Management of Change - Essay Example

? Management of Change Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts (14, June, Management of Change -What specific competencies do people in organizations need to have to make their organization change-capable? Justify you answer with relevant literature and examples In today’s era the organizations are obliged to work in a business environment that is characterized by a rapid and persistent change along with excellent performance demands. As a result, the organizations often face two incompatible objectives: to perform well and to adapt the in-demand change in order to match up with the pace of the fast moving business environment. If the organizations fail to accomplish the two objectives they are often considered as “corporate dinosaurs” because they no longer fit to the current business environment (Ashkenas, 1999). In order to make the organizations change-capable there are some significant strategies that should be implemented. They are as follows: Determining the type of Change Perhaps the most difficult task that the organization needs to get involved in is to determine the type of change that it needs to accept. Precisely, in order to design the change-capable strategic issues it is worth to distinguish between two types of changes: Evolutionary Change and Transformational Change. Evolutionary change refers to the constant adjustments, product alterations and enhancements that an organizations need to make as per demanded by the customers. Transformational change refers to the dramatic change in the organization’s core competencies. For Example: Nokia becoming a wood supplier though having their expertise in telecommunications. With the advancements in technologies, organizations have to be capable of changing their core competencies. The best way to think of the need for a change capability is that at least most organizations should be capable of adapting an evolutionary change. But in some circumstances, the need for a transformational change could be vital; therefore it is important to take the necessary steps to prepare the organization accordingly. For this, financial processes should be planned under which funds would be offered to individuals, structures which include some special new ventures that have experienced a major change in past and the rewards system should be acquired under which rewards will be offered to those that contributed in a transformational change within an organization. What Aspects Should Be Kept Stable? In order to adapt a change it is very important to analyze what particular aspects should be kept stable and what aspects should be allowed to change rapidly. This could certainly be a significant facilitator of change. It is partially determined by the type of change that the organization needs to make. Many aspects can be kept stable in case of an evolutionary change but it would be a completely different scenario while adapting to a transformational change. In the case of a transformational change, stability refers to the commitment towards a certain goal, way of communication with the individuals and moreover rewarding and appreciating them for their respective contributions. As aforementioned, much more can be kept stable in case of a continuous evolutionary change. For example, the Human Resources systems and the basic organizational culture can remain constant. Some of the key processes can also be kept stable such as communication with the staff and the measurement of the business success. Dealing with Internal Competition Internal and external competition can be significant in order to encourage a change. It is quite obvious that the organization’s main focus would be to concentrate on its external competition. Competing against your external rivals would certainly be very supportive and helpful but resolving the issues of the internal competition is also very necessary. It is very important for an organization to maximize the focus and provide proper emphasis on internal competitors as well (Karp, 2004). As far as building a change capability is concerned, it is one of the most important issues to deal with the competition against different business units. These competitions could prove very healthy if it encourages different ideas and innovations and give a right to every employee to contribute in a success of a competition. At the same time it could also result in a disastrous failure. The reason behind this could be the lack of sharing ideas which would lead to poor development of core competencies that will make an organization to suffer unwillingly. Generally high level competitions occur in case of a transformational change. Organization should be able to tolerate the internal competitions if new business area needs to be developed and innovated even though this development is actually challenging our existing products. At this point, one question that strikes one’s mind is that how much an organization should cannibalize its existing products? The answer is very simple, if the organization is unable to come up with a better product, your rival will. Thus it is important that you should do the initiatives. Utilization of Outsourcing Outsourcing refers to variety of services that enables an organization to bring a healthy change. This is done by simply changing the supplier or a vendor. However this could be a risky process and should be implemented with caution. For example, the risk of creating a new competitor who takes what they have learned as an outsourcer and utilizes it in order to produce competitive products. Furthermore, the risk of getting associated with the outsourcing organizations which do not provide appropriate services and processes that would fail us to attain the desired competitive advantage (Lawler, 1994). The key to building a successful change-capable organization does not depend on how much is outsourced but it depends on what is actually outsourced. Outsourcing is much useful for an evolutionary change as it would be easier for an outsourcer to bring advanced new products and processes rather than building up an entire business model. It is very rare that outsourcing is done to encourage a transformational change and is mostly associated with evolutionary change within an organization. All in all, no matter what kind of change an organization is likely to bring it requires a lot of efforts and courage. And the organization that is able to develop a superior and grander change capability, can successfully respond to the rapid advancements that occur in this modern world. Applying appropriate change tools and models, propose a concrete and practical action plan to build on your organizational strengths (not weaknesses, not solving problems) with the ultimate objective of making your company a healthy and sustainable business Action Plan The goal of Action Plan is to facilitate the organization so that they provide their maximum potential in order to achieve the goals of the organization. This also includes the building of a friendly environment where employees are liberated to take required steps that would be fruitful for the organization. The plan is all about creating a workplace which eliminates the differences of community, religion, disability, nationality and all other non-merit aspects (Coghlan, 1998). The creation of such workplace brings diversity throughout the organization which ensures the proportionality of new ideas and inventions. There are 5 principle components of the plan which are as follows: Strategy Structure Appreciating the Deserving Employees Management Processes People Organizational Culture Strategy Developing a business strategy is essential for an organization. Everything should be properly planned and then implemented. It should define the kind of performance that is required, the types of competencies that it needs to acquire and how an organization plans to respond to fast moving business environment. An organization can come up with an outstanding strategy provided that it offers appropriate products and services, recognize their potential customers and manage their financial process appropriately. Otherwise the strategy would fail and the organization would not be able to achieve their targets. Structure The structure of an organization refers to the responsibilities assigned to the individuals within a workplace. It is very important to determine that what tasks are allocated to which group. To whom they should report if they have any difficulty in the task? Who have got the authorities to take the appropriate decision on the workplace in case the executives are not available? To maintain a proper organizational structure is very important and it is something which cannot be neglected and is known as the building blocks of an organization. Therefore to design the structure of an organization a group of executives should summon and build a strategy that would maintain a healthy and prosperous environment within the staff. Appreciating the deserving employees The third point of my plan is to appreciate the employees that have worked hard to adapt to a change and made things operate effectively. It is very necessary to appreciate the deserved ones as it would motivate them and make them work harder in the future as well. We should accept the fact that it is not an easy task to bring either an evolutionary or a transformational change within an organization. And the employees who have contributed whole heartedly for this cause deserves to receive a warm appreciation from the executives. The rewards could be in terms of bonuses, incentives or a paid trip to a city or a country with family. This would eventually be fruitful for the organization as well, as the employee will tend to work harder as he know the fact that his hard work is well encouraged by the organization and will be able to produce outstanding results. Management Process The fourth component of the plan is the Management Process. It refers to a system that an organization sets up in order to help, control, manage and direct it member’s behavior so that they maximize their concentration on the strategic actions (Boyne, Martin & Walker, 2004). Furthermore, the management processes also include the financing and budgeting systems, communication systems and behavior of the managers specially those who are given authorities to make decisions and setting an appropriate direction for the organization. If an organization fails to maintain and manage these measurements in a proper alignment then it is most likely to perform ineffectively. People The fifth component is the people, one of the main aspects of human resources (Edmondson, 1999). The performance of an individual is very important for an organization to operate effectively. Thus, it would be the foremost target of the company to opt for the best qualified applicant without being biased and will be strictly selected on merit. It would be almost impossible for an organization to obtain the desired results if the employees are unable to do the assigned work efficiently. Organizational Culture Organizational culture is something that influences all the remaining five components of the plan. It is often easier to judge whether the company is likely to perform in a particular way by its organizational culture, because the culture actually indicates what the employees should do and on which conditions they are rewarded (Balogun & Johnson, 2004). Therefore to change the culture it is important to identify the characteristics on which the current culture operates and then evaluate how to change them so that the organization could give the desired results. Culture is perhaps the most difficult aspect to change since the employees have joined because they like the existing culture. There are possible chances that the employees might get annoyed and resist any kind of change. It has been widely noticed that a fair amount of content written on change management emphasis on the importance of the user friendly organizational culture. It also mentions about the importance of behavior of the management, value risk taking operations and to develop a team that does not have any problem to accept the change. These aspects undoubtedly contribute to the success of the organization to a great extent. Development of a change-capable Organization It is quite true that the organization need to adapt the change in order to progress with this rapidly changing business environment. Change does not mean to rest on a single system or an individual but it rests on multiple systems, key practices and the history of the organization as far as its management is concerned. If an organization is able to accept the change then it could be counted as a competitive advantage in the market. It surely makes you different from other organization and gives a unique position in the business world. Bibliography Ashkenas, R. 1999. Creating the boundaryless organization. Business Horizons, 42(5), 5-10. Balogun, J., & Johnson, G. 2004. Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking. Academy of Management Journal, 47(4), 523-549. Boyne, G. A., Martin, S., & Walker, R. 2004. Explicit reforms, implicit theories and public service improvement. Public Management Review, 6(2), 189-210. Coghlan, D. 1998. The process of change through interlevel dynamics in a large group intervention for a religious organization. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 34(1), 105-119. Edmondson, A. 1999. Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. Karp, T. 2004. Learning the steps of the dance of change: improving change capabilities by integrating futures studies and positive organisational scholarship. Foresight : the Journal of Futures Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 6(6), 349-355. Lawler, E. E. 1994. “From Job-Based to Competency-Based Organizations.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 3-15. Read More