Organizational Change in the US Department of Defence

One of the questions that comes to mind for many of those affected is the reason why the Department of Defence had to freeze the available vacancies, terminate jobs in the year 2013. More questions have come to be raised concerning why the first thought that comes to the administration of the Defence Department is to cut spending and minimize outgoing funds at the expense of its employees.  It has been found that from the beginning of the Furlough, rifts and vacancy freezes to satisfy the budget for the fiscal year has had a drastic impact on all of the people who have been directly affected by it. This has created a situation where the employees of the Defence Department have come to feel that they are no longer considered assets by their employer, and that they have instead become expendable. When one considers this situation as it takes place at the Defence Department, one would say that organisational change is having a radical impact within it. This organisation is undergoing diverse changes which are forcing it to cut jobs and to justify why it has to spend in a diverse number of areas in order to maintain its current funding as well as the number of employees it has. It is a fact that most of the employees in the Department are resisting the changes which are being imposed on them and the Department of Defence is working towards finding an amicable solution in the form of appeals, which are often delayed at the expense of the employees. Therefore, in this paper, the impact of organizational change in the form of rifts, employment freezes, employee release, contract closures, budget cuts and the affect it has on employee security within the Department of Defence shall be considered in detail.

The management of change is extremely important in the development of an understanding between employers and employees because it focuses on the people within the said organization and how they resist changes that are imposed on them (Rusaw, 2005, p.482). It also come to look at how, afterwards, these employees come to accept these changes as being part of their work environment. It has been found that the administration of the Department of Defence tend to aim at creating an environment which is highly receptive of change because they have come to realize that the acceptance of change is the key which determines whether the changes that they implement become either successes or failures. The strategy which is used by the Defence Department when making changes to the organisation has come to be found to be what makes the difference on how well these changes are received by its employees, and as such, it is what determines the level of success that newly implemented management strategies have not only on the employees but also on the department itself (Durant, 2008, p.282). It has been found that the best means that the Defence Department implements changes among its employees has been its recognition of the fact that it is normal human behaviour to resist change. With this realization, this Department has come to find strategies which are useful in the implementation of the changes that it wants to be implemented. One of the most pertinent issues that it has come to address when implementing changes has been the recognition that its employees will not automatically accept any of the new changes that it attempts to implement. It has instead come to realise that since it is its employees who tend to be the most affected by the changes, these employees have to have a complete understanding of the reasons why these changes are being implemented. With this understanding, the Defence Department has come to the realization the employees will not only be better in their work in their own best interests but also for those of the department (Tremaine & U.S.A.F, 2012, p.53).

In order to ensure that the operations within the department are successful, its administration has come to have tight control over all the changes that take place within it, and in fact, the department has created an environment where all changes that have not authorized by it have no place within the Defence Department because these changes might harm the intended working process that have been implemented (Heim, 2009, p.113). The Department of Defence has placed upon itself the responsibility of ensuring that it is the source of all the changes it wishes to have and that, once these changes have been introduced, then the Department has to have a tight grip on them so that they do not go out of control. In the Defence Department, it has been found that any changes that are put in place within it cannot be successful without the support of all its employees because without the latter’s support, then all the changes implemented would be counterproductive. Most of the changes that have been implemented by the Department in recent times have, for the most part, not been as successful as would have been thought and this has mainly been due to employee resistance (Durant, 2002, p.115). Since of the changes being implemented have been of adverse effect for many of the employees, the employees affected have tended to use the appeal mechanism that they have been provided to voice their opposition to such changes (Weyand, 2012, p.391). While this has taken place, the Department has often pre-empted their move by ensuring that the appeal process takes place as slowly as possible, thus providing it with the opportunity to implement the changes it wants.

In the current world, constant change has become a necessity for the Department of Defence and this has created a situation where change management has become an indispensable element of the procedure of running this organisation. It can however be said that while the implementation of changes is important, it cannot be successfully be done within this Department without the involvement of its human resource department. As most organisations all over the world have come to find to their benefit, the human resource department has a massive influence on the employees of any organization and the administration has to seek its support to ensure that the implementation of changes is successful. From the very beginning of planning and implementation of changes within the Department of Defence, its human resource department has to be involved to ensure that it is able to transmit to the Department’s employees an understanding of what the proposed changes entail and the benefits which are to be gained from them. It is the purpose of human resource to communicate any changes that are made to the employees and to ensure that the latter have a complete understanding of why these changes are being made so that very little resistance can be made against changes. However, it is also the responsibility of the Defence Department that it treats its employees fairly because they are its greatest asset who should not be taken for granted.

Most of the changes implemented in the Defence Department have created plenty of tension within the organization because it has not been carefully handled by its administration and this has often led to resistance from its employees. However, with the involvement of the human resource department, it the Defence Department would find it much easier to implement changes because it will be able to get employee support for any of the initiatives that it puts in place. The human resource department within the Department of Defence most likely have people with the necessary communication skills to ensure that employees are informed of proposed changes in a manner which is not only informed but also clear and constant, hence the realization of the latter’s support.