Societal change can be defined as a phenomenon with a continuous impact that depends on new theories or newly arrived results; these changes benefit society in the first place (Molnar, 2010). Since any societal change directly impacts the community members who are subject to change when the scholar-practitioner model arrives at solutions that lead to changes, surveys are usually conducted to know the stakeholders' opinions. Some accept the changes, while others reject them (O'Rourke, Higuchi & Hogg, 2016).
The Stakeholders:
According to Freeman, R. 1984 Stakeholders, in general, are any group or individual who can influence or be affected by the achievement of the organization's goals (Freeman, 1984); according to the PMBOK Guide ® 10th Edition, a stakeholder is any person, group or organization that actively participates in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the implementation or completion of the project, so in brief, the stakeholder has something to gain or lose through project results (Fair-Wright & Juli, 2016).
Identify Stakeholders in my case:
- Internal Stakeholders: the project sponsor, which is the New York government; the project management team from the government; the executive management of the construction company; and finally, the subcontractors and workers (Fair-Wright & Juli, 2016).
- External Stakeholders: The people not directly involved in the project, as well as the end users and employees working in the buildings (Fair-Wright & Juli, 2016).
- Failure to vacate rooms in which construction work will be carried out because employees have unfinished functional work.
- The employees are violating the instructions by leaving their personal items on their desks, exposing them to damage during the construction work.
- Some employees pretended to be ignorant and refused to cooperate to complete the construction work, which endangers their safety.
Stakeholders who refuse the change:
When we rehabilitate government buildings in New York City, we suffer the most by refusing change from employees inside these buildings. The reasons for these employees vary, such as fear of the unknown, the need to understand how the change will benefit the current building situation, or the perception that the change is unnecessary (Culek, 2020). Especially since, as I mentioned earlier, the new change is not in the interest of the building itself but in preserving the environment, and the functions of air conditioning and heating will remain the same for the better (NYC Buildings, 2016).
Refuse to change:
Refusal to change behavior ranges from ignoring, refusing to cooperate, malicious compliance, pretending to be ignorant, withholding information, and, in extreme cases, allowing change to fail or cause sabotage (Culek, 2020).
Example: In a government building responsible for the financial purposes of a significant New York City department, we encountered the following from the employees:
Reason for refusing the change:
In the current example, the reason for rejecting the change is directly related to the application of the incomplete scholar-practitioner approach. No opinion polls were distributed to employees to discuss their acceptance of the upcoming change, nor was adequate information informing them of the reason for the change. The government considers that it is implementing legislation and laws that have been decided upon, and they are implementing them without the need to return them to the users of those buildings.
Conclusion
When applying the scholar-practitioner approach, it is essential to ensure that key stakeholders are identified and their views on the need for change are identified (Recardo, 1995). In addition to supporting the planned change by presenting information about the change to stakeholders, developing an in-depth understanding of the perspectives and positions of key stakeholders will provide important information. This information will assist project leaders in selecting the most appropriate strategies to address actual or potential opposition to the planned change (O'Rourke, Higuchi & Hogg, 2016).
References
Culek, C. (2020). Managing Stakeholder Resistance to Change.
https://www.batonglobal.com/post/managing-stakeholder-resistance-to-change
Fair-Wright, C. & Juli, T. (2016). Overcoming stakeholder resistance through dialogue. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2016—EMEA, Barcelona, Spain. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Freeman, R. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston, MA: Pitman.
Recardo, R. J. (1995). Overcoming resistance to change. National Productivity Review, 14, 5-5.
Molnar, J. J. (2010). Climate change and societal response: Livelihoods, communities, and the environment. Rural Sociology, 75(1), 1-16.
NYC Buildings. (2016). NYCECC HVAC 1 OVERVIEW: 2016 NYC Energy Conservation Code.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/2.1.14-Commercial_HVAC-1_Module.pdf
O'Rourke, T., Higuchi, K. S., & Hogg, W. (2016). Stakeholder participation in system change: A new conceptual model. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 13(4), 261-269.