Change Management for Successful Entrepreneurship - Essay Example

Change Management for Successful Entrepreneurship Introduction Change management is a management process through which individuals, institutions and organisations are transitioned from their current states towards attaining a future desired state. It is a process that aims at ensuring that the involved parties recognise the need for change in their business organisations. Globalization and increased technological advancement have led to increased competition in the global market and this has necessitated the need for change management in organisations, requiring them to be flexible enough to accommodate this change. There is need for entrepreneurship therefore to accept this change management considering that it has been a field that is significantly growing over the years. Flexibility therefore is fundamental to put up with this change. Entrepreneurs are individuals who are involved in innovation and creation of new ideas and therefore need to be in line with the current states in order to attain success in their innovation. The only way that they can be in line with the current state is by accepting to adopt change management. Flexibility will allow them to be able to leave behind the ideas that are not successful and adopt new ones that are more consistent with the present conditions and operations (Charantimath 2006). Importance of change management in successful entrepreneurship Accepting change management is an important step in achieving success in entrepreneurship. One of the reasons why change management should be accepted in entrepreneurship is because it increases the need for entrepreneurs to explore new opportunities. Entrepreneurship is a field that involves creation of new ideas and considering the changes that occur in the global world, there is need for entrepreneurs to accept change in order to be able to put up with the changing business environment. According to Charantimath (2006), change management will require the entrepreneurs to be flexible enough therefore for them to be able to analyze new opportunities that the global changes expose them to. Change management is crucial to helping the entrepreneurs to discover the opportunities that the global changes expose to them. The ability to explore new opportunities is therefore an indication of successful entrepreneurship. Another reason why accepting change leads to successful entrepreneurship is that change management results to success in dealing with harsh competition at the local as well as global levels. This competition can be attributed to globalisation, which results to change in the business environment exposing the business organisations harsh conditions such as competition. To effectively deal with this, entrepreneurs need to accept change management in the sense that they are able to adopt new methods of solving problems other than the traditionally used methods. There is need for entrepreneurs therefore to be able to come up with new skills of solving problems that evolve in the current business environments. The need to change in ways of addressing different problems is also caused by the changing technological levels and thus the entrepreneurs need to come up with new methods of solving problems rather than using the old methods that do not match the current technological levels (Koontz & Weihrich, 2007). Another reason why accepting change management is important in successful entrepreneurship is that it enables entrepreneurs to collaborate and interact more effectively with other parties in the business environment. This is because change management enables the entrepreneurs to be able to understand the current standards for operation and therefore are able to do what is expected and also able to maintain sound relationships with other parties. The entrepreneur is also able to maintain the appropriate networks that are required. The entrepreneur is also able to discover the new roles and tasks concerning management that are efficient in conducting the current business activities. Accepting change management can also results to successful entrepreneurship because when entrepreneurs accept change management, they are able to maintain efficiency in the operation of small businesses thus incorporating the importance of these businesses in areas such as being able to meet emerging consumer demand, enhancing their growth and benefiting the stakeholders in aspects such as of job creation. In addition, accepting management change can be important for successful entrepreneurship since it results to improvement in the entrepreneurial skills. This is because the entrepreneurs will be able to exercise their goals such as that of decision making, problem solving, setting goals, being more innovative, boosting their self-confidence and improving their level of being innovative. The entrepreneurs will be able to exercise these skills when exposed to new business environments. This therefore is important since it exposes the entrepreneurs to situations that involve using their skills and thereby contributes to success in the field of entrepreneurship (Drori & Landau 2011). Change management also contributes to successful entrepreneurship since it helps the entrepreneurs to be able to plan for the efficient strategies of communication that will lead to an improvement in cooperation and will ensure that the entrepreneurs can easily plan the anticipated change to ensure that it is successful. Planning of change helps the entrepreneurs in ensuring that change management is done by the right and the most appropriate people to oversee its success. It also helps to ensure that the right processes and steps are followed at every stage of the entire process. It also helps to ensure that entrepreneurs the involved persons and stakeholders understand the need as to why the entrepreneurs require the change process. The right communication in the entire process helps to ensure that the change is managed in an appropriate way and that it functions for the good of the entrepreneurs. The efficient planning also helps to ensure that entrepreneurs are able to have a good transition from the old processes to the anticipated ones and that they are able to involve the right people. Change management therefore is important to enable the entrepreneurs to undertake the right planning and communication in times when change is needed and will therefore contribute to the operational success of the entrepreneurs. This will also enable the entrepreneurs to meet the operational requirements of the business environment, enabling them to efficiently meet the demands of consumers. This therefore is a contribution to successful entrepreneurship (Koontz & Weihrich 2007). Advice about managing change for entrepreneurs Successful change management will require the entrepreneurs to effectively plan for the anticipated change. This will involve considering the possible effects that will be associated with the anticipated change which may be on the people involved and that will require changing the way in which activities are conducted. They will also need to understand the various situation exposed by change in technology and how well they can utilize these situations in order for them to benefit from the change. They will also be able to set the appropriate strategies of dealing with resistance to change and will also be able to communicate the change to the parties that are involved. Entrepreneurs will also need to consider the appropriate aspects of leadership that are associated with change and will also need to consider the requirements for successfully implementing the change (Finch 2007). There will also be the need to consider their adaptability and the processes that enable them to survive in the new business environments and how able they are to change their models and processes for them to be in line with the changes that result from new technologies and other changes in the market. Entrepreneurs therefore need to possess the right knowledge concerning the changing environments for them to be in a position to successfully execute the tactics of change as they aim at executing their own tactics to change in order for them to meet the requirements of the created competitive, technological and economic pressures (Kennedy 2013). The first piece of advice is that entrepreneurs should aim at communicating the change, creating a vision, identifying, and mobilizing the change agents. Entrepreneurs should find the most appropriate way of creating awareness and explaining the need for change to all the parties are associated with the success of bringing change. The entrepreneur should clearly communicate the need for change, clearly explaining their goals, mission and purpose for that change. They should take the leadership role of communicating the anticipated change to all the stakeholders involved. They should also provide them with a clear picture of how the implementation of this change is anticipated to take place. The communication for this change should efficiently take place in the form of actions and words (Kennedy 2013). The two forms should be in consistence and should be aimed at achieving success in communicating change. The entrepreneur should also consider creating a vision for the anticipated change, which is important in bringing the transformation successfully. A successful vision is that which will be effective in creating a sense of purpose, motivating and engaging the involved stakeholders. Vision is important in creating clarity for the expected decision and in acting as a guide to making decisions. Creating a vision will be associated with leadership qualities such as confidence, which enable the entrepreneurs to undertake the challenging task of bringing transformation, a task which is demanding and which is a risky step for the entrepreneur due to uncertainty of its success. Communication and vision creating enable the entrepreneur to engage other stakeholders in form of training them, listening to them and monitoring them thus clearing their doubts and helping them to be able to deal with change (Paton & McCalman 2008). Communicating and vision creating will also involve trying to explain to the stakeholders how change will be carried out what will be required of them in carrying out the change. Identification and mobilization of change agents will require the entrepreneurs to build a team that will contribute to bringing the success of the change implementation. Building the appropriate team will enable the entrepreneurs to be able to come up with a list of the persons and resources that will be needed to attaining success of change implementation. Entrepreneurs will achieve this by encouraging the people to participate, rewarding their success and replacing those that are not willing to participate in bringing change with those that are willing. Entrepreneurs at this stage will require a leadership trait, which is the ability to enable. The entrepreneur will then be expected to mobilize these agents to work together in achieving the set goals, encouraging them to work in teams, to engage in team decision making and by encouraging them to participate in risk taking (Lentz 2009). This piece of advice is important since it will help the entrepreneur to be able to mobilize the change agents and bringing them to work together towards the achievement of a common goal, which is bringing change. The entrepreneurs will still have the ability to create vision and communicate the change to all the change agents and this will help to build their trust, clearing their uncertainty concerning the need for change. This will enable them to recognise the need for participating and will encourage them to feel the need for doing what they are expected to see the success of the project. Communication and vision creation is important for the entrepreneurs since it leads to achieving the purpose of enabling the change agents to recognise the need for their involvement in the change process. The advice is therefore important to the entrepreneurs in managing change (Ramanathan 2009). The second piece of advice is that the entrepreneurs should consider engaging at all levels and mind the people and the culture. It is important that the entrepreneur in managing change consider the different levels of persons who will be involved in the implementation of change and consider engaging them in their different levels in the process of managing change. Entrepreneurs should do this for the purpose of creating a successful vision and to attain an effective implementation plan. This will facilitate participation of all members from different levels and will give them a sense of acceptance and ownership towards the project. They will be more willing to contribute all their efforts and this will be necessary to improve productivity during the time that change takes place and beyond (Van 2006). It also creates a possibility of the change yielding positive results and attaining the set targets and goals. Involvement of persons from all levels also avails the possibility of successful results from the anticipated plan. Engaging persons from all levels will require using the leadership trait of trustworthiness. This engagement will help the entrepreneurs to build trust with individuals from all levels and will help to get them more prepared for the anticipated change. Considering and minding people will require the entrepreneurs to recognize the role of people in bringing change and accepting that change cannot be effected in the absence of people. It will involve changing the responsibility and roles of these people. This further is dependent on their different levels and abilities of learning in different people. Entrepreneurs should therefore consider these differences in the transition process (Hiam 1997). The leadership traits associated with minding people are integrity and consistency. Entrepreneurs are expected to show integrity and consistency when dealing with people by maintaining consistency in terms of the values, and showing integrity by maintaining fairness when dealing with different people to enable them to feel equally important. It will also increase their commitment in performing their expected tasks and will be more willing to seek guidance and clarity when in doubt from the entrepreneurs. Minding culture will require the entrepreneurs to accept that there are norms, values and culture that are observed by different groups of people and that are not easy to change. It is difficult to change how and what a certain group of people believe and perceive. This difficulty arises due to the difficulty in understanding and measuring its constituents. Organisations also have different cultures referred to organisational culture. Entrepreneurs can only change the organisational cultures by articulating new norms and values for the specific firm such as aligning the structures of reward. These will be aimed at rewarding the observance of certain desired behaviours and values. Entrepreneurs in this case will also be expected to create a culture that is flexible to changes (Hiam 1997). The leadership traits associated with minding culture by the entrepreneurs are mindfulness and self- awareness. In this case, it is important for entrepreneurs to enact the values that are important in helping them to undertaking the proposed change. This advice is important since it helps the entrepreneurs to acquire the understanding of the people who are an important aspect in undertaking change. The advice will also enable the entrepreneurs to understand the existing cultures thus enabling them to take the appropriate steps for changing it to ensure conformity with the anticipated change. The advice also acts as a guide to building good relationships with the individuals from all levels. This results from their being engaged in the process of managing change. Feeling appreciated as a result of this engagement, they feel equally important and are motivated to take part in the change process and this increases their participation and productivity. This advice is therefore crucial in helping to improve the change management process for entrepreneurs (Singh & Waddell 2004). The third advice is that the entrepreneurs should plan the process of change, come up with the appropriate skills as well as capacity and adapt to the environment. In planning the change process, entrepreneurs should ensure that they remain in touch with every step that is involved in implementation of change management process. It is important that the entrepreneur who leads the change maintain the ownership of the process that brings the change without delegation. The entrepreneur should ensure close observation to the processes that result to change and should monitor every progress and ensure that they take the appropriate responsibility in building commitments internally and externally. They should also ensure that they specify and use the appropriate organizational structures, systems and processes to ensure that the results of the change process are maximized. Leadership traits that are required in planning the change process are perseverance and instrumentality. These will help the entrepreneurs to lay their focus on effective goal setting that will lead to successful implementation of the process. They will need persistence in order to sustain the efforts of change. In order to come up with the appropriate skills and capacity, the entrepreneurs need to consider the appropriate skills that are required for the process and find the people who possess these skills. They are then expected to use these people and skills in the appropriate stages of change management process (Lau 2005). Entrepreneurs will encounter difficulties when trying to adapt to the environment and since the complexity of the business environment places at a situation whereby they can hardly predict the future accurately. They also lack control over fluctuations in political, economic, technological and competition factors. Entrepreneurs therefore need to be able to recognise some patterns and trends that help them in forecasting the possible changes in these factors. There is need for them to come up with the appropriate strategies using the external environments, and need to come up with the appropriate ways of formulating these strategies. The leadership trait that is associated with the ability of adapting to the environment is the synthesizing ability. Entrepreneurs should be able to synthesize change to come up with new strategies by observing the conditions and factors that prevail in the environment. This advice is important since it helps the entrepreneurs to be able to monitor the progress as change management process as it takes place and are able to know whether it is effective (Drori & Landau 2011). It is also important since it enables the entrepreneurs to provide the persons involved in the process of change management with the opportunity of learning and developing new skills, which enable them to become more productive and therefore becoming of benefits to the entrepreneurs. It also helps the entrepreneurs to gain an understanding of the business environments and from this, they are able to discover the underlying trends and patterns of the incidents that occur. They are then able to anticipate changes and are able to come up with the appropriate strategies of dealing with these changes. The advice is therefore important since it helps the entrepreneurs to attain success in the process of managing change (Van 2006). Reference list Singh, M., & Waddell, D. (2004). E-business innovation and change management. Hershey, Pa. [u.a.: Idea Group Publ. Ramanathan, T. R. (2009). The role of organisational change management in offshore outsourcing of information technology services: Qualitative case studies from a multinational pharmaceutical company. Boca Raton, Fla: Dissertation.com. Hiam, A. (1997). The portable conference on change management. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Lentz, C. A. (2009). The refractive thinker: An anthology of higher learning. Las Vegas, NV: Lentz Leadership Institute. Finch, E. (2007). Front-of-house design and management. Oxford: Blackwell. Paton, R. A., & McCalman, J. (2008). Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. London: Sage Publications. Lau, L. K. (2005). Managing business with SAP: Planning, implementation, and evaluation. 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