Reviewing, Measuring, and Sustaining Change - Literature review Example

Reviewing, Measuring and Sustaining Change Introduction Change process within an organization is important because the business environment is not static and changes depending on the prevailing market trends. In order to improve performance, the management needs to assess the organization’s goals and whether such goals reflect on the organization’s strategic plans for future. The business environment is competitive, and organizations need to review their strategic plans and determine whether they can help the organization to achieve success. Where the plans in place are not meeting their objectives, it is important for the management to make changes in the organization. However, managing a change process within an organization is a difficult task and requires the change agent to consider a number of factors geared towards sustaining change within an organization. During the change process, the management need to consider the input of their employees and other stakeholders because, they are also affected by new changes in the organization. Any change implemented in an organization if not consultative could result in chaos among those opposing the changes. As such, change process in an organization require consensus building and this help in sustaining support for the new changes. A change process that is not inclusive may result in failure in terms of not achieving the desired goal or objective (Flamholtz & Randle 2008, p.5). As a result, sustainability of a new change within an organization depends on the approach taken by the management in terms of reviewing and measuring the factors or variables necessary to implement a successful change in the organization. Prior to implementing a change, the management of an organization need to assess why the change is needed, and whether such change can improve an organization’s performance. Organizations often engage in making changes that improve performance. In this sense, the management needs to review a number of factors associated with the change process. First in the list involves reviewing employees and other stakeholders’ reaction to a proposed change (Choi 2011, p.479). Employees and other stakeholders are part of the organization and any change affects them either directly or indirectly. As such, the change agent need to assess how the proposed change can be disseminated to the employees and other interested parties in the organization. A change taken by the management of an organization is often integrated in the organization’s culture. This means that employees have to adapt to the new change which sometime may be difficult. In this regard, the management needs to look at the ways in which a new change can be accommodated into the organization’s culture (Choi 2011, p.485). On another note, a change process in an organization requires looking at its scope; this includes reviewing how the change may affect the performance of targeted employees or departments. In addition, change process requires a review of the type of change proposed for implementation. Change within an organization can involve a change in the organization’s business strategy, job roles, merging with other organizations or introducing new technologies. In this light, a review of the proposed change is important in allowing the change agent to plan for a change strategy. Further, because each organization has its own unique features, it is important for the management to understand such unique features. Understanding the unique features of an organization is important in helping the change agent deal with potential obstacles to implementing a change process. Among the characteristics that the management needs to review prior to implementing a change include a review of the organization’s value system. Most organizations resonate with a shared value by all employees. In addition, an organization’s value system is responsible for the establishment of an organizational culture. As such, reviewing the organization’s value system before making a change is important in understanding how the change would impact on the organizational culture that influences performance (Choi 2011, p.489). According to Whelan-Berry and Sommerville (2010, p.176), change process can also impact on the organization’s leadership style because changes in an organization may require introducing new personnel. Further, a change within an organization may lead to shift of roles by transferring employees to different departments under new leadership. In this sense, the management needs to assess how changes in leadership style as a result of a new change, can affect employee performance. There is also the possibility of past changes having an impact on a new change. As such, the change agent needs to review these residual effects and how they can be mitigated to allow a smooth and successful transition to a new plan. On the other hand, the culture and value system established in an organization is important in assisting the change agent to predict how employees may react to a proposed change. This knowledge allows management to come up with a plan to convince employees to support new changes in their organization (Whelan-Berry & Sommerville 2010, p.183). In reviewing the change process in an organization, Adeniji and Osibanjo (2013, p.139) posit that, it is necessary for the change agent to conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization’s strategic plans to improve performance. Realizing success in an organizational setting depends on the performance of its employees. As a result, such analysis helps the management to review the strength and weaknesses of a new plan prior to implementation. A review of strength in this sense involves the areas the organization can exploit to achieve success with a new plan. This includes capitalizing on the organization’s cohesiveness in terms of team work. Team work as a strength in an organization contributes significantly in integrating a new plan into an organization’s culture. On the other hand, identifying weaknesses prior to implementing a new plan assist the management to come up with a strategy meant to mitigate the identified weaknesses of the new plan. In addition, opportunities in regard to implementing change in an organization involves coming up with a strategy that improves an organization’s competitiveness. Introducing a new plan in an organization can help in terms of giving the organization a competitive edge over other organizations, which is critical in achieving success. SWOT analysis is also important in the sense that the change agent can identify the potential threats to the new plan. Identifying threats in this sense help to reduce failures with a new plan introduced in an organization (Adeniji and Osibanjo 2013, p.142). Conversely, measuring change in an organization entails an evaluation of how the new change is received in the organization. The management need to engage in the measurement of new change to determine whether the change is meeting its objectives. Change within an organization takes a gradual process, and the transition requires cooperation from everyone in the organization affected by the change process. In essence, the management can measure the success of a change process by identify various success indicators. Such indicators include high morale among employees, cooperation and good teamwork associated with the new change. A change in an organization can either boost or lower the morale of employees. In measuring the success of a new change in the organization, the behaviour of employees is a good indication of whether the new plan resonates with the organization’s culture (Hiriyappa 2009, p.15). Where employees of an organization are discontent with a new change, this often shows in their morale towards work. In addition, employees tend to improve teamwork and cooperation if the changes in an organization consider their input. Other indicators for measuring change in an organization include employee turnover. Where the turnover is high, this means that the employees are not happy with the new change and this may impact negatively in implementing a change process. On the contrary, where the turnover is low, this means the employees are comfortable with the change taking place in an organization (Hiriyappa 2009, p.18). Benchmarking as a tool is important in enabling the change agent to measure the success of a new plan introduced in an organization. Through benchmarking, the management can compare the performance of their organization with other similar organizations. This helps the management to measure whether the new changes are improving organizational performance compared to other organizations. Organizations often engage in the change process to strengthen performance in relation to other similar organizations. As such an improved performance in regard to a new plan means that the organization is achieving success with the implemented change. Conversely, relying on gap analysis enable the management to measure any existing gap between an organization’s current status and where the organization intends to be. In this regard, measuring the organization’s performance at present enable the change agent to develop a strategy geared at ensuring the organization obtain the desired state in relation to the implemented change. The time it takes to implement a change in an organization is also a measure that management can rely on to determine the success of the change process. Where a new change is taking a longer time to integrate into the organization’s culture means that, the new change does not resonate with the needs of the employees. Such a delay can be a rejection by employees and other stakeholders of the new change (Nasim 2011, p.188). In order to sustain a new change within an organization, the management need to consider a number of factors meant to create a smooth and successful transition. This includes creating communication channels, encouraging teamwork, consensus building and good organizational leadership by the management. To implement any change within an organization, good communication skills are important to make employees and other interested parties in organization understand the need for change. Chaos associated with new changes in an organization often result from a lack of proper communication channel in all levels of the organization. As such, the people affected may be disgruntled because they were not included in the process of implementing a change. It is important for the management to communicate the proposed changes to employees and other stakeholders (Nasim 2011, p. 193). This gives employees and stakeholders a chance to raise their views in regard to the new changes. On the part of the management, communicating with staff and other stakeholders enables them understand what others in the organization think about the new changes. Conflicts of interest within an organization often arise because of poor communication. Introducing new changes in an organization may not ogre well especially with the middle management; however, when the top management communicates such changes to their junior staff, they are able to understand and support the proposed changes (Nasim 2011, p.201). Sustaining change in an organization further depends on teamwork. Where teamwork is one of the characteristics of an organization’s culture, it is possible for the management to sustain a new change. This is because teamwork allows for other employees to participate in the decision making regarding the proposed changes in the organization. Team work further discourages conflicts in relation to new changes because of an inclusive process that accommodates the input of everyone affected by the new changes. Other than teamwork, sustaining change depends on consensus building and this allows other members of the organization to support new initiatives meant to improve performance. Consensus building ensures that everyone in the organization is involved in the process, and their voice is heard. In addition, consensus helps the management to reach a conclusive decision that reflects on the input of other workers. As such, employees will be comfortable with new changes introduced in the organization because it is a process that they are also participants. Consensus further help to reduce tension within the organization in regard to changes that the personnel is not comfortable accepting. Under certain circumstances, a new change may mean transferring head departments to other locations. This may not be received well by other staff working under the departmental heads. As a result, consensus building help to ensure the staff understand and accept the shifting of head departments. In essence, consensus also plays a role in enhancing supportive structures within an organization (Doyle & George 2008, p.106). Empathy on the other hand, is also important in sustaining change. This is true in the sense that, the change agent needs to understand where their employees and other stakeholders are coming from. Change does not affect only the work environment, but also personal lives of employees of an organization. As such, the management needs to develop an understanding of how other workers feel about the changes taking place in their organization. This further helps the management to gauge the mood of workers and adjust accordingly so as not to compromise employee’s accommodation of new changes within the organization. Additional skills necessary to sustain change include embracing good leadership. The management of an organization should endeavour in showing good leadership that can be emulated by other junior staff. Further, within an organization, the management need to play an active role in leading the change process. This instils confidence in the junior staff regarding the commitment of the top management in ensuring a successful change process. Without a proper leadership structure, a change in the organization may experience failure. Showing leadership involves listening to the concerns raised by the junior staff and taking appropriate action to resolve such concerns. In addition, a good leadership that resonates with change in an organization involves being democratic with other employees. In this sense, democratic leadership allows autonomy among employees in terms of making a contribution in regard to achieving success with a new process in the organization. In essence, providing employees with independence in making contributions towards organizational change plays a role not only in improving staff morale, but also organizational performance (Doyle & George 2008, pp.108-109). The top management also needs to pay attention to attitudes associated with organizational change. In this regard, any organizational change needs to embrace fairness. This plays a role in eliminating the feeling of being short changed as a result of introducing a new process in the organization. It is importance to orient employees to embrace change since this process is part and parcel of improving organizational performance. It is not advisable for the change agent to focus on existing problems since this leads to shifting blame when implementing a new process. However, a focus on positive feedback motivates the employees and improves performance (Burnes & Bernard 2011, p.138). A focus on the positive aspects within an organization serves to sustain change. In this sense, creating lean transformation teams play a role in enhancing worker engagement and make the transition process easier for the change agent. On another note, change should not take place instantly, but needs to take a systematic process in achieving the desired state. A rushed process may lead to failures implementing new plans for an organization (Burnes & Bernard 2011, p.152). In order to sustain change, it is also important for the management to identify opportunities that can improve organizational change. This may involve identifying behaviours that are considered to encourage change. In this sense, rewarding committed employees ensures that a new change is accommodated into the organizational culture. Sustaining change also involves accommodating the change into the structure of an organization. This depends on how the management and employees tune their mind-set regarding a new change (Cameron & Green 2009, p.10). In addition, sustaining change entails carrying out the organization’s affairs with urgency. In this sense, the management needs to orient other staff on the need for change. This plays an important role in convincing the staff in the organization to act with urgency in regard to the change management process. In avoiding failure with a new strategy plan, the management need, to set a clear vision to assist in directing the change process. This vision should be communicated to all members of an organization as a way of enhancing understanding in regard to the organization’s proposed strategy plan. The process of change further requires risk taking and adoption of unconventional ideas so long as they are in tandem with the organization’s plans to improve performance. The strategic plan adopted by the management should focus on realistic goals as a way of avoiding failures with untested plans. Employees, on the other hand, play a significant role in the sense that, their competency impacts on organizational performance. As such, a successful change process requires the input of employees with the ability to implement the organization’s vision (Sanger 2008, p.633). In conclusion, sustaining change in most organizations often prove to be a difficult task. This in most cases, result from the strategies employed by different organizations in implementing change. A successful process of change requires every personnel’s effort in the organization. An inclusive process is important in realizing a smooth and successful transition in regard to organizational change. Further, sustaining change depends on communication, consensus and good leadership. Without communication or consensus, changes within an organization are bound to face resistance. In addition, leadership is essential in providing direction to other personnel of the organization. On the other hand, the change agent needs to review and measure the proposed changes to determine whether such changes are realizable for the organization in the long run. 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