Organizational Change in Modern Business - Essay Example

Organizational change is quite an inevitable process in the modern business scenarios. Advancement in technology, travel options, communications and liberalization of international business regulations has incorporated numerous possibilities of conditions urging constant change in the organizational structure, policies and technologies. This in other terms can be called the need for innovation so as to sustain in the ever changing competitiveness of the corporate world. This trend was found to increase in the early nineties. The transference of a command driven economy to a market driven one, sheltered markets to competitive ones, domestic trade to international trade and the trend of monopoly to the trend of competition has extensively made possible the chances and demand of organizational changes in the business setup and processes involved. However these chances and demand are expected to have an upward trend in the coming years as well. On the other side these demand for change provides acute opportunities for organizational learning. Innovation organizationally as per the latest need of the industry would mean all the systems and individuals associated with the change to have their capacity built in the organizational scenario. The objective of this essay is to critically justify organizational changes as opportunities for organizational learning. The view points as suggested by Fleck (1994, 637-651) along with other relevant literatures have been critically analyzed so as to support the assumption made by the essay. There are a number of evidences available directly relating organizational changes to organizational learning. Peter Senge has defined learning organizations as “organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together” (Smith, 2001). This directly refers a learning organization to be one which has the readiness for learning and provides opportunity for capacity building. Thus knowledge becomes directly relevant in the context of innovation and organizational change. Fleck (1994, 637-651) has tried to investigate the basic process which rules the process of implementation of organizational change and the methodologies through which opportunities for innovation are opened up. Fleck (1994, 637-651) has clearly opined that the implementation of organizational change is characterized as an organizational learning process. Thus relating the opinions of both Fleck (1994, 637-651) and Smith (2001), it can be found that any change in the organizational perspective would demand a learning process. Often organizational learning process is thought to be a process of mere technological adaptation and up-gradation. However, Fleck (1994, 637-651) has argued that the real and optimal organizational learning process extends further more from mere technological aspects. Such a process is demanded to have a linear pattern with the overall development of the organization. Thus any innovation should influence each and every strata of the organization in the optimally required levels. A scientific approach on the organizational learning process will have to be strictly followed so as to maintain these optimal levels. Chris Argyris and Donal Schon has pointed out three different types of organizational learning namely Single-loop learning, Double-loop learning and Deutero-learning (12 manage, 2009). The adherence to these scientific organization learning processes would help to maintain the optimal levels of learning at the required levels. This should be read together with the fact that an organization would need varied levels of learning at different levels of the organization. Thus a sustainable implementation of the organizational change process can be ensured. While implementing a complex technological innovation it is quite usual that the suppliers of the technology would provide the technical details and minimal levels of technical training with regard to the technology. However when applied to the organizationally relevant local scenarios, these trainings and technical knowledge would prove to be inappropriate in several scenarios. To explain it further, a lot amount of locally relevant knowledge will have be imparted in to the system while implementing an organizational change. In this context, Fleck (1994, 637-651) has remarked the process of the change implementation as the continued process of getting over the struggle to make the system work. This literally involves the application of local knowledge. Fleck (1994, 637-651) suggests the relevance of ‘learning by trying’, which would involve the refining and implementation of the local knowledge in the organizational learning process. The clear argument of Fleck (1994, 637-651) is that the successful implementation of an organizational change should be a combination of generic technological knowledge and the locally relevant knowledge. This in other terms is the combination acquirement of skills on new technology along with the knowledge built over years of experience. This also refers to the importance of experienced hands along with technologically sound elements. While implementing an organizational change, especially complex ones, along with the technological aspects, the organizational and financial resources will have to be aligned in the change process Fleck (1994, 637-651). This in other terms would mean that an organizational learning should happen with regard to all the organizational matters including the financial resources. This point of view had been in alignment with other literatures available in the context. Lamperes (2004, 32-37) has suggested ten strategies pertaining to organizational empowerment and leraning. It included: ‘sharing information’, ,sharing decision making’, ‘practicing consensus decision making’, ‘developing consensus on budget’, ‘creating a common vision’, ‘developing shared beliefs’, ‘allowing employees to direct their professional growth’, ‘empowering stakeholders’, ‘understanding customer needs’ and ‘developing symbols of empowerment’. Fleck (1994, 637-651) also argues the need of traditional knowledge to be highly relevant while implementation of a change where an asymmetry exists in the power and economic indicators between the innovation providers and the real users. Thus the traditional knowledge implies in bridging this asymmetry making an optimal balance among all strata of the organization including the supplier and the end user of the implemented technology. The real application of the suggestions on innovation implementation in scenarios of organizational change and learning is the conversion of crucial traditional knowledge in human embodied tacit form into explicit computational form and the alignment of the same with the technological knowledge. The organizational policies should allow space for the capacity building of its staff. The policies of the organizations should include the key inputs like Skills, Education, Development, Ethics, Attitudinal changes, and Decision making and problem solving skills (Ashwatappa, 2004). This as suggested by Fleck (1994, 637-651) would provide organizational learning opportunities among staff and also across the organizations. The developmental policy should emphasis on the theory that for any organization striving for change, the industry itself is the laboratory. Thus the organizational innovation should effectively cause organizational learning process and vice versa. An ideal balance of these would ensure that the organization stay apace with the ever changing demands of the industry and ultimately would lead to organizational success. References Fleck J (1994), ‘Learning by Trying: the implementation of configurational technology’, Research Policy, Vol.23, pp:637-652 Smith M, K (2001), ‘Peter senge and the learning organization’, Infed, Retrieved 25 May 2009 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm 12 Manage (2009), Organizational change, 12 Manage , Retrieved 25 May 2009 http://www.12manage.com/methods_organizational_learning.html Lamperes, Bill , (2004),‘10 Strategies for Staff Empowerment,’ Principal Leadership,Vol 4, No.6, pp. 32-37 Ashwatappa, K. (2004) Human Resource and Personnel Management, Tata McGraw-Hill: NewDelhi Read More