Change management is always disruptive. However, it is a crucial consideration in the context of organizational life and it has to be embraced for any significant progress to be achieved. When embracing change management, organizations usually find it unproductive and all-consuming. Whereas it is difficult to change people, it is easier to change processes and systems. This explains slower evolution in terms of change management since organizations spend about 90% of their effort and time on systems and only a paltry 10% of their time on managing the expectations of people (Rosenbaum, More & Steane, 2018). However, effective change management is usually similar irrespective of whether it is outsourced to a service provider or implemented by an internal unit. This document will outline how an organization can effectively manage change. In this essence, business leaders will appreciate the crucial role played by communication in successful change management. Therefore, change management is a critical tool that can be utilized to enlighten customers and employees on its essence to prevent potential internal resistance. This can be perceived in terms of service globalization that has resultantly affected business structures and processes. Change management is also crucial since such service globalization further involves cross-border cultural exchange. Therefore, the absence of diverse culture awareness hinders the effective implementation and management of change in an organization. It is a crucial consideration whose successful implementation can help alleviate potential negative impact due to shareholder expectation, customer satisfaction, organizational objectives, employee morale, and company productivity. This report will describe the crucial elements of change management at an organizational level.
Challenges Experienced by the Organization during the Change Process
Commitment and Buy-in from Stakeholders
For successful change management, company-level executives and the staffs drawn from all levels need to buy-in to the identified change idea. In typical cases, people involved in the routine operations of an organization usually fail to buy into the desired change initiative, thus negatively influencing other members and subsequently creating a resistance wave. Therefore, it is critical for high commitment degree to be attained among the managers and leaders for effective management of change in an organization.
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Employee Resistance Management
Any implemented faction of change in an organization is usually bound to attract corresponding resistance. This may be as a result of politicization and even the negative publicity of the intended change. Such aspects usually directly impact on the output of the employees (Thakur & Mangla, 2019) . Therefore, successful implementation and management of change will need proactive measures such as open communication regarding the strategic goals to be adopted to reduce any potential resistance. Unlike reactive measures whose implementation can lead to employee resistance, organizations should prioritize and embrace proactive measures aimed at guaranteeing the safety of the employees and not making them feel threatened by the intended change.
Workforce Complacency
Whenever individuals are complacent and comfortable about customer service, productivity and the operations of competitors, they usually resist any idea to change. At an organizational level, complacency will set in when the employees are out of touch with the relevant needed data. For instance, there may be a tendency among the executives to only share the good news with the employees while keeping under wraps the bad news (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). In such cases, the perception will be created that everything is fine among the employees. However, successful change management in an organization requires frequent sharing of the actual state of affairs for the necessary change measures to be adopted.
Organizational Readiness
Organizational readiness is a critical aspect when it comes to a systematic approach to planning for change. This implies that an organization should be ready to embrace change before the respective change is initiated. However, one notable thing, in this case, is that organizations are rarely 100% ready to embrace change. Despite this, there are tools that can be used to spur the readiness of change in an organization. This can be achieved through approaches using, CIOs, CFOs, CEOs, an effective reward system or an executive sponsor aligning the reward system in an organization to the desired behavior (Hayes, 2018). In such a case, reward systems can be implemented at different phases in as far as change management in an organization is concerned. For instance, during the initial stage of change management, the performance-based pay plans such as profit sharing and even stock options can be used to spur the readiness of an organization for change. Moreover, bonuses is another significant reward system that can be used for the successful implementation of the desired change and the attainment of the desired performance targets. Additionally, an organization can also embrace pay-for-performance policy for the purpose of attracting or retaining talented employees necessary for successful change management.
Nonetheless, desired results cannot be attained using rewards alone if the respective individual tasked with the responsibility of managing change in an organization lacks the necessary knowledge, power or information. This implies that the reward schemes adopted in an organization should be part of the larger scheme aimed at creating the conducive environment for change management. It is for this reason that respected and effective leaders should be put in place to oversee the entire process of change management in an organization.
Becoming Ready for Change
If an organization is not ready for change, there are various guidelines that can be undertaken to enhance the preparation of such organizations for the intended change. Such guidelines include;
Assessment Unit-by-Unit
There are cases where an entire organization may be unprepared while certain specific units within it may be ready to embrace change. This can happen in scenarios where such units have effective and respected leaders motivated to embrace the intended change. Therefore, it will be prudent for change management to be implemented in such units that have demonstrated their readiness. This can be adopted as the starting point before complete change management can be rolled out in an entire organization.
Embracing a Participative Approach
Adopting a participative approach will help employees identify the reasons as to why change need to be implemented in an organization. Such a realization can help give them the latitude of pinpointing what changes an organization needs to embrace for it to operate smoothly. As such, this can also help in encouraging employees to collaboratively work together as a cross-functional team for successful change management (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). When the executives in an organization work collaboratively with the frontline staff members in the decision-making process, possible resistance to change will be eliminated and the organizational acceptance of change will be stronger.
Reduction of Hierarchical Structure
Even though hierarchy may not directly affect an organization, it can be a great hindrance to change. Therefore, managers should be encouraged to bypass or reduce hierarchy in their organizations. This can be achieved by giving employees assignments that can be completed collaboratively. It is a crucial aspect since change will be successful in an organization once fear in terms of the hierarchy is eliminated at the workplace. Conducted studies have established that there is no significant change that can be attained in an organizational culture characterized by fear. This is because fear has the possibilities of making employees be inflexible to the extent of shying away from sharing their ideas that may be crucial in successful change management. Fear can also push such employees to their comfort zones rather than participating actively in successful change management.
Successful management of change in an organization is also anchored on the creation of trust and the subsequent empowerment of people at all organizational levels. For instance, the project team responsible for implementing change in an organization should have employees drawn from different levels (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). This is a necessary consideration since such members should have a high degree of knowledge regarding the breadth of change to be implemented in an organization. Such individuals should also have the capacity to relentlessly communicate the intended change and facilitate its successful implementation. For instance, people tasked with the responsibility of change management in an organization can be empowered by encouraging them to think broadly in terms of workflow management, IT solutions, process metrics, and knowledge transfer. Such individuals can also be encouraged to demonstrate their respect for the intended change and implement it sincerely. People tasked with the responsibility of managing change in an organization can also be empowered through the extension of trust. This implies that if dissatisfying results are registered, they should collaborate with other entities in the identification of potential causes of such dissatisfying results and fixing the entire process. Furthermore, successful change management in an organization can also be attained by embracing diverse decision-making process. This can be achieved by ensuring that decision making during the implementation of change is not limited to the executives. Instead, it should be spread around the project team members tasked with the responsibility of implementing change in an organization. This can help boost collective accountability and subsequently the successful implementation of change.
The Process of Change
There are instances where organizations manage their change from the top without necessarily exploring some of the relevant questions concerning employees. Therefore, for successful change management, an organization should establish if such changes are important and if such changes have the impact of affecting the entire company. The company should also consider the amount of time and money needed for its successful change management. Therefore, it is advisable that executives in organizations should approach change from the employee’s perspective by having its concise definition and the relevant actionable steps (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). An organization can be able to achieve this by identifying business problems and the subsequent solutions jointly. In this essence, the identification of the problem is the crucial aspect that is sought to be established by employees in an organization. Therefore, an organization’s executives should ensure that the employees drawn from different levels are involved in the identification of crucial changes that should be implemented. This will be based on the identification of the respective problems and the subsequent proposal of changes to cure such problems. Embracing such an approach helps create motivation and urgency in the management of changes. For instance, if the problem affecting an organization is customer dissatisfaction or the increasing business costs, involving the input of employees will help in the identification of such problems, their root cause and the relevant changes that can be put in place to solve them.
The change process can also be achieved in terms of the development of the shared vision and its subsequent communication to the relevant stakeholders. In this case, the vision of an improved future should be developed by an organization and then communicated to the employees drawn from various levels in an organization. However, when communicating the developed vision to the employees in as far as change is concerned, the executives should specify how the intended change will improve business through aspects such as product quality, greater customer satisfaction, and productivity. The executives should also indicate how the proposed change will benefit the employees through aspects such as larger bonuses, project management, new career opportunities, and higher pay. Therefore, the adopted change in an organization should motivate and inspire through the production of tangible results upon its successful implementation and management. However, the vision of the intended change should be compatible with the primary values espoused by an organization (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). If it happens that the vision of the intended change is incompatible with the values of an organization, then there may be confusion regarding the right course of action in as far as change management is concerned. In the entire course of managing change, the executives should be able to communicate the desired future state that should be anticipated by the employees and the realistic goals intended by the adopted change that can be achieved by the company’s employees. The specific results intended by the changes being implemented should also be communicated clearly.
Identification of the change leaders is another crucial aspect of defining successful change management. In this case, the chosen leadership will have the responsibility of assembling resources, championing and taking responsibility for the success of the intended change. In most cases, the change management team entail diversified members such as the experts of the intended change, team leaders and the managers (Noe et al., 2017). Given that such individuals are usually close to the change processes and the subsequent employees in an organization, they will play an active role in the effective and successful implementation of change. The primary emphasis of the change being implemented in an organization should be the emphasis that its successful implementation will enhance the competitiveness of an organization. The mooted change should also create an enabling environment for the attainment of specific goals and objectives in an organization. This is a crucial consideration since employees will not buy the idea of change if they are not convinced of a better future state of affairs. In most cases, this is usually enhanced by the operating experience of an organization. For instance, organizations that have been able to implement and manage change have been able to achieve so because they had suitable operating managers lead the entire change initiatives. This implies that when the change leaders do not have the necessary operating knowledge, this can hinder successful implementation of change since they are crucial players when it comes to the management and implementation of the intended change (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). It is for this reason that the change leader is expected to be competent and trustworthy for them to effectively translate their intents into actions. It is important to note that having such change leaders drawn from the lowest level of employees in an organization is that they are able to see the existing need for change from a broader and more practical perspective.
Focusing on the results is another crucial aspect of the change process. In this case, most organizations usually focus their attention on training, team-creation and other auxiliary activities as opposed to the results. Therefore, when implementing change in an organization, it is vital to articulate the expected results. This approach will help ensure that every implemented change activity has clearly defined results anchored in the master plan. Furthermore, the implemented change should also be measurable and its progress reviewed regularly. For instance, the attainment of each milestone should be communicated by the change leaders to the rest of the other employees who have played an active role in its implementation. Adopting such approaches in change management helps ensure that there is high engagement among all the relevant team players and the intended change is aimed at attaining given results within a given period.
Letting the change spread is another crucial aspect of the change process. In this case, the change is implemented in an organization is likely to succeed in judging from the early witnessed results. It is impractical to expect that change will be felt across the entire organization at once. Instead, organizations should focus their efforts on creating key waves of acceptance aimed at facilitating change from one department within an organization to another (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). In such cases, change agents and leaders can be used to communicate effectively the resultant benefits of the implemented change in different levels of an organization. Through such approaches, faster change results to be witnessed should be published and continuous efforts made to replicate them across the organization.
Governing and monitoring change is another crucial aspect of change management. In this case, organizations are required to institutionalize processes of implementing change (Doppelt, 2017). This is because it helps in ensuring that similar metrics are the primary focus of everyone in an organization. For instance, the unit leaders, key players and the champion of change will be endowed with the responsibility of implementing various ways aimed at measuring the effectiveness of change management. Therefore, a governance structure can be adapted to enhance continuous improvement on the ultimate goal intended by the implemented change. Based on the adopted organizational governance, it is the duty of the champion for change to ensure that it is aligned with the objectives of an organization. For the case of functional governance, respective personnel should regularly communicate if the system adopted in an organization is misaligned to the intended change. The operational governance of change management can be conducted by the unit leaders who will be responsible for the creation of an appropriate measurement system and process metric for change management.
Implementing the Process of Change
Change management and implementation in an organization can be faced with unpredictable challenges. Therefore, it is important for the right people to be entrusted with the responsibility of executing the intended change in terms of tracking key milestones and constantly communicating the status and progress of the change being implemented. The implementation plan for change should specify all the needed information such as the kick-off of change and the final date the change being implemented is expected to be successful. During the implementation process, the envisioned change should be kept simple. This is because embracing complex change can frustrate the participants involved in the entire change process. Furthermore, change management should also be implemented collaboratively (Benn, Edwards & Williams, 2018). This is because key players, project team members, and the unit leaders are expected to work collaboratively in the implementation of the desired change. Furthermore, the change should also be structured for the intended purpose to be achieved. Adoption of such a structure helps to ensure that the envisioned change is implemented within an achievable and manageable timeframe. The specification of responsibilities and roles is also important during the implementation process of change. This help ensures that the adopted plan for implementing change is role oriented with clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the respective change leaders.
Successful change management and implementation can be challenging and long since the respective change leaders can encounter several frustrations along the way. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the executives to celebrate every milestone that is achieved. Such an approach can help provide visibility by indicating that there are payoffs for the exerted hard work. Furthermore, it can also help maintain the focus of change leaders in as far as the management of change in an organization is concerned (Thakur & Mangla, 2019). It is also crucial for effective communication to be adopted along all phases of implementing change. Such effective communication can be utilized as a crucial tool for the reduction of resistance to the intended change, motivating employees in an organization and preparing employees for the envisioned change that need to be implemented.
References
Benn, S., Edwards, M., & Williams, T. (2018). Organizational change for corporate sustainability . Routledge.
Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society . Routledge.
Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management . Palgrave.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rosenbaum, D., More, E., & Steane, P. (2018). Planned organisational change management: Forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. Journal of Organizational Change Management , 31 (2), 286-303.
Thakur, V., & Mangla, S. K. (2019). Change management for sustainability: Evaluating the role of human, operational and technological factors in leading Indian firms in home appliances sector. Journal of Cleaner Production , 213 , 847-862.
