CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN ULSL Change management is the process of implementing the change smoothly.

ULSL, having gone through so many changes during the past, have well managed most of the changes by proper understanding of the fact that the change can not be allowed to happen, but needs to be managed. The following are the key changes gone through by ULSL. They have gone through a strategic change during the period of 2004-2007 where they attempted to change the organization wide, long term values implementing the idea of being a global company from their current level of locally operating company at that time. They went through stages of resistance in matching the global principles locally. The main reasons for this resistance were the factors such as the shock of the new where employees did not like to change their routine and the expected inconvenience by the change. Further, USLS have gone through the following operational changes where the impact of changes on people was more significant than that of strategic change. In 2009, Mr. Amal Kabral, joined ULSL as the chairman and brought in new practices including an open office environment where E-learning plays a major role. E-learning is a common learning tool which they were asked to use by the region. But most of them do not find it useful. Roughly around 1-5 trainings are assigned where they only complete around 1. Only 2/3% of staff found this tool useful. The key reason for the resistance in this instance is the expected inconvenience amongst the busy schedule of the employees. On the other hand, the major operational change they went through was the relocation of their factory to Horana in (Year). This was the biggest challenge they faced as they found it very difficult to change the mindset of the workers to move after 75 years of factory being there. However, they managed this change in stages as follows, By adopting the Bargained Approach (Thurley) where agreement is arrived at by negotiation and compromise before the implementation of change, they addressed the group who resisted this change due to inconvenience by providing transport and arranging different appropriate shifts. On the other hand, the group who could not fit it to this was addressed either by finding new employment for them in different companies or giving them golden hand shakes with compensation where the employees were willing to. In overall, most of the changes gone through by ULSL so far have been well managed by effective communication of the need and the benefits of the changes from top to bottom which allayed unnecessary fears. For this purpose, they identified the potential impact for different groups clearly and addressed the same in different ways which were appropriate to different groups. However, the implementation of E-learning has not been successful so far. To address this issue, the following approaches are recommended. There is a group of staff who welcomed the implementation of E-learning and enjoying the benefit of the same. So, these staff can be used as internal change agents in implementing the Elearning system effectively and smoothly. In failing the above, the management has an option to take the directive approach (Thurley) where the change will be implemented by managerial power without any consultation. However, this may create internal de-motivation as this will erode the benefits of their present Bargained Approach where participation facilitated the involvement of employees in the change, passing the ownership of change to the employees as well. So, the directive approach should be the last resort where the change is highly crucial and is impossible by other approaches.