Change Agents - Research Paper Example

Change agents are people that have the vision and foresight to realize when a company has to change in order to ensure its longevity and future success. The members of the executive management team are supposed to be change agents, but a change agent can come from anywhere within the organization. Sometimes the best ideas are provided by the blue collar workers of the company. Two important traits that change agent possess are leadership and communication skills (Smet, Lavoie, Hioe, 2012). Change agents can help management overcome resistance to change by intervening in behave of the workers.

The change agent is unbiased and he looks for solutions to resolve the issue taking into considerations the needs of all parties involved. Resistance to change can negatively impact the plans to implement change at a company. The managers must communicate with their employees to explain to them how the change management initiatives will affect their job routines. Change initiatives often fail due to a lack of change management (Swati, 2012). Resistance to change can hinder the ability to change the culture of an organization.

Management intervention is needed to resolve resistance to change (Mariana, Violeta, 2011). The managers have to demonstrate to the employees the benefits of the initiative. If resistance to change persists it can have devastating effects on a company. The efficiency and productivity of the workers decreases which hurts the profitability of the firm. Long periods of resistance to change can escalate into work strikes or even complete shutdown of an operation. Managers have to react in a proactive manner to handle resistance to change effectively.

ReferencesMariana, P., Violeta, S. (2011). Opportunity to Reduce Resistance to Change in a Process of Organizational Change. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 10(2). p698-702. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from EBSCOhost database. Smet, A., Lavoie, J.,Hioe, E. (2012). Developing better change leaders. McKinsey Quarterly, 2. p98-104. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from EBSCOhost database. Swati, M. (2012). Managing Employee Resistance to Change a Comparative Study of Indian Organizations and NMCS in Delhi-NCR Region.

Researchers World: Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, 3(4). p64-71. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from EBSCOhost database.