Was Privatization of Oman Telecommunications the right thing to do

Emotion and Change

Organizational change is a process that challenges the status quo , which in turn puts the employees in the organization in a roller coaster of emotions and fears about the uncertainty of the future or the ability to cope with the change . Emotionality at work and at the organization one is working for hampers the ability of the person to work it has been found that a highly emotional atmosphere is stressful for the employee Researches have found that stressed employees have low motivation , and it decreases performance , likewise it

means high turn0over , sick-leaves accidents and poor communication and conflict with co-workers (Schabracq

Cooper , 2000 Murphy , 1995 McHugh , 1993 . Change have often been investigated in terms of how it affects the employees in terms of their resistance to change , what has not been explored is the role of emotional stress to the individual during the change process . A number of surveys revealed that majority of those who are stressed at work are emotionally distraught over their work situations and work environment (British Industrial Society Survey , 2001 . Employee emotional stress is an important factor to consider since it is a clear obstacle to the planning and implementation of change . Employees who are not receptive to change and feels strongly about it would exhibit behaviors like cynicism , negative comments , disbelief etc , that when communicated to other employees may sow distraught among a large number of the employee population and would become a larger problem for the organization (Armenakis Bedeian ,1999

Attitudes and Change

Attitudes refer to the specific state of understanding , feelings and preconceptions that causes the individual to behave in certain ways congruent to his attitudes towards his environment (Secord Beckman ,1969 . According to other theorists , attitudes reflect the person 's tendency to think , to feel , or behave in a positive or negative way towards the focal object of the attitude (Arnold , 1995 . On the other hand attitudes change when the individual understands of the situation changes this can be brought about by the person 's change in emotions , leading to change in behavior (Elizur Guttman , 1976 . The concept of attitude to organizational change is relevant since employee 's attitudes are formed within the context of the change and is directed towards change . When employees have negative attitudes to change , then it would also lead to negative behaviors about the change meanwhile , strong positive attitudes towards change helps the implementation of change (Piderit , 2000 . This would mean that change can be accepted positively or negatively , and consequently the behavioral reactions towards change may also be supporting the change or opposing it

Positive attitudes to change were found to be necessary in achieving the goals of the organization and in the success of the change process (Eby et al , 2000 Martin , 1998 Kotter , 1996

Gilmore and Barnett , 1992 . Although the literature on change management has prescribed frameworks and models to approach and manage change the outcomes have not been encouraging . According to Beer and Nohria (2000 seventy percent of all...