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Essay on organizational change management
Impact of change within an organisation
Why organization change is inevitable
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1. Managing Change and Innovation
Introduction
Paton & McCalman (2008) define change management as a structured approach that enables organizations to transition individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. According to Robbins & Coulter (2005), organizational change refers to any alterations in the people, technology or structures within an organization.
Discussion of change management
There exist internal and external forces that bring about the need for organizations to change. Robbins & Coulter (2005) identify the following external forces to change; market-place conditions, technological advancements, economic conditions, and government laws and regulations. The internal forces for change include employee attitudes and behavior as well as compensation and benefit requirements, organizational strategy and new equipment.
Robbins & Coulter (2005) identify two viewpoints to the change process in organizations. These are; ‘the calm waters’ and ‘the white water rapids’ metaphors. The ‘white water’ metaphor works on the premise that the operating environments are characterized by uncertainties and dynamisms. The ‘calm waters’ metaphor on the other hand is premised on believe that the operating environment is stable and predictable and utilizes Lewin's three-step model of unfreezing the status quo, change to a new state and finally refreezing to the new state in order to manage the change process. According to Hiatt & Creasey (2003), people resist change because of a number of factors such as uncertainty, fear of personal loss of status, money, authority, friendships, and the belief that the change is not in the organization’s best interest. Changing people refers to changes in attitudes, ex...
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...ld Business, 69(4), pp. 9-18.
Robbins, S. P. and Coulter, M. (2005). Management, 8th Ed, Prentice Hall Inc.
Ruskin, J. (n. d). Importance of Human Resource Management. Human Resource Excellence. [online] available at http://www.humanresourceexcellence.com/importance-of-human resource-management/ accessed May 22, 2014.
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Change can be defined as, “the continuous adoption of business strategies and structures in response to internal pressures
Kegan, R. & L. Laskow Lahey. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to overcome it and unlock potential in yourself and your organization. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Change is the only constant in life. And therefore it should be understood as part of a continuing work in progress that calls for a much broader canvas that seeks out competing voices, and works with the resulting ambiguities, contradictions and tensions of messy reality (Graetz, F. & Smith, A., 2010). In this submission I try to show that organizational change is majorly based on the environment surrounding it much more than the desire of the members or change agents working in that organization. This view diverts from that of Lippitt, (1958) who suggests that implementing planned organizational changes successfully depends on premeditated interventions intended to modify the functioning of an organization. It also diverts from the traditional approaches to organizational change that generally follow a linear, rational model in which the focus is on controllability under the stewardship of a strong leader or ‘guiding coalition (Collis, 1998). In this discussion therefore, comparison made between the different philosophies of change and I try to show that successful change implantation largely depends on an organizations appreciation of what goes on around it rather than what they have planned as a strategic direction.
Change is a fundamental element of individuals, groups and all sorts of organizations. As it is the case for individuals, groups and societies, where change is a continuous process, composed of an indefinite amount of smaller sub-changes that vary in effect and length, and is affected by all sorts of aspects and events, many of which cyclic are anticipated ones. It is also the case for organizations, where change occurs repeatedly during the life cycle of organizations. Yet change in organizations is not as anticipated nor as predictable, with unexpected internal and external variables and political forces that can further complicate the management of change (Andriopoulos, C. and P. Dawson, 2009), which is by itself, the focus of many scholars in their pursuit to shed light on and facilitate the change process (Kotter 1996; Levin 1947; et al).
Changing situations throughout the world affect all organizations in business today. Therefore, most organizations acknowledge the need to experience change and transformation in order to survive. The key challenges companies face are due to the advancements in technology, the social environment caused by globalization, the pace of competition, and the demands regarding customer expectations. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles involved with change despite all the articles, books, and publications devoted to the topic. People are naturally resistant to fundamental changes and often intimidated by the process; the old traditional patterns and methods are no longer effective.
Change management is one of the important successful management system that are used in many projects in different companies. It is to manage the changes in such firms in suitable way that will improve and reach to high quality and value [1].
The change process within any organization can prove to be difficult and very stressful, not only for the employees but also for the management team. Hayes (2014), highlights seven core activities that must take place in order for change to be effective: recognizing the need for change, diagnosing the change and formulating a future state, planning the desired change, implementing the strategies, sustaining the implemented change, managing all those involved and learning from the change. Individually, these steps are comprised of key actions and decisions that must be properly addressed in order to move on to the next step. This paper is going to examine how change managers manage the implementation of change and strategies used
Change Management serve as a great and fast developing training that is being more and more expanded on a worldwide scale by enterprise, government departments. Inside an organization, Change Management relate to a organized way to promote the adoption of change by teams and personal.
It is apparent that the only thing constant in business is change. Organizational change is often an overwhelming challenge for business leaders, managers and employees alike. The need for change may be the result of market shifts, economic environment, technology advancements or changing work force skill-set demands. Today Organizational change occurs for reasons that originate external to the organization (Chandler, 1996: Hannan & Freeman, 1984), as well as internal to the organization (Baker 1990: Prechel 1994). Thus, External constraints, internal constraints, resource dependency and increasingly growing competitive markets force organizations to change in order to maximize economic potential. Although organizational changes are usually a response in reaction to an event, companies and leaders should still expect to encounter issues. Organizations need to be more proactive and contingent on how to handle the problems that will inevitably come about. This will make the process of organizational change go smoothly as well as reduce resistance through proper management techniques. Resource dependency argues that both environmental and organizational constraints impact organizational change (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).
Reasons for change can be down to adopting new corporate strategies, structures, process and technology to assist organisations handle internal and external environmental conditions effectively (Goksoy, 2015). However, merely adopting change cannot drastically drive through change so organisations need to go through reconstructive change to realign the organisations objectives (Green, 2007). Although change can be introduced in these drastic fashions it can also be emergent within an organisation due
Toribio, C. T., & Hernandez, R. G. (2011). Coping with resistance to change in organizations (Unpublished masters thesis). Linnaeus University, Sweden. Retrieved from http://lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:425506
Robbins et al. (2011, p. 186), states ‘Change is an organizational reality and affects every part of a manager’s job’. Today’s wave of change primarily created by economic condition so change is now such a constant feature of organization life (Goodman, E. 2011, p.243). Organizations need to be changed at one point or another in structure, technology or people. These changes are defined as organizational change (Robbins et al. 2011, p.18). Organizational change is important because changes can increase effectiveness and efficiency, the innovation of products, services as well as dealing with changes in external and internal forces (Goodman, E. 2011, p.243). However, ‘the bottom line is that organizational change is difficult because management systems are design and people are rewarded for stability’ (Lawler, E.E. & Worley, C.G. 2006, p.11).
Individuals go through a reaction process when they are personally confronted with major organizational change (Kyle, 1993; Jacobs, 1995; Bovey & Hede, 2001). Within this process there are four phases that it consists of: initial denial, resistance, gradual exploration, and eventual commitment (Scott & Jaffe, 1988; Bovey & Hede, 2001). Resistance to change is the initial area to focus on. The issues of organizational change and resistance to change have received a lot of attention over the past decade (Macri, Tagliaventi & Bertolotti, 2002). The perceptions of individuals play a fu...
The employee reflects change in an organization as a shift of role, responsibilities and skill. However, in an organizational level its refers change as a framework structure around the changing needs and capability of an organization to perform. Both employee and organization’s perception of change are needed to ensure the change is successful. Brown (2011) reported that “the role of change as a corrective action often affect patterns of work or values, and in consequence meet with resistance” (p. 144). Once an organization and its member decide to conduct a change program, they intensify the forces that driving the change. The life cycle of employee’s resistance is necessary in accomplishing change in an organization. There are five important phases in a life cycle of employee resistance to change in an organization, namely introduce the change, forces of change emerge, direct conflict happens in an organization, residual resistance appear in an organization and lastly, establish the change. (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Different organizations typically face change due to many forces surrounding their mission. These forces can be from either internal or external sources. The External forces usually occur outside of the organization and it could have a global effect. According to Kreitner-Kinichi (2003) the four external forces for change are demographic characteristics, technological advancements, market changes, and social and political pressures. The internal forces for change come from inside the organization like human problems, managerial behaviors and decisions.