Managing Innovation and Change in Organizations - Research Paper Example

Managing Innovation And Change In Organizations Table of Content Table of Content 2 3 The present report describes the concept of change and innovation in the context of present day organizations and their futuristic conditions. Present day business environment keeps on changing as usual but the difference lies in the pace at which these changes innovations are taking place. The organizations are entering into the processes of bringing drastic and radical change in their business operations which is getting reflected on their performances. It has become essential for present day organizations and administrators to adapt themselves according to the changes for their survival else their existence becomes questionable in this intense competitive business environment. The report describes how managers can act as change agent and facilitate changes and innovations into the organization and supports organizations to resist these changes. The communication of the changes and innovations across the organization is also very important which depends upon the managers and their capabilities to spread the concept of changes across their organization. The benefits of managing change and innovation in organizations have also been discussed in the report with support of practical examples of present day organizations working on global level. Introduction Present day organizations are giving significant importance to something called change management which has influenced almost all of the dimensions of an organization. It is perceived to be creation of human mind which gets reflected into their organizational processes. For better adaptation to a change it becomes very essential for the managers to identify those changes first and plan accordingly. Adapting to the changes without the understanding of the core substance of the change could result into many organizational problems. The basic understanding of the change and working according to that involves certain steps which firstly involves understanding the change and secondly its management by taking proper initiatives and approaches to resist the challenges posed by the change (Changing Minds, n.d.). There is a need of organization wide support in order to bring the concept in action within the organization. Managers of the organizations plays crucial role in this context. Their role keeps on switching from manager to change agent for facilitation of change within the organization. The managers identify and diagnose the changes and develop plans for adapting themselves according to the change and resists the challenges emerged due to the identified change. Organizations which have proved their names in field of change management have also realized the impact of their efforts. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest company in the retail industry and has a huge network of business across the globe. The company gives substantial emphasis over the issue of change management and innovation within their business operations. Significance of Change and Innovation The concept of change management and innovation has influenced all of the dimensions of business organizations and benefited them as well. In organizations the change management is being done in a systematic and organized way with identification and communication of the changes and their impact over the roles and responsibilities of the organizational members. The identified changes are then reinforced through the process of change management. Organizations consider certain aspects of the process within which the change has to be introduced. For performing change management within the over all result of the organization its key performance indicators are identified and their record is maintained periodically for the identification of the change and its trend (AuditNet, n.d., p.1-10). In the context of Wal-Mart the organization has displayed an impressive act of managing changes and adopting themselves according to that. The company has significantly emphasized on its manufacturing and logistics operations due to which it has gained enormous strength (Cook, et al., 2004, p.17- 56.). The company experienced numerous changes due to its expansion and has successfully adapted itself with the demand of the time which has the company with prominent results of efficient business operations and enhanced revenue generation strengthening the business performance of the organization. To meet the changes and innovations across the business environment the company took substantial support of information technology and information systems. With the involvement of information systems and technological devices the company improved its logistics and supply chain to meet the future demand of the global retail industry. The company has renovated its entire supply chain and logistics through the complete integration of its supply chain with the information system of the company which collects retail information. The company for its proper adaptation to the change which has taken place due to intense competition within the retail industry introduced the usage of sophisticated data capturing devices and database management technologies (Johnson, 2006). Benefits from Change and Innovation The benefits of changes and innovation can be only analyzed after getting adapted to it. The benefits obtained from the concept of change management might be of visible or invisible, though only those benefits which can be viewed in terms of performance are usually considered. Major benefit of involving change is seen in the level of control which one possesses over a job. The other benefits of change management are the working status of the employees which is also enhanced because of the change. The organizational members receive substantial incentives for their crucial participation into the process of change management within the organization (Carnall, 2002, p.105). The benefits obtained by the retail giant Wal-Mart from the applications of change management have mostly impacted its supply chain logistics which have been strengthened to meet the continuous increasing market demands. The company has proved its capabilities in retail industry through its unique approach of cross-docking of products in their warehouses, information management and sharing at various levels of the organization and integrating them through technological developments. Despite possessing a highly capable supply chain network the company keeps on enhancing it so that they can meet the continuous increasing demand and reduce the uncertainty of the business environment. Many other organizations have tried their best to copy the approach used by Wal-Mart’s to identify and adapt to the changes but have neither succeeded in reaching the level of Wal-Mart’s operations nor in meeting the customer’s demands (Johnson, 2006). Apart from the supply chain the concept of change management is also applicable to other activities of business organizations which are related to the performance of the organizations. Basically present day business situation makes it imperative for the organizations to adopt strategic approaches towards the challenges which emerge from their external and internal environment. Managers’ Role in Change and Innovation The managers of present day business organizations have to perform a versatile role with enormous responsibility attached to it. In the context of change management which necessitates innovation, the managers of organizations are considered as the role models for their organizational members. The managers are required to be more conscious during the initial phase of change management as it implies a state of transition which might impact the current employee capabilities. To protect the employee base from the effect of the changes these managers can act as the trainer and guide for their subordinates. They offer substantial training to support their subordinates in enhancing their capabilities so that they can meet their extended roles and responsibilities. In the context of managing change and innovation within the organization, managers are concerned for certain basic activities which involve understanding the level of their co-workers and identifying the required level of capabilities. Thereafter they need to design the training and development activities in such a manner so that each employee acquires the skill as per their capabilities. In the context of Wal-Mart the managers have played their role effectively in managing change and innovation in the organization. Viewing through the strategic change model the company is found to be following the convergence form of the strategic change model. The convergence form of the model describes the low level of change within the organization as well as within the strategy framed for that organization. It refers to the fine tuning of the organizational condition with that of its strategy, considering the factors of external environment (Sherman, 2004). Apart from their business operations the company has also shown its concern for the other changes which are required to be met for the well being of the business environment. In the same context the organization has developed global level private contracts which are mainly concerned with the standardization of its products, especially the food products which the company offers to its customers. Apart from the Wal-Mart some other prominent retail brands such as UK’s Sainsbury’s and Sweden’s ICA which have also shown their concern for the global standardization of food products (Vandenbergh, n.d. p.6-8). Communicating the Change and Innovation The changes and innovation that is expected to be executed that is needed to be communicated to the organizational people for its proper adaptation. The communication model of the organization plays a crucial role in it. The concept of change management follows a set of guidelines in its effort to communicate the ensuing alteration throughout the organization. Organizations are required to have proper authorization, documentation, and the control over the changes that are taking place within their processes. This entire process consists of several steps which involve documentation, monitoring, and control over the changes which are supposed to be made within the processes of the organization. Organizations need to develop separate policies and procedures which would serve as the guideline for the change management within the organization (The University of Tennessee, 2009, p.4-6). Wal-Mart follows the convergence form of change management through their strategic approaches for the changes taking place in the business environment. The company has adopted the concepts of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) to adapt themselves to the changes. BPR basically emphasizes one to bring radical changes within the core business processes of the organization through which the desired level of organizational performance is achieved. The company reduced its restocking period as an effect of BPR and changed that from six weeks to mere thirty-six hours (Muthu et al, 1999, p.1). Outcomes of Change and Innovation Change management concepts have supported Wal-Mart in improving its supply chain significantly which can be considered as the most prominent outcome of the change management. Through the concepts of change management the company adopted the BPR process for its enhancement which resulted in many changes in the way it performed business operations. The company enforced information technology and information system usage significantly to improve their supply chain. The concept of e-business helped the organization in achieving their desired way of performing operations. Through the application of e-business the company achieved its virtual supply chain model. This formed a network of suppliers and dealers who supported the operations of Wal-mart by providing them with timely supply of goods and products. The company also made negotiations with their suppliers and requested them to maintain their inventory levels to meet the requirements of the company at the earliest (Johnson & Pyke, 1999, p.13-18). Conclusion The concept of change and innovation has significantly benefited present day organizations to meet the challenges of the internal as well as their external environment. The concept of change management has been included in all of the aspects of business. The continuous changes which are taking place across the globe have forced organizations to develop approaches and adopt themselves accordingly so that the problems are solved at the earliest. Wal-Mart is a good example to study how the concept of change management has helped the organization to maintain its overseas operations which are performed according to the location specific changes. The company has found an effective way of improving its supply chain by integrating its retail sales information with that of its information systems. To overcome the impact of the changes the company has adopted numerous approaches which have resulted in the synchronization of its organizational strategy with the identified changes. The lateral effort made by the integration and sharing of information across all of the organizational levels through a single platform has also benefited the organization. Through this technology it has become very convenient for the organization to have access to the relevant information from a centralized source of information. Reference AuditNet. (No date). Change Management Best Practices, 1-10, retrieved from http://www.auditnet.org/docs/CMbp.pdf. Carnall, C. (2002). The change management toolkit. Cengage Learning EMEA. Changing Minds (No date). Managing the change project. Change Management. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/change_management.htm. Cook, S., Macaulay, S. & Coldicott, H. (2004). Change management excellence: using the four intelligences for successful organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers. Johnson, F. (2006, November 28,). Supply Chain Management at Wal-Mart. Retrieved 2010, from http://hbr.org/product/supply-chain-management-at-wal-mart/an/907D01-PDF-ENG. Johnson, M. & Pyke, D. (1999, July 27). Supply Chain Management, 13-18, retrieved from http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/dave.pyke/case_studies/supply_chain_or_ms.pdf. Muthu, S., Whitman, L. & Cheraghi, S. (1999, November). What is reengineering? . Business process reengineering: a consolidated methodology, 1, Retrieved 2010, from http://webs.twsu.edu/whitman/papers/ijii99muthu.pdf. Sherman, S. W. (2004). Effect of Change on Logical Consistency. Managing Resistance to Change. Retrieved from http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/051/resistance.html. The University of Tennessee (2009, March 27). Change Management Guidelines. Change Management – Best Practice, 4-6, retrieved from http://security.tennessee.edu/pdfs/CMBP.pdf. Vandenbergh, M. (No date). The New Wal-Mart Effect: The Role Of Private Contracting In Global Governance, 6-8, retrieved from http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/workshops/0607/vandenbergh.pdf. Read More