Organisational Change and Development - Essay Example

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT. Change is constant, inevitable aspect today in our physical environments in the waybusiness is conducted in organizational structures and designs, in societal norms and values etc. The business world is radically evolving and thus organizations must be cognizant with this holistic changes and their nature. In this light organizations have to adopt different aspects of operations so as to be as effective in this modern world globalization has amplified the markets available and increased the opportunities to expand growth and revenues. However, these new market grounds need to be well understood for them to become big shareholders thus the necessity to change and to manage that change, a very vital skill requisite for company leaders and managers. Organizational change deals with the modification a company’s structure, design, objectives and generally ways of operation. Organizational development entails the nature and scope of the change in the organization while organization development addresses the change in an organization and how it impacts on the organization and the employees in the organizations. It helps the organization to weather the changes both internally and externally. The success of this depends on the managers and hence the question Why is it critical for the organization’s managers to be successful at organizational change? Well it’s their job and hence primary concern. Substantial organizational change happens, for instance when the organization changes the overall plans to attain success; erases a major practice or adds one to the existent base and/ or decides to change the utter nature in which the organization operates. In other cases, it can happen when the organization evolves through various business life cycles.in essences, development of the organization must entail a significant degree of change hence the importance of the topic of organizational change and development in leadership and management. Managers and Leaders are consistently in attempts to accomplish efforts that bring successful change. Some are really good at it while others don’t prevail as much and hence fail. In general organizational change main purpose is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Change should not be done for the sake of doing change! Changing some organization’s aspects can prove to be very difficult; it’s tantamount to changing someone’s habits. It is of good use to critique the present working practices. Therefore it is of great use that the leader scans the existent organizational performance and after evaluation stipulates guidelines as to why the change is necessary and if so lay out the principles and practices the company needs to successfully attain that substantial change. Some plans to achieve this may be structured, explicit or perfectly planned while others on the other hand may be implicit and organic. Others denote processes or thesis working from the future to the present others do the contrary, for instance denoting the present priorities and objectives and then plan action to address these aims for example by his research. The leader should thus elaborately assert his opinions.an implementation plan of who will do what and when should be laid out also defining the different roles everyone is expected to do. At this point brainstorming comes in and thus the managers should be receptive to responses by their employees as it is foreseeable that others may disagree with the ideas brought forward. The leaders should make the individual feel that their contribution is valued and important. Leaders create processes that will improve and energize the staff. They create teams hence a leader’s communication skills come to test here.When the staff is empowered it has an imperative to empower customers, it’s a win win. The leader should also have sense of organizational sustainability. The leader should reduce or eliminate the barriers in organizational change so that there is a smooth transition from what is to what will soon be. When leadership is ineffectively used however, then it turns in to the major hindrance in an effective organizational change. Accountability is vital in organizational change and therefore the leadership should hold people liable for their actions. Many resources would be needed to effect the change and thus the mangers and the leaders have the responsibility to re-allocate resources The leaders should also be able to explain the type of organizational change to the individuals in the company. He/ she should stipulate whether the change is planned or unplanned, implies to the whole organization or is primarily focused on one part , gradual or radical change structural or strategically.. etc., doing this will make it easy to retain the perspectives during the many complexities and the various frustrations that may ensue as a result of change. There are people that may result change and therefore the leaders should have a change management strategy that comes into play when such matters arise. The strategy encompasses emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence and rational intelligence. The leader should opt for a strategy that brings a powerful organizational change. To bring everyone on board the leader must explain the benefits of the change to the company, to the customer, to the work for that change team and individually and also the implications for not advocating for that change to make commitment to the change worthwhile. Sanctions for this people that may sabotage change should be provided. Strategies in the change process should also entail training of the workers in the skills required to attain the aims of the change. The process should ensure that all the workers give the same message. To encourage the employees, recognition and reward can be given to those contributing distinctively to the change. Successful organizational change must also form a basis of feedback by monitoring the systems, assessing the practices and dealing with the problems. When employees give feedback about their hopes and fears and what they think of the change they are less likely to resist the change. Effective organizational development in an organization can bolster the overall performance of the organization by assisting the employees cope with the change. Strategies such as team building efforts can be established to familiarize the organization with the planned change. Organizational development addresses the overall productivity of the company, responsiveness to the surrounding environment and worker fulfillment. The whole essence of leadership is to provide motivation for the staff so that they can operate comfortably in the shared vision. The leaders should ensure that team work is ingrained in the organization and bar any coercive and violent treatment cultures. Interacting with the employees and discussing the issues raised and also ascertaining their doubts will help in hurrying the aligning of their goals to the new look in the company. They must appeal to logic and to emotions as well. It is useful that leaders get a consensus on the values that depict a different culture rather than make homogenous decisions without clarity. The people should be able to envision their future after the change materializes. With engaging employees they feel that they have the necessary support and are confident of what the change will bring. In some instances retrenchment and lying off of employees may result. In this case the management should be able to compensate the employees whose status will be worse as a result of the organizational change. Best practices in leadership development in organizational change include practices such as product development, return on investments calculations, and implementation of continuous assessment on the individuals, evaluation metrics, team work development, self-expression workshops, evaluation metrics and integration of the whole system. Operations costs should be closely monitored to ensure that the budget is not over ambitious to cripple the finances of the economy. In the case that organizational change occurs due to transfer of executive authority then the leader should attempt to understand the existent values and practices to formulate a compatible conformation. Organizational change reviews the way business is done, reviews the way the company views its customers, reviews the way the individuals view their own roles, it also results in a cultural change that occurs over time. All these aspects require effective leadership. How does this good leadership attain this effectively? The leader has to carry the mantle, the leader has to plan the strategy aptly, the leader has to take action and in the process mentor and develop new leaders. The leader’s intentions and the teams affect the way the workers will feel about organizational change. The intentions will clearly be reflected in the manner the leader communicates the change and hoe the whole issue will be managed. More importantly the mangers should ensure the change process stays on track and does not deviate. Essentially the change must bring more success than the current position because only leadership and good leadership has the power to make the necessary changes for success. Bibliography. Beardwell. J & Claydon, T. (2010) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach. Sixth Edition. London: FT Prentice Hall. Bloisi, W. (2007) an Introduction to Human Resource Management, London: McGraw-Hill Bratton, J. (2010) Work and Organizational Behavior. Second Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Brooks, I (2008) Organizational Behavior: Individuals, Groups and Organizations, Fourth Edition. London: FT Prentice Hall Brown, A. (1995). Organizational Change. Pitman Publishing, London. Buchanan, D. (2010) Organizational Behavior an Introductory Text. Seventh Edition. Harlow. Pearson Education Buchanan, D. (2010) Organizational Behavior. Seventh edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Caottrell, S. (2008) the Study Skills. Handbook Third Edition. Basingstroke: Palgrave Davis, T. (1997) Managing change At The Bottom In Gaining Control Of The Corporateleadership. Jossey Bass Press.San Francisco Deal, T. E & Kennedy, A. (2002) corporate leadership. The aspects of Corporate Life. Addison Wesley Reading. MA Read More