Examining the acceptance of organizational changes among the employees of Gilan Steel Rolling Company

Academic Thesis for Master's Degree Field: Business Management Transformational Orientation Background and Objective: Employees are known as a potential source of resistance to change (Okumos and Hemmington, 1998), as the experiences of an organization change, its members have different interpretations and expectations for those changes. Cognitive understanding of the type of change is guided by a mental map that shows the characteristics of the change and the relationships between different events. This mental map is also referred to as a change diagram (Love and Woodman, 1995). Therefore, with this study, we will evaluate the inferences of the perceived organizational changes of the frontline employees of the steel industry in the Rolling Steel Company of Gilan Province. Research method: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 on a sample group of 150 personnel of the Rolling Steel Company of Gilan Province. In the current research, both types of data collection methods (library studies and field research) have been used. The research hypotheses in this section were evaluated using the regression test. Cronbach's alpha method has been used in this research to determine the reliability of the test. For this purpose, first a prototype of the questionnaire was pre-tested and then using the data obtained from these questionnaires and with the help of SPSS statistical software, the reliability coefficient was calculated for this tool with Cronbach's alpha method.

Findings: The results confirm that the 5 dimensions of the organizational change chart are applicable in the industrial environment of the steel company. Additionally, community alone (not participation and training) has a strong impact on organizational change. Instead, the nature of organizational changes are significantly related to employees' attitudes towards organizational change and organizational commitment. Introduction Today's contemporary business markets are dynamic and unpredictable, and they need organizations that frequently implement and follow up on change. We live in an age that is completely competitive and the external environment is very complex, unstable and unpredictable. Businesses cannot operate as usual. Employees and organizations must be flexible and have the ability to adapt and adapt (Stubb, 2003).

Teter and Munk in their 2002 article quote Patrick Dixon saying that "either we capture the future or the future will capture us," which refers to the speed of change and the disruption it creates for organizations. Dixon blames management experts and says: "Every week we see many new books in the field of management, each of which often contradicts what has been said in the past and tries to find a new point of view. As in the past, confident expert managers, thanks to their intelligence and insight, ignore the fleeting waves of management, implement their solutions and adapt and adapt among various sources. However, the speed of change, the almost constant presence of semi-neurotic managers who are always in Searching for comprehensive solutions to solve their daily problems guarantees them" (Teyer and Munk, 2002).

Organizational changes are divided into two types of reactive and proactive. Most organizational changes include reactions to some events or situations, such as privatization, financial crisis, merger or combination of several companies, etc. While changing the behavior requires predicting problems and the need for change, and requires great sensitivity to changes in the environment or the ability to receive the first warning signs about the problem (Sadler, 2010: 62). The organization selects the required changes according to its conditions, facilities and goals and designs a change plan to implement them in the organization, considering that the organization is made up of people and organizational change experts believe that the change in the organization begins with a change in the attitude of people (Kater and Cohen, 2014: 1). Therefore, the successful implementation of the change program in the organization depends on changing the attitude of the employees and their mental readiness to accept and support the changes.

In the present research, the role of factors such as training, participation and communication in the acceptance of change by the employees in the organization will be investigated.

1-2) Statement of the problem

Globalization, economic crises, technological innovations and access to increasing information have created a turbulent environment in business and forced organizations to change. (Chiang et al., 2010). Change is considered as the driving force of successful companies in the world, and strategic change management helps organizations achieve success or desired performance (Arabi et al., 2009). Most organizations have realized that continuous change is necessary for the survival of the organization.  Therefore, they try to remove the obstacles and limitations on the way of changes (Chiang et al, 2010).

When organizations are prepared to implement changes and pay for changes, as a result, they will get better results from changes and employees will also participate better in this process (Claiborne, 2013), on the contrary, when the organization is not ready for changes, a change may cause resistance, conflict and ultimately lead to failure. Failure to change will result in the loss of a large amount of time, financial resources for the organization and reduce employee morale (Weiner, 2009).

Bowman and Ash[1] (1987) stated that employees will help their managers in several cases to accept the changes and ease the restrictions for the changes. The primary reason for such behavior includes managers' use of communication, training, and participation strategies to prevent and overcome barriers to change. It seems that communication is the most important factor in the change process and all managers should take advantage of communication in each stage of change. Also, training is the second most important factor in accepting change strategies. Training implies that employees have learned the necessary skills to perform new tasks and tasks. The third factor is participation and involvement in the implementation of changes, the knowledge and experience gained from which will help managers to be successful in accepting and implementing continuous changes (Chiang et al, 2010).  

Researchers have presented various models of organizational changes. revolutionary and transformational changes (Tushman and Romanelli, 1985), convergent and radical changes (and Hinings, 1988, Greenwood, 1996), single-stage and two-stage changes (Mink et al., 1993), continuous and radical changes (Huy, 2002), accidental and interrupted changes (McCann, 2004). This research uses the continuous and radical research model in order to measure organizational changes in Noord Foulad Company. In this model, it is stated that organizational changes have an effect on employees' attitudes towards changes and organizational commitment.

This research will be implemented in Noord Foulad Company of Gilan Province. Gilan Steel Rolling Company was established in order to meet the economic goals of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the growth and industrial self-sufficiency of the country, and in order to survive in the field of domestic competition and especially foreign competition, it is necessary to implement organizational changes in itself. Before that, it is necessary to study and examine the requirements for implementing organizational changes so that the applied changes can be implemented successfully. Therefore, in this research, in addition to determining the effect of communication, training and participation factors on organizational changes, the effect of organizational change on the commitment and attitude of employees to organizational changes has also been investigated. Therefore, the main question of the above research is as follows:

What are the factors influencing the acceptance of organizational changes by the employees of Noord Foolad Company in Gilan province? Due to the fact that Gilan Steel Company's strategy in the field of marketing is focused on recognizing and meeting internal needs, therefore, the need to make changes in the organization and to be aware of the changes and factors affecting its success will enable the company to be fully aware of these needs and to design and implement its effective and accurate plans, in addition to solving internal needs, to effectively prevent the outflow of capital and internal resources. It has created confidence in other customers who, as the main assets of Gilan Steel, have been able to plan and implement their industrial projects in various and diverse fields by relying on its products.

1-4) Research Objectives

Overall Objective

Measuring the factors affecting the acceptance of organizational changes by the employees of Noord Foulad Gilan Province.

Sub-objectives:

A: Measuring the effect of communication on organizational changes in perception done