Managers Role for Managing Organisational Changes in Response to the External Environments - Essay Example

number Critically Analysis of Manager’s Role for Managing Organisational Changes in Response to the External Environments Introduction Organizational change is a process where changes take place in strategies, structure, technologies and operational methods. It is also known as restructuring, reorganization and turn around. It is drawn from the study of sociology, psychology, economics, management and political science and it is interdisciplinary in nature (Lewis, 2011). Therefore, managers should be flexible enough in taking decisions when there is change in an organization. External factors like political, social and technical affects the internal environment of an organization and managers are required to adapt that situation and react accordingly. In this paper, reasons and factors associated with organizational change will be discussed in order to evaluate the manager’s role in administrating and implementing such organizational changes. Discussion As the society continues to change and evolve their demand, there is always need for variety of products and services, organization should be flexible enough, as they have to stay competitive. The businesses which survive for a long time and earn profits are the ones who accept the changes as they exist. There are two types of changes that occur in an organization that is planned and unplanned. Planned changes mean that an organization is bringing change deliberately by taking decisions, while, unplanned change is due to some unforeseen factors which can take place any time without informing. There are two factors which force organization to revaluate their operations, they are internal and external. Internal and external factors both can cause these changes (Oreg, Michel, and By, 2013). According to Smith (2013), Globalization affects organization as there are companies which operate in different country and each organization has their own culture which is because an organization cannot make a standard rules for every branch. Managers have to adapt a different culture when they are transferred to other branch and they should be flexible enough to do it. Entrance of a new competitor in the market brings lot of change as now organization becomes more serious about their product sales because they are in constant fear that their market will finish if competitor gets the market demand. So, the existing company try to change their work culture to stay dynamic (Cummings and Worley, 2014). A change in workforce diversity also brings change to a company. Previously, only men use to work in some company but now, women also work which changes the environment as the culture becomes more ethical and decent. Now a day, ethical behaviour plays a major role in the company. Society expect a lot of corporate social responsibility from the company, even company keep in mind while producing products about the damage which takes place in the organization. Many precautions are taken to ensure that no harm done to the society both in terms of environment and finances. Product should be economical enough and should be harmless at the time of use (Biech, 2010). Shani, Pasmore and Woodman (2012), emphasized on the invention of new technology brings change to an organization, as company has to change its existing techniques to be competitive. This changes the working system and now managers and employees think in a different way to adapt the technology. This can be done if working people are dynamic in nature and have patience and curiosity to accept it. Like an employee who has never used computer, he/she needs to be trained to work in a computer system. An organization need to change their production processes time to time to become more efficient in producing goods and to see that minimum waste takes place and there is proper utilisation of resources. There is always a desire to grow more and more which can happen only if business change their operation methods. To expand business in different location, company needs to adapt different culture which affects the flow of work for the managers as they now have to think in different way for that particular new branch. A new team is formed to assist the new branch work and at that time, managers think in a different way to make it possible (Lewis, Packard, and Lewis, 2011). A government itself is so dynamic, as the budget keeps changing every year so the regulations keep changing which affects the organization working pattern and ultimately it is being handled by the managers. Safety procedures which are mandatory makes factory to change their production process so that more safety is there in the factory in terms of work culture and environment. Businesses which make perishable goods have to be more cautious as they have to take more quality control precautions to ensure customer safety (Stickler, 2011). Manager sometimes have to face poor financial performance due to which they have to think differently for some new measures to improve this situation. It may happen that lot of money was spend on advertisement or lot wastage took place in the production due to which cost gets increased and company faces loss. Sometimes, there is strike in the company and employees don’t work at that time. Board of members according to their demand change the work culture and regulation within the company so that the strike comes to an end and they start working in a desired work environment. This again changes the internal work environment which happened because managers themselves wanted to change. Pasmore, Woodman, Noumair, and Shani (2013), is of the opinion that expectation of employees is the main factor of internal change as employee demand for a higher wage or desire to change some function in the company. (Paton and McCalman, 2008). Theories for Organizational Change In the late 1950s, a new theory was developed for organizational approach which is named as Contingency approach. This theory stated that there is not only ‘one best way’ to form an organization. An organization has to face variety of choices while determining that how the organization should be formed, how to organise it, and will it be managed. There are many ways of organizing a company and it is however, contingent upon the external and internal environment of the company. The contingent approach to a business design depends upon the structure of the company from the factors of environmental unforeseen activities which is faced by the organization. The main concept is to structure an organization in the way that it can bear any uncertainties in an organization efficiently and effectively. This is the reason that other theories fail because they think that organization culture is universal which is wrong; in fact each company has its own environmental uncertainties and contingencies. Some important contingencies are consumer interest groups, technology, Government, Suppliers and distributors, unions and customers and competitors (Health Knowledge, 2011). Contingency theory has previously help to structure generalizations that will fit in the work of different technologies. It was found that organization which operates in less flexible environments generally operates even more effectively if an organization culture was less regulated, if it was more decentralized, and if it was more reliable on mutual adjustments in many other departments of an organization. In the same way, companies which operate in more certain and stable environment, functions even more properly if the company was more regulated. Therefore, leaders of an organization should always look for the contingencies of the internal and external environment and see that if the organization is capable to handle the unforeseen situations in the environment and if the company is being able to access the given amount of information (Businessmate, 2014). System theory is a theory in which it is seen that how various systems affect the worker and in the same manner how a worker affects the same system which is around them. A system in an organization consists of variety of division which work together in order to attain the goal. It is a broad concept which allows managers to give a thorough look on the events and patterns at the workplace. This ultimately helps managers to form a team and work as a whole for a particular mission or goal of the organization and not in isolated departments. In earlier days, small businesses were divided in a very traditional structure that is at the top is a boss who will pass his decisions to the down level of managers or employees and they have to follow it. They will not be allowed to share their views; but also have to follow what they have been asked to do (Zimmermann, 2011). In system theory, there is not only one flow of decisions from top to low, but there are many flows which connect the different systems and then all the system combines at a work place. According to Miller (2011), various departments have been made who has a particular boss and their own structure and then these departments connect to each other as required. In this manner, every department of the company like sales, manufacturing, product development, marketing and accounting can work in their own way as completely as an individual organization. In this system, it looks like all the departments are different but they work together as a team to attain organizational goal. Under system theory, an organization can achieve multiple goals. Each department managers generates their own goal which serves the company, but they work as motivators in the department only. Every manager can share their goals and results just to show that they are flexible enough for an organization and lead to a great achiever. Managers can manage these departments because they are accustomed to the organization changes which take place constantly due to internal and external factors (Secord, 2003). Importance of Organizational Change In this fast moving world, any business who is thinking to slow down its pace of change will be disappointed soon. In fact, organizations should encourage change according to customers need. Change is vital for a company because without doing change business will lose their hold in the market as competitors will capture the market through their new ideas. Organizational change is necessary so that they can face situations like performance gaps, identification of opportunities, crisis, and reaction to external and internal factors, new technology, change for the sake of change, planned abandonment, mergers and acquisitions and many more (Pex, 2015). Change in technology is always required. If this would have not been taking place, employees in the organization would have been still making long reports and then edit and write it again, but now with the help of computer things have become so easy and work gaps has decreased. Technology has also changed communication gap as previously it use to take too much of time to pass on any information, but now it take seconds through mail to pass the information. In order to fulfil customer needs, organization has to change their regulations and taste. Customer’s desire keeps increasing and change according to their requirement and to keep fulfilled, it is the duty of the company to change their product design and quality. The economy also affect Company both in a positive and negative way and it becomes really tough for the company to handle it. It may happen that sudden demand for large amount of products has arose and high authority has demanded, in order to fulfil it within a span of time than organization has to change the working style of the employees so that they work more and more. To tackle this type of situation, employees are trained beforehand only so that at the no problem erupts at the time of work related to employee efficiency (Smith and Graetz 2011). Change is necessary in the organization to make employees excel in new skills, new creativity, new opportunity which will ultimately benefit organization through employees commitment. Training can be given to the employees through classroom settings, online learning skills. Gap between old skills and new skills should be filled instantly as this may affect organizational goal. They should always keep in mind about change and generating new ideas. Changing organizational culture leads to change in habits of employees as they get new environment and to some extent they enjoy this, because they get new routine and a relaxation from the monotonous life (Burke, 2010.). Managers Effort to Implement Organizational Change Change is something which brings uneasiness in most of them, but most of the time this change leads to happiness. In today’s world, the speed of change has never been so rapid or constant (Demers, 2007). Even if the change is small, like company merger or takeover, implementation of new technique, the way it has been managed comes to know through its failure or success. A sound training is essential for the managers and employees so that a proper change takes place in an organization. It is not necessary that all change will result to positive. To bring change in an organization, it is to be done collaboratively, carefully and sensitively. There are various ways to implement change. They are: Once it is understood that a particular change has to be implemented in the organization then management start taking steps. Management starts supporting and communicating to employees about the change and when employees notice that management is supporting the change process, they become comfortable and react to the changes in a positive manner (Zetterquist, Müllern and Styhre, 2011). Any company who has decided to bring change in an organization does not do it just because they felt to change just for the sake of it. According to Hayes (2014), organizations form a case of change or a reason for change from the analysis of defect rates, employee satisfaction survey, customer satisfaction survey, and customer comment cards, business goals which is end result of a budget pressure or some strategic planning. To use data is the perfect way of analysing that which areas need improvement and accordingly steps can be taken. There should be a reason for change; it should not be done just for the sake of change as this may lead to severe failure (Rafferty, Jimmieson and Armenakis, 2013). Whenever change takes place Company should involve employees at all the levels. Any change in the organization whether it is big or small, at a higher level or lower level; it should be well communicated and explained especially to the changes which affects employee’s performance. If it’s a matter of improving customer satisfaction, changing a work system or finding various ways to lessen the costs, employees always have some experiences which can benefit the company in implementation and planning process. Since employees are the one who perform these processes and they are the one who will be affected by the change, they know better from everyone that why this change is taking place and what will be the after effect when change will actually be implemented (Colorado, 2014). When change is communicated it should be systematic and well structured. Employees if communicated wrong then it will create resistance in the change. When decisions are being made for changes, at that time only employees should be involved so that they feel as they are part of this company and they have equal importance as others have. When communication is done, proper implementation should be started (Alas, 2014). A proper timeline should be prepared so that employees can achieve target and they bring that change in particular period of time. Whenever change starts, a constant follow up is necessary to ensure that change is working properly and giving desired results. Sometimes it happen that change doesn’t work as planned and they cross the target expectations, at that time management should take strict decisions to complete the change soon (Erbe, 2014). Many times it happen that employees face some barriers from various reasons and hamper their work like problems with the other department, problems with the colleagues, lack of resources, inappropriate training or any supply problem. It is not always easy with the employees; some are rude, stubborn, and egoistic and cause problems in the work. It is the management duty to look after the employee’s problem and solve it. It is also necessary to avoid some problems to ensure that it doesn’t look bigger if it is tried to solve. It is very important to make employees realise that they have done a good job and for that celebration is necessary and incentives should be given. To celebrate small achievements and then to hope for bigger changes make employees motivated and they work more efficiently (Battilana and Casciaro, 2012). Conclusion Organizational change is done so that a business can ensure success. Without changing, risk to achieve project objectivity, loss of productivity or failure of projects can take place. Lack of management can prove to be hazardous for a business. Therefore, managers should be flexible enough to adapt these changes at any time because of the dynamism of the internal and external factors. Analysing the factors for organizational change, it has become prominent that constant effectiveness and skills of employees should be increased by giving them proper training and classroom environment. In this way, any change which comes to the company in terms of technological change, economical factors, political factors, customer demand employees will be prepared enough to make decision for the company and work on it. Excellence of the managers is reflected in their ability which help the employees to overcome such problems and handle it smoothly. 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E., Müllern, T. and Styhre, A., 2011. Organization Theory: A Practice Based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zimmermann, N., 2011. Dynamics of Drivers of Organizational Change. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. Read More