Change Management - Sustained Existence of the Organizations - Term Paper Example

? Change Management Introduction The present environment of business has been observed to undergo constant alterations which are threatening the sustained existence of the organizations. This particular scenario is also making it necessary for the organizations to introduce changes in order to deal with the prevailing environment and also to enhance the efficiency of their business functions. Therefore, it can be recognized that change activities are considered to be necessary in order to enable the organizations to adjust to the altering situations and to attain competitive advantage (Cohen, 2005). The paper would attempt to introduce and discuss the various related aspects of a change initiative in an organization in a successful way. The intended change initiative has been measured to be cultural in nature where a flexible workplace is aimed to be introduced and is expected to be accepted in the place of a traditional form of workforce. Importance of Change Management There are stated to exist certain strong macroeconomic factors which are expected to turn out to be increasingly powerful in the coming few decades. Owing to such an anticipated and unforeseen situation, organizations will recognize the need to trim down the expenses, enhance the quality of the products as well as services, identifying fresh prospects related to development and escalation of the productivity factor (Kotter, 1996). These factors evidently focus on the requirement of a proper process related to change management in the organizations. Change management is referred to the application of planning, organizing, employing and screening the alterations creating an influence on the production aspect of the concerned organizations. The process needs to be structured in a planned way (ITSM Community, n.d.). In the initial stage, the consciousness regarding the need for an alteration needs to be identified and established. Then, a desire for backing such a change and a requirement of participation needs to be triggered. In the next step, a proper knowledge regarding the ways related to change needs to be communicated to the concerned individuals. The subsequent step would involve the competency to employ the needed expertise and conducts. The final step would involve the aspect of support in order to maintain the change (Hiatt, 2006). The organization considered for this paper plans to introduce a change in the seating arrangements of their employees in order to make available increased floor space in the office. The seating arrangement has been planned for those working staffs who are majorly engaged with work related to manufacturing as well as lab. These employees are learnt to spend most of their working hours in the manufacturing and the lab areas and are just needed to spend almost 2 hours in an average each day in their respective allocated workspace. It was observed in this respect that the workspace of such individuals remains idle for most of the time in a given working day and for which an opportunity loss was also measured. In order to make the optimum use of office space, the management of the organization planned for an unallocated seating arrangement in replacement of the personal workspace. This particular notion of flexible workspace is assumed to facilitate the organization to accommodate 232 numbers of employees in place of 58 seating spaces in each shift in each day by taking into deliberation the 2-hr window. Need of a Vision Statement The above mentioned change is estimated to be a cultural shift as a flexible workspace concept will be introduced in place of individual workspace. The organization needs to carefully introduce this intended change as the loosing of one’s personal workspace might lead to resentments among the existing workforce. A planned procedure requires to be employed in order to carry out this change process successfully in the organization. The organization would need to put in additional efforts to make the employees believe in the actuality that the intended change is vital along with giving rise to a feeling of urgency with regard to the required alteration with the help of a commonly shared vision. The vision statement for the organization could be to build a better regular office life for the employees. This would be made possible not only with the help of sharing the work but also by sharing the workspaces in order to develop and enhance the working as well as personal relation among all the employees (Axelrod, 2010). Importance of Focus Group A focus group needs to be developed or selected after ascertaining the vision statement in relation to the planned change that is about to be introduced. A focus group is referred to a collection of around eight to twelve individuals with whom a particular topic and its related facets are discussed. The change management procedure would be discussed with the selected focus group in order to assess the outcomes or feedbacks received regarding such a process. The focus groups would ensure the proper information flow from the management to the employees and vice versa. The focus groups would help the organization to communicate their vision and need for change to the employees along with receiving the feedback regarding the implemented process from the employees. This ensures a transparent process of communication which helps in comprehending the mutual needs and issues (Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, 2002). Importance and Need of User Acceptance The aspect of user acceptance is considered to be an integral part of the procedure related to change management as it helps in ascertaining the degree of success or failure of the employed change after the implementation. In case the change is not accepted by the users then alterations would be again re-altered and re-introduced again. Therefore, this particular method would help the organization to identify and locate the loopholes or the deficiencies in the process of change along with fixing them in order to make them successful (ITSM Community, n.d.). The Importance of Support Group The organization would also require building and maintaining a support group in order to manage the change plan along with ensuring its quality. The support group is known to work in union with the management in relation to the intended change process. The support group will aim at providing any kind of solutions related to information technology (IT) and even administrative ones. A separate group is developed for the reason of providing technical as well administrative support that is believed to be required in the process of implementation of change management. The support group makes sure of the smooth flow of the process (Regents of the University of Michigan, 2011). Conclusion The process of change management and the related aspects have been evidently explained in the above discussion. It can be well inferred from the above discussion that the process of change management needs to be introduced in a planned and structured way in an organization in order to implement it successfully and to avoid any kind of resentments on behalf of the involved employees. A step-by-step process is believed to be necessary as it helps in taking into consideration all the issues that are believed to arise in the way of the process and which might even hamper the process and delay it. References Axelrod, R. H. (2010). Terms of engagement: New ways of leading and changing organizations. United States: Berrett-Koehler. Cohen, D. S. (2005). The heart of change field guide: Tools and tactics for leading change in your organization. United States: Harvard Business Press. Hiatt, J. (2006). ADKAR: A model for change in business, government, and our community. United States: Prosci. ITSM Community. (n.d). Change management process guide. IT Operational process, pp. 1-68. Kotter. J. P. (1996). Leading change. United States: Harvard Business Press. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. (2002). Using focus groups. The health communication unit, pp. 1-59. Regents of the University of Michigan (2011). ITS change management process summary. Information and Technology Services, pp. 1-12. Bibliography Health, C., & Health, D. (2011). Switch: How to change things when change is hard. United States: Random House. Read More