Managing Workplace Change

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Excerpt - Benefits and Costs/Activities of Change programs

Becker, F., Tennessen, C., and L. Dahl (1997) Workplace Change: Managing Workplace Change. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University International Workplace Studies Program (IWSP).

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Resources expended for change management were not large in relation to the value (see graph below) that change management, that is, bringing employees "up to speed" with new ways of working faster and developing greater satisfaction with and commitment to the new workplace strategy, provided.

Data Notes: The site with the highest per person costs and the site with the lowest per person costs included many similar activities: project meetings involving of employee representatives, open houses in the completed space, mock-ups, pilot tests, newsletter articles about the change, project updates, and floor plan reviews. The highest cost site created a full scale mock-up of the new space as well as models of the new space, both of which were fairly expensive to develop. Fixed costs such as these increase the cost per person, especially at sites with fewer individuals, like this one. The site with the highest costs also spent a good deal of time discussing behavioral and cultural changes needed for the new way of working and developed a protocols manual for working in the new space, provided technical training and a technology manual, and devoted a team of individuals to refining and evaluating the new strategy following move-in.

This further supports the idea that the more resources spent on change management (e.g., involving employees, listening to their concerns, providing the right information using multiple channels, and providing activities which help them experience or envision the new workplace), the more value gained from that expenditure.

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