Introduction to Change Management

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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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