Managing Organizational Change: Forum Contribution - Coursework Example

RUNNING HEAD: MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: FORUM CONTRIBUTION Managing Organizational Change: Forum Contribution Name: Institution: Course: Date: Managing Organizational Change: Forum Contribution Introduction There are various aspects of managing organizational change which enable an organization to anticipate and react effectively to changes in the business environment. This essay will discuss some of the learning frameworks that inform organizational change and organizational development interventions which help the organization gain control over its environment. The essay will discuss organizational learning and knowledge management and organizational development interventions such as organizational design, conflict resolution and transorganizational systems. Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management Organizational learning (OL) refers to how employees and teams in an organization learn and share knowledge through organizational structures and social processes. Unlike individual learning, OL must be done for organizational purposes, it must be shared or distributed among the members of the organization and this learning must take place within and be embedded in organizational systems, structures and culture. The organization can learn without the individual learning and vice versa, but OL activities such as process design and improvements in service delivery will remain with the organizations even if its members change. On the other hand, knowledge management (KM) focuses on the tools, techniques or methods through which organizations are able to collect information and convert it into knowledge that is useful to it such as in improving performance. In KM, organization knowledge refers to what the members of an organization know about its processes, its products, its customers and its competitive environments. It is important as it contributes to organizational performance since when it is applied effectively to the organization’s competitive strategy it will yield competitive advantage. In addition, this knowledge is important as it can be used to add value for customers and leverage across products and geographical regions when it is unique to the firm and not easily obtainable by its competitors. Organizational Design One of the approaches to organizational design is a self -design change strategy. This includes “Built-to-change” (B2C) which refers to an organization whose elements are designed for continuous, organic change or an intervention or approach that focuses on redesigning the various components of the organization in anticipation of, response and accommodation of continuous change rather than normal operations (stability). A B2C organization is able to realise a virtuous spiral where it is able to continually modify its capabilities and designs in response to the environment, sustain dynamic alignment and create self-reinforcing cycle of escalating performance. Organizational Development (OD) Interventions There are several forms of OD interventions used in different situations. This includes T-groups where strangers meet with a professional trainer mainly to explore social dynamics which emerge from their interactions. T-groups are mainly used when managers want to learn about the effect of their behavior on others. Process consultation is another OD intervention where a process consultant facilitates group members to gain the skills to diagnose and solve their own problems independently. A process consultant is a professional who facilitates self-problem solving in groups by helping people diagnose the nature and extent of their problems which ultimately enlightens them on how to solve their own interpersonal problems rather than prescribing solutions. Process consultation is mainly used when the client has a problem but is not aware of its source and how to resolve it or in circumstances where the client may learn or benefit from diagnosis of the problem. Another form of intervention is third party intervention where a third party consultant facilitates interactions between two conflicting parties, diagnosis of the conflict and how to resolve it. The third party must be skilled in diagnosis- facilitating diagnosis of the conflict and how to resolve it between the parties to be successful. It is used when conflict significantly disrupts task interactions and work relationships among members of an organization. Team Building as an intervention refers to activities designed to help groups improve their task processes and how to enhance interpersonal and problem solving skills. It is mainly used to resolve conflicts among team members, facilitate gelling in a new team or to revitalize a team. Group problem solving includes two major components- diagnosis of the problem and consultation to identify the most appropriate problem solving approaches. Team building can affect a team’s decision making, communication and problem solving. Organization confrontation meeting is also an OD intervention meeting where the problem-solving resources of the entire organization or major subsystem are mobilized to encourage members to identify and confront issues. It is used when an organization is in stress or to bridge the gap between the higher and lower tiers of the organization such as new management. Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution is an important part of OD interventions. The model of conflict resolution implies that conflict is episodic- occurs in cycles or episodes- and that at times the issues remain latent before being triggered. Unresolved conflict proliferates and expands and conflict which is overt only conceals a deeper underlying issue. Therefore, the conflict resolution strategy should prevent ignition of conflict, limit forms of conflict, help parties cope with consequences of conflict and then eliminate the causes of conflict. Intergroup conflict resolution methods typically involve the use of a third party consultant and focus on behavioural and attitudinal change strategies in conflict resolution. OD Interventions: Strategy and Structure An organization’s general environment is the totality of external forces that influence the organization. This includes the political, legal, regulatory, social, technological, ecological and other components. These forces can significantly impact on decisions made by a change agent directly or indirectly. For example, if an organization’s management is contemplating downsizing the workforce or reducing the salary of its workforce in response to an economic recession, it has to consider and anticipate the actions of the concerned labour union or its reputation among consumer groups who can significantly affect demand for its output. Organizations can gain control over their environments first by monitoring or scanning it to understand it better. The strategies used to gain control include proactive responses such as political activity to influence political and regulatory forces with an aim to gain control over raw materials, gain entry into new markets or even patent new technologies. They can also increase coordination with other organizations for collective bargaining, strategic alliances, market monopoly or even joint ventures which give them leverage over their environment. The implications for these strategies on change management is that the strategy preferred determines what resources, structures and alliances the organization needs to have to effect desired changes. Some of the OD interventions used by organizations are downsizing and re-engineering. Downsizing basically reduces the number of employees in an organization through measures such as layoffs, retrenchments, redeployment, early retirement or reducing the number of organizational units or managerial levels through outsourcing or divestiture. On the other hand, re-engineering focuses on radically transforming how organizations produce and deliver their goods and services through work redesign, new processes, technologies or innovations. The two interventions may overlap in the sense that re-engineering an organization’s processes may necessitate downsizing and when organizations downsize they may have to re-engineer their operations. However, they are conceptually different since downsizing as an intervention aims to reduce the size of the organization while re-engineering aims to dramatically improve performance by transforming production processes and may not necessarily imply downsizing. Work Design There are three approaches to work design: the engineering approach, the motivational approach and sociotechnical systems method. These approaches are more effective when integrated since they help to satisfy the employees’ personal and technical needs by ensuring that the technical conditions of a company’s production processes are compatible with the personal needs of their employees. This improves productivity since work becomes fulfilling for employees. Transorganizational Systems One of the ways in which organizations gain control over their environment is through transorganizational systems. These are associated with shared resources and risks of undertaking large scale research efforts and joint ventures between large domestic companies or between domestic and foreign companies to overcome trade barriers. Transorganizational systems are formed in stages where potential members are identified, they come together to assess and decide on the feasibility of the system, the establishment of structures and mechanisms to facilitate communication and interaction for the task to be performed and finally the evaluation of the performance or effectiveness of the system against the task. These stages are similar to the OD process. However, the members of this system retain their identity and can opt out of the process and unlike in the OD process where managers can make executive decisions, each decision has to be made on a consultative basis. Conclusion Managing organizational change requires knowledge of key concepts and aspects of organizational change by managers and organizational change practitioners. Organizational change results from organizational learning and knowledge management where the organization discovers and accumulates the knowledge needed to manage change effectively. Some of the organizational development interventions used by managers and practitioners include downsizing or restructuring, putting in place effective conflict resolution mechanisms, organizational redesign and the use of transorganizational systems to respond to the external environment. Reference Waddell, D.M., Cummings, T.G.& Worley, C.G. (2011). Organizational Change: Development and Transformation (Asia Pacific 4th Edition). Cengage Learning: South Melbourne Read More