Managing Change in Organizations - Coursework Example

Managing Change in Organizations (Cracking the Whip) Author Course Tutor Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Executive Summary 2 3.0 Principles for change 3 3.1 Organizational processes must support organizational needs 3 3.2 Identify right people to support and implement change process 3 3.3 Planning the change initiatives 4 3.4 Measuring process and organization performance 4 4.0 Practices and policies for change 4 4.1 Establishment practices and policies 4 4.1.1Objectives of change to align with organizational strategy 4 4.1.2 Obtain and sustain executive commitment 5 4.1.3 Develop and maintain qualified change team 5 4.1.4 Evaluation of the willingness to change 5 4.2 Execution practices and policies 6 4.2.1 Articulate great need for change 6 4.2.2 Visualize processes to be changed 6 4.2.3 Understand risks and establishing contingency plans 7 4.2.4 Change processes with expected high returns and low risk 7 4.3 Monitoring the change process 7 5.0. Resistance to change 8 5.1. Managing change resistance 8 5.2. Reasons for change resistance 9 6.0. How to manage change 10 6.1. Pressure for change 10 6.2. A clear, shared vision 10 6.3. Capacity for Change 11 6.3. Action 11 7.0 Recommendation 11 8.0 Conclusion 12 References 12 1.0 Executive Summary Change is inevitable in organization and whenever it people tend to respond negatively towards the process. However, managing change successfully is important to an organization if it has to survive and succeed in the current dynamic and highly competitive business environment. Many theories and approaches that explain the change process have been developed by different authors, but many organizations have failed to apply in their daily business practices. As a result, such organizations have experienced difficulties initiating change and having their employees embrace the changes. This paper is divided into three main parts: introduction, the body and recommendation and conclusion. In the body, the paper first examines the principles of change which organizations should adopt when initiating change. They include planning for change, measuring the process and organization performance, identifying the right people and the process to should support the needs of the organization. The paper also identified the important practices and approaches that are useful to organizations in their effort to accept change. The practices and policies discussed are relevant during the establishment and the execution of the change in the organization. The need to monitor the change process is also discussed. The paper also examines how people resist change and the possible ways to reduce resistance to change in an organization. The paper concludes with the recommendations for further research. 2.0 Introduction Change management is a process that involves the adjustment of the organization’s way of doing things, structure and capabilities to meet the dynamic needs of the internal and external environment of the organization. Change is an ever existing feature of organizational, and it occurs both at strategic and operational level. Therefore, it is important for an organization to identify its future needs and be in a position to manage changes that will enable it to reach there. Organizational change and organizational strategies are not separable and vice versa. Due to the importance of organizational change, managerial skills are relevant in the management of such change (Todnem, 2005). There is increase in globalization, technological innovation, deregulation, knowledge workforce and dynamic demographic and social trends which makes the organizational change leadership an important management role. However, ethnic and cultural barriers significantly affect the change process. This paper intends to identify the Human Resource Management principles and practices which can be used by an organization to manage change. These principles and practices help the organization to train change agents and assess the ability of the organization to adopt change (Kandt, 2002). 3.0 Principles for change In order for the organization to successfully implement the change process, it is important to consider the four significant principles. These principles facilitate the smooth transition of change in the organization if they are appreciated and utilized by management of the organization. 3.1 Organizational processes must support organizational needs The processes undertaken within the organization should have a positive impact of the value of the organization in a manner that is supportive to the vision and strategies of the organization. It is due to lack of this connection between the two aspects of organization that change effort is usually frustrated (Kandt, 2002). In fact, change management would to be at a great risk since there is a possibility for not receiving support from the entire organization, thus making it unsuccessful. 3.2 Identify right people to support and implement change process According to Lunenburg (2010) the support from management staff at different levels of the organization is important in the change process. The positions managers hold in the organization allows them to encourage other staff to adopt change. They can use different instruments that make their staff accept change. Additionally, management personnel who are usually affected by change directly must possess different skills and traits to enable them adopt change. Therefore, an organization should ensure that its management team has the relevant traits like integrity and intelligence to be in a position to handle change whenever it occurs in the organization. 3.3 Planning the change initiatives Planning for change helps to maximise investment returns and reduce risk in the organization. In order for an organization to experience successful change, it must plan any eventualities and change. Planning for change should incorporate various aspects of change like its effects, benefits, barriers to change and the possible alternatives for instilling change in the organization. With such a plan in place, it is easy for the organization to initiate, conduct and implement change with less resistance from other members of the organization (Kandt, 2002). 3.4 Measuring process and organization performance It is through measuring process and the performance of the organization that an organization is able to recognize the rate of change it requires. The organization can therefore use the rate of change to evaluate how successful the change effort will be achieved (Todnem, 2005). It also allows the organization to create a comparison between the actual rate of change and the planned change endeavour, and in distribution of resources depending on the existing gap between the actual and expected development. 4.0 Practices and policies for change According to Kandt (2002) several organization practices and policies can be developed to support the above principles in the adoption and acceptance of change within the organization. The practices and policies can be classified into four groups: practices that assist in establishing change effort, execution of change, monitoring change and other general practices. 4.1 Establishment practices and policies 4.1.1Objectives of change to align with organizational strategy Strategic plans for an organization help to identify the services it offers and the significant business and process that facilitate the delivery of the services. It also determines the key organizational competencies and how they are supportive to the processes of the organization (Durant, 1999). The change effort should support the strategy of the organization so as to change can be of value to the organization. Therefore, the goals of change should be aligned with the organizational strategies to have high level of commitment from the executive. 4.1.2 Obtain and sustain executive commitment Immense leadership is necessary to implement change, especially if the change affects the ethics and culture of the organization. Therefore, it is the responsibility of corporate leaders to offer this leadership by being committed to change, communicating the objectives of change to other staff members and empowering them to act in consistent to the demands of change (Gupta, 2003). The organization should develop clear structures, systems of management, principles, procedures and policies and communicates the organization’s vision to all the employees. Employees will show commitment to change if they realize management is also committed and supportive. 4.1.3 Develop and maintain qualified change team Griffin and Moorhead (2011) argue that in order to establish a qualified change management team, an organization must have a well defined charter that categorizes a duty in a narrow scope compared to the strategy of the organization. The charter should clearly state management expectations as far as organizational goals and metrics are concerned. It is important that these goals are not alerted at the time of change effort, which should be controlled by the change team. Planning is very important when creating a superior team to conduct change in the organization. Planning is very important when creating a superior team to manage change. The change team should comprise of experts and stakeholders who are authoritative and well equipped with management and communication skills to be able to concentrate on the vision and objectives for change. The team must be analytical insightful, creative and open-minded. 4.1.4 Evaluation of the willingness to change Management should identify whether or not the organization is willing to change in order to avoid the challenges associated with change. Organizational readiness to change depends on several factors like the cultural strength and the amount of change efforts. For instance, in organizations where the culture is strongly withheld, the change efforts may take long to be implemented unlike where culture is weak. In order for change to be successful in an organization, the plan for change should identify the goals of the change, the effects of change to employees, the cultural environment and the necessary training needs (Kandt, 2002). These organizational aspects have to be identified by management so that it can introduce the change and sustain it n the organization. 4.2 Execution practices and policies 4.2.1 Articulate great need for change According to Burnes (2004) an organization that needs to change should begin by assessing its current state of operation before it identifies the desired state. The organization should then establish the difference between the current state and the desired state in order to develop strategies to handle change. When the gap between the two states is bigger, then there is more need to identify the compelling need for change. A serious compelling need for change motivates other people in the organization to adopt change and reduces the chances of failure in executing change. One way in which a compelling need can be identified is by leaders in the organization being able to change before they go ahead to hold on to the expected behaviours (Kandt, 2002). In many situations, organizations are compelled to change due to the need to survive in the business industry. 4.2.2 Visualize processes to be changed All the processes to be changed in the organization must be established with a vision. The vision of each process should clearly explain the process’s capabilities and the expected improvement in its performance. The vision should also state how the strategy will be supported by the organization to meet its expectations. The newly established vision should have objectives that are measurable for all the new processes which show tremendous improvement to compel the vision. When the vision for every process is created, the change management team is able to demonstrate to other members of the organization how they will carry out their duties in the future (Todnem, 2005). Organizations should create such an environment so as to lower the level of resistance to change due to fear about the future. This also helps to increase investment returns and reduce organization’s risk. 4.2.3 Understand risks and establishing contingency plans Organizational change is associated with both technical and organizational risk. The most prominent technical risks are when the change process fails to work as expected and when the change implementation process interferes with the usual business operations to an extent that relationships within and without the organization are negatively affected. Another major risk to the change process is the cultural response against the change effort (Kandt, 2002). According to Durant (1999) change management team will be able to prevent resistance to change by effectively communicating change efforts to the members of the organization. The organization could also be required to retrain its staff in preparation for change and to align the infrastructure. An organization that takes time to identify its risks and develops plans on how to overcome such risks has high chances of having a successful change process. 4.2.4 Change processes with expected high returns and low risk There are four strategic processes which an organization could consider changing depending on how they are important to the organization. Identity process spells out the reason why the organization exists while priority process affects the day to day operations of the organization. On the other hand, background process is relevant in the survival of the organization in the future while the least important process is the mandated process which is done meet government regulations (Kandt, 2002). It is important for an organization to carry out changes in the processes that are of great importance to its functioning. Processes which are selected based on such as a scheme yield great value to the organization, and usually attract less resistance from employees because of its relevancy. 4.3 Monitoring the change process An organization should use the right metrics to measure the required features of the change process. Use of the old metrics may not accurately reflect the objectives of the desired state by the organization, and this may be challenging in as far as achieving the desired state is concerned (Moran and Brightman, 2000). The organization should also carry out annual process assessments in order to ascertain whether or not there is improvement in the changed process. Through benchmarking, the organization will be able to identify its position in the industry. It is also necessary for the organization to have a continuous measure of its personnel productivity after the change effort. Griffin and Moorhead (2011) assert that measuring the productivity and quality of the personnel help in the identification of problems in the organization, which could motivational or cultural in nature. It also helps the organization to establish where and when failure occurs in the process of employees, and analyse if with a focused mind to take corrective measures. 5.0. Resistance to change Resistance is a motivational difficulty that frustrates learning new skills that are needed by change; also, resistance can be termed as combination of people’s reactions as demonstrated by Erin Dove and Phil Canseco in the case study to dissatisfaction with strong group-induced forces. Change is essential and unavoidable in an organization. The quality movement, ongoing advancement, action learning organizations, improved technology, competition, new methodologies of delivery and the new consumer, all these changes the landscape of the familiar (Pasmore 1994). The organizational clients and financial markets, the surrounding and almost everything no longer remains the same. Sustaining competitive benefit or equivalence is intricate as is the effect company change has on its workers. Managers in the organization must know the increasing effects change has got on the organization and its divisions including people. Unfortunately, as change is unavoidable, so is the propensity for the employees to experience change as an indictment of their practice or unessential impulse of their organization. The workers always blame the management for the comfortable roles and responsibilities lost, income, position and occasionally jobs instead of adopting the challenge of change. Agents of change in an organization are always held responsible by the workers as well as other key stakeholders in an organization to carry out the change in a thoughtful and incorporated way as possible (Pasmore 1994). 5.1. Managing change resistance Change in organizations is a stable, though discontinuous procedure. Organizations are frequently immersed in change. Since transition is an essential part of organizations way of life, therefore resistance is equally natural and should be reframed, looked at and worked on, but not be eliminated or preset. For the organization to survive, it should surface and also discuss resistance as part of learning when introducing change. The information of resistance is vital to the development of an organization, productivity as well as capability in making change successful (Erkal & Kebapci 2009). 5.2. Reasons for change resistance Organizations should design and also implement change initiatives since it may suffer from the ignorance. Managers of the organization should involve the entire collective employees in planning change. Most of the managers may still be living in the past, in the time of scientific organizational, supposing that employees have got no knowledge or intelligence that would give them chance to contribute substantively to the development of their company. Eventually, the company requires a new vision as well as culture in how to successfully implement change. Resistance to change starts as an individual resistance or lack of will to change, followed by the combined organizational resistance. Employees in an organization are contented with what is, living in console zone. The employees always have fear of the unknown, fear of failure or generally, lack of wish to learn a new scheme or process. The company should teach their employees on how to be comfortable with change. Through this, the workers will have a personal development of acceptance for the indefinite. In most cases, individual resistance stem from fear of losing the job (Hall 2008). The resistances to change sometimes come from the managers themselves, embedded conflict, organizational culture as well as the pressures of consistency. Particularly in big and old companies, there is a culture and methodical resistance to transformation. The company is projected to make the same widgets, in the similar mode, for years to come. The employees who have been working in the organization for long would resist and insist on “the way we’ve always done things”. Managers always see themselves as savior and thinks that without them the company could not carry on, makes sure that the change never succeeds. Designing and also implementing the change initiatives and involving the entire organization in planning the change are vital. Failure to this, there would be more criticism, more resignations and also more conflicts. Confidence could be trodden and the joy-filled company culture could become a thing of history (Hall 2008). 6.0. How to manage change Change management is a vital factor in the success of every company. There various approaches to managing change. An organization should find an approach that suits it and the situation. By finding the best approach in change management, the human resource manager of an organization proves to be effective and professional in the company. Nevertheless, whilst acknowledging every change situation will be unique, there exist several themes that make sure that change management stands the highest chance of success (Tidd & Bessant 2011). 6.1. Pressure for change Pressure for change is the driving force that leads the organization to change. The pressure for change could be senior management commitment from the beginning, which might have come from clients or customers in a supply chain. On the other hand, it could also come from authoritarian regime such as the implementation of an Environmental Management System or the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). This kind of pressure can be the most effectual source from the workers themselves. This is because; no one would wish to work on an organization that has a notorious reputation for abusing its suppliers and also polluting the environment. Nevertheless, for success, senior management dedication and drive for change is crucial if impetus is to be sustained for successful implementation regardless of source of pressure (Kotter 1996). 6.2. A clear, shared vision For change to be successful, it should be executed at every level, embedded in the organizational culture. Workers should be motivated through what motivates them, since the change is a key cause of stress to work labor. Through this, staffs will be in a good position to respond well to challenges such as fear of the unknown that results to stress. Staff motivation in support of change to be implemented is crucial for success. Though staffs are motivated by like things, they do not position them in the same order of value (Darwin, 2007). 6.3. Capacity for Change It is necessary for the human resource management to identify the resources required in change implementation. Cost benefits from executing energy efficiency measures as well as waste minimization programmes can be in a position to provide financial funds for a continuing programme of enhancement. The workers of the organization have the data, intuition, ideas as well as the instincts essential for successful implementation of change. 6.3. Action Having got the pressure, shared vision and the capacity, the organization has to execute the planned change. In this case, maintaining momentum is what matters as well as executing the management methodology is crucial in sustaining the efficiency and appropriateness of change. Good monitoring and outcome data analysis is important. It is also important in keeping the employees informed on the progress (Darwin, 2007). 7.0 Recommendation There is a general failure in the change programs in organization as a result of poor change management practices. The paper has highlighted some best practices that organizations can use to manage change in order to survive in business environment. I recommend that: Organizations should utilize these practices and principles for managing change considering their business needs In order to achieve success in change organizations should have a committed executive, have a clear vision and communicate the vision to members of the organization The change team should comprise of people with skills and withstanding personality traits Further research in the best change management practices should be conducted to enable managers in organizations to appreciate the need to have a successful change process. Further research should also be conducted to establish the framework for measuring the success in the change initiatives. 8.0 Conclusion In conclusion, change management is the adjustment done in the organization in order to meet the needs of both internal and external organizational environment. The change should positively impact the organization through supporting its vision and policy. In addition right people are required in change implementation. Planning for change helps to reduce risk and also maximize investment in an organization. By measuring process as well as organizational performance, an organization can be in a position to identify the rate of change it requires. Additionally, the change objectives should support the strategies of an organization. Leaders of the organization should be committed to change and also commit themselves in developing as well as maintaining qualified change team. Establishment of the processes that need change is necessary and also establishing risks and contingency plans. The organization should be ready to face resistance and be ready to manage it. On the other hand, the organization should be ready for change management depending on the kind of pressure of the company and the source. References Burnes, B 2004 “Managing change: A strategic approach to organizational dynamics”, Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Darwin, C. (2007). 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Creating strategic change: Designing the flexible, high-performing organization. Wiley. Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. (2011). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change. Wiley. Todnem By, R 2005 “Organisational change management: A critical review”, Journal of Change Management, 5(4), pp.369-380. Read More