Rationale for Change - Research Paper Example

Rationale for Change Organisational Change: Change is the only constant. Businesses face numerous changes and a new mantra that businesses now follow is ‘Change or Perish’ (Abrahamson). With the intensely growing technologies and realigned work places, companies need to focus on changing their ways of doing business as well as the relationship between the employers and employees. Organizational change is a term generally used for an extensive change within the organization where companies try to change, implement or also reengineer their processes (Hiatt and Creasey). In most cases, organizational change tends to be radical and can lead to reorientation of the business. Organisational change tends to be deep seated, thereby impacting the stakeholders of the company as well (Smith, Vasudevan and Tanniru). Organisational change is based on external factors and these factors impact the organisation and also act as driving forces in a number of times. Benefits of Change Specialists: Change in an organisation means an impact on the processes of an organisation. This impact can be very wide spread or simply concentrated on one aspect of the business; however it does create major ripples in the organisation. Consulting or hiring a change consultant is crucial for a business attempting change and the benefits of hiring a change consultant is very high (Hiatt and Creasey). Firstly, change management consultants are experienced and well versed with the various aspects and change and have clear resources as well as methods of dealing with change. Also, change management consultants have the expertise to manage communication within the organisation, which is crucial. Change is not well accepted in most organisations and having a change consultant, who can communicate the change details effectively, makes the process smoother and more effective (Nelson and Aaron). Consultants of change also design the communication plans, training and development plans, documentation, improvements of the organisation, career development plans, and also the designing, developing of plans to bring about the improvements within the organisation. Also, consultants work with the clients and learn their requirements, make the project plans and also work on the tasks and value added solution. Change management is a professional job and it is best left to individuals with the expertise for it. Need for Change: Strategic change involves a number of changes to the organisation as a whole. Hence before an organisation decides to make a strategic change to itself, a few questions and areas need to be considered. These include the following: Firstly, is the organization a start up business? If yes, then implementing a strategic change is crucial and is a necessity rather than a luxury. The strategic change plan helps identify the business plan and also helps in linking all other elements like marketing plan, financial plans, management plans and also communication plans together (Smith, Vasudevan and Tanniru). Secondly, the next question that the company needs to ask itself is, Are we planning for a new major venture? Here if the company is opting for a major venture like product expansion or brand extensions, new department or division etc, then it is crucial for the businesses to implement strategic change. Is the company due for the annual strategic plan update? If so, it is crucial that the company has the strategic change plan developed and set as well. Companies need to focus on the various performance meters within the organisation and keep a tab on the trends. This will help the company determine whether or not a change management is necessary or not. Strategic Objectives: The rationale and objectives for any change management program are important aspects. Objectives are in most cases specific and achievable and in most cases these objectives are the most important and critical component of the change program (Nelson and Aaron). The objectives need to be well thought out and well planned keeping in mind the internal and external factors of the company as well as the main goals of the company as well. Hence while developing a change program (Hiatt and Creasey), it is important that a few aspects are definitely covered and these include the following: a) Identification of problems that need to be solved with the change b) Identifying the actions that are needed to be taken by the teams to resolve the problem c) Including the actual change process d) Development of all the plans like action plan, communication plan, resistance plan, etc e) Reviewing the change strategy f) Continuous and ongoing monitoring and review of the changes strategy being adopted. Risk Management and Cost Benefits for Change: Here it is important for the organizations to concentrate on the various aspects of the change and to identify the cost benefits of the changes. Here the company needs to take all the steps and make all the financial analysis to ensure that the change is financially is viable option and is also beneficial for the company as a whole and helps in moving towards the main goals and objectives. The next section will provide a brief change program that can be implemented in business Change Program: Here an example of a medium sized company has been taken. The company main reason the company requires the implementation of new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The main reason for the need for this change is to help in improving the current situation and to work towards dealing with the competition effectively. Step 1: Identifying the Change: Here for developing the change management plan, it is firstly important that a request for the change is developed. Here this may be as a problem of the management or also can be brought out in terms or any other issues that are being faced. Here the company needs to identify why the change is needed and how the implementation of the ERP systems will prove to be beneficial for the company. Here the business currently does not have a well developed system and there is a lot of changes that can be brought about in the business with the implementation of the ERP systems. The ERP systems help in keeping track of every aspect of the business. There are a number of different companies that provide these systems like SAP, NetSuite SaaS, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10.0 and many more. Business needs the implementation of these type of systems to keep all aspects of the business like accounting, customer relationship management, shipping and billing, sales, customer records and also the employee management in a single place. This will help in improved performance. Step 2: Particulars of Change: In the current times where the businesses are fighting with high levels of competition, it is important that businesses have a strong and effective ERP system to help improve the overall performance of the company and will also permit a chance to improvise on the overall working of the company. Here it is important to understand that making change to a business has its positive aspects as well as negative aspects. Implementing the ERP systems within the company will bring about changes to the processes as well as the people, and also will need a new team to implement the change as well. Once the main elements of change are decided, it is important that the company unfreezes a number of elements of the business and focuses on the current position of the company. Here factors that needs to be considered include, firstly, acknowledge the work practices, and identify the supportiveness of the employees and their readiness for change. Also, focus must be on the ensuring that all resources for the change are included and provided for the employees. The next crucial element that also needs to be identified and dealt with is the uncertainties involved with the change of the company. Here these have been discussed in the following section (risk assessment). It is also crucial for the company to ensure the needed education, training and also any development programs needed for the changes are all provided to the employees. Step 3: Change Approach: Approaching this change will need a committed and focused approach. Here the stakeholders will not be impacted in a very drastic manner however the company will only incur high investments. Also, the possibility of resistance to change here is not very high. Although the resistance will be present from people directly impacted by the new implementation, for instance, the accountants and record keeping staff will be required to learn the new programs and software to ensure that the all records are in place. The company can also include a trialing period for the change. It is unreasonable to expect the employees to be able to change their methods and ways of doing business within a single day. For the change to be successful, it is important to provide the employees with a trialing period. This will help the employees gain a stronger perspective of the change and will also help in smoother flow of the operations. Here this helps in eliminating any process which does not suit the needs of the employees and helps the company develop a change plan which suits the employees as well as the company itself and also assists the employees build their confidence as well. Step 4: Implementation Strategy: Implementing a new ERP system within a company involves changing the processes and working, however this is normally done in stages, so as to ensure that the processes continue to go on in other parts of the business as usual. Here the first part will be to develop a communication plan. This can include use of memos, letters, intranet, flyers, or any other form. The implementation stage is crucial and it is here that the company can reduce the reluctance to change, and also ensure that change is successfully implemented. Below is an example of the communication plan for the company. Date Here the company will need to communicate the plan at least two months in advance to the employees. This will help the company give employees a chance to adjust to the change as well as to provide their feedback and views as well. Giving the information too late will lead the change to be a major shock and will attract much higher levels of resistance. Audience The main audiences for the communication plan will include all the employees of the company. However the managers and the team leads of the various teams will be more focused here. What is the reason for the communication? The main aim of this communication to let the employees across the organisation know that the company aims at implementing a new ERP system. Here this is not a choice for the employees but is more of a communication to be ready to make the necesary changes to the processes and to cooperate with the management to help keep the information more organised. Risk The risks involved in this communciation is the possibility of a number of people acting in an erratic manner and resisting change. However without communicating this information, the overall plan can fail. The information cannot be very badly interpreted as the implementation of the ERP systems will not bring about any major impact on all the roles of the individuals across the organisation. In order to reduce any major kind of resstance from the employees, here the feedback and views are asked. Of these feedback and veiws, the management will try to implement the most. Activities Intranet, flyers, formal emails, memos to each team, Action Plan: This plan provides an overview of the time needed to implement the various stages of the change within the company. Here the focus is more on the time frame of the activities and the time required to complete the activities and also on the responsibility of the individuals. This helps provide a clear idea of who is responsible for the activities and the time period that they are allotted for the activities. This helps in reduced confusions and also helps the company in better and more effective working as well. Activity Responsibility Timeframe Researching the ERP systems available in market Research & Development Team 2 months Deciding the choice of the system Top Management and managers 1 month Communication plan Human resources department 10 days Communicating and discussing how the implementation of the system will impact each team (discussed with managers and team leads) Technical teams, human resources team 10 days Communicating the impact of the change to the employees Team leads and Managers 5 days Training and Development Technical team and managers 15 days Implementation of the systems Technical Team Phase based (over a period of 3 months) Training Plan: Once the change is communicated to the employees, and the systems are chosen, here the technical team will need to develop a plan for the training of the employees to ensure that the employees are aware of their duties in the change. Here there will be different sessions held for each team. The duties, changes in the processes, and also explain how their role impacts the overall change. The training will generally be carried out with each team separately and will extend over 15 days while the systems are still being installed within the company. Risk Assessment: In terms of the risks involved, it is essential to note one of the possible risks includes break down of the system or need for servicing. Also the other obvious issue is the lack of training of the employees however this can be overcome by providing the employees with training or also recruiting of employees with the required knowledge and skills. Other issues include the need for broad band connections to keep the product online and keep the connectivity between the stores. This becomes an addition cost for the business. Resistance Assessment Plan: In terms of the resistance planning, here the company will need to develop based on the feedback and views of the employees post the communication plan. The aim of this plan is to identify the key areas of resistance, and to develop possible actions to address the resistance. Also, an individual for each of the issues will be assigned to work on improving the issues. Step 5: Review of Strategy: In order to ensure that the change is being well received by the company, a review stage will be included for the first six months, post which a yearly review will be included. Here the feedback of the employees from each team will be taken to look at ways to improve the systems and also make the change process a smooth one. Here the managers and team leads of each team will be responsible for the same. Works Cited Hiatt, Jeffrey and Timothy Creasey. Change Management . Prosci Research, 2003. Nelson, Kate and Stacy Aaron. The Change Management Pocket Guide . Change Guides, LLC, 2005. NetSuite . NetSuite Features. 2010. 21 February 2011 . Smith, Ken A., Satish P. Vasudevan and Mohan R. Tanniru. "Organizational learning and resource-based theory: an integrative model." Journal of Organizational Change Management (1996): 41 - 53. Read More