Introduction
Change remains as one of the critical factors that define performance in any organization, as it seeks to ensure that an organization is better placed to improve on its capacity to match some of its key goals and objectives. Organizational change can be considered as the process of having to change strategies, processes, and or procedures that a company or organization adopts as part of its performance projections. The change process is always viewed as a continuous process that is likely to take place over periods depending on performance expectations. However, it must be noted that organizations tend to encounter a wide array of challenges in their bid to promoting change as part of their structure of the performance. Consequently, this creates the need for the organizations to come up with effective strategic approaches that would seek to establish their performance projections while ensuring that they maximize on their expected performance projections.
The need for companies to maintain effectiveness as they embark on change is driven by the fact that organizational change serves as a critical determinant of their evolution to allow them to remain relevant within the consumer market. To help in examining organizational change, this report will examine three key topics, each of which plays a critical role towards ensuring that indeed the adoption of change remains effective as a vital part of the structured improvement of performance. The three topics that the report will examine are knowledge management, organizational development, and corporate life cycles as they relate to the regulatory change process. The report seeks to examine these topics extensively to help in determining their relationship to the need and demand for companies and organizations to undergo through changes continually.
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Knowledge Management
Knowledge management refers to the process of gathering, sharing, and usage of information in a manner that will be of great help for businesses to improve their performance capacities. From an organizational perspective, knowledge management is viewed as a multidisciplinary approach that serves as a critical determinant of how organizations would be able to use knowledge effectively. Jones (2010) argues that the ability of companies or organizations to make the best use of knowledge serves as one of the ways through which to ensure that they can advance their organizational performance. Companies often find themselves in a challenging situation due to its loosening grip in ensuring that they maintain access to knowledge resulting from poor knowledge management. In such cases, the companies often find it hard in trying to change the dynamics associated with their performance within the business environment, as it becomes hard to establish the exact impact related to knowledge.
Knowledge Management: Codification and Personalization
One of the critical questions that managers encounter when dealing with knowledge management revolves around the type of approach that they ought to take as part of their approach towards promoting effective management of knowledge. From this perspective, it becomes important to reflect on the two main approaches that would allow for efficiency in promoting overall knowledge management. In the first approach, codification , the expectation for managers is to ensure that they collect, analyze, and store knowledge within databases that their employees would be able to retrieve without any significant challenges (Jones, 2010). The codification approach is considered as being viable in ensuring that managers can collect knowledge relating to best practices, rules, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that relate to their business performance.
The adoption of the codification as the leading knowledge management approach allows for a rather advanced ability for companies or organizations to improve their standards of performance. Codification is viewed as a standard through which to ensure that a company or organization can keep up with the change trends within the business environment. In the second approach, personalization , managers are expected to adopt a personalized approach that would allow them to use knowledge or information effectively. In this approach, one of the key aspects to note is that the knowledge management process may be considered as being different within multiple organizations (McDermott & Archibald, 2010). The personalization knowledge management approach is viewed as being useful towards improving organizational performance, as helps towards improving engagement with employees. The result of this is that it ensures that employees have a clear understanding of what to expect regarding the set-out projection focusing on advanced business performance.
Benefits of Knowledge Management
The decision by company managers to adopt knowledge management as part of their standard expectations towards defining performance is driven by the fact that companies and organizations are much more likely to experience a wide array of benefits. Some of the key benefits that can be associated with knowledge management include:
Competitive Advantage
The first key advantage associated with the adoption of knowledge management is that it helps towards improving competitive advantage within organizations, as it allows for companies to improve on their overall capacities to allow for sharing of knowledge. For companies to define their position within the corporate environment, they must build on their competitive advantage, as this would serve as one of the ways through which to improve their capacities and abilities to compete effectively. Ultimately, this serves as one of the means through which to ensure that employees are well positioned towards enhancing their performance; thus, improving on overall competitive advantage from an organizational perspective.
Collaboration and Sharing
Knowledge management is considered as being essential towards ensuring that employees, in companies and organizations, adopt a clear understanding of what to expect on areas of collaboration and sharing. The process of management of knowledge reflects more on creating a foundation through which to solidify the overall operation of creating a sharing culture within the organizational environment. The ultimate result of this is that it serves towards improving the business environment through which to build or define capacity to deliver on positive results, which is vital towards enhancing corporate performance.
Decision Making
Managers have a pivotal role to play in the decisions that they make as part of their engagement within the corporate environment, which would act as a critical determinant of whether indeed the companies work towards the achievement of their goals and objectives. However, it becomes essential for the managers to use the information that they have to their advantage; thus, highlighting the critical role of knowledge management. By encouraging or advocating for knowledge management, managers find themselves in a better position through which to make quality decisions. The ultimate result is that companies and organizations find themselves in a rather advanced position that would define the quality of choices that they make. Consequently, this highlights the need for companies and organizations to consider the vital role associated with their establishment of a knowledge management platform.
Organizational Development
Organizational development refers to various techniques and methodologies that are implemented by managers with the aim of enhancing the ability of the organization to adapt to different aspects. According to Jones (2010), managers capitalize on using the techniques within action research programs within the organization to capitalize on promoting performance. Organizational development entails educational strategies that focus on influencing various aspects such as beliefs, attitudes, values, and the structure of the organization with the aim of enhancing positive change. Reinforcing the positive changes within multiple aspects in the organization plays a critical role in ensuring that the organization is in a position to adapt to new trends and challenges. The overall goal of organizational development is focusing on enhancing the effectiveness of the organization to obtain positive performance and ensure the significant stakeholders learn different aspects of incorporating changes to improve individual and organizational accomplishments.
Organizational Development in Dealing with Change Resistance
Considering that organizational development focuses on enhanci8ng positive changes within an organization to ensure positive performances, the process faces resistance, which interferes with the effectiveness of the process. Resistance in the organization occurs within different levels manifesting in various forms such as the organizational policies, and power struggles within different departments in the organization (Gul, 2015). However, managers capitalize on the implementation of various strategies that help in reducing the resistance to change with the aim of improving performance. The tactics implemented by the managers focus on ensuring that the organization is in a position to adapt to various changes affecting performance. The tactics to reduce resistance focus on strategies that provide crucial information to major stakeholders that help in ensuring that they are in a position to accommodate change within the organization. The first aspects that help in reducing resistance to change within an organization entail education and communication.
Education and communication help in reducing a different form of uncertainties that increases resistance to change within an organization. Through education and communication, significant stakeholders within the organization learn essential aspects that help in promoting change, which helps in enhancing individual and organizational performances. The second aspect considered when reducing resistance to change entail participation and empowerment. Organizational development focuses on the involvement from major stakeholders within an organization to ensure that critical policies are implemented to incorporate a change that help in promoting effectiveness and performance. Participation focuses o inviting essential players in the organization to engage in the change process and assist in empowering the stakeholders based on the benefits of change. Lastly, managers focus on bargaining and negotiation tactics to face resistance. Bargaining and negotiation concentrate on ensuring that important aspects are considered during the implementation of policies focusing on organizational change.
Organizational Development in Promoting Change
The implementation of the organizational development techniques plays an essential role in promoting change at individual and corporate levels. Based on the change anticipated within an organization, the techniques are implemented in three different levels with the aim of capitalizing on positive performance. The techniques that are adopted as part of organizational development to help in promoting change as part of a company or organization to maximize performance include:
Counseling, Sensitivity Training, and Process Consultation
The crucial first technique that company managers may adopt as part of their structured approach towards promoting the change process is sensitivity training. Jones (2010) indicates that "sensitivity training occurs as an intense type of counseling" (p.297). Consultation is considered one of the critical factors that define performance among employees while in an organizational setting, as it paves the way for a rather excellent avenue through which to improve their consistency. Process consultation will play a critical role in ensuring that employees can answer a wide array of questions that relate to the performance of their managers in company settings.
Team Building and Intergroup Training
Team building focuses more on the idea of having to create a structured avenue through which to ensure that employees would be able to work as teams to advance their capacity to achieve set out expected goals (Andersen, 2015). In team building and intergroup training, one of the critical expectations for individual group members is to help change the way they view themselves as part of their engagement within the organizational structure.
Organizational Life Cycles
The organizational life cycle is referred to as structured through which organizations can change some of the fundamental dynamics that define their business performance including making changes to their strategies, cultures, and structures. The changes that the organizations make are incorporated as part of their organizational life cycles, which play critical roles towards improving their capacities to deliver on positive results. Additionally, this also provides them with a better avenue of having to transition through the predictable sequence of stages with the focus being towards maximizing on their abilities to achieve growth and change. The four stages that an organization goes through as part of the organizational life cycle are birth, growth, decline, and death.
Organizational Birth
Organizational birth occurs as the first stage of business development, as it refers to the stage in which entrepreneurs work towards implementing new business ideas with the aim being towards creating a business entity. According to Su, Baird, & Schoch (2015), the chances of failure during the organizational birth stage are significantly high when compared to any other stage in the organizational life cycle. That results from the fact that every new business finds itself experiencing what is described as the liability of newness, which serves as one of the critical aspects that are likely to affect business performance significantly. However, it is equally important to note that businesses that can adopt a structured approach as part of the strategies to go through their birth tend to have a high possibility of success.
Organizational Growth
In the organizational growth stage, businesses find themselves acquiring value-creation skills, which allow them to create value for their clients, which would be considered as one of the critical factors that define their capacities to maximize on business performance. The organizational growth stage plays a critical role towards ensuring that businesses can build their competitive advantage while ensuring that they have a clear understanding of what would be expected of them in achieving overall success margins. The focus for companies within this stage of their life cycle is to work towards pursuing growth as an end to the business perspective. Ultimately, this means that the businesses are much more likely to find themselves in a situation where their performance is determined by the values and norms that they adopt as part of this stage of their growth to serve as a determinant of their abilities to achieve expected results.
Organizational Decline
Organizational decline occurs as a stage in which businesses fail to recognize or anticipate both external and internal pressures that may impact on their business capacities, which, in turn, affects their long-term survival capacities (Hattula, Hammerschmidt, Wetzel, & Bauer, 2015). The most likely outcome when dealing with organizational decline is that business finds themselves in a challenging environment failing to develop stable structures. The ultimate result of this is that it becomes hard or challenging for the business to define its position as part of the business environment; thus, paving the way for its decline in performance. The organizational decline stage of a business' life cycle act as one of the key factors that suggest that the business is likely to move to the last stage of the life cycle.
Organizational Death
As the name suggests, organizational death can be considered as the actual ‘death’ or an organization, as it becomes hard for a business to achieve overall growth regarding its performance. The possibility of organizational death increases significantly in cases where a business find itself in the organizational decline stage, as this would mean that a business would experience a significant decline regarding its performance projections. The ultimate result is that the business experience stagnation regarding its sales volumes, as well as, find it hard to continue with its performance. In most cases, this results in a situation where business experience a wide array of financial issues including bankruptcy, which results in the ultimate collapse of the business.
Summary
From the analysis of the three topics, it can be noted that knowledge management seeks to ensure that companies can build on their capacities to collect, share, and use knowledge as part of the business front. Their abilities to make use of known effective serves as one of the ways through which to ensure that businesses can build on their competitive advantage. On the area of organizational development, it becomes clear that the adoption of organizational development approaches allows for easier management of change within an organizational setting. The use of these techniques helps towards ensuring that businesses can maximize on their positioning within the consumer market to achieve favorable performance. In the last topic, organizational life cycles, it must be noted that businesses must understand the four stages of a business’ life cycle that every business is likely to experience ithe event thatf it does not embrace change as part of its business performance, which are birth, growth, decline, and death.
Conclusion
In summary, change remains as one of the critical factors that define performance in any organization, as it seeks to ensure that an organization is better placed to improve on its capacity to match some of its key goals and objectives. Knowledge management is viewed as a multidisciplinary approach that serves as a critical determinant of how organizations would be able to use knowledge effectively. Some of the key benefits that can be associated with knowledge management include competitive advantage, collaboration and sharing, and decision making. Organizational development refers to various techniques and methodologies that are implemented by managers with the aim of enhancing the ability of the organization to adapt to various aspects. The techniques that help in promoting change as part of a company or organization to maximize performance include counseling, sensitivity training, and process consultation, and team building and intergroup training. The organizational life cycle is referred to as structured through which organizations can change some of the fundamental dynamics that define their business performance including making changes to their strategies, cultures, and structures. The four stages that an organization goes through as part of the organizational life cycle are birth, growth, decline, and death.
References
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Hattula, S., Hammerschmidt, M., Wetzel, H., & Bauer, H. H. (2015). Signaling Quality Across Different Stages of the Organizational Life Cycle. In The Sustainable Global Marketplace (pp. 171-171). Springer, Cham.
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