General Motors Analysis: Change Management

General Motors Analysis Student’s Name Institution General Motors Analysis Today’s business environment is dynamic majorly because of the advancements in technology. With new technologies emerging every day, change is inevitable for organizations. It is thus important that change management becomes part of every organization. General Motors (GM) is a company that has to engage in change management in order to maintain its position as one of the biggest automobile manufacturing firms in the world. In the wake of new technologies and ways of doing business, it has to adopt change while ensuring employee loyalty is retained or improved. According to Guillon and Cezanne (2014), employee loyalty creates a significant value for the organization. As such, GM has to retain or promote employee loyalty in order to compete favorably in the automobile manufacturing industry. This paper analyses how change management, as well as other factors, including motivating employees, performance monitoring, communication of change process, managing employee engagement, education and equipment, and avoidance of micromanagement can help GM retain or improve the loyalty of its employees. Change Management Organizational change is inevitable for GM and the company has to set up measures to ensure it does not disrupt its business processes. GM is a company that has operations around the globe, meaning its workforce is made up of individuals from diverse backgrounds. The members of such diverse workforce are going to react to change differently. As such, change management is essential in order to avoid resistance to change that may be beneficial in the current turbulent environment. The company notes on its website that customer preferences, technology, and industry are changing rapidly and therefore, inclusion and diversity are vital to its success more than ever (GM, 2017). Change management can play an instrumental role in helping GM retain or improve employee loyalty. According to Waal (2013), it is important for the management to apply measures that allow them to coach the employees of the organization through change. In this sense, managers at GM need to understand the employees’ needs and address them while at the same time managing their performance as the organization undergoes change. The support the managers give to employees contributes significantly to building trust that consequently increases employee loyalty (Waal, 2013). It is thus evident that trust is a major part of change management that needs to be taken into consideration by managers. Waal (2013) also points out that when managers successfully promote trust, they increase the commitment of the employees to the goals of the organization. Trust plays an instrumental role in helping the employees come to terms with the change. In this case, they can understand that change is necessary and they can contribute to the process as well. It is thus important for GM to maintain a culture of trust among its employees in order not only to avoid resistance but also to improve their loyalty. One of the ways through which managers at GM can help build trust is by ensuring there is congruence in their words and deeds (Waal, 2013). The managers can also manifest reliability, predictability, and ac...