The Tools and Techniques of Change Management - Assignment Example

 The Tools and Techniques of Change Management In today’s business world, technology, globalization, and e-business go hand in hand. In an organization that has one of these new processes, most likely has two or more all working together. In this age of information technology the management of change has new tasks before it. According to Noe et al. (2007), “Information technology is changing the way HR departments handle record keeping and information sharing. Today, HR employees use modern technology to automate much of their work in managing employee records and giving employees access to information and enrollment forms for training, benefits, and other programs.” This paper will compare and contrast the management of change in a brick-and-mortar and a virtual organization. The management of change in a brick-and-mortar and a virtual organization has some similarities but a lot of differences. A neutral person does not resist a change without a reason. The ability to except a change is important for both individuals and organizations. For both brick-and-mortar and virtual organizations a human resources manager, who is in the unique position of ensuring the agility of the organization’s human capital, faces a lot of important issues which must be given consideration in order to achieve the strategic goals of the company. The important issues needed to be addressed are planned and unplanned change, global and economic change, political, legal, and social change, the role of human resources in virtual organizations and e-commerce, and the role of technology on the function of human resources. (Hughes 2007) The most vital issue facing human resources managers is the ability to gain strategic partnership. Gaining strategic partnership requires adding value to the organization through forecasting, planning, and adapting to the above changes and taking a proactive attitude in managing change. In both brick-and-mortar and virtual organizations, human resources is part of their strategic plans. Included in these plans are both planned and unplanned changes. Strategic leadership needs an understanding of when change is required in an organization. A strategic leader must be proactive instead of reactive. Thus, human resources should create a strategically managed vision for current and future conditions. In virtual organizations, change is a must if they want to succeed in a global, complex, and vague environment. According to Bolman and Deal (1991), “powerful forces in the environment are pressuring public and private organizations to alter permanently existing structures, policies, and practices”. E-commerce has made the competition very tough, which in turn creates assortment and a variety of skills and mind-sets. Communication has become very important for virtual organizations and it is now a major challenge of building consistency and common goals in a world of cultural differences, which needs planned change. Following are the six leadership and change criteria that would apply to both virtual and brick-and-mortar organizations — identifying the area where the change is required, creating awareness about the need for change, suggesting ways to apply change, executing the change, helping people in adjusting with the change and dealing resistance to change. According to Peter Senge (2007), employees seem to be opposed to change. However, they will accept change if they understand why the change is required. The responsibility of human resource managers is to help employees understand the reasons for change and help them buy into the change. Management of change in virtual organizations Management of change is a big challenge for virtual organizations because E-commerce is changing the way in which organizations do business. E-commerce has a large impact on the way organizations manage human resources. Human resource managers should made salary packages that attract and retain the best talent and at the same time should meet organization budget. Virtual organizations are creating big challenges for human resource management because e-business has altered the way in which businesses are managed. All organizations are no longer brick-and-mortar. Human resources position is impacted by diverse functions, such as recruiting, planning, job analysis and design, training, and compensation. Human resource managers must rationalize the need for change and promote the benefits to senior management to attain heir support. Salary packages become a big issue in virtual organizations because firms can decrease costs by reducing remunerations, bonuses or firing staff. Information technology has reduced the operation cost of organizations because virtual organizations need less number of employees as compared to brick-and-mortar organizations. In addition, information is more precise with virtual organizations because less people are used, and the information is transmitted electronically creating less time required to reenter the data, while an electronic interface assures compliance of processes and ensures accurate entry of information. In a virtual organization, human resource mangers focus on the need to train and create refresher cost because employees can become negative if they are not clear on the application. Managers’ role becomes strategic because they have to influence employees in other ways than monetary compensation and create employee satisfaction. Management of change in brick-and-mortar organizations There has been a rapid change in the way the business is conducted in brick-and-mortar organizations and this change will continue. A number of brick-and-mortar organizations are now connecting to gain an advantage over or keep up with competitors. For brick-and-mortar organizations the management of change is a tough task because they live in the age of information technology and have a lot of virtual organization around them. Changes occur through the work of human resource mangers who provide information about the relevant human resource issues, such as loyal market pay rates and labor laws. As the brick-and-mortar organizations have to incur expenses of buildings and other infrastructures, they have to face many challenges in the management of change. Most companies, including those with limited international operations, can be exposed to global change. Levels of global change grow as organizations expand internationally or as the countries of operation become the leading factor. In brick-and-mortar organizations, human resources managers are under pressure to accommodate change. In this connection, training programs are created to accommodate changes such as conflict management training. Change is crucial for the survival of both employees and organizations. Changes in societal structure have important on brick-and-mortar organizations than on virtual organizations. Change in societies is a continuous process Human resource managers need to play more than one role in a changing environment or a brick-and-mortar organization will not survive. A skilled human resource manager is always rightly plays his/her role and knows very well when to change that role according to planned or unplanned change. Conclusion In conclusion it can be said that management of change is important for both brick-and-mortar and virtual organizations. Human resources mangers get advantage from technology in the major areas of employee self-service, training and development, and human resources management. As the role of mangers moves toward strategic partnership, improving the ability of workers to self-manage benefits, access firm’s information, and access other information, such as job classification and pay rate, not only creates more competence for human resources managers but creates transparency in the way that benefits and information are accessed and dispersed. The outcome of technology as a tool for self-service to workers is that the time spent administering benefits is better spent as most workers’ questions are answered, or clarified, through self-service. For both brick-and-mortar and virtual organizations, technology is important as a tool for training and development. Advances in computer-related technology have had a major impact on the use of information for managing human resources and management of change. Large amounts of workers’ data can be stored and without any trouble retrieved on personal computers. The wide ranges of information technology in human resources make significant contributions to both brick-and-mortar and virtual organizations. For both type of organizations, a major way that technology enhances human resources is the access to candidates, their backgrounds, and previous work history. This helps excellently the management of change. Prior to technology much of this information was not recognized by an organization about a perspective employee until it was too late and he or she had been hired. According to Dave Ulrich, there are four ways in which human resources managers add value to their organizations. He says these four transformations explain how managers forecast, react, manage, and adapt to the role of strategic partner. First, managers must “…partner with senior and line managers to move planning from the conference room to the marketplace” (Ulrich, 1998). Second, managers must become experts “…in the way work is organized and executed, delivering administrative efficiency to ensure that costs are reduced while quality is maintained” (Ulrich, 1998). References Adamson, G., Pine, J., Van Steenhoven, T., & Kroupa, J. (2006). How storytelling can drive strategic change. Strategy & Leadership, 34(1), 36-41. Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E. (1991). Leadership and management effectiveness: A multiframe, multi-sector analysis. Human resource management, 30(4), 509 - 534. Englehardt, C. S., & Simmons, P. R. (2002). Organizational flexibility for a changing world. Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 23 (3/4). Hughes, M. (2007). The tools and techniques of change management. Journal of Change Management, 7(1), 37-41. Noe, Raymond A., Hollenbeck, John R., Gerhart, Barry, & Wright, Patrick M. (2007). Fundamentals of Human Resources Management (2nd ed.). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. 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