Why is successful change management difficult to achieve What factors would be most likely to lead to success - Essay Example

?Why is successful change management difficult to achieve? What factors would be most likely to lead to success? The biggest hurdle in the way of successful change management is organizational personnel. “Change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and above all, consultation with, and involvement of, the people affected by the changes” (Chapman, 2012). Organizational personnel oppose the introduction of any sort of change for different reasons; change can alter the hierarchy of positions and induce fundamental shifts in the distribution of power, thus raising concerns among the already powerful workers. Change brings changes in the way work is done while the workers are accustomed to doing things in the traditional way. Changing the way they work seems odd because they are not used to it. Change can require the workers to display new set of skills that they might not already have. Every worker is educated, trained, and skilled to a certain extent and displaying skills beyond that requires further education and training. This becomes even more daunting for the workers when they have to afford the expenses of improving their skills themselves and the organization does not provide for them financially to upgrade their skills. Besides, motivating the workers is one of the most important challenges in front of the management. Within the context of an already existing system, it might be possible to keep the workers motivated. However, when change is implemented, workers come up with new concerns and develop different kinds of needs, thus making it difficult for the management to address those needs and keep a highly motivated workforce. Factors that play an important role in making change management successful in an organization include but are not limited to demonstration of the need for change to the workers, communication between management and workers, training of the workers, and the anticipated positive outcomes of change both for the workers and the organization as a whole. Management assumes the main role in making change management successful since most of these factors are under the control of management. The management should start the process of change management by briefing the workers about the need for change. This can be achieved by calling the workers upon a meeting and telling them what issues and challenges that organization faces under the current circumstances, and what possible measures can be taken in order to help the organization deal with those challenges successfully. Many a times, management tends to assume that workers understand the organization’s challenges whereas in reality, that is not the case. Workers do need to be shown the true picture as the management sees it, so that they consent with the management that a change needs to be made. After demonstrating the need for change, management should tell the workers what changes in the hierarchy of the power distribution would be made, what technological components would be added to the present system, what skills would the workers need to display, and how they can get those skills. The management should arrange training sessions for the workers either in-house or by rendering the services of an internal trainer. It is imperative that the management upgrades the skills of the workers according to the needs of the changed system to motivate the workers to cooperate with the management in implementing the change. Finally, management needs to closely supervise the workers and resolve any interpersonal issues that are encountered because of the implementation of the change. A potential example of successful change management is British Airways. It all started with the recruitment of a new chairperson in 1981 who noticed the inefficiency of the company and the wastage of valuable resources. So he decided to restructure British Airways to make its business more profitable. The best way realized by him to achieve this was with the help of a change methodology management plan (Faucheux and Scheid, 2013). Before starting to reduce the workforce of the company, the chairman briefed the workers about the reasons to undergo the company’s restructuring and privatization so that they can be prepared mentally and physically for the change. Communication played a major role in the execution of the change methodology management plan and British Airways underwent a successful transition. The advantages of studying the possible reasons that make successful change management cumbersome is that it would create new knowledge and verify and validate the existing body of knowledge regarding the causes of failure of change management in an organizational context. Change is the fundamental need of any organization in the contemporary age. Organizations frequently need to change in order to keep pace with the rapidly advancing technology and utilize the latest systems and innovative services. Therefore, any efforts directed at improving change management would bring positive results for the organization as a whole. Likewise, study of the factors that lead to success in change management is compulsory in order to add to the existing knowledge and compliment it. These factors can be identified with the help of analysis of case studies of organizations that have undergone or implemented some sort of change, faced some challenges as a result of that, and the measures they took to deal with the challenges successfully. The disadvantages of studying the factors that make change management difficult and others that make change management successful is that although these factors can be identified through case study analysis, yet every organization faces different kinds of challenges, so the findings must be interpreted in the context of their own distinct organizational culture, context, and nature of work in order to benefit from the findings. Besides, “Managing change is tough, but part of the problem is that there is little agreement on what factors most influence transformation initiatives. Ask five executives to name the one factor critical for the success of these programs, and you’ll probably get five different answers” (Sirkin, Keenan, and Jackson, 2005). It so happens because different managers analyze the initiatives from their own viewpoints that are based on their individualistic experiences, thus leading them to developing different perspectives. References: Chapman, A 2012, Change Management, [Online] Available at http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm [accessed: 26 April 2013]. Faucheux, M, and Scheid, J 2013, Examples of Change Management Plans That Worked, [Online] Available at http://www.brighthubpm.com/change-management/55056-examples-of-change-management-plans-that-worked/ [accessed: 26 April 2013]. Sirkin, HL, Keenan, P, and Jackson, A 2005, The Hard Side of Change Management, Harvard Business Review, [Online] Available at http://hbr.org/2005/10/the-hard-side-of-change-management [accessed: 26 April 2013]. Read More