Nature of Change Management - Essay Example

Nature of Change Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Nature of Change When the rate of change is to increase, change management is a critical competency required by administrators, human resource personnel, supervisors, and organization leaders. Work or group settings view change in a different perspective. Whereas some may think that change is difficult to be achieved some understand the benefits, and work hard towards achieving the necessary change in every field of their operation. For sustainable development, people have to structure and navigate through it, for the rules of change can be bent or manipulated to suit work operation and functions. For change to succeed, people have to embrace it since they like it or because they are paying for it. A well-structured and communicated change rarely failed and it most cases it needs the individual effort to spearhead the required change. For instance, human behaviour is so intricate, but with organizational change, everything is clear with planning and willing to accept the change (King, 2011). Most organizations and individuals over the years have sought various strategies for change, which is suitable for work or community environment. The objective of this is that different strategies work well in different situations and a strategy that works well for one organization cannot work for another; thus, the need critically to analyse a strategy before implementation. In this case, we are going to look at the ISO 14000 strategy. This is a sequence of universal standards on environmental management. This change strategy offers an outline for the growth of an environmental management structure and the facilitating audit plans. Several national standards surfaced (BS 7750 being the first); the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed a group to explore the way such standards could gain business and industry. ISO 14001 is the kingpin measure for the ISO 14000 series. It states an outline for management for an environmental management structure over which a company may be certified by a third party. These standards were first published in 1996 giving the real conditions for an environmental management structure. It pertains to those environmental factors that the company has power and through which it can be anticipated to have an impact (Toffler, 2010). It is therefore, essential that the change management team knows what the change entails as well as the reasons for its occurrence. They then require developing decisions in three crucial fields: the timetable for change. This refers to how fast the change will be created certainly, will there be a transition or pilot time for individuals to acclimatize to the change. For example, there is a remarkable difference between an attempt time to observe if a change will succeed, and a transition time to assist individuals in a change. Both are necessary, but the change group and the management require being fully clear on the reason of any attempts or transitioning time. This choice will be affected by the level of expected resistance. The other is the level, which individuals will be engaged in the change plan. For some change, the change group must target to achieve full transparency - the strategy of initiating the change in a well-managed order that the company hardly realizes. In this case, the company must continually be made aware of change and the purpose for it to evade feeling influenced. The other area of decision focus is identifying learning, which may be taken from past encounters in the company, or from equivalent changes developed elsewhere. Whereas we are expected to be careful on outlining the challenges on some given conditions onto another, there are several other equivalences between conditions than we usually give recommendation. When the control team or a leadership team is aiding the change group, the suggested plan for developing the change must be established with them. This is the fundamental part of the procedure for significant decisions are acquired on the level and speed of engagement. The idea of sustainable development has gained rising recognition; nonetheless, it is a modern concept for most business managers. For many, the thought is a theoretical and abstract idea. The ISO 14000 is a change strategy aimed at protecting the environment, which is the source of most human resources as well as the foundation for all lives. Protecting the environment alongside company’s capital is a well-acknowledged enterprise principle. However, companies do not usually notice the likelihood of spreading this concept to the global natural and human capital. For sustainable development to attain its expected potential, it should be incorporated into the standards and planning business structure. In order for this to occur, the idea should be communicated in terms, which are common to business managers (Lamb, 2004). The nature of the change strategy The ISO 14000 change strategy in view of sustainable development implies implementing business plans and practices, which meet the requirements of the enterprise and its stakeholder now while sustaining, defending, and facilitating the natural and human, environmental resources, which will be required in the future. It has turned truism that environmental challenges are sizeable and that economic development is linked to them. A basic reaction is exacting environmental guideline that usually limits growth. The outcome may be a trade-off between fit environment on one side and a fitting development on the other. As a result, chances for business could be confined. Nevertheless, there are other types of growth, which are both socially and environmentally sustainable. They result not to a trade-off but to an accepted environment, alongside the growth, which does not exploit and deplete the environmental resources. This is what ISO 14000 standards and regulations are all about- a transitional change strategy in the method we observe these matters (Buzzell & Gale, 2007). Communities and businesses may find methods, which will target all the three objectives – social well being, environmental protection, and economic growth in the same period. However, sustainable development is appropriate environmental protection in itself. It develops opportunities for distributions of green customers, initiators of environmentally safer procedures and resources, industries that devote in eco-efficiency, and those, which involve themselves in communal well-being. These changes when implemented correctly will have a competitive advantage in the society. In fact, it can earn the local community some excellent reputations and see their endeavours reflected in the bottom line. Whereas organizations customarily hunts for practicality and accuracy as the source for their strategic efforts, ISO 14000 sustainable development standards are an idea, which is not agreeable to easy and global definition. It is fluid and changes through time in reaction to raising information and communities’ growing precedence. The function of enterprises in participation in sustainable development through change mechanism remains indefinite. Whereas all organizations may develop participation targeting its achievement, the capacity to create change varies by companies’ size and industry. On the other hand, several areas of sustainable development are technically uncertain, making it hard to develop an effective and successful course of action. This strategy, therefore, works in the interest of creating a healthy environment and which boost economic growth. For a short-term, efficient, environmental performance is likely a remarkable goal for most plans and strategies with sustainable growth as a permanent objective (King, 2011). The nature of the change from both a personal and organisational perspective For the last decades, there have been several polls proofing the significance of the environment to individuals. Thus, an irresponsible organization would decline from this trend as a moving cult or fall short on recognising the need to incorporate environmental concerns into each aspect of their enterprises. Environmental merits as fought by the ISO 14000 strategy have been taken part of the strategic thinking. This is the appropriate economic concerns to carry out that strategy. In fact, each time people are pressurized to change, they frequently find opportunities. This constructive change in practices and attitudes is reflected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that states that there is currently an idealistic potential of balancing economic and environmental concerns, and, therefore, of progressive integrating these goals in policy (Buzzell & Gale, 2007). Most managers and company leaders have illustrated that trailing sustainable development plans creates ethical business sense. In fact, most organizations have the observation that energy conservation is a beneficial investment since most people are currently willing to spend more on environmental friendly products than the rest. The surfacing of ethical venture funds has pushed for the highlight onto corporate environmental performance. Furthermore, organizations are changing from within, instead of simply reacting to external demands from environmentalists and customers. The idea of change and need for sustainable development requires to be integrated into the rules and procedures of a business if it is to pursue sustainable development policies. This, nevertheless, does not imply that new management approaches need to be invented. Instead, it needs a modern cultural orientation and elaborates refinements of practices, structures, and processes (Lamb, 2004). The two principle fields of management structure, which should be changed, are those pertaining to: increased accountability to non-customary shareholders and persistent improvement of illustrative practices. Creating an efficient management structure for sustainable development needs a tackle on both decision-making processes and governance. The challenge of sustainable development should be incorporated into both information management (control systems) and business planning. Senior executives should give analysis, which measure performance over the change strategies. When thinking on the influences of change in the local area, it is essential to identify the requirement for the society to operate as a team. Working with the locals helps the society in setting up targets such as healthy, clean, and conducive environment at its centre. Change strategy may help add to the society plans though the application of substitutes to fossils fuels. This will not just reduce greenhouse gas discharge, but also enhance air quality locally and assist to provide healthy, clean and safe environment (King, 2011). Usually, when the strategy has been marked, it should then be put into use. This could entail resourcing, arranging, and exploiting change management processes. Arranging for instance relates to the way a company structure may fit into the chosen strategy. This deals with the state of illustrating relationships, strategic business units (SBUs), and spans of control that is to be created. Classically, a SBU shall be formed (that often has some level of autonomous choice) when it is present in the market with distinct situations, or needs distinct strategies abilities. Resourcing, on the other hand, is simply the capital needed to put the strategic change into use, varying from human capital, tool capital, and to ICT-based equipments. In the progress of initiating strategic changes, a company should be cautious of pressures, which could legally seek to hinder such changes. It is essential then that efficient change management and ISO 14000 standards are introduced. These comprise the selection of a change agent, as a person who can fight for the appropriate change and work to bolster and dispel any fears emerging. This also includes establishing the reasons of the opposition to company’s change (regardless of if from workers or expected job security loss). Furthermore, it encompass through change agency, gradually reducing the negative influences, which a change could expose (Drucker, 2003). In the modern fields and practices, most economic activities are characterized by age of discontinuity. This is where trials to forecast the future by extrapolating from the past may be somehow precise. However, Drucker (2003) stated that the age of discontinuity and extrapolating from history is unpromising. Therefore, no one can imagine that patterns that are present and working today will persist into the future. He illustrated four basics of discontinuity: globalization, modern technologies, skill capital, and cultural pluralism. In order to accelerate change, technological and social practices should have a shorter lifespan with every generation, and the communities’ capacity to stand with the leading disquiet and mayhem is of considerable concern to change. Past generations of change were usually characterized by steadiness. This permitted community to incorporate the change and address its challenges before the coming of other changes. However, these times of steadiness are becoming shorter each day, and this, therefore, calls for better and improved plans that can see the expected changed be achieved within a reasonable time (Toffler, 2010). References Buzzell, R. and Gale, B. (2007). The PIMS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance. New York, NY: Free Press. Chen, H. (2004) Practical Program Evaluations, Newbury Park, Ca: Sage. Clarke, T. & Clegg, S. 2000, Changing Paradigms: The Transformation of Management Knowledge for the 21st Century, London, Harper Collins Publishers, 1, pp. 9–15. Drucker, F. (2003). Business strategies for sustainable development. Retrieved on August 28, 2011, from < http://www.iisd.org/business/pdf/business_strategy.pdf> Hamel, Gary (2002). Leading the Revolution, Plume. New York, NY: Penguin Books. King, A. (2011). The need for change is urgent. Retrieved on August 29, 2011, from < http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1108/S00556/the-need-for-change-is-urgent.htm> Lamb, R. (2004). Competitive strategic management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, (2008). The Need for change: challenges for the trade union movement of today. New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. Toffler, Alvin (2010). Leading Organisational Change at UWA. Retrieved on August 29, 2011, from Read More