Change Agent Helps in Organization Diagnosis, Managing Change - Coursework Example

Running Head: Managing Organizational Change Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Introduction A change agent is a person in an organization responsible for changing existing patterns to obtain more effective organization performance. The changing economic conditions in the internal and external environments of various companies and organizations have necessitated change in their daily performance. Organizations are subject to a range of unpredictable environmental pressures characterized by deregulation, privatization of public sector organizations, technological innovation, increased global competition, political and economic shifts and social change (Harvey and Brown, 2005; Beckhard and Pritchard, 1992; Wheatley, 1994; Kanter, Stein and Jick, 1992). Generally, organizational change may be defined as a “planned or unplanned response” to external forces (Jick, 1996, p.1). Change helps in increasing productivity, continual survival, cope with competitive environment, increase employee morale among other benefits. Change in organizations can be development change, transition change or transformational change. Changes in organizations can be either planned or unplanned change. The high need and complications involved in change has made it necessary to have change agent(s) to implement them. This involves the use of Organization Development specialists (OD- specialists) or the use of people in managerial or leadership position as change agents. OD specialists may be members of the organization (internal practitioners) or come from outside the organization, (external practitioners). Regardless of the type of change agents they are suppose to guide and lead the change process in respective organizations, Brown & Harvey (2006). They assist organizations with the diagnosis, planning and implementation of change interventions. They work in consultation with various stakeholders in the organization to realize the necessary change. ROLE OF CHANGE AGENTS A change agent plays a big role in the realization of the changes in the organizations. They play the following roles: Helps in studying and establishing the need for change Change agent helps the organization in studying both the internal and external environment to analyses if there is need for change. They help in gathering and monitoring information on changing technology, changing customer needs, changing government regulations, competitors’ tactics, and economic changes domestically and worldwide and the internal change needs within the organization. These are mainly the Porter’s 5 forces. The change agent responsible for the change should thoroughly gather and analyze information before starting the change process. After studying the environment and diagnosing, the change agents can establish the need for change. There may be need for implementation of either or a combination of the three types of changes advocated by Linda Ackerman (1986) that is developmental, transitional or transformational change. They are responsible for communicating the need for change and when to other members of the organization. The agents are also supposed to provide clarity of vision and direction. Agents are responsible in formulation of the vision statement, by so doing; provide clear direction for change effort. Clear vision mobilizes appropriate behavior, James O’Toole (1999). Change agent helps in organization diagnosis Brown and Harvey (2006) define diagnosis as a systematic approach to understanding and describing the present state of the organization. It helps in understanding how the organization is currently functioning. Change agent in collaboration with the organization members is responsible for this process. Diagnosis help in coming up with problems in the current situations and the necessary interventions. The agent uses the various data collection forms like interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations and unobtrusive methods, such as document analysis, Waddell, Cummings and Worley (2007). Data collected will be very resourceful in guiding the change leader in subsequent implementation process stages. Diagnosis is very important in the realization of effective change since it not only come up with the existing problems in the organization but also an inside on necessary change, Palmer, Dunford & Akin. (2006). Selecting and deciding on necessary interventions The term “intervention” refers to “a set of sequenced planned actions or events that are intended to help an organisation increase its effectiveness” Waddell, Cummings and Worley (2011). It is the role of the change agent to lead the company in deciding the necessary interventions after carrying out diagnosis of the organization. Factors like target readiness by the organization, change agent skills, capacity for change for the organization, cultural context, and potential results for the various techniques, potential implementation and acceptance of the technique should be considered in the selection of intervention programs. The interventions programs may be interpersonal interventions, team development interventions, introduction of new techno structural interventions, organization-wide or strategic interventions, and human resource among other intervention methods, Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2008). It is the role of the change agent as the leader of change to analyze the various issues in addition, be able to select the appropriate intervention method. Launching change in organizations and managing it The change agent in collaboration with other executive members in launching the change process, communicate the need for change to all members of the organization. This is to educate them on the need, importance, procedures, and roles of various parties and importance of the change among other issues concerning the change. They should there after initiate the change process. The agents are leaders in implementing the necessary activities necessary in realizing the change. They establish specifically the necessary activities to realize change in the organization. They lead in allocation of resources setting up of new and temporary structures. Generally, during the implementation of the selected change they are the leaders who ensure the change runs as planned until its completion. Once the change activities have started, it is their role to sustain the momentum for implementation. This is through coordination of human resources, seeking necessary financial resources and through solving of challenges and resistance to change. Dealing with change responses Response to change varies. They may be positive or negatively through confusion, depression, resentment depression and so forth. Positive responses to change by organizations members give the change agent motivation and a conducive environment to implement them. Resistance on the other hand forces the agent to come up with measures to deal with it. It is the duty of the change agent as the leader of the change to deal with the resistance. Resistance to change is defined as “behavior directed toward maintenance of the status quo” King and Anderson 1995. It is irrational and counterproductive and must be dealt with by change agents for them to succeed in implementing change. Resistance may be inform of strikes, reduced organizational commitment, increased hostility towards the implementation of change, absenteeism, sabotage of the organizational systems among other negative change in behavior by employees, Erwin, D. G. & Garman, A. N. (2010). Pardo and Fuentes (2003) analyze the various reasons for resistance by employees to change. The state that fear of uncertainty after the change, loss of control over their initial duties, fear of surprise resulting from it, fear of increase in their work load, concerns about future competence in terms of change in means of production, threat of loss of employment, status and influence are among the reasons. The change agent should prepare psychologically the employees of the organization on the differences the changes will bring. They should be good negotiation and agreements on how to deal with implementation of the change and its effects both negative and positive. Involvement of the various stakeholders of the organization in the change process reduces the chances of resistance, Erwin and Garman (2010). It thus the role of the change agent to takes all the necessary steps to ensure that the change implementation is not hindered by employees’ resistance in order to ensure it is successful. They should come up with solutions to resistance at the implementation stage in case they arise. REQUIREMENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CHANGE AGENT Waddell, Cummings and Worley (2007) states that for an organizational change specialist or agent to succeed he/she should have knowledge, experience and good personality. Presence of certain characteristics in the change agent makes them successful while absences of these characteristics make them not to achieve the intended change in the organisation. The change process leadership concerns with the use of self, how to be persuasive, how to deal with resistance, how to embody vision for the organization, how to be political and manage it well. To achieve success in change implementation, the change agent should have the following qualities: A general knowledge of organization’s development principles Organization change issues knowledge and understanding is necessary for a change agent to be successful. The agent should be conversant with action research model and various contemporary approaches to implementing change. This includes an array of techniques and tools, their advantages and disadvantages in particular settings (King and Anderson 1995). Knowledge in action research models enables them to collect efficient and sufficient information from microeconomic and macroeconomic environment. Effective data collection methods and procedures will enable them obtain reliable data about the organization. The data is then effectively diagnosed to understand the necessary intervention change programs needed to correct existing shortcomings of the existing situations. Good selection of intervention methods will ensure there is effective change realization in the organization. Change agents should thus possess knowledge in all areas of the change implementation process for them to be successful. Absence of knowledge on their part will make their work unsuccessful since some of the implementation programs will be ineffectively carried-out. For instance there may be poor data collection, poor diagnosis of the collected information, poor selection of intervention programs among other things. Self-Awareness For change agents to be successful they must have self-awareness. Self-awareness improves the performance of managers. According to Atwater and Yammarino (1992), there is a growing evidence that self-awareness is related to performance, that is high performers tend to have greater overlap between how they see themselves and how others see them than do moderate and low performers. Change agents should be able to cognizant in the following domains: Tolerance for ambiguity: The courses that the change implementation process will undertake are sometimes unpredictable and therefore being able to tolerate and live this kind of ambiguity is necessary for successful change agents. There might be resistance to the change implementation, difficulties and challenges in implementing it that requires the change agent to be able to tolerate them. Need for control: The change agent should know what one can control, what needs to be controlled and what one will be unable to control. This is because it is impossible to be a control freak and lead change effectively given the messy, chaotic and seemingly out of control nature of change. Understanding and good decision maker: They should be able to understand their feelings and personal interests and not let them influence their leadership and management process. They should be able to take into consideration other people’s views and self-knowledge in decision making. Personal disposition: This aspect of self-awareness enables the change agent to balance their preference (extroversion or introversion) to other dimensions such as need for closure and intuition. This enables team building in the change implementation process. Team building is necessary for the success of change programs, Burke and Noumair (2002). Self-awareness is a crucial requirement in leadership of change programs implementation. Thus, change agents with self-awareness usually realize success in their work while those without it many a times do not realize it. Change agents should have motives O’toole (1999), one of the paramount thinkers and writers on organizational change states that ambition is the “only inherent character trait that is essential for effective leadership. Change agent should have appropriate ambition as the necessary motive for the change leadership. This goes hand in hand with McClelland’s (1975) three motives of leadership, need for achievement, power and affiliation. For change agents to be successful they must have strong motives for achievement. This will give them a driving force since they will be having ambitions of wanting to achieve various outcomes in their work. Lack of motives and ambition on change agents makes them unsuccessful since they do not aim to achieve something. Change agent values should align with organization culture Alignment of individual needs and values with organization culture is likely to improve motivation and performance, Burke (2000). The change agent values and needs should be compatible or in line with the culture of the organization. They should for instance; they should be in line with the mission, vision and the values of the organization. In the other hand, if they are interested in changing the exiting culture of the organization, the new values should not necessarily come from the change agent but there must be consultation among the different stakeholders of the organization. Change agent values should thus align with the organization values or agreed among values in the organization for them to be successful; otherwise, they will have hard time in implementing them. They should have consultation and interpersonal skills Change agents should be good in consultation. This will help in data collection methods like the use of focus groups, surveys, interviews and in subsequent data analysis. This will help in highlighting issues warranting interventions. Good consultation skills will also help in the design and the implementation of change interventions, Brown and Harvey (2005). Interpersonal skills are also necessary in the implementation of change. These skills aid in reaching agreements with the organizations members on change implementation and in data collection. There should be also networking skills like ability to make constructive contacts, Waddell, Cummings and Worley (2011). Change agent should be able to follow ethical issues There are various ethical issues concerning change agent’s work and when followed to reduce misconduct and client abuse, Doyle (2002). Change agents should not misrepresent the results of proposed intervention or suggest unrealistic outcomes. They should be no misuse of data in their possession for their own selfish interests other than for the intended purpose. Another consideration is values and goals conflict. Despite the agent having his personal values, goals and interest, they should make sure that their goals and values are compatible with those of the organization. The agent should also ensure there is no technical ineptitude and the terms of agreement between him or her and the organization are strictly adhered. Change agents will be successful in their work if they follow the ethical issue present in their work since it reduces the possibilities of disagreements, conflicts of interests and makes relationships between the various stakeholders fruitful. Unethical behavior on the other hand makes their work unsuccessful. Conclusion The high need for effective and efficient change in organizations and its implementation has necessitated the use of change agents or organisation development consultants. Organizations are interested in planned changed rather than the unplanned one. This is because planned change has many benefits to the organisation. The use of change agents, OD specialists and consultants in change implementation has seen faster, efficient and well-coordinated change implementation. Change agents are very important in guiding organizations in studying their environments, suggesting interventions methods and implementing selected change programs and activities in organizations. A lot of support should be given to the change agents for their duties to be successful and fruitful to the organization. On the other hand, the change agents should ensure that they have the necessary knowledge, skills and personality necessary for their success. They should try as much as possible to carry out their functions professional, ethically and in thorough collaboration with other stakeholders in their respective organizations. Presence of sufficient knowledge and skills and good personality among change agents will ensure success in change implementation. Works Cited Anderson, D. (2001). The Change Leader's Roadmap: How to Navigate Your Organization's Transformation. New jersey: Kindle. Anderson, N. K. (1995). Innovation and Change in Organizations. London: Routledge. 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