Introduction
Change management can be best described as the systematic approach of implementing an organization’s objectives, technologies and processes in general, with a purpose of effecting change by use of certain strategic measures. Change management involves helping people to adapt to change and at the same time controlling the change which is in effect. Strategic measures that can be put in place to bring the desired change or several changes into effect include, having a well-designed structure of procedures that will call for change, as well as corresponding mechanisms that will respond to the requests or call for change, and following up the measures put in place. Since the nineteenth century, change management has been witnessed in many different places with an aim of making improvements on different business elements by different organizations, and has been gradually changing up to date. From job rules to organizational structures, change management has a history of being accepted by companies while being rejected by others, until some of the companies that rejected it started facing serious problems during the implementation of their projects. However, after realizing this, organizations adopted change management but still failed to benefit fully from it because they did not form proper frameworks to manage change, neither did they actively follow their management of change via the same process.
Organizations should practice change management, and practice it well because of several reasons that will positively impact directly on the organizations. One, enhancing their competitive advantage and increasing their performance will come as a result of adopting change management, which will in turn increase the organizations’ net profits. This article analyzes how change management can help in retaining or promoting employee loyalty by involving factors of employee motivation, communication with employees and monitoring employee performance through the control function of management.
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The Arising Needs for Change Management
Over the years, the business environment has been constantly changing at a very high rate forcing businesses to stand in the middle of the unexpected or expected change on order for them to be successful (Nickols, 2000). This means that business executives are involved with an endless effort that is supposed to foster competitiveness as well as intrusiveness which are crucial to any organization doing business in the 21 st century (Nickols, 2000). Originality and creativeness are essential for any organization that is aimed at having a better tomorrow and also a challenging future. If the top management and employees resist being changed, this means that they are old-fashioned and it is considered as retrogression (Nickols, 2000) (Nickols, 2000). It is only through active participation to change that has the potential to bring more opportunities to all the stakeholders of a company. However, there are very few individuals in organizations that welcome change in an effective and active way when they face it, A more stable today and a better future for tomorrow can only be achieved if only people have the capacity to manage changeable situations with a self-motivated attitude or with a string motivation (Nickols, 2000).
After change has been implemented in an organization, workforce engagement helps focus on the productivity and performance of the entire organization or a single department (Nickols, 2000). In dealing with change management, the existing workforce skill sets need to scoped so as to ensure that they are properly aligned to the correct business needs and also at the right time (Nickols, 2000). In the change management process, there is need to identify the learning needs of the workforce so as to identify, develop, nature and sustain the necessary skills that are needed by the workforce v. Therefore, workforce planning is vital for any organization to have a smooth transition during the change management process and implementation.
Change Management and Employee Motivation
Employee motivation is the point when employees are given what they would wish for from work, meaning that the more they will be given, the more they will reciprocate to the organization in terms of productivity, quality and service (Hedge et al., 2005). Keeping employees of any organization motivated is normally perceived as a hill climb task, simply because different people can only be motivated by unique things and in different ways (D’Ortenzio, 2012). However, motivating employees of a particular organization through change management requires a singular devotion to keeping the workforce morale at a constant level. Though there are also different ways that can be used to motivate employees by use of change management, ensuring that the employees are ever happy within the organization through even a minor change can be so difficult, unless the person in charge of them sees the need and puts value in personal development plus the opinions of each and every employee (D’Ortenzio, 2012). In as much as change management does not necessarily bring changes to the physical outlook of an organization, there will be a noticeable change in the way an organization rakes in money, or a change in how the business fabricates its products, courtesy of its motivated employees (D’Ortenzio, 2012).
There are several ways of keeping the employees of an organization which has adapted change management motivated. One is by facilitating employee learning of the changes in place at the organization, second is by aligning employee goals, third is by rewarding them with bonuses, and lastly is by keeping communications open (D’Ortenzio, 2012). Business strategy, culture and even human resource management can change when change management is properly implemented and monitored by an organization with an objective of doing all these while keeping their employees motivated during the same period of time. However, using change management to motivate employees entirely depends on an organization’s ability to create a conducive environment which will allow personal empowerment and higher spirits (D’Ortenzio, 2012). In addition, at such a point, deconstructing the set of roles or duties given to certain employees or flattening of existing hierarchies can make employees feel insecure hence lowering stuff morale. The management must also not neglect this and instead treat this factors with the caution that they deserve.
Monitoring Employee Performance through the Control function of Management
After strategical measures have been undertaken, managements primary role is to ensure that employees carry out their jobs as described in the strategical plans in order to achieve the desired goals through exemplary performances (Nickols, 2000). Here, the management employs the very important control function of management to ensure that the employees do what should be done, when they should be done and how they should be done. In order for an organization to achieve the goals that it has set and make maximum profits, the employees must be able to perform to their full potential, while being monitored by the management (Nickols, 2000). One basic control process involves three steps; establishing standards, measuring performance against the set standards and then correcting deviations from the standards. Controls must focus on the final output of the organization for them to know whether their employees are performing or not. A good management control system must therefore be able to point out significant variations from the original plan and reassign the duties to people who can do them in a manner which they are supposed to be done (Nickols, 2000). This way, desirable output will be realized by the organization, and the employees’ performances will also be kept at a level, where they should be to attain set goals.
Good control, a control that gives total assurance over the employees’ performances, and equally assures that the actual accomplishment will be carried out according to plan is quite difficult to achieve because there might just be unforeseen occurrences. Nevertheless, the should be no room for unexpected errors or surprise occurrences within the organization, or at least there should exist reasonable confidence that there will be no such unexpected occurrences. A high chance or expectation of forthcoming poor performance, regardless of a reasonable operation plan is sometimes given the name “out of control.” A good control that can monitor the performances of employees must have some outstanding attributes which can be highlighted (Nickols, 2000). One, it must be a future oriented control. The motive is to ensure that any unpleasant surprises that might arise in the future are mitigated because the past and the present plan will be used to plan for the future. Therefore, when the employees are controlled, together with what they are doing, there will be a desirable performance. Second, a good control must be multidimensional. This shows that a good control cannot be established over activities with multiple goals unless the performance on all relevant dimensions have been considered. Third, good controls must show their economic nature, and must only be used when the cost of implementing them is less and manageable compared to the output (Nickols, 2000). If the expected benefits exceed the costs of implementing the controls, then the control cannot be termed as a good control.
In order for an organization to achieve good controls that can monitor employee performance, different types of managerial controls must be employed so that behavioral problems can be avoided, and also to avoid some other types of problems that may arise in case there is only one kind of control being used. How feasible the chosen control method is, whether its over personnel or activities, will be determined depending on organization’s logistics before being declared good and fit to be fully implemented.
Communicating the Change Process at Both Tactical and Strategic Level
An effective communication plan must be put in place within the organization for this to happen. It is important to make clear how, when, where and who are involved in this communication (Hedge et al., 2005). Managers of organizations depend on either tactical or strategic planning to communicate or outline to their employees, what the company must do to succeed within the year or at some point in the years to come (Hedge et al., 2005) . Tactical and strategic levels are therefore more related in most occasions. Looking at communication of change processes of an organization at the tactical levels, where they mostly develop in the areas of production, plant facilities, finance and marketing, and at strategic levels which are majorly composed of critical long-term plans and ideas, these two levels must be closely employed together during playing for the company to succeed (Hedge et al., 2005). In most cases, upper managers have a better understanding of the company as a whole as opposed to lower managers. Here, communicating the change process will stream from the strategic level of upper managers down to the tactical managers who know more about the company’s day to day activities. In another instance, conclusive information must be developed at the strategic level before it is communicated to the tactical level concerning the change processes because facts are easier to gather at the strategic level than at the tactical level (Hedge et al., 2005).
However, strategic plans are generally less detailed than tactical plans (Nickols 2000). Therefore, communication of changes at the strategic level will be aimed at predicting the future, and the information delivered at the tactical level will be aimed at bring changes upon the day to day activities which take place at the company. Nevertheless, a manager of a company that has embraced a change in process will need to effectively communicate at both the strategic and tactical levels because they are independent of each other in that the strategic levels depend on the tactical level to make future plans and decisions for the profitability of the organization.
Conclusion
Without question, change is a dominant issue when it comes to retaining or promoting employee loyalty in any organization that embraces it. What to change, how to change and when to change, are all crucial factors that an organization must consider before bringing the change to its employees. This is so because the kind of reception that the change will get from the employees, the manner in which the change will be imposed on the employees and the processes that will be put in place to ensure that the change brings out the best out of the organization must, in one way or another, alter the loyalty of the employees. After considering all these, it is evident that organizations together with their managers can use the change to the advantage of the company, to motivate their employees and even get the opportunity to make them more loyal with the change that comes in their organizations. In conclusion, this article has provided many different perspectives from which change and change management can be viewed from, and it has been revealed that employees can be trained and made to perform better with or without control, and that their loyalty can be increased at different instances. Moreover, upon training of employees and successful implementation of change in a company, all these factors give employees more work security and skill, which also gives the companies that embrace change management more worth and profit. This arises from the betterment of performance, hence leading to higher productivity, quality as well as service of the employees who in turn develop a greater self-esteem at large. The factor of loyalty goes hand in hand with all the issues that deal with change, and have been mentioned above.
References
D'Ortenzio, C. (2012). Understanding change and change management processes: a case study . University of Canberra.
Nickols, F. (2000). Change management 101: A primer. Unpublished Manuscript). Retrieved from http://home. att. net/~ nickols/change. pdf .
Hegde, A., Johnson, J., & Venkatramani, V. (2015). What Is Change Management ?
