six Change Approach

This approach of six changes was designed by the Kotter and Schlesinger. They developed this “six approach” so that by adopting this approach the resistance that employees show towards change can be minimized. There are four factors on which this “six approach is based. These four approaches are of employee disagreement with reasoning, self interest, low tolerance for change and misunderstanding (Kotter & Schlesinger, 1979, 106). The six approaches that can be adopted to deal with these four factors are as follows (Kotter & Schlesinger, 1979, 112):

By educating employees and by properly communicating with them the purpose of the change their resistance towards change can be minimized

It is necessary for managers to ask employees to take part and stay involved throughout the change ...