Change Management: Sources of Change and Nature of Changes - Assignment Example

Management of Technology Question Managing Change Change is inevitable. This phrase even applies in thefield of business; one of the reasons for such changes is the constant improvements in the field of technology. The changing demands of the customers and frequent evolution of technology compels the organizations to stay updated with the latest technological trends to avoid brand shifts and to ensure sustained customer loyalty. The changes need to be managed effectively, coupled with tactics to ensure that the change is embraced and adopted by the employees. Change management can be explained in the light of the following three aspects of change: Sources of Change The sources of change can be categorized in two main criteria; internal and external sources. These sources are the factors that prove to become the driving forces for change in any organization. Lunenburg (2010) explained that internal sources are the factors that emerge from within the organization and stimulate a change. Few internal sources of change can be downsizing, restructuring the organizational hierarchy to achieve greater efficiency and introduction of new technological systems and processes. External sources of change are the ones that affect the organization from the external environment. Such sources include government laws and regulations, adoption of latest technological systems by the competitors, economic changes in the environment etc. Nature of Changes Gomes (2009) stated that there might be different nature of changes in an organization, namely structural, technological, strategic and people-centered changes in an organization. Technological change may include the introduction of newer systems and replacement of the old conventional forms of business operations with innovative technologies. Strategic changes may include a shift in strategies that may include downsizing, relocations, changes in the hierarchy of the organization etc. People centered changes may involve the replacement of a CEO with another one; such changes may involve changes in mode of business operations and execution of tasks since the new management will possess a different vision. Problem Diagnosis Introduction of changes in an organization bears great obstacles and hindrances before it becomes a part of the system and people accept it in their routine business operations. Agboola (2011) stated that resistance to changes is one of the most common obstacles in the transition phase. Employee’s attitudes, behaviour and emotions tend to have an impact on the change being introduced in the organization. Lunenburg (2010) explained the Lewin’s model of change that addresses such problems and makes the transition easier for the employees. The model proposes the adoption of three phases i.e. unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Unfreezing refers to the reduction of the resisting forces that might be inhibiting the process of bringing about a change. Moving involves the introduction of new values and processes in the organization related to the organizational change. Refreezing involves the stabilization of the change and ensuring that the change has become a part of the organizational processes. Training and development activities also prove to reduce the resisting forces and make the employees comfortable with the technological changes in the organization. Employees may feel insecure and fear the loss of their jobs in the presence of new technological changes; they should be reaffirmed about the security of their jobs and their worth to the organization. Question 2: Mentoring Serrat (2009) described the following factors as the main pillars for any learning organization; organization, people, knowledge and technology. Employees in technological organizations are expected to possess traits for collaborative learning and reflective practice to ensure that they are able to attain maximum benefits from the available technologies in the organization. Nature of Mentoring A vital aspect in learning organizations is the presence of coaching and mentoring support from the managers and supervisors of the employees. Broome and Hughes (2004) defined mentoring as the long term relationship of the senior employee with his subordinates to contribute towards their personal and professional development. United States Office of Personnel Management (2008) explained the two types of mentoring that is witnessed in an organization; informal and formal mentoring. Formal mentoring programs are outcomes of specific goals and objectives that are formally structured in nature. Informal mentoring bears a minimal or non-existent structure; one of the main objectives of informal mentoring is interpersonal skills enhancement. Mentoring Functions Mentoring bears even greater relevance in the technological organizations since this field experiences frequent improvements in technical practices and systems. Mentoring for the most fitting technical paths and operations (offered by the latest technologies) in accordance with the needs of their organizational business processes facilitates the effective usage of technologies. United States Office of Personnel Management (2008) stated that there exists a common issue with the development and implementation of technological systems; the business managers and supervisors are not extensively involved in the development of technical systems since only the technical resources are designated with the respective responsibilities. The absence of visionary goals and core values of the organization from the technological implementations inhibits in attaining maximum benefits from technologies. The mentorship from such managers can facilitate the alignment of the features of the systems with the core values and vision of the business. Traits of Good Mentors Dickinson, Jankot and Gracon (2009) provided few traits of a good mentor that can influence his employees in the most effective manner. Listening Skills: The mentor should possess effective listening skills since the problems should be listened with patience and focus. Advise and catalyze: Problem solving skills should be shown while advising the mentees about the possible solutions of the problems. Repercussions of all the possible solutions should be discussed to help them identify the best solution. Flexibility: The mentee should be given certain degree of leverage to make the decisions. Flexibility should be shown in terms of meeting timings and dates such that the convenience of the participants is also catered. Provide objective support: The mentor should prove to be a trustworthy third party participant who provides unbiased and productive feedback. Encourage the mentees to take risks and learn lessons from failures. Commitment to the program. Question 3: How to reward technical staff In the modern competitive world, the expertise of the human resources is considered to be as essential assets for organizations as the required infrastructure and capital. Technical professionals bear great relevance since they can become the driving source for attaining competitive advantage and innovation. Simard (2010) stated that organizations adopt effective reward and motivational strategies to retain the technical professionals in the organization as these resources might be contributing towards the progression and success of the company. A traditional approach to motivate the technical professionals is to provide incentives, rewards and recognition in return of their commendable work in the presence of effective motivational formal structures. Such rewards encourage them to be innovative with their work and keep themselves updated with the developing technologies of the world. Petroni and Colacino (2008) pointed out that technical professionals are more motivated by intrinsic rewards rather than extrinsic ones, if his monetary needs are already being satisfied. There exist few informal techniques of motivating and rewarding employees that also contribute in making the technical resources contented with their jobs. These techniques are not part of any corporate policy or formal structure (like the motivational formal structures discussed earlier). Such techniques are adopted to make the working environment challenging for the technical resources. Technical professionals are fond of working with challenging problems for which they can devise solutions with creative freedom and innovation. Serrat (2009) stated that the management should motivate and reward the technical professionals by providing them a working environment that helps them to devise creative and innovative solutions. Challenge and R&D related activities motivate the technical professionals to excel at their tasks and devise innovative solutions. Another informal technique to motivate the technical professionals is to assign them tasks that comply with their capabilities. Petroni and Colacino (2008) stated that technical professionals feel demoralized if their technical expertise is not being used in the right place by the management. Their capabilities should be analyzed and most appropriate positions should be assigned to them to help them deliver effective solutions and facilitate growth in their domain. Therefore, it would not be wrong to state that work overload, as well as work under load tends to demoralize technical professionals. Question 4: Leaders vs. Managers Every organization has multiple authorities to lead and manage people but it is not necessary that all of them would have the attributes of being a leader. There exist numerous differences between managers and leaders even though they might be working towards the attainment of the same goals and objectives. The differences in their mode of handling issues can be discussed in the following manner: Factors Leadership Management Main Purpose To introduce required changes to ensure progress and success (Kinney, 2010). Keep the existing systems and processes running (Kinney, 2010) Approach towards risk Risk taking Risk aversion Main focus Leading team members (Kinney, 2010) Managing tasks Aims to achieve Vision Objectives Aims to achieve Long term goals (Gottwald, 2010) Short term goals Technique for decision making Facilitative (Gottwald, 2010) Involved Relation with team players Followers Subordinates Influence team members through Charisma and encouragement Power and designated position Results taken as Achievements Results Influence Hearts (Kouzes and Posner, 2010) Heads Table 1: Matrix for comparison of leaders and managers Approach towards Risk Leaders do not hesitate in taking risks if the outcome is likely to attain benefits for the team and organization. Managers try to avoid taking risks, unless it becomes vital to head in that direction. Technique for Decision Making Gottwald (2010) stated that the leader bestows the responsibility of making the decisions to the team and simply ensures that the team stays focused and on the right path to reach a conclusion. Managers are fully involved in the process of making a decision. Influence team members through Leaders tend to influence the team members by worthy vision and charisma. The team members are encouraged and motivated to achieve their tasks, rather than getting the work done on the basis of the power vested in the position of the manager. Influences Heart or Head Kouzes and Posner (2010) stated that the leader influences the hearts of the employees and makes them follow the vision of the leader. The manager makes use of his power and gives them instructions to complete their tasks in the most effective manner. Question 5: “Management of Technology” Management of technology encompasses strategies and techniques that can be adapted to manage technological resources and changes in such a manner that it can be converted into competitive advantage for the organization. The modern world experiences launch of new technologies and improvement of the existing ones at an exponential rate. Rothaermel (2008) stated that it is crucial for organizations in the modern world to stay abreast with the developing technologies and implement them in the organizational infrastructure according to the unique needs of the business operations. Frequent developments in the field of technology contribute to the automation of business operations and results in significant reduction of product life cycles. The incapability of an organization to cope with the developing technologies results in losses and reduces market shares. For instance, it is commonly witnessed that organizations that deploy information management systems to manage their routine business operations tend to succeed more than the others. The paperless management of the business operations provides accuracy and efficient results. On the contrary, the organizations which continue to handle operations and processes manually face losses in market shares and generate lesser revenue as compared to the competitors in the market. National Academies (1987) explained few key aspects of management of technology as follows: Identification of the business needs in an organization and thus evaluation of the technologies available in the market to cater those specific needs. Monitor and supervise research and development activities in the organization. Incorporation of technology in the business operations of the company. Deployment of new technologies and products Replacing older technology with innovative technological techniques Ong and Ismail (2008) stated that competitive advantage can be attained easily as compared to the process of sustaining it. Ong and Ismail (2008) also stated that innovation proves to be the key to sustain competitive advantage in numerous ways therefore deployment of innovative technologies can bear productive results for an organization. Question 6: Knowledge Management Knowledge is an important aspect of any organization and business. Gao, Li and Clarke (2008) stated that the term knowledge is often linked to different aspects like information, expertise, skill set, insight, experience etc. Employees can benefit from such knowledge by improving their skills and learning from the experiences of others. Knowledge is also found to be subjective and objective in nature, in other terms implicit and explicit. There exists great relevance for both of these types of knowledge therefore knowledge management aims to facilitate effective management of the knowledge and experience possessed by the employees. Such knowledge management strategies result in creating extensive intellectual assets for the company. Explicit knowledge is referred to as the formal exchange of knowledge that might be present in written form, data, manuals or formulae. Tacit or implicit knowledge is rather informal in nature, as compared to explicit knowledge; it is unformulated and based on personal experiences. It is relatively difficult to record tacit knowledge since it is subjective in nature and only present in the mind of the individual. Benefits of Knowledge Management Dubois and Wilkerson (2008) stated that the benefits of knowledge management can be witnessed on three levels; individual, community of practice and organization. Some of them are discussed below: Accumulation of knowledge at a centralized platform increases the productivity and efficiency of employees. Virtual teams can collaborate at a greater level due to the shared access over information. The expertise and experiences of the employees can be shared within the organization even upon the employee’s exit from the company. It facilitates quicker resolution to problems and better results. Knowledge management facilitates the sustaining of competitive advantage in the market. Challenges of Knowledge Management Chandran and Raman (2009) stated some challenges that are often faced in the implementation of knowledge management systems: Lack of technical capabilities of employees to perform knowledge management activities. Resistance to change from the managers and employees. Difficulty in incorporating knowledge management activities as a part of the business processes of the organization. References Agboola, A. A. (2011), Managing Deviant Behavior and Resistance to Change, International Journal of Business and Management, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 235-242. Broome, G. H., Hughes, R. L. (2004), Leadership Development: Past, Present, and Future, Human Resource Planning, Volume: 27, Issue 1, pp. 24-32. Chandran, D., Raman, K. (2009), Awareness and Problems in Implementing Knowledge, Management Systems in Medium Sized Business Organizations in Malaysia, Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 19, Issue. 2, pp 155-161. Dickinson, K., Jankot, T., Gracon, H. (2009), Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009, Sun Microsystems Laboratories. Dubois, N., Wilkerson, T. (2008), Knowledge Management: Background Paper for the Development of a Knowledge Management Strategy for Public Health in Canada, National Collaborating Center for Methods and Tools. Gao, F., Li, M., Clarke, S. (2008), Knowledge, management, and knowledge management in business operations, Journal of Knowledge management, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 3-17. Gomes, D. R. (2009). Organizational change and job satisfaction: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Exedra, Vol. 1, pp. 177-196. Gottwald, M. (2010), Competing in the humanitarian marketplace: UNHCR’s organizational culture and decision-making processes, New Issues in Refugee Research, Research Paper No. 190. Kinney, M. (2010), Leaders vs Managers: A False Dichotomy, Leadology. Kouzes, J. M., Posner, B. Z., (2010), The Truth About Leadership, EBSCO Publishing Inc., ISBN: 978-0-470-63354-0. Lunenburg, F. C. (2010), Forces for and Resistance to Organizational Change, National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, Volume 27, No. 4. National Academies, (1987), Management of technology: the hidden competitive advantage, National Academy Press, Washington D.C. Ong, J. W. Ismail, H. B. (2008), Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Information Technology Competence: Resource-Based View on Small and Medium Enterprises, Communications of the IBIMA, Volume 1. Petroni, A., Colacino, P. (2008), Motivation Strategies for Knowledge Workers: Evidences and Challenges, Journal of Technology Management Innovation, Volume 3, Issue 3. Serrat, O. (2009), Building a Learning Organization, Asian Development Bank. Serrat, O. (2009), Harnessing Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace, Asian Development Bank. Simard, C. (2010), Retaining a Diverse Technical Pipeline During and After a Recession, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. Rothaermel, F. T. (2008), Competitive Advantage Technology Intensive Industries, Innovation and Economic Growth, Volume 18, pp. 201–225. United States Office of Personnel Management, (2008), Best Practices: Mentoring. Read More