Introduction
Organizational change management refers to a framework of managing the impacts of a new business process, changes in the organizational structure or the cultural changes that emerge as a result of new projects being implemented into the organization. The organizational change management, therefore, attempts to address the people side of change management from the implementation of a new project or business processes. Change is a continuous process and businesses need to adapt to the changes for them to remain competitive. However, despite being a common practice in many organizations, change comes with many interruptions which can directly or indirectly impact the stakeholders of the organization. Change management is, therefore, a crucial activity that every manager needs to take seriously because how change is managed can significantly impact the success or failure of any project that the company decides to undertake. The problem gets amplified when the project managers and project team members not only become leaders of change but also get impacted by the change itself. Firms that can recognize the impacts of organization change on projects and implement appropriate strategies to minimize such impacts will streamline the process of project management and ease the pain of change for all the affected stakeholders.
Walmart Corporation
Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of large-scale departmental stores and warehouses in many parts of the world. According to the Fortune Global list, Walmart was listed as the largest public corporation with total revenue of over $500343 ( Chekwa, Martin & Wells, 2014 ). At the same time, the company has been listed as the biggest private employer in the world having over two million workers and the biggest retailer in the world. The company has earned its success from its continuous innovations which have seen it rise to the high ranks in the world business. The corporation has undertaken many projects as a firm in the past while at the same time sponsoring many other projects which has come out to be successful due to the effective project management leadership that the company has always provided while at the same time successfully integrating change management with project management to realize the success of the projects that it undertakes.
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In April 2017, Walmart Corporation launched a project that aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gasses that result from their operations and supply chain management. The project named as Gigaton will act as a toolkit for minimizing the discharge of the company’s greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with the focus being on manufacturing, material use and use of products. The project has been scheduled to be accomplished in steps, with the last phase being in the year 2030 ( Kampf, 2007 ). Through its project management team, the company will work to identify areas within the manufacturing and use of materials which can lead to environmental pollution. The sustainability initiative project will focus on restructuring the manufacturing processes of the company as well as materials used in manufacturing and packaging to ensure that they are free from pollution. In collaboration with other organizations, the corporation created emission reduction toolkits and encouraged the suppliers to sign up for the project Gigaton.
Integrating Change Management and Project Management
The introduction of a new project or an initiative calls for the need to manage the change within an organization effectively. This is because a new project or initiative will have impacts on various stakeholders, business processes or even the culture of the organization. For example, in the case of the Gigaton project by Walmart, changes will occur in the manufacturing department and the supply chain department. As a result, specific business processes will have to be changed impacting employees and the suppliers. This, therefore, calls for the successful management and integration of the change management and the project management. The project leader ought to know that projects come with changes that will impact on people and processes and unless appropriate change management is applied, the project could fail.
Project management requires an effective consideration of both the technical side and the people side. The technical side focus is to ensure the project is fully developed, designed and implemented ( Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017 ). Project management through the project manager provides the structure, processes and necessary tools to make the project successful. However, a people side, on the other hand, focuses on the need to make people embrace the change, adopt the new project and have the stakeholders operate differently following the result of the project. People will always resist change and fail to effectively manage change could emerge out to be a drawback to the successful implementation of the project. Integration of the two areas can, therefore, provide a conducive environment that will ensure the success of a project.
Securing Project’s Success through Change Management
The success of any project relies on well-conducted project management and planning. A solid plan, resources, budget, and timeline, must be agreed upon before the implementation of the project. Successful change management increases the chances of the buy-in of the change at all the level of the project. Effective change management makes people visualize the value outcome of the project and therefore accept to put efforts to work towards the goal ( Meredith & Mantel, 2011 ). At its best level, change management creates a conducive atmosphere and accelerates the rate of acceptance from the stakeholders involved. This further builds a culture which is positive in providing the support for the change. Stakeholder management ensures that the right people who are ready and willing for the change are brought on board. This increases acceptance which then creates a positive environment for the success of the project. Project managers must, therefore, get ready to engage the stakeholders bearing in mind that the success of the project they are managing heavily relies on the way change is managed and how those stakeholders perceive the difference.
Managing change to facilitate the success of the project requires the project manager to communicate with the stakeholders involved. Having all the needed resources in place and setting appropriate project plan alone without effectively involving those who will be affected by the change may not lead to the success of the project. Change network is a necessary element in the successful execution of the project. Other than the project team, the project sponsors, change agents, and opinion leaders should be engaged in the whole process so that they can share their vision and objective for the change. In the plan to execute a project, barriers should be identified and solved. Barriers mainly arise from the employees when they feel that the project or the anticipated change might bring the unknown to them. Generally, people will resist change unless appropriate measures are taken to make them value the goal of the project and feel part of it ( Bradley, 2016 ).
To ensure the success of their project, Walmart has created awareness and communicated with all the stakeholders involved as well as those who will be affected. The primary stakeholders in this project are the suppliers who are targeted in ensuring that emission of greenhouse gas is minimized. Without proper communication with the suppliers and those in the supply chain management, there could be resistance to this project, and this could negatively impact its success. Walmart has been communicating with all the suppliers to make them understand the value of the project and what benefits it will have on the business. While it aims at minimizing pollution and enhancing sustainability in the future, the project is aimed at boosting business by avoiding adverse impacts on the environment that could affect the availability of raw materials in the future. Remaining environmentally sensitive also make the company build its corporate image and expand the market coverage.
Organizational Change on Projects
The change within an organization exists in many different forms. It can involve simple upgrades in the technology or changes in the business process to achieve a particular goal such as minimize pollution and increase sales as in the case of Walmart. As businesses grow or shrink as a result of certain conditions, people are added or removed while others were given more responsibilities. Some functions get centralized while others get decentralized. The process of change in the manufacturing process at Walmart to minimize pollution came with new changes such as a change in the number of the employees in the manufacturing department, change in roles of employees and change in the process used in the manufacturing process. A restructuring was also necessary to ensure any wastes are treated before being released into the atmosphere.
For a project manager who is trying to implement a new solution to a problem, frustrations can always arise in an attempt to move the target in a project environment that is continually changing. The role of a project manager is to identify and minimize any risk that might hinder the success of the project being executed. However, as changes happen throughout the organization, it becomes a tough task for the project manager to predict the risks associated with the project. The success of any project relies on the ability of the project manager to navigate all the possible uncertainties and ending up with customers who are happy and satisfied.
Reducing the Impacts of Organization Change Management on Projects
Minimizing the impacts of organizational change require the project managers to identify ways of making the projects more manageable and predictable. This is achievable through having improved project management processes. It is also essential to provide the project team members with appropriate training and information that they need to adjust to the changes. Advancing the project management process first require the existence of that process. Significant components of the project management process are the discipline of the change management. The organization must develop a codified disciplined approach to the change management and then apply it to the common change methods across the whole organization ( Fernandez et al., 2012). Times, even the change management process itself can undergo change when there is a need to support the business needs.
Studies have shown that using a purely technical approach to introducing change can be less significant to the success of the project if the people side of the change is ignored. Change management while it is discipline on its own has been identified as a critical differentiator between the success and failure of the project. Considering the people side of the change can help develop an agile organization. Whatever the project that is being implemented, it is critical that the project manager looks at the change management and the effects it can have on the success or failure of the project. A growing body of evidence has also shown that change management can significantly increase the chances of a project being successful as it was intended ( Cummings & Worley, 2014 ). However, the quality of sponsorship of the project, having sufficient resources to support the project and integration of the change management with project management can also increase the likelihood of the success of the project.
An organization change is the overall impacts of many people who are committing to be different in a particular way or another. There are many incidences where properly implemented projects in the technical perspectives fail to produce the intended outcome. The primary root cause of this issue has been lack of adoption of the new processes, structure or policy. Effectively managing change can minimize the decline in the productivity during the implementation of the project and greatly increase the adoption levels for the new ways of work. The integration of the project management and change management are therefore essential in increasing the chances of success of the project ( Leach, 2014 ). For a project, shifting attention away from the change management can always result in a project manager facing greater resistance, missed milestones, failures to deliver the business case and failure of the whole project. The effects of a poorly managed change can sometimes even be more severe that can result in negative consequences such as lost opportunities, low morale, and huge losses.
Effective Project Management
The roots of effective project management are based on the simplicity. Keeping the project simple makes it easy for the stakeholders to understand and support the project. There are steps that a project manager must follow before coming up with an effective project management process. The first step is to do research and identify the stakeholder who will benefit from the project and how the project will benefit the whole organization ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014 ). The next step is to have a clear scope of the project. Lack of clear scope of the project can always result to the project failure. It is therefore important that the project manager comes up with simple and clear project scope. The third step to effective project management is project planning, risk identification and allocation of resources. This is where the project manager identifies the resource requirements, determines the risks and then allocates the resources required for the execution of the project. This is then followed by the project management planning for the communication of the project goals to the stakeholders so that the aim is clear to all people involved.
While introducing their project, the project manager of Walmart applied the standards required for effective project management. The project manager began with an initiation process which involves understanding how much funding is needed and who are the people involved. The project manager then followed with planning and design of the project. After an appropriate plan and design are made, the process proceeds to execute the project. Execution involves identifying people who will be included, who does what and how. This is where the project team is assigned responsibilities that they are expected to execute ( Burke, 2013 ). The project is then monitored and controlled so that any deviations can be corrected.
Conclusion
The successful execution of a project requires a project manager to manage change within the organization effectively. Integration between the change management and project management is essential in improving the chances of the project being successful. Other than the technical perspective in the project management, it is also important that the project manager considers the people perspective so that any resistance to change is minimized. Making stakeholders understand the goal of the project is a crucial step in promoting the chances of success of the project. Without proper change management, it is more likely that the project could fail due to resistance from the stakeholders.
References
Bradley, G. (2016). Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits through change . CRC Press.
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA .
Chekwa, E., Martin, J., & Wells, K. (2014). Riding on the waves of sustained competitive advantage: consumers’ perspectives on Walmart Corporation. International Journal of the Academic Business World , 8 (2), 13-25.
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change . Cengage learning.
Fernandez, S., COMMENTATORS, H. G. R., CONNOR, P. E., THOMPSON, F., MIHM, J. C., & TSCHIRHART, M. (2012). Managing successful organizational change in the public sector. In Debating Public Administration (pp. 33-52). Routledge.
Kampf, C. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: WalMart, Maersk and the cultural bounds of representation in corporate web sites. Corporate Communications: An International Journal , 12 (1), 41-57.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling . John Wiley & Sons.
Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical chain project management . Artech House.
Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach . John Wiley & Sons.
Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management , 32 (2), 202-217.
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