PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Change is a continuously and ongoing process to lead an evolution towards organization and career development to earn the competitive edge in global market place. Change also defined as a simple process and simple to describe. It occurs whenever we replace the old with the new (de Jager, Peter & Futurist, 2001). But when came to the step of change implementation, change agent would face the difficulty to promote the change with the creation of an environment for change within organization. The replacement of New Remuneration System (SSB) created change among civil servants. The announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 29th July 2002 indicated that the Malaysian Remuneration System (SSM) would replaces the New Remuneration System (SSB) on 1st November 2002, leave a room of resistance to change among the civil servants.
Some of the government workers refused to accept SSM even though SSM have been claim that include all concern in the search for justice, accepted and standardized practices and fairness. The workers most likely resist to change are management, senior workers and the workers who satisfy with SSB. They resist change due to many rational reasons, some of which are lack of information on the proposed change, facing threat of loss of position power, fear of the unknown future and doubt their ability to adopt it and other variables. To ensure the SSM could implement effectively, government should identify the signs of resistance to change to overcome it with reasonable explanations for proposed change through education, promoting the change, plan an effective communication, and negotiation process. As a result, government should find out the proper approach to overcome resistance to change to make sure that could achieve the SSM objectives and goals.
OVERVIEW OF MALAYSIAN REMUNERATION SYSTEM
The Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) replaces the New Remuneration Scheme (SSB), which was introduced in 1992 for government employees on November 1 2002. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the SSM, which will be effectively and knowledge-oriented to determine the career development and salary increments of government employees, after a meeting with CUEPACS and the Public Service Department (PSD) on the SSB review at his office on July 29 2002.
Public Services Department Director-General Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri said the SSM, which was based on four core points, had to be accepted as a whole for its benefits to be seen where those who had proficient knowledge of their work would be given due recognition. The four points are the performance evaluation system, career advancement, salary and allowance structures revamp and improvement of service conditions.
Dr Mahathir, who is also the chairman of the Committee on the Salaries and Service of Public Sector Employees, said that the SSM would introduce efficiency appraisal procedure through examinations and courses to be made compulsory to all civil servants to ensure the progress of their career and annual salary increments besides the annual appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads. The prime minister said that the government also agreed to make adjustments to the existing appraisal system through the setting up of a human resources panel in all departments. He said that all governments’ employees would be given the option to opt for the SSM or remain under SSB a month before the SSM was implemented.
Civil servants who choose the SSM, he said, will be paid a special SSM payment of RM220 for personnel under the support group. The senior management group will be paid RM650, while those under the management and professional group will get RM350. It would be a one-off payment to be made in November. He said that for 2003, all government employees will get normal increments.
Dr. Mahathir said that with the implementation of the efficiency appraisal, the matrix salary scale for all grades would be adjusted to two instead of the present three. The SSM would introduce two salary movements, namely normal increment and incremental credits of salary. Meanwhile, the government also agrees to add another salary point to the maximum salary for all the salary scales.
In the other hand, the allowance and benefits would also be adjusted under one rate for all the new grades. On the Excellent Service Award, it would no longer be linked to the annual salary movement and the recipients would be rewarded with RM1000. To improve opportunities for career advancement, five promotional grades would be created.
Dr Mahathir said the implementation of SSM would involve an additional expenditure of RM302.58 million this year, RM600.76 million next year, RM719.25 million (2004), RM846.13 million (2005) and RM976.86 million in 2006 for the government. The expenditure for the sixth year was expected to rise to about RM1 billion and would continue increasing thereafter. The CUEPACS president Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam said the SSM would motivate government employees to show their true potential, especially in the field of information technology. This will result in a change of attitude; the worker will work hard to improve their productivity. CUEPACS secretary-general Adbul Rahman Manan said with SSM, CUEPACS had obtained what civil servants wanted, except for two matters relating to critical allowance. He said that CUEPACS had appealed to the government to extend to critical allowance, currently enjoyed by only nurses and doctors, to other support staff like assistant nurses and health attendants and technicians of the Public Works Department (PWD) and Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said problems which had existed since 2000 in relation to the implementation of SSB had finally been resolved. This development was well received by CUEPACS. He said the government had come up with what was best for civil servants so that they could dedicate themselves to discharging the duties entrusted to them. With SSM, evaluation of workers will no longer be 100 percent dependent on the appraisal by Department Heads but will stress more on staff ability. This is in line with our efforts to encourage government employees to embrace the K-economy so that they will continue to progress in the future.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
When change is proposed, it will be met with resistance naturally, because individuals involved resist things they are unsure of. Resistance to change is one of the most ubiquitous of organizational phenomena and has been recognized as an important factor that can influence the success of an organizational change effort. A research found that resistance by management and workers to be the major impediment to the use of quality management practices in Australian manufacturing industry (Waddell, D. & Sohal, A. M., 1998).
Resistance is defined as any conduct that serves to maintain the status quo in the face of pressure to alter the status quo. So, people will remain in the present if the change feel might threaten the status quo. Thus, resistance is an expression of reservation, which normally arises as a response, or reaction to change. These reactions may be, among others, are the signs of resistance to change. To address the resistance to change, the key element is identifying the signs of resistance. According to Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl (2000), there are some signs of resistance, as follow:-
“In-your-face” resistance. It is most easily to recognize; those hate the change will say loudly and clearly.
Immediate criticism. Even before the change is fully explained, people express their disapproval.
Malicious compliance. People secretly undermine the change.
Easy agreement. People seem to be going along but once they begin to understand the time and effort it requires, resistance develops.
Denial. Employees who refuse to acknowledge that a problem exists and do not see a reason for changing.
Confusion. Some employees continue to ask same questions over and over again.
The change that can threaten the culture and power of individuals and groups in organizations can cause behavioral resistance. This resistance to change takes many forms and may vary from strike to subtle reactions which management may never become aware of. According to Ansoff & McDonnell, the level of resistance to change is determined by: -
The degree of discontinuity in the historical culture and power structure implied by the change.
The length of the period over which the change is introduced.
The threats, insecurities, loss of prestige and loss of power implied for key individuals.
The expected contribution by the change to the success or survival of the organization.
The strength of positive or negative loyalty towards the organization felt by the participants.
The strength of the cultural and power drives at the respective power centers.
Distorted perception, which can mean that resistance will be higher than is justified by the facts of the situation.
(Cited from Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996.)
Different factors would influence the level of resistance of change, if the resistance is due to threat of loss of position power, cognitive dissonance or mental discomfort, and fear of the unknown, the level would be higher and difficult to overcome it. Change is a transition between human being as very hard to estimate their mindset, to achieve an agreement between the change agent and the change resisters.
The problems of implementing change normally center in the technical and financial aspects of change in the early stages. The organization and social aspects are left until later. However, a manager should begin to think about implementation at the very outset of considering change to minimize the social resistance. Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D. (1996) said that social change is a major part of the change process in any organization and needs just as much effort as the changes in finance, administration or technology which managers used to coping with it. Managers should identify the social resources that have available for implementing the change, which are characteristics of stakeholders, employees and employers, such as friendships, loyalties, habits, perceptions, psychological style and will power.
In spite of the pressures on organizations change, it is inevitable that change will be resisted both by people and organizations. Hellreigal et al. said that individual resistance to change comes from: -
Selective attention and retention
Fear of the unknown
Habit
Economic reasons
Dependence
Security and regression
Besides that, they also believe that organization resistance to change comes from: -
Threats to power and influence
Fixed investments
Organization structure
Inter-organization agreements
Resource limitations
The change agent needs to counter the limitation of change to ensure that change can proceed successfully as to minimize the resistance of change.
(Cited from Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996.)
PART II: WHY CIVIL SERVANTS WILL RESIST ADOPTION OF MRS?
RESISTANCE BY THE TOP MANAGEMENT
CUEPACS president Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam trusted the SSM is fairer than SSB especially for the assessment which doing by every leader from different department. SSB which implemented since 9 years ago only gave advantages to 5 percent employees, and the other 95 percent never get the suitable assessment although they are very hardworking. So, Datuk Siva trusted the 960,000 employees were to choose the SSM to replace the SSB. Meanwhile, he said the SSM are agreed by the government which able to give promotion for those employees and greater benefits if comparing with SSB. However, since the SSB are resistance by the 95 percent of employees, so the SSM will be also resistance by the employees which unable to get the advantages from SSM such as the top management I’m going to discuss now.
The reason they are resistance this system is because the power which holding by them will be reduce. The process of career development and salary movement are determined by exam or related courses. And what the leader doing to do is just evaluate the competence of employees. In addition, the yearly assessment will be observed by the Panel Development Human Resource in every department. So, any unsatisfied or uncomfortable with the assessment by leader, they allow to making complain with the panel. If compare with SSB, the department leader have the fully power to evaluate their staff and no any panel will check back the assessment. Meanwhile, the leader also able to giving promotion to those employees they like.
Besides that, the top manager feeling upset and lose confident when they are doing their job because they are observing by the panel. Directly, attitudes of manager will be change
to the negative sites. Self interest also one of the reason why the top management resistance to change. This is because they are already having achieved status, privilege or self-esteem through effective use of an old system; they will often see the new system or plan as a threat. That’s why they choosing to stay at the old scheme to avoid any changing which may threaten their position or power. Differing perceptions between the top management and subordinate may make the top management unwilling to accept SSM. They believe that the SSM are wrong. It can’t bring any advantage to them if compare with the old scheme-SSB. Because they may view the situation form a different viewpoint. But for subordinate, SSM are more useful and fairer than SSB.
Meanwhile, the top management believes she/he stands to lose more than they will gain. Such as giving authority, promotion, determine salary movements and limited power. So, they think it’s safer if they are stay with the old scheme. One of the reasons of resistances is also due to the threat to self-image. They feel that the changing from SSB to SSM will threatens the current self image of them. Because the image developed by them are lose, limited power and may be the employees not respect them as before. The reason is the employees think the powerful people are from the Panel Development Human Resource but not the top management anymore. In addition, the evaluation by them also not necessary will give the promotion to the particular employee although they are holding higher position in an organization.
RESISTANCE BECAUSE OF UNFAIR PAYMENT PRACTICE
Government’s proposal for implementing Malaysia Remuneration Scheme (MRS) is something to be proud of as it will instill fair competition among civil servants and thus increase their efficiency. Government’s employees who opt for the new scheme will have opportunities for career and professional development. However the new system will have its own short and long term effect as he have not seen the progress of the implementation as the movement to adopt MRS is still a labyrinth efforts. There are always resistances from those employees because they tend to associate the changes with loss of their interest in the organization. A problem that we should take into account is the unfair distribution of increment points for various different job levels grouping in the new system.
First of all, as we know there are not much significant details from Public Service Department regarding the salary structure of MRS, but there have been a hot topic discussed in the local newspapers for the past few weeks. If we look into the increment structure, we can see that the Support Group basic salary will increase by RM 15, RM 65 for Managerial and Professional Group and RM 110 for Higher Managerial Group. Resistance from Support Group is expected as judging from wide disparity or category but both will receive some amount of increment.
What has been topic of dissatisfaction is that there are grouping of A, B, C and D category but A will be a standalone group while B, C and D will be grouped into one group. The problem arises when employees under Group B will question the wisdom of the government when almost majority of them have at least a diploma in many fields. So why should they be in the same group as C and D when they have sort of higher qualification than the latter? Group A employees who will receive increment in RM 65 is said to be too much compare to the RM 15 receive by Group B which falls on Support Group. Although Group A staffs which are managerial staff with first degree, Group B with diploma seems lower graded even both of the group share the almost same responsibility of workload and professionalism. The large gap pending upon adoption of the system will eventually demotivate civil servants who fall into that category. Furthermore it is also said that the dissatisfaction arises also contributed by the refusal of Public Service Department to acknowledge the staff who want to continue their study in doing their first degree. Civil servants in group B have to pay their own education expenses while studying with unpaid leave and the government will not offer any scholarship to them. The information presented just now was taken from a forum in local newspaper, Utusan Malaysia.
What is more visible to our knowledge is when the payment that civil servants will receive upon accepting the Malaysia Remuneration Scheme. Upon accepting MRS, Support Group will receive one-off-payment of RM 220, Managerial and Professional Staff will receive RM 350 and Higher Managerial Group will receive RM 650. This clearly shows that unfair distribution of interest still exist while government is promoting equal chance and merit based payment. When we want to change to the new system the support from all civil servants is equally important. So, when the government wants to show appreciation for staff that opted for MRS, equal value of the bonus should be paid regardless of job level or group. This is because equal support needed to make the adoption succeed and without support from lower level employees, MRS is also useless and will not move to the mainstream compare to the current New Remuneration Scheme (NRS).
The resistance can be explained by Equity Theory. Human beings are subjected to being wanted to be treated as fair as other do. If one person perceived that the other person who have the same ability, responsibility and workload as he or she do but receive more payment than him, he will feels demoralize, losing motivation and confidence to the company. A staff should receive too much difference in their payment if their work responsibility and work load are not much varies. From what we have seen just now, there are improper and unfair distributions of payment in some groups particularly when receiving adoption of MRS bonus. Senior managerial staff will get much bigger bonus from the support group even that adoption of new scheme is responsibility of civil servants regarding of level or status. Once adopt new scheme, all employee should be given same amount of initial bonus regarding of status to avoid resistance from workers over unfair payment practices.
ACADEMIC MODE NOT INTERESTED BY SOME WORKERS
One of the reasons that the resistance can be true when implementing Malaysian Remuneration Scheme is the academic mode that the civil servants have to take in order to qualify for promotion or salary increment. The problem arises when older staff and senior staff will feel hard and humiliated because they have to take the exam as the junior staff. Some workers are naturally don’t like exam and think that by taking exam they will have burden and time constraint as most of these workers have family. The will question the Public Service Department that why they should spend their time studying unwillingly as they are forced to do so because without taking exam they will not getting any promotion. As being force they will not only resist the change but also will initiate objection and frustration against government later. Furthermore the exam mode will consist of history, nation studies and Tata Negara which do not have any relevance to their real work requirement. We do not object government for using this kind of materials for academic route that the civil servants have to take because the most important is to instill loyalty and caring to the country. However if the government want to generate more skillful and competence workers, then this is not a good example for them to follow as it will not bring any significant results to their job performance. Senior staff will also feel that their contributions are not appreciated because they are judged by academic qualification rather than their problem solving ability in workplace. Some workers may reluctant to accept academic based performance appraisals but this does not necessarily mean that they are not capable and welcome in the organization.
OFFICE POLITICIANS WILL HAVE TO PACK HOME
Office politicians have to pack home. What does that mean to you? Well as we know office politics is one of the facet in the working life. Everyday we see or we maybe involve in office politics like building up a network, back talking, back stabbing your colleague and doing your boss favors. If you conduct one of these acts then you are involving in office politics. Office politics can be cruel, devastating or even make you more powerful depending how you use it. The winner will establish its presence in the organization for long term while the losers will have to move out. As said by a local newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, SSB is a system that also jokingly called Saya Suka Bos or Saya Sayang Bos. It is a platform for workers to play politics or apple polishing in order to get good evaluation for their department leaders. A staff with good ability to make their boss happy is the one who will get advantages from the system. However with the introduction of Malaysia Remuneration Scheme, these politicians will not be able to do their old dirty trick to satisfy their bosses because the final evaluation will not be on their immediate leader hands alone as there will be a panel to evaluate the staff performance.
The staff who have long playing office politics will be the one who will resist against the introduction of MRS because the will lose their chance and advantages. They have use this tactic to gain attention from the superior and suddenly with introduction of MRS by government they will feel that someone is trying to interfere with there status quo. The people who have been playing office politics are surely spending a lot of their time to build up what there are achieving today and will reluctant to let it go as soon as possible because it is not easy to achieve what they have today. Introduction of MRS will differentiate the department head responsibility and to ensure there are no misjudgments during the appraisal as the panel of human resource management is professionally qualified to do evaluation fairly. As the outside evaluator are professional and given authority by the Public Service Department, it is not easy for the workers to influence them as they will perform their job true to the form and being accountable and trustworthy.
WORKERS INCLUDED IN THE 5% ADVANCEMENT
Less than 5% of civil servants get promotion salary or position increment annum under the matrix system in the SSB scheme since it was introduced in 1992. This opportunity opens a limited promotion for diagonal and vertical salary movement to encourage government workers to show their effort and contribution to the organization. Meanwhile, it also increases the workers’ productivity. According to the SSB, the supervisor and manager assess the workers based on their performance to determine which worker is fulfilled the requirement would get the promotion. To get the promotion and increment, workers have to work hard and perform obtrusively to attract manager to give more merit onto performance.
Nevertheless, when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the Malaysian Remuneration System would replace the New Remuneration System for government employees on 1st November 2002, minority of civil servants show their resistance upon it. According to the Utusan Online, dated 30th July 2002, “Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also the chairman of the Committee on the Salaries and Service of Public Sector Employees, said that the SSM would introduced efficiency appraisal procedure through examinations and courses to be made compulsory to all civil servants to ensure the progress of their career and annual salary increments besides the annual appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads.” After announcement, some of the civil servants feel a sense of unfair because the promotions and increments would not longer rely on the appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads. The workers must take a series of exams and courses instead of the performance appraisal for getting the advancement.
For those who have been achieved the advancement, and have been worked hard wishing to get the promotion and salary increment. Most of them would reject the offer and remain in the present scheme. They resist due to habit and inertia with upholds that what they have always done is the way it should be. In the face of change, they might feel uncomfortable or difficulty with change even though government asserted that the SSM would provide fair opportunity for career development and salary increments based on workers’ ability. All their efforts and contributions towards advancement will futile.
These changes directly influence employees’ perceptions and expectations about the relationship between person and organization, in other words is psychological contract. The attitudes and behaviors of workers may be affected by changes in the psychological contracts of workers because of different set mutual obligations (Schalk, R., Campbell, J. W. & Freese, C., 1998). The organization commitment of workers might decrease after the implementation of SSM because of violation of the relationship between the government and workers affect the government workers face difficulty coping with change. This is why a worker refused to change even though the changes may bring the benefit towards job promotion and salary increments among government workers in SSM scheme.
INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Most of the government workers resist the implementation of SSM because of the ineffective communication channel to deliver the relevant information to the involved workers. Selecting the inappropriate communication channel can cause confusion, anxiety and disruption among the change resister. Some of government workers refused to change from present because of the purpose of the change is not made clear, even though the television channel, newspapers and electronic mail were reported about the SSM since 30th July 2002 after the announcement of Prime Minister. Most of the civil servants included management and subordinate still ambiguous the concept and benefits of SSM. Resistance occurs due to poor communication may develop during the process of change. Poor communication can lead to misunderstanding or confused and it also cause communication barriers. As a need of change, those affected by change must know why a change is being made and how they will be affected accordingly (Anderson, T. P.). Needless to say, the important of communication cannot be underestimated. It is not necessarily to say that once a change strategy has been decided upon and committed to, management will see it through to the end (Bishop, C. H., 2002).
Furthermore, lack of two-way communication between the management and workers also cause resistance to change. The pattern of two-way communication that practiced by government servants in downward communication as an ordering manner in organization reduced the feedback from workers about the implementation of SSM. Downward communication may be used to inform to workers about the changes only. Middlemist, R. D, & Hitt, M. A. (1988) said, “Downward communication is frequently deficient. Workers often complain about the lack of information on changes being made in organization.” Upward communication seldom be used in government department can cause lack of feedback. This is because management does not want to hear negative feedback from workers about changes. It may cause resistance to change upon implementation SSM due to lack of participation in the change.
Other form of ineffective communication that can cause resistance to change is grapevine communication. It is include gossip between people regarding to the one matter without accurate information. Since SSM has been proposed, yet a valid information regarding SSM is not available. All information regarding to SSM provided through informal conversation between workers without any validity support of validity materials. Some of workers may put an inaccurate opinion about implementation SSM due to lack of valid information from Public Service Department, so it also lead to resistance to change.
RESISTANCE FROM SENIOR EMPLOYEES
Seniority means that someone who works for a long period in a field and have wide knowledge and experience accordingly. Normally, they are good in the field that they deal with the experiences they went through. Recently, the SSM are introduced in the government sector to replace SSB. According to Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, ‘the basis (for promotion) will be on the competency of the workers and their professional development. Even the Cuepacs’ leaders assured that this would lead to higher productivity. They also stress that the employees will lose out if they do not improve themselves.
But with the SSM scheme will abolish the seniority rights that they deserved regarding their employment period in the organization. This scheme will influence the position of the senior employees in the government sectors. It means that the chances of promotional for the senior employees in the government sector are reduced. The good and hardworking employees that should be promoted will have a slimmer chance because their promotional are not longer based on their performances but on their education qualifications.
“Every man for himself”. This phrase shows that every man is selfish and will only take care of their self-interest before see to other people interest. When senior employees who achieved status, privilege or self-esteem through effective use of an old system, they will often see the new plan as a threat. Where the plan threatens paid overtime, people will naturally fear the impact on their bank balance.
Senior employees will not agree for the change because they do not want to lose their status quo. Left to our devices, some of us would initiate change, but most of them would prefer to retain the status quo. Not because they are lazy or stubborn, but because they were human. The status quo is a known entity and they like it that way. Most of them do not deal well with the unknown. The unknown is scary, it will makes them feel out of control, insecure, and generally as if they would like to go to bed, pull the blanket up over their head, and stick their thumb in their mouth. The senior employees would like to retain this status because they are already used to the situation and it will be too troublesome. The changes will only caused more inconveniences for them because they have to take more time to adapt the change of the new working environment.
Furthermore, the resistance of the SSM is due to the threat of the loss of position power (Anderson, T. P.). Before the introduction of this scheme, only the senior employees will be rise for promotion. But since then, the promotional criteria will be based on their qualification, ability and professional. Normally the young will have the educational qualification but the senior will have to climb through their experiences gained. So their positions are not secured because the young who have higher educational qualifications will rise faster than the senior employees. So the senior position that rightfully should belong to the senior employees is threatened by the inexperience young. Most of the senior employees think that they are qualified for promotional because they are more experience in dealing with the work they had done for the past years.
The older a person is, the more their resistance to the uncertainties situation that will pose a threat to them. This is because they cannot take up the challenges that may be face. They may be uncertain of their abilities to face the challenges of the world. Fear of the unknown situation can also be more prevalent to some than others, hence making it more of a personality trait than a situation variable. In addition, groups of people with such fears often find comfort in sharing their fear with each other, thus making the chance process more difficult as now it has become a “group” fear.
Conservatism is another reason why the senior employees would not want a change in the policy. Conservative senior individuals tend to resist changes. This factor has been measured and demonstrated in numerous studies and stands to reason on its own. Conservative individuals who group together, as was referred to above regarding the trade of “fear of the unknown” can also create great impasse for change. Especially those who value status highly are less open to change when the change threatens to impinge negatively on their self-perceived status.
Older people are more resistant to change, and people at the top of the organization are very versatile. This assertion is not true and unfair. If compared with the senior, many young people are tremendously resistant to change and many top executives rigidly reject new and expanded assignments. Assessment of an individual should not be biased for or against based on age, title, organization level, expertise, tenure, and any other factors (Bishop, C. H., 2002).
Normally, those senior employees who are old will get a mistreatment upon the introduction of the SSM. With the new SSM scheme, the promotional criteria are not fair to those senior employees that are bias to the beautiful employees. According to Cuepacs President N. Siva Subramaniam, they did not agree to the matrix system adapted by some department heads because their assessment inevitably involved personal feelings. He added that if the women are beautiful, they are given higher marks than those who are more senior to them.
Other than that, with the new SSM, those who want to be promoted will have to upgrading themselves. The exam is not only will test their writing skill but also their ability in solving problems. So it seems that the promotion will be based on their ability in educational certificate rather than their experiences. The resistant of the senior employees are also due to the fear of taking examination. This is because they had stop schooling for so many years and their age will affect their ability of thinking. Given their age, they would prefer to spend more time on leisure with their family rather than cope with the stress of examination.
It cannot be denied that experience is more important than paper qualification. Paper qualification does not show the real ability of oneself. Ability can only be proved via job performances but not by good writing skill. The senior employees think that experiences are more important than paper qualification. This is because they had gone through everything that may be encounter during their services in the related field. So they can solve the problems more effectively. Even though those who have many paper qualification but it does not prove their ability in performing well in their job. It will still need the senior employees to hold the power in ones organization.
PART III: OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
When resistance to change occurs in organizations, it will delay the process of change. Government needs to address the nature of change facing the organization, so that they can determine its likely magnitude and potential impact through change management methodology. Identify the signs of resistance to change can help to overcome resistance to change facing the organizations, managers and workers. According to Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D. (1996), resistance to change can be overcome by education when there is a lack of information or inaccurate information and analysis that bring resistance due to fear of the unknown. Public Service Department should giving civil servants all the relevant information about the consequences of proposed change that the Malaysian Remuneration System replaces the New Remuneration System to reducing potential fears. The information should valid, correct and supportive to the change so that government workers will be willing to accept the change and be less fearful.
Promoting change also is a key element to overcome resistance to change, changes should not be complex and should not be presented in an overwhelming manner at once (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). Government should introduce the change in a simpler, slow and smooth manner to increase the likelihood of the workers feeling less threatened by the change. This is because require some time and commitment to adapt and accept the change. Bringing about change requires the government to challenge the precedent, and requires perseverance against the habits and norms of established behaviors among the workers (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). A step to manage change successfully, Government gave one-month period to the government workers to opt for the Malaysian Remuneration System accordingly. During this period, Public Service Department should explain the need for and logic of change to individuals, groups and even the entire organizations to avoid confusion among of them.
Furthermore, government must provide support and facilitation during the change process. There are some tactics that government can be used to minimize the frustration of those coping with change, such as making oneself available, providing adequate information, actively listening, showing respect, offering emotional support and understanding to people affected by the change (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000, Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996). Government must recognize that workers may suffer a sense of loss during the change process that will bring to resistance of change. They must accept the fact that resistance to change is inevitable because they feel that change are threatened the status quo (Spiegelman, B. M. 1990). They must help workers to find the way out to overcome their anger and frustration; it also can minimize the elements that may increase the resistance to change among the change resisters.
Communication of change is a key element to resolve resistance of change; inefficiency communication has been said as a root of fail of change. When the purpose of the change is not made clearly, resistance due to poor communication may develop. The effective communication can take away at least part of the feeling of uncertainty and lack of information about the change, reducing speculation and unfounded fears (Schalk, R., Campbell, J. W. & Freese, C., 1998). Government should plan communication carefully to maintain and remain positive workers morale during the change process by communicates often and through a variety of media to the workers regarding implementation Malaysian Remuneration System. Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl (2000) has said that communicating what is known and asking for employees to do the best with what information is available will help minimize conflict and promote change successfully.
Needless to say, government should communicate honestly to workers about the change impact, otherwise resistance to change will increase to defend the status quo. Remind workers that things weren’t perfect before change, and probably won’t be perfect after it (Spiegelman, B. M., 1990). Tell the truth to the workers in it for physically and psychologically prepared upon the change process. There are some key principles to conduct effective communication, include message and medium redundancy is related to message retention to ensure that the delivered data are clear on the related points that repetition of the message through more than one medium increases people's memory of the message, encourage face-to-face communication to increase the probability that the sender and the receiver are connecting appropriately, and obtain feedback from workers to correct deficiencies immediately (Klien, S. M., 1996). Besides that, direct supervision is the expected and most effective source of organizationally sanctioned information in an effective communication. Workers are expected to hear important, officially sanctioned information from their immediate supervisor or boss in the hierarchy of authority because supervisors are normally contact with their workers frequently than others management. So, by keeping the first level supervision, the lower workers are well informed about the rationale and progress of the organizational change (Klien, S. M., 1996).
Moreover, negotiations with change resisters and the forces imposing the change can minimize resistance to change (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). This is possible when some person or group, with considerable power to resist, will clearly lose out on a change. It make individuals involved in the change will feel they have some control and authority on the matter of change; help to make decisions upon change to reduce resistance due to force change and lack of participation in the change. During the negotiation process, government and change resisters should try to make a concession to achieve integrative results in order to gain the commitment from both parties in a win-win situation (Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M. & Minton, J. W., 2001). To achieve integrative agreement, they must create a free and open discussion of all issues and concerns regarding SSB and SSM.
Bibliography
Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D. (1996). Effective enterprise and change management: A skills and activity-based approach. Great Britian: Blackwell Publishers.
Anderson, T. P. 26+ reasons why employees resist changes. http://www.andersonconsulting.com/org/resist.htm.
Applebam, S. H. & Lew Wohl. (2000). Transformation or change management: Some prescriptions for health care organizations. Managing Service Quality. Vol.10, No. 5, 279-298.
Bishop, C. H. The 10 most common myths about change in any organization. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000110630255&Frut=3&Deu=1&m4/17/02dx.
De Jager, Peter & Futurist. (2001). Resistance to change: A new view of an old problem. [CD-ROM]. Vol.35, Issues 3. Academic Search Elite.
Klein, S. M. (1996). A management communication strategy for change. Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol.19, No.2, 32-42.
Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M. & Minton, J. W. (2001). Essentials of negotiation. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Middlemist, R. D. & Hitt, M. A. (1988). Organizational behavior: Managerial strategies for performance. USA: West Publishing.
Schalk, R., Campbell, J. W. & Freese, C. (1998). Change & employee behavior. Leadership and Organization Development Journal. Vol.19, No.3.
Spiegelman, B. M. (1996). Fostering change in the face of resistance. http://library.dialog.com/open-dialog/90_spring.htm.
Waddell, D. & Sohal, A. S. (1998). Resistance: A constructive tool for change management. Management Change. Vol.36, No.8, 543-548.
Change is a continuously and ongoing process to lead an evolution towards organization and career development to earn the competitive edge in global market place. Change also defined as a simple process and simple to describe. It occurs whenever we replace the old with the new (de Jager, Peter & Futurist, 2001). But when came to the step of change implementation, change agent would face the difficulty to promote the change with the creation of an environment for change within organization. The replacement of New Remuneration System (SSB) created change among civil servants. The announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 29th July 2002 indicated that the Malaysian Remuneration System (SSM) would replaces the New Remuneration System (SSB) on 1st November 2002, leave a room of resistance to change among the civil servants.
Some of the government workers refused to accept SSM even though SSM have been claim that include all concern in the search for justice, accepted and standardized practices and fairness. The workers most likely resist to change are management, senior workers and the workers who satisfy with SSB. They resist change due to many rational reasons, some of which are lack of information on the proposed change, facing threat of loss of position power, fear of the unknown future and doubt their ability to adopt it and other variables. To ensure the SSM could implement effectively, government should identify the signs of resistance to change to overcome it with reasonable explanations for proposed change through education, promoting the change, plan an effective communication, and negotiation process. As a result, government should find out the proper approach to overcome resistance to change to make sure that could achieve the SSM objectives and goals.
OVERVIEW OF MALAYSIAN REMUNERATION SYSTEM
The Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) replaces the New Remuneration Scheme (SSB), which was introduced in 1992 for government employees on November 1 2002. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the SSM, which will be effectively and knowledge-oriented to determine the career development and salary increments of government employees, after a meeting with CUEPACS and the Public Service Department (PSD) on the SSB review at his office on July 29 2002.
Public Services Department Director-General Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri said the SSM, which was based on four core points, had to be accepted as a whole for its benefits to be seen where those who had proficient knowledge of their work would be given due recognition. The four points are the performance evaluation system, career advancement, salary and allowance structures revamp and improvement of service conditions.
Dr Mahathir, who is also the chairman of the Committee on the Salaries and Service of Public Sector Employees, said that the SSM would introduce efficiency appraisal procedure through examinations and courses to be made compulsory to all civil servants to ensure the progress of their career and annual salary increments besides the annual appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads. The prime minister said that the government also agreed to make adjustments to the existing appraisal system through the setting up of a human resources panel in all departments. He said that all governments’ employees would be given the option to opt for the SSM or remain under SSB a month before the SSM was implemented.
Civil servants who choose the SSM, he said, will be paid a special SSM payment of RM220 for personnel under the support group. The senior management group will be paid RM650, while those under the management and professional group will get RM350. It would be a one-off payment to be made in November. He said that for 2003, all government employees will get normal increments.
Dr. Mahathir said that with the implementation of the efficiency appraisal, the matrix salary scale for all grades would be adjusted to two instead of the present three. The SSM would introduce two salary movements, namely normal increment and incremental credits of salary. Meanwhile, the government also agrees to add another salary point to the maximum salary for all the salary scales.
In the other hand, the allowance and benefits would also be adjusted under one rate for all the new grades. On the Excellent Service Award, it would no longer be linked to the annual salary movement and the recipients would be rewarded with RM1000. To improve opportunities for career advancement, five promotional grades would be created.
Dr Mahathir said the implementation of SSM would involve an additional expenditure of RM302.58 million this year, RM600.76 million next year, RM719.25 million (2004), RM846.13 million (2005) and RM976.86 million in 2006 for the government. The expenditure for the sixth year was expected to rise to about RM1 billion and would continue increasing thereafter. The CUEPACS president Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam said the SSM would motivate government employees to show their true potential, especially in the field of information technology. This will result in a change of attitude; the worker will work hard to improve their productivity. CUEPACS secretary-general Adbul Rahman Manan said with SSM, CUEPACS had obtained what civil servants wanted, except for two matters relating to critical allowance. He said that CUEPACS had appealed to the government to extend to critical allowance, currently enjoyed by only nurses and doctors, to other support staff like assistant nurses and health attendants and technicians of the Public Works Department (PWD) and Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman said problems which had existed since 2000 in relation to the implementation of SSB had finally been resolved. This development was well received by CUEPACS. He said the government had come up with what was best for civil servants so that they could dedicate themselves to discharging the duties entrusted to them. With SSM, evaluation of workers will no longer be 100 percent dependent on the appraisal by Department Heads but will stress more on staff ability. This is in line with our efforts to encourage government employees to embrace the K-economy so that they will continue to progress in the future.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
When change is proposed, it will be met with resistance naturally, because individuals involved resist things they are unsure of. Resistance to change is one of the most ubiquitous of organizational phenomena and has been recognized as an important factor that can influence the success of an organizational change effort. A research found that resistance by management and workers to be the major impediment to the use of quality management practices in Australian manufacturing industry (Waddell, D. & Sohal, A. M., 1998).
Resistance is defined as any conduct that serves to maintain the status quo in the face of pressure to alter the status quo. So, people will remain in the present if the change feel might threaten the status quo. Thus, resistance is an expression of reservation, which normally arises as a response, or reaction to change. These reactions may be, among others, are the signs of resistance to change. To address the resistance to change, the key element is identifying the signs of resistance. According to Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl (2000), there are some signs of resistance, as follow:-
“In-your-face” resistance. It is most easily to recognize; those hate the change will say loudly and clearly.
Immediate criticism. Even before the change is fully explained, people express their disapproval.
Malicious compliance. People secretly undermine the change.
Easy agreement. People seem to be going along but once they begin to understand the time and effort it requires, resistance develops.
Denial. Employees who refuse to acknowledge that a problem exists and do not see a reason for changing.
Confusion. Some employees continue to ask same questions over and over again.
The change that can threaten the culture and power of individuals and groups in organizations can cause behavioral resistance. This resistance to change takes many forms and may vary from strike to subtle reactions which management may never become aware of. According to Ansoff & McDonnell, the level of resistance to change is determined by: -
The degree of discontinuity in the historical culture and power structure implied by the change.
The length of the period over which the change is introduced.
The threats, insecurities, loss of prestige and loss of power implied for key individuals.
The expected contribution by the change to the success or survival of the organization.
The strength of positive or negative loyalty towards the organization felt by the participants.
The strength of the cultural and power drives at the respective power centers.
Distorted perception, which can mean that resistance will be higher than is justified by the facts of the situation.
(Cited from Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996.)
Different factors would influence the level of resistance of change, if the resistance is due to threat of loss of position power, cognitive dissonance or mental discomfort, and fear of the unknown, the level would be higher and difficult to overcome it. Change is a transition between human being as very hard to estimate their mindset, to achieve an agreement between the change agent and the change resisters.
The problems of implementing change normally center in the technical and financial aspects of change in the early stages. The organization and social aspects are left until later. However, a manager should begin to think about implementation at the very outset of considering change to minimize the social resistance. Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D. (1996) said that social change is a major part of the change process in any organization and needs just as much effort as the changes in finance, administration or technology which managers used to coping with it. Managers should identify the social resources that have available for implementing the change, which are characteristics of stakeholders, employees and employers, such as friendships, loyalties, habits, perceptions, psychological style and will power.
In spite of the pressures on organizations change, it is inevitable that change will be resisted both by people and organizations. Hellreigal et al. said that individual resistance to change comes from: -
Selective attention and retention
Fear of the unknown
Habit
Economic reasons
Dependence
Security and regression
Besides that, they also believe that organization resistance to change comes from: -
Threats to power and influence
Fixed investments
Organization structure
Inter-organization agreements
Resource limitations
The change agent needs to counter the limitation of change to ensure that change can proceed successfully as to minimize the resistance of change.
(Cited from Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996.)
PART II: WHY CIVIL SERVANTS WILL RESIST ADOPTION OF MRS?
RESISTANCE BY THE TOP MANAGEMENT
CUEPACS president Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam trusted the SSM is fairer than SSB especially for the assessment which doing by every leader from different department. SSB which implemented since 9 years ago only gave advantages to 5 percent employees, and the other 95 percent never get the suitable assessment although they are very hardworking. So, Datuk Siva trusted the 960,000 employees were to choose the SSM to replace the SSB. Meanwhile, he said the SSM are agreed by the government which able to give promotion for those employees and greater benefits if comparing with SSB. However, since the SSB are resistance by the 95 percent of employees, so the SSM will be also resistance by the employees which unable to get the advantages from SSM such as the top management I’m going to discuss now.
The reason they are resistance this system is because the power which holding by them will be reduce. The process of career development and salary movement are determined by exam or related courses. And what the leader doing to do is just evaluate the competence of employees. In addition, the yearly assessment will be observed by the Panel Development Human Resource in every department. So, any unsatisfied or uncomfortable with the assessment by leader, they allow to making complain with the panel. If compare with SSB, the department leader have the fully power to evaluate their staff and no any panel will check back the assessment. Meanwhile, the leader also able to giving promotion to those employees they like.
Besides that, the top manager feeling upset and lose confident when they are doing their job because they are observing by the panel. Directly, attitudes of manager will be change
to the negative sites. Self interest also one of the reason why the top management resistance to change. This is because they are already having achieved status, privilege or self-esteem through effective use of an old system; they will often see the new system or plan as a threat. That’s why they choosing to stay at the old scheme to avoid any changing which may threaten their position or power. Differing perceptions between the top management and subordinate may make the top management unwilling to accept SSM. They believe that the SSM are wrong. It can’t bring any advantage to them if compare with the old scheme-SSB. Because they may view the situation form a different viewpoint. But for subordinate, SSM are more useful and fairer than SSB.
Meanwhile, the top management believes she/he stands to lose more than they will gain. Such as giving authority, promotion, determine salary movements and limited power. So, they think it’s safer if they are stay with the old scheme. One of the reasons of resistances is also due to the threat to self-image. They feel that the changing from SSB to SSM will threatens the current self image of them. Because the image developed by them are lose, limited power and may be the employees not respect them as before. The reason is the employees think the powerful people are from the Panel Development Human Resource but not the top management anymore. In addition, the evaluation by them also not necessary will give the promotion to the particular employee although they are holding higher position in an organization.
RESISTANCE BECAUSE OF UNFAIR PAYMENT PRACTICE
Government’s proposal for implementing Malaysia Remuneration Scheme (MRS) is something to be proud of as it will instill fair competition among civil servants and thus increase their efficiency. Government’s employees who opt for the new scheme will have opportunities for career and professional development. However the new system will have its own short and long term effect as he have not seen the progress of the implementation as the movement to adopt MRS is still a labyrinth efforts. There are always resistances from those employees because they tend to associate the changes with loss of their interest in the organization. A problem that we should take into account is the unfair distribution of increment points for various different job levels grouping in the new system.
First of all, as we know there are not much significant details from Public Service Department regarding the salary structure of MRS, but there have been a hot topic discussed in the local newspapers for the past few weeks. If we look into the increment structure, we can see that the Support Group basic salary will increase by RM 15, RM 65 for Managerial and Professional Group and RM 110 for Higher Managerial Group. Resistance from Support Group is expected as judging from wide disparity or category but both will receive some amount of increment.
What has been topic of dissatisfaction is that there are grouping of A, B, C and D category but A will be a standalone group while B, C and D will be grouped into one group. The problem arises when employees under Group B will question the wisdom of the government when almost majority of them have at least a diploma in many fields. So why should they be in the same group as C and D when they have sort of higher qualification than the latter? Group A employees who will receive increment in RM 65 is said to be too much compare to the RM 15 receive by Group B which falls on Support Group. Although Group A staffs which are managerial staff with first degree, Group B with diploma seems lower graded even both of the group share the almost same responsibility of workload and professionalism. The large gap pending upon adoption of the system will eventually demotivate civil servants who fall into that category. Furthermore it is also said that the dissatisfaction arises also contributed by the refusal of Public Service Department to acknowledge the staff who want to continue their study in doing their first degree. Civil servants in group B have to pay their own education expenses while studying with unpaid leave and the government will not offer any scholarship to them. The information presented just now was taken from a forum in local newspaper, Utusan Malaysia.
What is more visible to our knowledge is when the payment that civil servants will receive upon accepting the Malaysia Remuneration Scheme. Upon accepting MRS, Support Group will receive one-off-payment of RM 220, Managerial and Professional Staff will receive RM 350 and Higher Managerial Group will receive RM 650. This clearly shows that unfair distribution of interest still exist while government is promoting equal chance and merit based payment. When we want to change to the new system the support from all civil servants is equally important. So, when the government wants to show appreciation for staff that opted for MRS, equal value of the bonus should be paid regardless of job level or group. This is because equal support needed to make the adoption succeed and without support from lower level employees, MRS is also useless and will not move to the mainstream compare to the current New Remuneration Scheme (NRS).
The resistance can be explained by Equity Theory. Human beings are subjected to being wanted to be treated as fair as other do. If one person perceived that the other person who have the same ability, responsibility and workload as he or she do but receive more payment than him, he will feels demoralize, losing motivation and confidence to the company. A staff should receive too much difference in their payment if their work responsibility and work load are not much varies. From what we have seen just now, there are improper and unfair distributions of payment in some groups particularly when receiving adoption of MRS bonus. Senior managerial staff will get much bigger bonus from the support group even that adoption of new scheme is responsibility of civil servants regarding of level or status. Once adopt new scheme, all employee should be given same amount of initial bonus regarding of status to avoid resistance from workers over unfair payment practices.
ACADEMIC MODE NOT INTERESTED BY SOME WORKERS
One of the reasons that the resistance can be true when implementing Malaysian Remuneration Scheme is the academic mode that the civil servants have to take in order to qualify for promotion or salary increment. The problem arises when older staff and senior staff will feel hard and humiliated because they have to take the exam as the junior staff. Some workers are naturally don’t like exam and think that by taking exam they will have burden and time constraint as most of these workers have family. The will question the Public Service Department that why they should spend their time studying unwillingly as they are forced to do so because without taking exam they will not getting any promotion. As being force they will not only resist the change but also will initiate objection and frustration against government later. Furthermore the exam mode will consist of history, nation studies and Tata Negara which do not have any relevance to their real work requirement. We do not object government for using this kind of materials for academic route that the civil servants have to take because the most important is to instill loyalty and caring to the country. However if the government want to generate more skillful and competence workers, then this is not a good example for them to follow as it will not bring any significant results to their job performance. Senior staff will also feel that their contributions are not appreciated because they are judged by academic qualification rather than their problem solving ability in workplace. Some workers may reluctant to accept academic based performance appraisals but this does not necessarily mean that they are not capable and welcome in the organization.
OFFICE POLITICIANS WILL HAVE TO PACK HOME
Office politicians have to pack home. What does that mean to you? Well as we know office politics is one of the facet in the working life. Everyday we see or we maybe involve in office politics like building up a network, back talking, back stabbing your colleague and doing your boss favors. If you conduct one of these acts then you are involving in office politics. Office politics can be cruel, devastating or even make you more powerful depending how you use it. The winner will establish its presence in the organization for long term while the losers will have to move out. As said by a local newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, SSB is a system that also jokingly called Saya Suka Bos or Saya Sayang Bos. It is a platform for workers to play politics or apple polishing in order to get good evaluation for their department leaders. A staff with good ability to make their boss happy is the one who will get advantages from the system. However with the introduction of Malaysia Remuneration Scheme, these politicians will not be able to do their old dirty trick to satisfy their bosses because the final evaluation will not be on their immediate leader hands alone as there will be a panel to evaluate the staff performance.
The staff who have long playing office politics will be the one who will resist against the introduction of MRS because the will lose their chance and advantages. They have use this tactic to gain attention from the superior and suddenly with introduction of MRS by government they will feel that someone is trying to interfere with there status quo. The people who have been playing office politics are surely spending a lot of their time to build up what there are achieving today and will reluctant to let it go as soon as possible because it is not easy to achieve what they have today. Introduction of MRS will differentiate the department head responsibility and to ensure there are no misjudgments during the appraisal as the panel of human resource management is professionally qualified to do evaluation fairly. As the outside evaluator are professional and given authority by the Public Service Department, it is not easy for the workers to influence them as they will perform their job true to the form and being accountable and trustworthy.
WORKERS INCLUDED IN THE 5% ADVANCEMENT
Less than 5% of civil servants get promotion salary or position increment annum under the matrix system in the SSB scheme since it was introduced in 1992. This opportunity opens a limited promotion for diagonal and vertical salary movement to encourage government workers to show their effort and contribution to the organization. Meanwhile, it also increases the workers’ productivity. According to the SSB, the supervisor and manager assess the workers based on their performance to determine which worker is fulfilled the requirement would get the promotion. To get the promotion and increment, workers have to work hard and perform obtrusively to attract manager to give more merit onto performance.
Nevertheless, when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the Malaysian Remuneration System would replace the New Remuneration System for government employees on 1st November 2002, minority of civil servants show their resistance upon it. According to the Utusan Online, dated 30th July 2002, “Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also the chairman of the Committee on the Salaries and Service of Public Sector Employees, said that the SSM would introduced efficiency appraisal procedure through examinations and courses to be made compulsory to all civil servants to ensure the progress of their career and annual salary increments besides the annual appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads.” After announcement, some of the civil servants feel a sense of unfair because the promotions and increments would not longer rely on the appraisal reports and recommendations of department heads. The workers must take a series of exams and courses instead of the performance appraisal for getting the advancement.
For those who have been achieved the advancement, and have been worked hard wishing to get the promotion and salary increment. Most of them would reject the offer and remain in the present scheme. They resist due to habit and inertia with upholds that what they have always done is the way it should be. In the face of change, they might feel uncomfortable or difficulty with change even though government asserted that the SSM would provide fair opportunity for career development and salary increments based on workers’ ability. All their efforts and contributions towards advancement will futile.
These changes directly influence employees’ perceptions and expectations about the relationship between person and organization, in other words is psychological contract. The attitudes and behaviors of workers may be affected by changes in the psychological contracts of workers because of different set mutual obligations (Schalk, R., Campbell, J. W. & Freese, C., 1998). The organization commitment of workers might decrease after the implementation of SSM because of violation of the relationship between the government and workers affect the government workers face difficulty coping with change. This is why a worker refused to change even though the changes may bring the benefit towards job promotion and salary increments among government workers in SSM scheme.
INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Most of the government workers resist the implementation of SSM because of the ineffective communication channel to deliver the relevant information to the involved workers. Selecting the inappropriate communication channel can cause confusion, anxiety and disruption among the change resister. Some of government workers refused to change from present because of the purpose of the change is not made clear, even though the television channel, newspapers and electronic mail were reported about the SSM since 30th July 2002 after the announcement of Prime Minister. Most of the civil servants included management and subordinate still ambiguous the concept and benefits of SSM. Resistance occurs due to poor communication may develop during the process of change. Poor communication can lead to misunderstanding or confused and it also cause communication barriers. As a need of change, those affected by change must know why a change is being made and how they will be affected accordingly (Anderson, T. P.). Needless to say, the important of communication cannot be underestimated. It is not necessarily to say that once a change strategy has been decided upon and committed to, management will see it through to the end (Bishop, C. H., 2002).
Furthermore, lack of two-way communication between the management and workers also cause resistance to change. The pattern of two-way communication that practiced by government servants in downward communication as an ordering manner in organization reduced the feedback from workers about the implementation of SSM. Downward communication may be used to inform to workers about the changes only. Middlemist, R. D, & Hitt, M. A. (1988) said, “Downward communication is frequently deficient. Workers often complain about the lack of information on changes being made in organization.” Upward communication seldom be used in government department can cause lack of feedback. This is because management does not want to hear negative feedback from workers about changes. It may cause resistance to change upon implementation SSM due to lack of participation in the change.
Other form of ineffective communication that can cause resistance to change is grapevine communication. It is include gossip between people regarding to the one matter without accurate information. Since SSM has been proposed, yet a valid information regarding SSM is not available. All information regarding to SSM provided through informal conversation between workers without any validity support of validity materials. Some of workers may put an inaccurate opinion about implementation SSM due to lack of valid information from Public Service Department, so it also lead to resistance to change.
RESISTANCE FROM SENIOR EMPLOYEES
Seniority means that someone who works for a long period in a field and have wide knowledge and experience accordingly. Normally, they are good in the field that they deal with the experiences they went through. Recently, the SSM are introduced in the government sector to replace SSB. According to Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, ‘the basis (for promotion) will be on the competency of the workers and their professional development. Even the Cuepacs’ leaders assured that this would lead to higher productivity. They also stress that the employees will lose out if they do not improve themselves.
But with the SSM scheme will abolish the seniority rights that they deserved regarding their employment period in the organization. This scheme will influence the position of the senior employees in the government sectors. It means that the chances of promotional for the senior employees in the government sector are reduced. The good and hardworking employees that should be promoted will have a slimmer chance because their promotional are not longer based on their performances but on their education qualifications.
“Every man for himself”. This phrase shows that every man is selfish and will only take care of their self-interest before see to other people interest. When senior employees who achieved status, privilege or self-esteem through effective use of an old system, they will often see the new plan as a threat. Where the plan threatens paid overtime, people will naturally fear the impact on their bank balance.
Senior employees will not agree for the change because they do not want to lose their status quo. Left to our devices, some of us would initiate change, but most of them would prefer to retain the status quo. Not because they are lazy or stubborn, but because they were human. The status quo is a known entity and they like it that way. Most of them do not deal well with the unknown. The unknown is scary, it will makes them feel out of control, insecure, and generally as if they would like to go to bed, pull the blanket up over their head, and stick their thumb in their mouth. The senior employees would like to retain this status because they are already used to the situation and it will be too troublesome. The changes will only caused more inconveniences for them because they have to take more time to adapt the change of the new working environment.
Furthermore, the resistance of the SSM is due to the threat of the loss of position power (Anderson, T. P.). Before the introduction of this scheme, only the senior employees will be rise for promotion. But since then, the promotional criteria will be based on their qualification, ability and professional. Normally the young will have the educational qualification but the senior will have to climb through their experiences gained. So their positions are not secured because the young who have higher educational qualifications will rise faster than the senior employees. So the senior position that rightfully should belong to the senior employees is threatened by the inexperience young. Most of the senior employees think that they are qualified for promotional because they are more experience in dealing with the work they had done for the past years.
The older a person is, the more their resistance to the uncertainties situation that will pose a threat to them. This is because they cannot take up the challenges that may be face. They may be uncertain of their abilities to face the challenges of the world. Fear of the unknown situation can also be more prevalent to some than others, hence making it more of a personality trait than a situation variable. In addition, groups of people with such fears often find comfort in sharing their fear with each other, thus making the chance process more difficult as now it has become a “group” fear.
Conservatism is another reason why the senior employees would not want a change in the policy. Conservative senior individuals tend to resist changes. This factor has been measured and demonstrated in numerous studies and stands to reason on its own. Conservative individuals who group together, as was referred to above regarding the trade of “fear of the unknown” can also create great impasse for change. Especially those who value status highly are less open to change when the change threatens to impinge negatively on their self-perceived status.
Older people are more resistant to change, and people at the top of the organization are very versatile. This assertion is not true and unfair. If compared with the senior, many young people are tremendously resistant to change and many top executives rigidly reject new and expanded assignments. Assessment of an individual should not be biased for or against based on age, title, organization level, expertise, tenure, and any other factors (Bishop, C. H., 2002).
Normally, those senior employees who are old will get a mistreatment upon the introduction of the SSM. With the new SSM scheme, the promotional criteria are not fair to those senior employees that are bias to the beautiful employees. According to Cuepacs President N. Siva Subramaniam, they did not agree to the matrix system adapted by some department heads because their assessment inevitably involved personal feelings. He added that if the women are beautiful, they are given higher marks than those who are more senior to them.
Other than that, with the new SSM, those who want to be promoted will have to upgrading themselves. The exam is not only will test their writing skill but also their ability in solving problems. So it seems that the promotion will be based on their ability in educational certificate rather than their experiences. The resistant of the senior employees are also due to the fear of taking examination. This is because they had stop schooling for so many years and their age will affect their ability of thinking. Given their age, they would prefer to spend more time on leisure with their family rather than cope with the stress of examination.
It cannot be denied that experience is more important than paper qualification. Paper qualification does not show the real ability of oneself. Ability can only be proved via job performances but not by good writing skill. The senior employees think that experiences are more important than paper qualification. This is because they had gone through everything that may be encounter during their services in the related field. So they can solve the problems more effectively. Even though those who have many paper qualification but it does not prove their ability in performing well in their job. It will still need the senior employees to hold the power in ones organization.
PART III: OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
When resistance to change occurs in organizations, it will delay the process of change. Government needs to address the nature of change facing the organization, so that they can determine its likely magnitude and potential impact through change management methodology. Identify the signs of resistance to change can help to overcome resistance to change facing the organizations, managers and workers. According to Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D. (1996), resistance to change can be overcome by education when there is a lack of information or inaccurate information and analysis that bring resistance due to fear of the unknown. Public Service Department should giving civil servants all the relevant information about the consequences of proposed change that the Malaysian Remuneration System replaces the New Remuneration System to reducing potential fears. The information should valid, correct and supportive to the change so that government workers will be willing to accept the change and be less fearful.
Promoting change also is a key element to overcome resistance to change, changes should not be complex and should not be presented in an overwhelming manner at once (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). Government should introduce the change in a simpler, slow and smooth manner to increase the likelihood of the workers feeling less threatened by the change. This is because require some time and commitment to adapt and accept the change. Bringing about change requires the government to challenge the precedent, and requires perseverance against the habits and norms of established behaviors among the workers (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). A step to manage change successfully, Government gave one-month period to the government workers to opt for the Malaysian Remuneration System accordingly. During this period, Public Service Department should explain the need for and logic of change to individuals, groups and even the entire organizations to avoid confusion among of them.
Furthermore, government must provide support and facilitation during the change process. There are some tactics that government can be used to minimize the frustration of those coping with change, such as making oneself available, providing adequate information, actively listening, showing respect, offering emotional support and understanding to people affected by the change (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000, Anderson, A. L. & Barker, D., 1996). Government must recognize that workers may suffer a sense of loss during the change process that will bring to resistance of change. They must accept the fact that resistance to change is inevitable because they feel that change are threatened the status quo (Spiegelman, B. M. 1990). They must help workers to find the way out to overcome their anger and frustration; it also can minimize the elements that may increase the resistance to change among the change resisters.
Communication of change is a key element to resolve resistance of change; inefficiency communication has been said as a root of fail of change. When the purpose of the change is not made clearly, resistance due to poor communication may develop. The effective communication can take away at least part of the feeling of uncertainty and lack of information about the change, reducing speculation and unfounded fears (Schalk, R., Campbell, J. W. & Freese, C., 1998). Government should plan communication carefully to maintain and remain positive workers morale during the change process by communicates often and through a variety of media to the workers regarding implementation Malaysian Remuneration System. Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl (2000) has said that communicating what is known and asking for employees to do the best with what information is available will help minimize conflict and promote change successfully.
Needless to say, government should communicate honestly to workers about the change impact, otherwise resistance to change will increase to defend the status quo. Remind workers that things weren’t perfect before change, and probably won’t be perfect after it (Spiegelman, B. M., 1990). Tell the truth to the workers in it for physically and psychologically prepared upon the change process. There are some key principles to conduct effective communication, include message and medium redundancy is related to message retention to ensure that the delivered data are clear on the related points that repetition of the message through more than one medium increases people's memory of the message, encourage face-to-face communication to increase the probability that the sender and the receiver are connecting appropriately, and obtain feedback from workers to correct deficiencies immediately (Klien, S. M., 1996). Besides that, direct supervision is the expected and most effective source of organizationally sanctioned information in an effective communication. Workers are expected to hear important, officially sanctioned information from their immediate supervisor or boss in the hierarchy of authority because supervisors are normally contact with their workers frequently than others management. So, by keeping the first level supervision, the lower workers are well informed about the rationale and progress of the organizational change (Klien, S. M., 1996).
Moreover, negotiations with change resisters and the forces imposing the change can minimize resistance to change (Applebaum, S. H & Lee Wohl, 2000). This is possible when some person or group, with considerable power to resist, will clearly lose out on a change. It make individuals involved in the change will feel they have some control and authority on the matter of change; help to make decisions upon change to reduce resistance due to force change and lack of participation in the change. During the negotiation process, government and change resisters should try to make a concession to achieve integrative results in order to gain the commitment from both parties in a win-win situation (Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M. & Minton, J. W., 2001). To achieve integrative agreement, they must create a free and open discussion of all issues and concerns regarding SSB and SSM.
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