Introduction
According Cameron et al (2004), change management is a transitioning approach to organizations, teams and individuals to a future state which is desired. Organizational change is an approach which is structured in an organization. To ensure that any change that occurs is successfully and smoothly implemented to achieve benefits that are lasting. Singh & Waddell (2004) points out that in the environments of the modern businesses, many organizations face many rapid changes unlike the past. Moreover, constant technological innovations and globalizations results in a business environment that is constantly evolving. Phenomena such as the mobile adaptability and the social media have created many revolutions in the business and the resultant effects is the ever increasing desire for change, and hence change management.
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The perspectives of managing change held by major change agents studied in my group case study
Change management in any organization or work place is one of the important areas that should be taken into account for the overall change in the mode of operations. Aside from the overall change management in any workplace, we came up with perspectives in our group case study on management of change that incorporates many factors and boils down many assumptions into a simple basic pattern of thought. These I believe would have some implications in the future of the organization
To begin with, for the change to be effected in any organization it should start with the personal change management of the leader or the manager before it is adopted by other employees in the organization. But it is of great importance that the perspective in change management and recognition of the others points of view are paramount for them also to adopt the assumptions of their leader (Elearn Limited (Great Britain) 2007).
Secondly, according to Green (2007), it is always important to think the worthiness of the change enforcement before executing it. This is because most employees tend to be more effective during work when they finish tasks assigned in their own unique ways. However, sometimes in any organizations work has to be done according to the rules of the book for instance in the manufacturing line, these calls for caution before adopting change.
Thirdly, it is of high importance as the manager to remember always that change does not occur overnight. People differ in their management styles and therefore the differences are portrayed differently. Some managers when coping with change are more methodical while some managers can adapt at a notice of a moment. Therefore, managers need to evaluate themselves and find their own way and learn to change at their own pace (Pugh 2007).
Finally, our personal assumption in the management of change involves the people directly affected in all stages of the change process. This calls for teamwork in any organization or work place because mandating an employee to change and failing to involve him/her in the process of change increases the probability that they will not change.
An explanation of how these assumptions impacted upon the processes and outcomes of this organizational change initiative
Technological growth has secondary effect of rising up the availability and hence knowledge accountability. Furthermore, information which is easily accessible has resulted in scrutiny from the media and the stakeholders. Pugh & Mayle (2009) observes that the listening ears and the prying eyes makes the failed businesses uncomfortable and thwart their endeavors. Furthermore, it increases high pressure on the executives who are struggling. With the environment of the business experiencing so many changes, the organizations should adapt and adjust to be comfortable with many upcoming changes as well. Therefore, management and adaptation ability to organizational change is a significant ability needed in the today’s workplace.
According to Ravi (2009), modern change in organizations is motivated largely by innovations from the exterior instead of the internal moves due to the technological growth. After the occurrence of these developments, the organizations that quickly adapts creates for themselves competitive advantage while the companies that are rigid to changes are left behind. This eventually can lead to drastic losses in profit and market share. Anderson & Ackerman-Anderson (2001) observes that organizational change affects all the sections and departments of the organization directly from the junior level employees to the top level management. Therefore, the entire company should understand how to handle organizations’ changes.
In making a decision and determination of the latest innovations and techniques to adopt, there are four main factors that should be considered. These according to Journal of Change Management (2000) include:
- Goals, levels and strategies
System of measurement
Steps sequence
Organizational and implementation change
Reiss (2012) explains that despite several types of organization change, the most critical aspect is the ability of the company to win their organization’s employees buy-in on the change. This will manage organizations effectively in a four step process.
- Recognition of the changes in the broader environment of the business
Development of the necessary needs of their company
Training the employees on the changes that are appropriate
Winning the employees’ support with the appropriate adjustments’ persuasiveness.
As one of the evolved disciplines, change management should start with diagnosis of a situation systemically for it to determine the capability and the need for change. Furthermore, the objectives, process and content of change should all be categorically specified as plan of change management part (Murthy 2007).
The process of change management may comprise creative marketing to allow communication between the audiences which constantly change as well as understanding styles of leadership and dynamics of group socially. As a transformation projects of visible tracks, organizations change management aligns expectations of group, communicates, manages training of people and integrate teams. Elearn Limited (Great Britain) (2007) explains that it uses performance metrics such as operational efficiency, financial results, commitment of leadership, communication effectiveness and perception of change need to appropriately design strategies for change failure avoidance or resolve change projects that are troubled.
According to Green (2007), change management that is successful has a higher probability of occurrence if the following factors are included:
- Realization and management benefits to define aims of the stakeholders which are measurable, creates for their achievement a business case which should be updated continuously and monitor risks, assumptions, dependencies, return on investments, costs, cultural issues and dis- benefits affecting the associated work progress.
- Effective communications which updates the stakeholders of the change reasons successful implementation benefits as well as the change details such where? Who are involved? When, what is the cost?
- Devise an effective training, education and scheme for upgrading skills for the organization.
- Counter the employees of the company’s resistance and align all of them to the organization’s direction overall strategy.
- Personal counseling provision if it is required to alleviate fears that are change related
Monitoring of the fine tuning implementation as required.
How my personal perspective (assumptions) of managing change has changed over the semester
After going through this class, attending the lessons, going through group studies and doing case studies on change management, I can confidently state that my personal perspective of managing change has change dramatically. I have opened up my scope on the management world and critically examined issues before creating assumptions.
It is true that everybody has his/her own way of perception of what change is and how this change can be managed. Moreover, many books, articles and blogs give many suggestions to the managers on how they should see change while others goes a step ahead to explain a few tips and steps necessary in change management.
I think I should be the last person who should even think of writing anything about change because I do resist change most of the times and I always have difficulty in accepting changes. However, change is just but a constant, so it is better to accept it after all. This is because people who accept change and modify as per new norms are always at an advantage than those who are stubborn in accepting changes. The universal reason why people do not accept change is because they don’t desire to leave their comfort zones and accept new things. They just do not want to undergo the hustles of learning something new and therefore, they would prefer older means (Pugh 2007).
Throughout the semester I have realized that it is not as easy to avoid changes. This is because it is proven and explained by Dr Charles Darwin in his evolution theory that ever since the existence of the earth, change has been there and anyone who was capable of coping with the change survived (Cameron et al 2004).
The same theory can be extended in change management in organizations and the human life aspects. Organizations and the people who adapt changes quickly will always be a step ahead. Furthermore, they would be more successful in their businesses and their professional lives. They would manage better their social lives; have much more enthusiastic and entertaining social lives.
This can be reflected in the early 20th century at the time concept of assembly line and mass production was introduced, several companies that had large number of workers resisted the change. However, the other companies which were able to adopt the new change and idea were able to get huge profits. Furthermore, the companies that did not embrace the changes had to embrace change or close down sooner or later. Ford, the motor company was one of the pioneer companies to adopt change and was one of the most profitable companies during their era (Singh & Waddell 2004).
Similarly, the same ford company has failed to adapt to the new and ever changing environment. People nowadays desire vehicles which are environmentally friendly. Therefore, motor companies like Hyundai and Toyota have adapted better to the market changes hence more successful today compared to ford (Singh & Waddell 2004).
According to Pugh et al (2009), people unknowingly or knowingly adapt to these changes although the adaptation is not that easy. However, the bottom line still holds that that the quicker the adaptation, the happier the manager or the organization will be.
From this course throughout the semester I have come to have a broader knowledge of change. As I stated earlier, it is not easy to adapt changes. As Lewin (2011) states, it is very easy when said than done. Another good example is the world economic recession that hit the world. Generally it affected everyone globally. However, one of the reasons many people were so disturbed and anxious was because they were unable to cope with the economic conditions which were changing. In simple terms, they were unable to adapt to the changes. This shows that people do not know how to cope and adapt to the world changes. At this point, people will look at their leaders such as Barrack Obama to lead the way to change. They may call him as the change but I feel that he is not change but the person entitled to manage change. He is the person who told people all over the world how to do change management during the period of economic downturn (Ravi 2009).
I definitely believe that it is very important for people and organizations to adapt to changes for them survive. But to me, from my own personal knowledge, success will depend on how quickly and fast an organization or a person adapts to the changes. According to Anderson et al (2001), in the current competitive world, it is no longer about survival but about progressing, winning because life is just like a the race of hurdles and the changes in this case are the hurdles and you need to overcome the hurdles for a person to survive and eventually win. Moreover, patience and consistency is the motivating factor.
Implication of my present perspective on my approach to future organizational change
There are many approaches I can apply as a manager in change management to effect change in the organization in the future. All the factors are important in the environment of the organization therefore specific problem analysis or opportunity should be considered. other factors such as the opinion of stakeholders and the skills, strategic objectives and the culture of the organization will assist in shaping up of the solution as much as the available resources and the time scales. Therefore, solutions are individually tailored to satisfy each assignment instead of following a formula which is predetermined (Journal of Change Management 2000).
After the completion of the business analysis, a blend of the focused-soft people approaches -including training, leadership, facilitation, mentoring and coaching – and program and project management techniques which is hard can be applied alongside engagement and communication activities. Furthermore, solutions may include the application of wide range of techniques and tools. This could be drawing of the system thinking, lean principles, continuous improvement and using of formal methodologies of project management (Reiss 2012).
There are many essential ways and approaches of change embedment within an organization I do consider to and have applied. The most important among them is creating ownership sense of the program of change. This should be among the management team rather than attempting from outside to impose change in to the organization. For the manager of the organization to build ownership, the implementation should be carried as a partnership, closely working with the other managers in your organization, stakeholders and the directors. A prerequisite to this is first gaining their commitment to the approach and program of change from the senior management (Murphy 2007).
As much as the desire for change at the senior level may be obvious and the achieving means could have been greed it is important to spread the knowledge and the understanding to other managers, groups of stakeholders and staff should not be overlooked. Green (2007) explains that the manager’s involvement in the change program implementation is very vital as well as provision of the support, mentoring, and training and coaching. Furthermore, a good plan of communication plays a major role in the whole process.
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