Management or management function - Essay Example

This paper will discuss the role of a manager during the change or the transition process. During the process of change in any organization managing the people side of the change becomes necessary at the organizational level. Redundancy is the most evocative and fear inducing form of organizational change for many workers, according to Worrall, Campbell and Cooper, (1999). The success of change management relies heavily on the employees making a smooth transition. Change cannot be implemented from the moment the decision to change takes place.

It cannot be delayed till the change has taken place. Timing is very important and the process of change has to start during the problem identification stage itself. This implies that change management initiatives have to be taken much before the changes are implemented (Schramm, 2007). The role of the HR department becomes crucial in planning at this stage because the managers or the leaders have to determine in advance the effects that change initiatives could have on the labour force. The right way of dealing with people is important because people are more important than the combined effect of strategy, product, service quality, or even the manufacturing technology or the expenditure on R&D (Gollan, 2006).

To manage change, managers would have to focus on issues such as training and development of the people that would still be working after redundancy. Training has to be just-in-time and not one-way communication (Woodward, 2007). People should be made to understand why they need to understand something. Managers too worry because they fear losing the power or authority they have enjoyed so far. This requires top-down communication which had been ignored in the case of Marriott. The middle managers at Marriott were entrusted with the responsibility of involving and empowering the staff,