Tag: Workforce Optimization

Job Specification (JS) is a written statement that defines the Minimum qualifications, Skills, Knowledge, Experience, and Personal attributes required to perform a specific job effectively. Unlike a job description, which outlines duties and responsibilities, job specification focuses on the person who will perform the job. It typically includes details such as educational qualifications, technical skills, work experience, communication ability, physical requirements, and personality traits. Job specification helps HR in recruitment, selection, and training by providing a clear benchmark for evaluating candidates. It ensures that only suitable individuals are chosen for a role, thereby enhancing efficiency, reducing turnover, and aligning employee capabilities with organizational needs.

Need of Job Specification:

• For Recruitment and Selection

A job specification is vital in recruitment and selection as it defines the minimum qualifications, skills, and experience required for a role. It guides HR managers in screening applicants by matching their profiles with job needs, ensuring only suitable candidates proceed to the next stage. This saves time, reduces hiring errors, and improves the quality of new hires. Applicants also benefit by understanding whether they meet the eligibility criteria before applying. Thus, job specifications make the hiring process more systematic, objective, and effective, ensuring the right person is selected for the right job.

• For Training and Development

Job specifications help in identifying skill gaps between employee capabilities and job requirements. By outlining the qualifications, technical skills, and personal attributes needed, HR can design targeted training programs that bridge these gaps. Employees also understand the competencies they must acquire for career advancement. This ensures training resources are effectively utilized, aligned with organizational goals, and focused on enhancing performance. Moreover, job specifications provide a basis for developing succession planning strategies, ensuring future leaders are equipped with the right skills. Overall, they play a crucial role in employee growth, capacity building, and organizational development.

• For Performance Appraisal

Job specifications are important for performance appraisal because they provide clear benchmarks of skills, knowledge, and competencies required for a role. Supervisors can evaluate employees by comparing actual performance with expected abilities and attributes outlined in the JS. This helps in conducting fair, transparent, and objective appraisals. It also identifies areas where employees may lack specific skills, guiding future training and development needs. Furthermore, it supports decisions related to promotions, rewards, and career progression. By ensuring alignment between employee competencies and job requirements, job specifications make performance evaluations more reliable and growth-oriented.

• For Compensation Management

Job specifications assist in determining fair compensation and benefits by highlighting the qualifications, skills, and efforts required for a job. Positions that demand higher education, specialized skills, or extensive experience can be compensated accordingly. This ensures fairness, maintains internal equity, and supports external competitiveness in the job market. Job specifications also help avoid wage discrimination and comply with labor laws by establishing objective criteria for pay decisions. Linking compensation to skill and knowledge requirements motivates employees to upgrade their capabilities. Thus, job specifications provide a rational basis for structured, transparent, and equitable salary administration.

Features of Job Specification:

• Focus on Candidate Qualifications

A Job Specification details the essential qualifications a candidate must possess to perform the job successfully. It moves beyond the duties listed in a Job Description to outline the specific human traits required. This includes must-have credentials like educational degrees, professional certifications, and licenses. By clearly stating these non-negotiable prerequisites, it serves as a primary screening tool, ensuring only candidates who meet the baseline criteria are considered, thereby increasing the efficiency and focus of the recruitment and selection process.

• Outline of Required Skills and Abilities

This feature provides a precise inventory of the necessary skills and abilities. It differentiates between hard skills (technical, teachable capabilities like software proficiency or data analysis) and soft skills (inherent interpersonal traits like communication, leadership, or problem-solving). It also includes physical and sensory abilities essential for the role, such as lifting requirements or visual acuity. This clarity helps recruiters accurately assess resumes and guides interviewers in formulating questions to test for these specific competencies, ensuring a candidate can not only do the job but also fit its practical demands.

• Emphasis on Experience

The Job Specification explicitly defines the type and amount of experience required. It specifies the number of years needed in a particular field or role and, crucially, the kind of relevant experience that is valuable (e.g., “experience in a fast-paced retail environment” or “hands-on experience with CRM software”). This sets a clear benchmark for evaluators and helps candidates self-select, ensuring that those who move forward in the process possess the practical knowledge and proven track record deemed critical for immediate contribution and success in the position.

• Basis for Objective Selection

By converting job requirements into measurable and objective criteria, the Job Specification minimizes subjective hiring biases. It provides a standardized checklist against which all applicants can be fairly evaluated and compared. This objectivity is vital for legal defensibility, demonstrating that hiring decisions are based on bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQs) rather than personal preferences. It ensures fairness, promotes diversity by focusing on relevant criteria, and helps the organization select the most competent candidate based on a pre-defined set of skills and qualifications aligned with the job’s needs.

• Tool for Career Development and Training

While used primarily for hiring, a well-crafted Job Specification also serves as a foundational tool for employee development. By outlining the ideal candidate profile, it reveals the skills, knowledge, and experience valued by the organization. This allows current employees to identify competency gaps and pursue targeted training or professional development to prepare for future roles or promotions. For managers, it provides a clear framework for guiding career conversations and creating individualized development plans that align an employee’s growth with organizational needs.

• Legal and Compliance Framework

A Job Specification strengthens an organization’s legal compliance by grounding hiring criteria in job-relatedness. It helps justify employment decisions by proving that requirements are essential to job performance, which is a defense against claims of discrimination. It is particularly critical for outlining the physical and mental demands of a job, which is necessary for complying with disability laws and engaging in the interactive process for reasonable accommodations. This documented, objective standard ensures the organization adheres to equal employment opportunity (EEO) principles throughout its recruitment practices.

Components of Job Specification:

• Educational Qualifications

Educational qualifications are a key component of job specifications, as they define the minimum academic background required for a position. This may include school, college, or professional degrees, as well as specialized certifications. For example, a finance role may require a degree in commerce or accounting, while a technical role may demand engineering or IT qualifications. Educational requirements ensure that candidates possess the basic theoretical knowledge needed to perform job tasks. Clearly stating these qualifications helps HR filter out unqualified applicants and ensures that only capable candidates with the required academic foundation are selected.

• Work Experience

Work experience is another crucial component, as it specifies the practical exposure and industry knowledge required for the job. It includes the type of experience (e.g., sales, management, technical) and the duration (e.g., 2–5 years). For higher-level jobs, prior leadership or decision-making experience may also be required. This component ensures that candidates can apply theoretical knowledge in real-world situations and handle job challenges effectively. Stating experience requirements also helps organizations hire employees who are ready to contribute immediately, reducing the need for extensive training. Thus, it ensures competence, efficiency, and a better cultural fit in the workplace.

• Skills and Abilities

Skills and abilities form a central component of job specifications, as they outline the technical, analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills needed to perform a role effectively. For example, computer proficiency may be essential for IT jobs, negotiation skills for sales roles, or problem-solving ability for managerial positions. Abilities may also include leadership qualities, adaptability, teamwork, and decision-making capacity. This component ensures that candidates are not only academically qualified but also capable of applying their knowledge practically. By clearly listing required skills, HR can evaluate candidates more objectively and ensure a match between organizational needs and employee competencies.

• Personality Traits and Attributes

Job specifications also include personality traits and attributes required to succeed in a role. These may cover attitude, behavior, emotional intelligence, leadership qualities, discipline, honesty, and teamwork. For example, customer service roles may require patience and empathy, while managerial jobs may demand leadership and decision-making qualities. Physical attributes such as stamina, vision, or fitness may also be included depending on job demands. These traits ensure that candidates not only perform tasks but also align with organizational culture and values. Highlighting personality attributes in job specifications helps in selecting well-rounded employees who contribute positively to workplace harmony.

• Physical Requirements

Physical requirements are an important component of job specifications, especially for roles that demand strength, stamina, mobility, or specific health conditions. They include aspects like height, weight, vision, hearing ability, physical fitness, and endurance, depending on the nature of the job. For example, defense, police, or manufacturing jobs may require strong physical fitness, while desk-based roles may only need basic health standards. Stating physical requirements ensures that candidates are capable of performing job duties safely and effectively. It also helps employers comply with occupational safety standards, reduces workplace risks, and ensures overall efficiency in physically demanding roles.

Challenges of Job Specification:

• Risk of Unrealistic or Inflated Requirements

A major challenge is the tendency to create an “ideal candidate” profile that is unrealistic. Hiring managers may inflate requirements, demanding more years of experience, higher educational degrees, or a longer list of skills than the job truly necessitates. This creates a barrier to entry, artificially shrinks the talent pool, and can lead to prolonged vacancy periods. It also increases the risk of discriminating against capable candidates who could learn the role quickly but don’t meet every exaggerated criterion on paper.

• Perpetuating Unconscious Bias and Lack of Diversity

Job Specifications can inadvertently embed bias into the hiring process. Using language or criteria that favor a particular demographic background, or requiring credentials from specific institutions, can systematically disadvantage diverse candidates. Over-reliance on traditional qualifications like prestigious university degrees can overlook skilled individuals with non-linear career paths or equivalent experience. This challenge threatens diversity and inclusion goals and can limit the organization’s access to innovative talent from varied backgrounds and perspectives.

• Balancing Specificity with Flexibility for Potential

Focusing too rigidly on a narrow set of specific skills and experiences can cause recruiters to overlook high-potential candidates. This approach fails to account for transferable skills, cultural add, and learning agility. A candidate might lack a specific software proficiency but possess exceptional problem-solving skills that would allow them to master it quickly. An overly strict specification prioritizes a perfect match on paper over a candidate’s potential to grow and bring fresh ideas, potentially causing the organization to miss out on exceptional talent.

• Keeping Pace with Evolving Job Roles

In fast-changing industries, the skills required for a role can become obsolete quickly. A Job Specification created one year ago may no longer reflect the current technological landscape or business needs. The challenge is to ensure these documents are regularly reviewed and updated. Failure to do so results in hiring candidates with outdated skill sets, creating immediate skill gaps that require extensive training and hindering the organization’s ability to remain competitive and agile in a dynamic market.

• Legal and Compliance Risks of Poor Wording

Inaccurate or poorly worded specifications pose significant legal risks. Listing requirements that are not “Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications” (BFOQs) can lead to claims of discriminatory hiring practices. For instance, specifying “recent graduates” could imply age bias, or stating physical requirements not essential to the job’s core functions could violate disability acts. Ensuring every criterion is justifiable, relevant, and non-discriminatory requires meticulous drafting and constant vigilance to comply with evolving employment laws, making it a complex legal challenge.

Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform inventions and scientific outcomes into new products and services that benefit society. Technology transfer is closely related to (and may arguably be considered a subset of) knowledge transfer.

A comprehensive definition of technology transfer today includes the notion of collaborative process as it became clear that global challenges could be resolved only through the development of global solutions. Knowledge and technology transfer plays a crucial role in connecting innovation stakeholders and moving inventions from creators to public and private users.

Intellectual property (IP) is an important instrument of technology transfer, as it establishes an environment conducive to sharing research results and technologies. Analysis in 2003 showed that the context, or environment, and motives of each organization involved will influence the method of technology transfer employed. The motives behind the technology transfer were not necessarily homogenous across organization levels, especially when commercial and government interests are combined.  The protection of IP rights enables all parties, including universities and research institutions to ensure ownership of the scientific outcomes of their intellectual activity, and to control the use of IP in accordance with their mission and core values. IP protection gives academic institutions capacity to market their inventions, attract funding, seek industrial partners and assure dissemination of new technologies through means such as licensing or creation of start-ups for the benefit of society.

Technology Transfer in practice

Technology transfers may occur between universities, businesses (of any size, ranging from small, medium, to large), governments, across geopolitical borders, both formally and informally, and both openly and secretly. Often it occurs by concerted effort to share skills, knowledge, technologies, manufacturing methods, samples, and facilities among the participants.

Technology Transfer process involves many activities, which can be represented in many ways, in reality, technology transfer is a fluid and dynamic process that rarely follows a linear course. Typical steps include:

• Knowledge creation
• Disclosure
• Assessment and evaluation
• IP protection
• Fundraising and technology development
• Marketing
• Commercialization
• Product development

Technology transfer aims to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users who can then further develop and exploit the technology into new products, processes, applications, materials, or services. It is closely related to (and may arguably be considered a subset of) knowledge transfer. Horizontal transfer is the movement of technologies from one area to another.

Importance of Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is an important part of the technological innovation process, promoting scientific and technological research and the associated skills and procedures to wider society and the marketplace.

Tech transfer allows research to develop from the discovery of novel technologies along the value chain to disclosure, evaluation and the protection of these breakthroughs. From here, marketing, licensing and further development of products allow the research to become an impactful product, process or service for society. In addition, the financial returns afforded by a successful product can be reinvested into further research to begin the cycle again.

As a result, technology transfer creates revenues for universities to use for faculty recruitment, funding and more research. Companies are able to tap into the advances brought about by this academic research without having to spend on internal R&D to create new products to drive business forward.

The advantages of successful technology transfer can be felt through national and regional economies via growth through innovation, new ventures and stronger industry to boost employment.

Spin-outs

Spin-outs are used where the host organization does not have the necessary will, resources, or skills to develop new technology. Often these approaches are associated with raising of venture capital (VC) as a means of funding the development process, a practice common in the United States and the European Union. Research spin-off companies are a popular vehicle of commercialization in Canada, where the rate of licensing of Canadian university research remains far below that of the US. Local venture capital organizations such as the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) also sponsor conferences at which investors assess the potential for commercialization of technology.

Technology brokers are people who discovered how to bridge the emergent worlds and apply scientific concepts or processes to new situations or circumstances. A related term, used almost synonymously, especially in Europe, is “technology valorisation”. While conceptually the practice has been utilized for many years (in ancient times, Archimedes was notable for applying science to practical problems), the present-day volume of research, combined with high-profile failures at Xerox PARC and elsewhere, has led to a focus on the process itself.

Whereas technology transfer can involve the dissemination of highly complex technology from capital-intensive origins to low-capital recipients (and can involve aspects of dependency and fragility of systems), it also can involve appropriate technology, not necessarily high-tech or expensive, that is better disseminated, yielding robustness and independence of systems.

Informal promotion

Technology transfer is also promoted through informal means, such as at conferences organized by various groups, including the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), and at “challenge” competitions by organizations such as the Center for Advancing Innovation in Maryland. AUTM represents over 3,100 technology transfer professionals, and more than 800 universities, research centres, hospitals, businesses and government organizations.

The most frequently used informal means of technology transfer are through education, studies, professional exchange of opinions, movement of people, seminars, workshops.

There are numerous professional associations and TTO Networks enhancing different forms of collaboration among technology managers in order to facilitate this “informal” transfer of best practices and experiences.

In addition to AUTM, other regional and international associations include the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP), Licensing Executives Society (LES), Praxis Auril and others. There are also national Technology transfer associations and networks, such as the National Association of Technology Transfer Offices in Mexico (Red OTT Mexico), the Brazilian Forum of Innovation and Technology Transfer Managers (FORTEC), the Alliance of TechTransfer Professionals of the Philippines (AToP), the South African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), and other associations.

They promote cooperation in technology transfer and the exchange of best practices and experiences among professionals, as today international technology transfer is considered one of the most effective ways to bring people together to find solutions to global problems such as COVID-19, climate change or cyber-attacks.

IP policies

Universities and research institutions seeking to partner with industry or other organizations can adopt an institutional intellectual property policy for effective intellectual property management and technology transfer. Such policies provide structure, predictability, and a n environment, in which commercialization partners (industrial sponsors, consultants, non-profit organizations, SMEs, governments) and research stakeholders (researchers, technicians, students, visiting researchers, etc.) can access and share knowledge, technology and IP. National IP strategies are measures taken by a government to realize its IP policy objectives.

A mock interview is an emulation of a job interview used for training purposes. The conversational exercise usually resembles a real interview as closely as possible, for the purpose of providing experience for a candidate. It can help a job applicant to understand what is expected in a real job interview, and can help an applicant improve his or her self-presentation. Mock interviews can be videotaped; the candidate can view the tape afterward, and get feedback.

A mock interview process helps candidates gain confidence with the chance to reflect on their non-verbal and verbal communication abilities. It also provides an opportunity for interviewees to make mistakes and work on correcting them in a safe atmosphere.

There are coaches who can provide feedback on aspects of the interview process. Mock interviews are most common for job interviews, but may also be used to train public figures to handle interrogations by journalists, as well as help candidates for office prepare for debates. Some organizations schedule mock interview events to help many students prepare for job interviews. For example, some schools have mock interview training days, often organized by career and guidance counselors. While the usual sense of the term is an exercise done as a form of preparation prior to applying for jobs, there is another sense of the term which describes a playful or non-serious interview. Mock interviews can help a person gain confidence for real interviews, as well as provide the interviewee with information about how to handle an upcoming interview.

Benefits of Mock Interviews

The mock interview approach is excellent for developing the candidate’s performance at job interviews and avoiding repeating the same mistakes in the future. Here are some of the skills the interviewee can improve during a mock interview:

• Confidence
• Effective responses
• Familiarity with the course of an interview
• Verbal and nonverbal communication

Change management is defined as the methods and manners in which a company describes and implements change within both its internal and external processes. This includes preparing and supporting employees, establishing the necessary steps for change, and monitoring pre- and post-change activities to ensure successful implementation.

Significant organizational change can be challenging. It often requires many levels of cooperation and may involve different independent entities within an organization. Developing a structured approach to change is critical to help ensure a beneficial transition while mitigating disruption.

Changes usually fail for human reasons: the promoters of the change did not attend to the healthy, real and predictable reactions of normal people to disturbance of their routines. Effective communication is one of the most important success factors for effective change management. All involved individuals must understand the progress through the various stages and see results as the change cascades.

Change Management Need

Change management is a complex process and requires serious attention as well as involvement from the management and people from all levels, in order to achieve a meaningful or a progressive transformation across various levels. For being ahead in the competitive race and gaining a winning edge, organizations have been focusing on expansion of business worldwide, achieving excellence in processes and operations, implementing innovations in technology and identifying/developing the right talent. The fast changes which have taken place and the way in which this has affected the strategies, people, policies and processes in an organization, it has become all the more imperative that organizations clearly establish a well-defined change management framework for realizing the strategic objectives. Change is inevitable and it can only be managed, failing which the organizations may cease to exist.

In the era of globalization, organizations function across the cultural boundaries with large investments in human capital as well as physical resources, give utmost importance to technological change and innovative practices for a leadership advantage. Business alliances like mergers, acquisitions, diversifications, takeovers and various other collaborative ventures have become the most preferred strategic best practices for the organizations to survive the fierce forces of competition, through transfer of people, technology, processes and leadership. For successfully handling this transition and converting the threats of change into opportunities, organizations must be flexible and open for Change Management.

By improving the readiness for change, organizations can strengthen their adaptability mechanisms and build their internal competencies for facing future uncertainties or many such multiple change auguring situations. An organization’s readiness for change management influences organizational strategies and policy related decisions, as it involves a comprehensive, well planned approach and implementation of systemic interventions which would have an overall influence on the system, processes, people as well as the organizational structure as a whole.

Innovations in technology and research advancements, have created opportunities for working virtually across any part of the globe; changes in the organizational structure and hierarchy; changes in the human resource policies and regulations, has resulted in organizational reengineering and change in the style of working of employees.

For meeting the growing demands of ever changing business operations, more dynamic and flexible organizations have endorsed new methods of working like flexi work hours, work from home, freelancing opportunities, virtual method of working, business operation outsourcing and project driven operations, etc. which provide ample opportunities to the workmen to work as per their convenience and flexibility.

Organizations change for responding to the fluctuations or volatility in the business environment. Any change in order to have successful outcomes must involve comprehensive planning, focused approach and involvement of the key stakeholders in the entire process.

For any organization, people play a very vital role in driving business excellence as they are the most valuable assets. Hence, a change in the method of handling a job role, implementation of facilitating interventions and training people about the new practices or techniques, can result in impressive results in terms of the return on investment (ROI). How organizations manage change or respond to the business transitions largely depend upon the adaptability of people or readiness of the people in understanding the changes in the process and method of handling a job. Change management process may directly affect the human resource strategies of an organization depending upon the goals or strategies of an organization.

A well-defined change management process can help in mitigating risks related with the people side. If this aspect is ignored, it might result in increase in the overall costs, decline in productivity as well as employee motivation and increase in the absenteeism level and employee attrition. Hence, it improves the overall preparedness of the management and the decision-making authorities in understanding the need for managing change, the key processes involved in it and in understanding the operational technicalities connected with it.

Planned change if effectively implemented can be beneficial in terms of controlling costs, minimizing risks, reducing the stress and anxiety by controlling uncertainties. It helps in setting up new milestones, establishing objectives, defining priorities and identifying the limitations for driving excellence in new initiatives.

Effective Change management process help organizations in understanding the changing customer needs, meeting their demands and expectations much better since the requirements are well defined. If implemented with proper planning, change management does not affect the day to day functioning of an organization, rather it functions concurrently. Instead it creates a scope for establishing best practices, defining the operational framework and regulations for the people, processes and system. It engages people in the entire process and motivates them to work towards realization of a common goal or objective and deliver excellence in performance through collaborative efforts and involvement in the process as a whole. Research in this direction proves the fact that organizations which have an established change management process are more likely to excel in meeting the business goals or achieve excellence in their project outcomes.

Effective change management is the key to realization of operational effectiveness, plays a key role in creating an optimism in the organizational environment as it has holistic outcomes and enables achievement of outcomes by defining superior benchmarks and working towards it for realization of the set benchmarks.

Organizational change affect the leadership thinking style and may optimize the benefits by establishing the systems and processes in place, establishing an integrated framework for achieving the developmental goals with the complete involvement of people in the end to end stages of change management cycle.

Kotter’s change management theory

Kotter’s change management theory is one of the most popular and adopted ones in the world. This theory has been devised by John P. Kotter, who is a Harvard Business School Professor and author of several books based on change management. This change management theory of his is divided into eight stages where each one of them focuses on a key principle that is associated with the response of people to change.

Stages

• Increase urgency: This step involves creating a sense of urgency among the people so as to motivate them to move forward towards objectives.
• Build the team: This step of Kotter’s change management theory is associated with getting the right people on the team by selecting a mix of skills, knowledge and commitment.
• Get the vision correct: This stage is related to creating the correct vision by taking into account, not the just strategy but also creativity, emotional connect and objectives.
• Communicate: Communication with people regarding change and its need is also an important part of the change management theory by Kotter.
• Get things moving: In order to get things moving or empower action, one needs to get support, remove the roadblocks and implement feedback in a constructive way.
• Focus on short term goals: Focusing on short term goals and dividing the ultimate goal into small and achievable parts is a good way to achieve success without too much pressure.
• Don’t give up: Persistence is the key to success, and it is important not to give up while the process of change management is going on, no matter how tough things may seem.
• Incorporate change: Besides managing change effectively, it is also important to reinforce it and make it a part of the workplace culture.

Benefits of this model

• This is a step-by-step model that is easy to follow and incorporate.
• The main idea behind it is to accept the change and prepare for it rather than changing itself.

Nudge Theory

Nudge Theory or Nudge is a concept that finds use in behavioral science, economics, and political theory but can be applied to change management in organizations and businesses as well. This theory is mainly credited to Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler. Nudging someone or encouraging and inspiring them to change is the basic essence of this theory. Nudge theory is not only helpful in exploring and understanding existing influences but also explaining them to either eliminate them or change them to an extent where positives may begin to be derived.

It is important to note that there are many unhelpful ‘nudges’ around which can either be deliberate or may just be accidental. What this theory mainly seeks is to work upon the management as well as the understanding of the many influences on human behavior that lead to the changing people. It focuses on the design of choices which is responsible for directing our preferences and influencing the choices that we make. What this theory says is that choices must be designed in such a way that it can be aligned with the way people think and decide.

As compared to other theories, Nudge Theory is more sophisticated in its approach and is radically different from other ways of transitioning. This theory eliminates traditional change methods like punishment enforcement and direct instructions. One of the main benefits of this theory is that it takes into account the difference in feelings, opinions, and knowledge of people and also considers the reality of the situation as well as the characteristics of human nature and behavior. It thus minimizes resistance from employees of a company and is very well applied in several industries.

Bridges’ Transition Model

Bridges‘ transition model was developed by William Bridges who is a change consultant, and this theory came into the eye of the public after it was published in the book “Managing transitions”. The specialty of this model or theory is that it concentrates and focusses upon transition and not change as such. The difference between transition and change may be subtle, but it is important to understand it. Where transition on one hand is internal, change on the other is something that happens to people, even when they don’t realize it. Transition is something that happens to people when they are going through the change. Change can be instant, transition may take time.

The model focuses on three main stages that are given as follows:

• The Neutral Zone: This is the stage of uncertainty, impatience, and confusion. This stage can be considered as the bridge between the old and the new when people are still attached to the old but trying to adapt to the new. This stage is associated with low morale and reduced productivity, and one may experience anxiety and skepticism as well when going through this stage. But despite this, the neutral zone may also include innovation, renewal and a burst of creativity.
• Ending, Losing, and Letting Go: When people are first introduced to change, they may enter this first stage that is marked with resistance and emotional discomfort. Some of the emotions experienced at this stage include fear, resentment, anger, denial, sadness, frustration and most of all-disorientation. One has to realize that he/she is coming near to a certain end so as to accept new beginnings.
• The New Beginning: When the neutral phase is passed through support and guidance, the stage of acceptance and energy enters the picture. At this level, people begin to embrace the change and understand its importance. They are beginning to build the skills needed to reach the new goals and may start to experience benefits of the change already. It is associated with high levels of energy, new commitment and a zest to learn.

Kübler-Ross Five Stage Model

The Kübler-Ross five stage model was developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross after she pursued her research on the dying and death. This model is also thus known as the Grief Model as it talks about the various emotional states and stages a person goes through when he/she discovers that he/she may be nearing their end. The model can also be applied to other life situations such as loss of job, changes in work and other less serious health conditions. The model helps to understand and deal with personal trauma and has been widely accepted worldwide. The following are the various stages that are associated with the Kübler-Ross model:

Anger: When the news actually gets absorbed, then the first reaction is usually that of anger. The denial converts into anger when one realizes that the change will actually affect them and is for real. One starts looking for someone to blame during this stage. For different people, there can be different ways of directing anger.

Denial: Denial is the first stage of the model and is a stage when one is unable to accept the news. It is like a buffer or defense that a person tends to create due to the inability to absorb the news. One may experience shock as well as a sense of numbness during this stage and this happens because every person shows resistance towards change and may not want to believe what is happening.

Bargaining: The next step or stage involves bargaining so as to avail the best possible solution out of the situation or circumstance. Bargaining is a way for people to avoid ending up with the worst-case scenario and is a natural reaction to avoid the extreme change.

Depression: When one realizes that bargaining isn’t working, he/she may end up getting depressed and may lose all faith. This is the phase when one is not bothered by anything and moves into a sad and hopeless state of mind. There are many ways to observe or identify depression and some of them include low energy, non-commitment, low motivation and lack of any kind of excitement or happiness.

Acceptance: When one realizes that there is no point in being depressed or fighting change, he/she may finally accept what is happening and may begin to resign to it. There are different ways in people handle this stage. While some may begin to explore the options left with them to make the most of the situation, others may just feel that no option is left for them and may just resign to destiny.