Managing change Nelson and Quick - Term Paper Example

Managing Change It is true that change is inevitable. This is the reason why organizational development should substantially deal with this specific issue within an organization. In this paper, the proponent tries to explain the ideas of Nelson and Quick (2011) about managing change. Change does not change because everyday it happens to almost everything. In an organization, change is an integral component for both its success and failure. It is therefore important to manage change in the best possible way in order to benefit an organization.

In this paper, the proponent finds out that managing change is a complex process as it substantially involves dealing with the complex human behavior which is substantially motivated by self-interest, the general foundation why resistance to change is imminent in an organization. Management implications in dealing with change are also discussed. Keywords: managing change, organizational development, resistance to change Introduction For some, the thing that remains constant in this world is change.

Change does not change because everyday it happens to almost everything. In an organization, change is an integral component for both its success and failure. It is therefore important to manage change in the best possible way in order to benefit an organization. In this paper, the proponent tries to discuss the basic concept in managing change based on the ideas of Nelson and Quick (2011). Included in this paper are important concepts about change and its application in the organization. In great detail, the proponent focuses on the issue of management concept of change.

Managing change in an organization Nelson and Quick emphasize that an organization is influenced by both external and internal forces in the environment which have greater impacts on the creation of change in it. They emphasize that the external change is caused by globalization, workforce diversity, technological change, and managing ethical behavior, while internal change is usually the outcome of pressures, crisis, employee expectations and work climate in the organization. They also added that there are two types of changes that could be generated by these forces: planned and unplanned change.

There is an inclusion of deliberate decision to modify an organization in the former while the latter is usually unforeseen, so there is a need to require greater flexibility and adaptability on the organization’s part (Nelson & Quick, 2011). They also added that change is incremental, strategic, transformational and change agent. In other words, change has varying forms according to their actual purpose or function. However, due to self-interest within each individual, the resistance to change is simply inevitable in an organization as added by Nelson and Quick.

They specifically identify some actual reasons for resistance to change such as fear of the unknown, fear of loss, fear of failure, disruptions of interpersonal relationships, personality, politics, and cultural assumptions and values. Nelson and Quick emphasize that reaction to change can be significantly justified by the actual behavior of the person. Therefore, behavioral reactions to change are necessary and important to be understood. Furthermore, in the case of planned change, they also recommend Lewin’s change model which is also based on behavioral assumptions of a person.

Its bottom line is to achieve remarkable force that is intended to create a positive impact on the organization with respect to implementation of change. On the other hand, Nelson and Quick also discuss organizational development since this particular area is also an integral component in implementing successful and effective change within an organization. This is a kind of systematic approach in which the main goal is to increase individual and organizational well-being or effectiveness based on the prevailing behavioral science theory.

In this approach, it is necessary to implement diagnosis and needs analysis; organization and group-focused techniques such as survey feedback, management by objectives, product and service quality program, team building, and processed consultation; individual-focused techniques such as skills training, leadership training and development, executive coaching, role negotiation, job redesign, health promotion programs, and career planning. However, Nelson and Quick point out the ethical considerations in organization development since this particular approach still requires essential understanding of what is morally viewed good or bad.

Aside from this, there is also a need to evaluate whether organization development is effective or not most especially that managing change has specific managerial implications. Analysis It is therefore clear that change is inevitable. Whether it is planned or unplanned, change has to take place in an organization because it is simply an integral part of organizational development. Organizational development has specific managerial implications so it is therefore important to focus on the manager’s skills in handling effective change or transformation within an organization.

Managing change therefore has strong connection with the actual skills of a manager. It is therefore important that a leader or a manager should not only identify the basic information about change, but above all, its potential impacts on the organization and the people. In this regard, it is therefore clear that effective implementation of change requires support from top level management (Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2011). There has to be somebody that has all the sufficient know-how in managing change in an organization, whom the actual capability is in line with creating organizational development.

In other words, organizational development and change are interrelated in order to come up with effective organization (Cummings & Worley, 2008). At this point, it is clear that an effective organization cannot be realized without undergoing the necessary process of change. However, what is more even clearer is the point that the success of an organizational change or simply organizational development depends on the manager and the specific response of the people towards change. Considering that the underlying general reason behind the resistance to change is self-interest, managing change should be considered as a complex process that requires more than just the basic about understanding complex human behavior.

Conclusion Managing change is a very effective approach in order to ensure organizational development. Thus, its critical consideration should be focused on the complex human behavior considering the fact that it is the human resource which eventually would undertake it in order to fulfill it in the first place. Furthermore, considering that change is inevitable, managing it would not only be a complex process, but above all it requires substantial understanding about the idea of self-interest prior to be knowledgeable about the essential factors causing resistance to change.

References Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2008). PamagatOrganization Development & Change (9th ed.).Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, F. C. (2011). Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices (6th ed.).Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Nelson, D. L. & Quick, J. C. (2011). Organizational Behavior-Science, the Real World, and You (7th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.