Managing Change and Transitions - Essay Example

Managing Change and Transitions The dynamics of the global society demands that people and organizations keep up with the changes lest they become extinct due to competition. The world presents a new set of challenges and opportunities with every step in societal evolution. Organizations need to change constantly to better ways of addressing modern challenges to keep up with the changes in the modern society. Whereas change is inevitable, the process of transition is often challenging and traumatizing if not handled professionally (Luecke 11). Therefore, there is utmost need to understand the processes of change and transition in order to articulate all the available mental and physical resource to ensure that the process goes on seamlessly. This paper seeks to discuss the various factors worth considering while managing change and transition. Particularly, the paper will focus on managing an organization culture transition in a student organization in which I am the leader.   The change transition objective is to change the organizational culture of our students’ organization. The university requires that students form a student union that will be mandated with the responsibility of representing the issues to the university management board. The student union is a leadership team selected, through voting, by the university students. The university implemented the student union in early 1950s. Therefore, most of the organizational culture of the student union reflects the ideas that the university senate had in 1950s. The university and world at large has undergone tremendous changes in various facets of life. Many changes have occurred in the management styles due to improvement in technology and the emergence of new theories and models of leadership. Therefore, the student union has been left behind with its old organizational culture when other universities have embraced the power of information technology in management. In order to make the student union to cope with the challenges of modernity, the organizational culture needs to be changed from the conventional leadership culture to technologically powered type of organizational culture. The transition seeks to transform the student union from conventional based to technologically based organizational culture. The student union is ripe and ready for transition. Indeed, the challenges that the student union is facing is overwhelming. The conventional type of organizational culture has become a burden for the student union in terms of meeting its obligations. Since the student union is mandated with forwarding the needs and issues affecting students to the university administration, the challenges have come in two fold. First, the union faces many challenges in collecting the issues and needs from the student body since the collection method is physical. The students union has to hold students meetings and forums whereby students highlight the different issues affecting them in the university. However, this mode of relating with the student body has been surpassed with time. Technology has made it possible for people to hold forums and discussions through social platforms such as Facebook and twitter. This transition from the old and conventional way of organizational culture to technologically supported has come of time. On the other hand, the interaction between the student union and the university management plays a very important role in ensuring all student issues are addressed appropriately. This is because the university management responds to the various student issues as they are communicated by the student union. This means that effective and efficient communication between the student union and the university management has to change to meet the challenges of modern times. The student union would benefit a lot from technologically assisted communication platform such as web conferencing and university portals when interacting with the university management. This will eliminate the need to organize for meetings between the student union leadership and the university management. Indeed, the student union has expressed the need for such a change and most of the student union leaders are ready to embrace the changes. Although the student union may be ready and ripe for transition, the transition period is very sensitive and, therefore, needs a lot of care and caution. The transition plan would aim at implementing technologically assisted communication platforms within the student union organizational structure. This will be aimed at eliminating the conventional organizational culture. Particularly, the leadership within the student union will be required to learn the new information technology dependent organizational culture. They will be required to unlearn the old management and leadership. The plan will aim at implementing small and stepwise changes that will not be so difficult for the student union leadership to implement. The transition will begin within the top leadership. The top leadership among student leaders within the student union would be required to undergo training to understand the various benefits of technologically assisted communication platforms. Once the top leadership has embraced the new culture, they will then be endowed with the responsibility of cultivating the same to the leadership on the lower ranks. This will be followed by passing on of the new organizational culture to the student body through implementation of modern communication platforms such as Facebook and university portal. Once the student body has adopted the organizational culture, the same will be transmitted to the university management board. The ultimate objective of the transition will be a full transition from the old conventional system to the new one within all stakeholders of the student union. Even under proficient professionalism, transitions pose a great challenge especially for the initiators (Luecke 12). The primary personal challenge is the opposition by the conservative members of the leadership team. The student union is a politically powered organization dealing with the political issues affecting the students. Most of the student leadership has political agendas that may hinder them from adapting to the new culture. This is because the new organizational culture may not offer them the best audience to further their political aspirations. The greatest organizational challenge will stem from the fact that all aspects of the organization will have to be changed (Luecke 25). The mode of communication within and without the student union will change tremendously. The student union is dependent on a number of stakeholders, student body and university management board. The diversity in stakeholders involved means that the interests of all the stakeholders will have to be met for the transition from the old organizational culture to the new one to be effective. Whereas the student body may be willing to embrace the new organizational culture, the student union leadership or the university management may be a hindrance. I would propose to the student union leadership to articulate a smooth and seamless transition. The various indicators of transition resistance should be recorded, and emerging issues addressed appropriately. This way, the transition will be bearable to all the involved stakeholders. The plan to initiate the transition from top leadership to the majority will ensure that the transition runs smoothly from the top leadership to more people within the student union. Certainly, the transition will bring overwhelming benefits to the student union. The numbers of the student union members who are active are expected to increase tremendously. The number of issues highlighted by students is also expected to increase due to the improved communication. Additionally, effective communication platform between the student union and the university management board will ensure that more issues are addressed. More importantly, it is expected that the transition will ensure that student leadership is more efficient and effective and a better representative of the student body. The transition will be sustained through massive campaigns and call for collaboration between the various stakeholders. All issues emerging during the transition will be addressed appropriately. However, there may be potential challenges associated with the technologically assisted organizational culture. Therefore, the various stakeholders will be empowered to handle such challenges to ensure effective transition. Works Cited Luecke, Richard. “Managing change and transition”. New York: Harvard Business Press, 2003. Print. Read More