HRM-610

Management of Organizational Change

Submitted By:

Habib Muhammad Rusab Islam

Student ID: 21364042

Submitted to:

Nazmul Amin, PhD

Professor (Adjunct)

BRAC Business School

BRAC University

Date of Submission: 22/12/2022

The changes that I have recently observed in my family over the last 7-8 years
are:

Background:
Bangladesh has been late to join the bandwagon of technology when compared to the west.
Bengali families have always been very skeptic about technology and its role in everyday life.
Technology had to be accepted whole heartedly for the professional life, but when personal
usage came into the table people tended to refrain themselves. However, over the last few
years it seems like technology has made its way into the home as well . And one such home has
been my very own.

Introduction:
The adoption of technology especially software programs and mobile applications on a day-to-
day basis. Social platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Meet have become a part
of almost everyone’s daily life in my family. Which wasn’t there even 10 years ago. The
dependency on such platforms have increased exponentially over the recent years especially
during the pandemic. Starting from small tasks to important tasks are performed and shared via
these platforms. For example, sharing of photos of family events, grocery lists, household
chores, to being connected with everyone across the globe. Optimization of time primarily
because of internet access and social media platforms have enabled people to plan their days
ahead effectively. These changes were primarily triggered from the 5 th revolution which is the
technological revolution. Yes, these changes were well anticipated. This is because technology
is destined to become a part of the staple diet for every household. It’s just that some people
would have been early adopters and some laggards.

In the recent past my family especially my parents have become very much dependent on social
media and its platforms has made its way in being a part of their daily life. Both of my parents
are employed and have quite a busy schedule during the weekdays. Change and transition
management: The four layers- trigger layer, vision layer, conversion layer and maintenance
layer. The trigger layer in case of adoption of WhatsApp as a mode of daily communication has
been because of its outspread reach in the country. In a lot of aspect WhatsApp have
substituted the conventional text messaging system which used to be prevalent. Nowadays
most people rely on WhatsApp because of its popularity and cost effectiveness. WhatsApp has
around 40 million users in Bangladesh which reiterates its outreach throughout the country.
The vision behind the adoption of WhatsApp have been technologically driven convenience,
access to information and connectivity. This got triggered by the trickle-down effect of
technology due to innovation and advancement globally. The Chinese intervention in the
technology market meant more affordable technology for all. Technology was becoming cheap
and so were the devices that enabled end users to facilitate in the process. Access to internet
was widely available and the cost of broadband declined with time. Which eventually lead to
the conversion layer whereby they became active users of technology. The conversion layer
was underwent through active usage of WhatsApp for daily household chores. The
maintenance layer was the change in attitudes, values, and behaviors that sustained their use
of WhatsApp and stopped them from regressing back into tradition. In order to use technology
in their favor they make the most out of such platforms. For example, my mother uses our
family WhatsApp group to share grocery lists and things needed for everyday household chores
so that anyone of us can fetch it at our convenience. Both my parents also require medicines on
a monthly basis, and they use that WhatsApp group to share pictures of the medicines that
needs to be purchased. Often it is also used for communicating what we want for dinner. The
change was conceived in an intrinsic and continuous process. The entire process of change has
been intrinsic and continuous for my family because it was an innate feeling for them to adopt
technology to stay updated with the world. This process can be said to be continuous because
they are updating themselves regularly and adopting to all the new technology that is available
in the country.

Change Management:
Yes, this change was well managed. Partially because my family knew how to react to this
change. Adaptability, considering the local culture also played a role in deterring people’s
acceptance of such change. There was resistance to change in terms of adaptation because of
ideological resistance. My family being from Bangladesh did have an idea of how this revolution
might affect them mainly because most other countries especially of the west have already
gone through this process by then. But still this change could have been better managed well by
them. A lot of online scams, phishing cyber bullying stories became prevalent as the internet
seeped into the social fabric of the country. The dark sides of this could be avoided if people
were more educated about the repercussions of their actions. Along with that people did know
how they wanted to navigate this change to take them from their current state to their desired
state. Culturally as a society technology is something that we failed to accept as something
good. There used to be this social stigma that technology may cause harm and something that
is quite malicious in its existence. Historically the countries from the East have been culturally
different in terms of adoption of technology. Their values, norms weren’t coherent to adoption
of technology. As I have mentioned earlier the values that my elderly parents held wasn’t
aligned with that necessary for proactive adoption of technology. Mode of communication is
something which falls in the cultural makeup that we are unaware of also known as the deep
culture. As a cultural phenomenon in person communication or over the phone communication
has been our primary mode of communication. This is something deeply rooted in our culture.
We consider it of great importance to have a face-to-face discussion and as an alternative over
the phone discussion. We are not very fond of text messaging or chatting using an electronic
device as a mode of communication. Hence the notion of WhatsApp has been an adversary to
our firmly held culture.

Beneficiaries of the change:

For my family adapting to technology has been something against their feelings, emotions,
beliefs, and philosophies that are different. Which in other words mean ideological resistance.
They primarily thought of it as a foreign concept. However, everyone benefitted from this
change. Communication has been instantaneous, responsive, integrative, and cheap. WhatsApp
have helped nurture relationships among family and friends. The initial entry barrier was high
and hence a lot of people failed to adopt it. Internet connectivity was an expensive commodity
and even more expensive were the devices that enabled IT services. An average middle-income
household could not afford such luxury back then. Only large organizations could afford IT
enabled services and through that domain the mass population meaning anyone with a job
accustomed themselves to such devices. Some members of the society lost out as well. Like
two sides of the coin a certain portion of the population became addicted to their screens.
Overall, the change has beneficial for most part for my family.

Learning from the change experienced:

The learnings from the change that my family experienced after having a retrospection were
that in this era change is the only constant and most changes will be driven by technology.
They also realized that they had some sort of resistance and one of the reasons might be that
they thought they would lose something of value. Being a Bangladeshi, my parents held tightly
onto their beliefs, values and norms. However, they believed that it would have been more
beneficial for them if they were open minded and accepted the change earlier and learnt to
adopt it quicker.

The change was triggered by:

This change stemmed from the external environment and is technological in nature. This
change can be said to have stemmed from the external environment because partially it was
out of control of ours. The change was triggered by technological revolution also known as the
5th revolution. With time our country and society morphed to adapt technology as way of life. In
a way we all are forced to make ourselves tech savvy because of the dynamics of our current
world order. For a lot of working middle class families in Bangladesh it was their professional
domain that was their firsthand experience of information technology system. Nowadays, our
country uses technology as the primary medium of communication, anyone who has failed to
adopt it has lost out in the realm of communication. In Bangladesh many businesses both small
and large have taken WhatsApp to reach their consumers as it in turn provides a boost for their
business. WhatsApp’s in-built business solutions has gained trust of users whereby they can buy
goods and make payments.

Conclusion:
Overall, for my family the change management has been beneficial, and the adoption of
technology has made my parents lives easier. It wasn’t a very easy process for them from the
beginning because of the resistance they had due to multiple factors. Such as going against
their ideological resistance in accepting the new norm in the field of communication. They also
overcame their values and beliefs regarding acceptance of technology.
Reference:

 Huisman, Edwards, Catapano. November 2012. The Impact of Technologies on Families.

Central Eastern European Library

 Facesoman. Positive Impact of Technology on Family Relationships from Positive Effects

of Technology on Family Relationships • FACES Oman •

 The Business Post. May 2022. WhatsApp making a Push for Business from
https://businesspostbd.com/back/whatsapp-making-a-push-for-businesses-2022-05-01