Organizational Change Management - Essay Example

Organizational Change Management Organization is change There is a common adage that change is the only thingthat remains constant. Everything changes and nothing ever remains the same. Organizations have to deal with this reality on a daily basis, especially because managing change is never easy in an organization setting (Jones, 2004). For an organization to succeed and remain successful, it must be able to manage change which will emanate both from inside and also from the outside. This will act as the basis of the organization to be able to manage these processes. Why manage change Organizations operate in an environment that is constantly requiring them to change in order to remain competent. It is only by realigning its goals and its operations to the changing economic conditions that an organization can continue being successful. In this regard, it reaming that managers should be competent with regard to managing change, bit within the organization and the change without the organization in order to remain competitive. Market forces Adam smith laws of the market These laws explain how acts by individual people with self interest lead to foreseeable results in the market. The laws define how competition is as a result of the individual people trying to achieve their own self interests. This competition then acts as the basis on which products are availed to the society. Competition as the force of production regulation Competition, according to these laws creates a regulatory environment where the producers will have to confine themselves within these rules that come naturally from the competition forces, or they will be thrown out of the market. Competition regulate self interested individual producers These producers are only motivated by profit and the only thing that can draw the boundary on how much they will exploit the society is Competition. Competition, according to Adam smith, does more than just regulate these producers, it pushes them towards meeting the society’s needs by forcing them to continually innovate products and goods that the society wants. Through this mechanism of Competition, the society subconsciously allocates, and reallocates the means of production to suit its needs. This leads to what Adam Smith referred to as the self regulating properties of the market. Need for economic growth as the drive for change The constant need for economic growth leads to the need for constant change. Economic growth is a basic need in any society because the society wants to be able to meets its new needs to survive. As the society grown in terms of numbers, new challenges arrive and they must be dealt with. For instance, with increased population, more resources such as food, is required to keep the society fed. This would require better ways to produce food, better ways to transport food from one region to the other etc. As a result, there needs to be economic development that will help in this area. Disequilibrium process This refers to the changes and shifts that new technology and innovation can bring in the market. The market works on an equilibrium that is determined by the general competition among producers with the same interests. However, this equilibrium is interrupted whenever there is an innovation in the market, new technology being in new ways of doing things. These new ways are easier, safer, and more importantly, cheaper and more efficient. This shifts the competition equilibrium in the market (Tidd, 2013). The disequilibrium process includes three major components that together lead to the process and which keeps the market at check. These include the following; The entrepreneurs who act as the agents of the creative process and the innovation of new ideas that keep changing the way a society produces and consumes goods and services. Entrepreneurs act as the agents of change and innovation. They identify areas where change is necessarily, create new solutions and then through innovation convert their creativity into actual products. The second element is the firms (companies, businesses) that act as the vehicles the entrepreneurs use to manage their creativity and convert their creativity into innovations that will change the society. Firms act as the platform for the conceivers of change to be able to deliver their change. In the modern world, firms play this role in a number of ways. First, they offer the providers of change, (entrepreneurs or employees) with an alternative identity to create this change. Secondly, the firm acts as the shield that can protect the innovators from occupational hazards by taking over a new identity with which the products of innovation can be delivered to the consumers. The disequilibrium process is the third element that is made of the larger market which now acts as the fabric that hold the innovators ideas into actual products that are used the society. The market acts as the stage on which the culmination of the creative ideas and innovation can now be delivered to the society and be used. Radical Subjectivism This is yet another model that tries to elaborate how innovation in a society works. According to this theory innovators and creators drive change and innovation through their imaginative and creative nature by looking at a future and identifying the alternative ways into which the future can be lived. They look at how things can be made better in the future and then start the innovation process that would lead to his alternative future. According to this theory, the innovative process of innovators and creators drive them further away from the equilibrium and therefore the laws of the market equilibrium don’t affect them. however, for this innovators to be able to deliver product that actually affect the society, they must be able to do more than just be creative; they must be able to combine their creativity with the resources that will make it possible froth their product to be converted into actual products. This then is almost the same with the disequilibrium theory where the entrepreneurs need the firms (economic resources) and the market itself for them to be able to convert their creativity into the useful products that the society wants. This will require the firm to constantly plan and make sure that they are always coming up with new ideas which will mean that they have to look at the various ways in which they can go on to make better their innovations. Whichever way one can look at the processes of innovation and change, one then becomes very clear. That the outbound change that is faced by society needs is the very force that pushes creativity (Dawson &Andriopoulos, 2014). As Clark (1995) says, creativity is the blueprint on which innovation is made and innovation is the delivery of products and or service that change the way a society lives. This is very evident in a modern world where numbers innovations continue to come up every day. Despite there being no discreet definition of what innovation is, since these innovations can be as simple as the coding of a simple Smartphone app to the innovation of a communication network such as the GSM, what remain clear is that innovation changes the way people do things, for the better. However, the most important thing for managers is to realize that this change is in most cases an outside force that is driven by the needs of the society (Henry & Mayle, 2002). Managing change and innovation is therefore a process of managing pressure from outside. Managers, in managing this in their firms have to consider the following factors; Understand the competition Competition is in the heart of every business. Every business, in every sector in every industry must be able to understand the laws of competition. As the Smith’s theory says in his theory of equilibrium, competition is not just a bar that will limit how much the products of a business will be priced at, but actually it determines what a business will produce. Managers should be able to understand this in order to manage change. By understanding the fact that the need to forecast organizational change is driven by the competitor in the outside, this becomes easier for the managers to now know the right way to go. Understand the demand, today and tomorrow The other dynamic that every manger should be able to understand with regard to managing change is the fact that demand is dynamic (Hendry, 1995). The managers should be able to understand today’s demand, but at the same time be able to correctly speculate on tomorrow’s demand. Storey (1995) suggested that managers should be able to have a way to predict what the demand will be tomorrow and be able to know how to prepare for this demand. By this, they will not only consider tomorrow’s demand in terms of quantity and type of product that the consumers will be looking for (McKenna, 2002). Be able to control tomorrow demand Once the managers understand how demand will be tomorrow, they can now start working towards meeting this demand. As Laurila (1998) argues this demand prediction is not just with regard to the amount, but also the type of goods the consumer will be expecting in the future. Good managers should be able to tell what the consumers will need, even before the consumers themselves know what they will need. This can be best seen in Apple, Inc. Apple has been one good example of how companies can manage change (Brown, 2012). They anticipate change and create products that the customers don’t even know they need (Myers, 1996). This helps the first to always stay ahead of competition. This phenomenon also proves what Smith postulated in his theory; that competition not only determines the price equilibrium in the market but also determines the products that will be delivered. To remain competitive, the managers should not only seek to offer the lowest possible prices but should also seek to provide people with innovative products. Establishing an environment that encourages creativity Managing this kind of issue requires an environment that encourages creativity and innovation. It will then mean that the employees will have to be free to innovate and to create new ideas. Managers act as agents of change in the firms (Betz, 2011). They may not necessarily be the people who actually cause this change, but should seek to make it easier for the employees in the organization to be creative. This kind of attitude toward change management is very clear in the most technology firms, especially those based in Silicon Valley. Firms such as Apple, Intel and Google are all innovation leaders and this can be seen in the kinds of products they have been able to provide the society in the last few decades. They have all been involved in making innovative products that come and change the way people live, work and socialize. A look at all this firms indicates a certain kind of culture that is eminent in the firms. This is a culture of open creativity and innovation which is encouraged by having a firm that has a flat organization structure. Intel, one of the firms that were the pioneers of this kind of organization that is based on the prediction of change management through innovation, has always been a firm where employees are encouraged to innovate. Google also takes the process of innovation so seriously that they even give their employees at last 20% of their time to work on their own work-related project. In fact most of Google’s innovative products are as a result of these 20% time projects which then end up being adopted as mainstream projects in the firm if they are deemed to be worthy projects that can lead to better products in the future. As Mills (2003) says managers, in their understanding that the survival of the firms is predicted in the ability of the firm to always involve and come up with better products that can be delivered of the consumer at reasonable products, must always then seek to always encourage the employees to be creative and innovative. This would then help the firms be able to compete with the competitors. It is also necessary to note that innovation for such a firm is not also about being able to compete, but also survival. According to the Smith’s laws, competition in the market controls and determines the allocation of means of production. Firms that are successful today but fail to be innovative will be risking their future. In this regard, a firm that fails to produce products of the future will be pushed by the competition (usually new entrants into the market). This process shifts the ownership of mean of production. If for instance Apple fails to continue being innovative, they may be pushed out of the smart phone manufacturing industry, thus leading to that means of production being shifted from them to another person (McKenna, 2008). This kind of thing happened to the Canadian smart phone producer (Research in Motion) who was the pioneers in Smartphone development. With time the firm had lost its market leadership and newer firms such as Samsung started product better phones. As Hendry (1994) says managers should have this in mind and know that innovation and creativity is no longer an option for a firm unless the firm does not want to be there in the future. Managers should regard the need for change as a driving forces that will determine who will own which means of production at what time. This will help them to be more driven to understand that even the slightest delay in the process of creativity and innovation can mean that they will be out of business and be replaced by other person. Reference list: Betz, F. (2011). Managing Technological Innovation: Competitive Advantage from Change. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Brown, K. (2012). Managing Change and Innovation in Public Service Organizations. New York, NY: Routledge. Clark, J. (1995). Managing Innovation and Change: People, Technology and Strategy. New York, NY: SAGE. Dawson, P. & Andriopoulos, C. (2014). Managing Change, Creativity and Innovation. New York, NY: SAGE Publications,. Hendry, C. (1994). Human Resource Strategies for International Growth. New York, BY: Routledge. Hendry, D. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach to Employment. New York, NY: Routledge. Henry, J. & Mayle, D. (2002). Managing Innovation and Change. new York, NY: SAGE Publications . Jones, J. (2004, April 15). 10 Principles of Change Management: Tools and techniques to help companies transform quickly. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?pg=all Laurila, J. (1998). Managing Technological Discontinuities: The Case of the Finnish Paper Industry. London, UK: Routledge. McKenna, B. (2002). Human Resource Management: A Concise Analysis. New York, NY: Financial Times Prentice Hall. McKenna, E. (2008). Human Resource Management: A Concise Analysis. New York, NY: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Mills, J. (2003). Making Sense of Organizational Change. New York, NY: Psychology Press. Myers, P. (1996). Knowledge Management and Organizational Design. New York, NY: Butterworth-Heinemann. Storey, J. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. London, UK: Routledge. Tidd, J. (2013). Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Read More