Organizational change is the undertaking of an organization from one situation to another. Change in every organization is met with resistance, and various cultures have different reactions to change or means that promote change. Therefore, to better facilitate the change in any organization, several steps are used to lower stakeholders' stress levels and ease the transformation process. For instance, a simple act such as encouraging employee engagement in the change process can considerably reduce hostility toward coming change. Some organizations do not have the same inclusion level, so instead, they can opt to recruit opinion leaders to endorse the benefits of approaching changes.
Organizational change can involve changes in structures, policies, strategies, procedures, technology, or culture. The suggested change can be either imminent or can take years to execute. Organizational change can also be swift and radical that changes entire business operations or incremental and slow. Either way, change involves letting go of the old ways and embracing a new of doing things moving forward.
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Factors That Contribute to Organic Evolution of Change
Many factors contributing to the organic evolution of change within an organization are related to internal or external factors. The differing factors of change result from an organization's coevolution as external and internal environments dictate the organization's actions, mechanisms, political systems, expertise, and talent. Hence, the factors contributing to the organic evolution of change include technology advancement, new competitors entering the market, statutory regulations globalization, management logistics, and the relationships with the employees.
New competitors entering the market – New competitors entering the market force evolution of companies with their new innovative approaches that challenge the status quo. Big established organizations must always scour the market to see the new innovative ways companies are rivaling them and either adopt or improve their business model to stay relevant (Freedman, 2017). For example, when Yahoo was a world leader in the search engine market, they should have monitored other companies to learn innovative ways to optimize their search engine to stay ahead. Yahoo failed to make the necessary changes and was overthrown by Google as the most popular search engine.
Technology advancements - Technology is another external factor that has been at the epicenter of most organizational changes. Technology has evolved rapidly, and it falls upon the organizations to keep up to have an advantage over the competition. Technology helps in manufacturing, processing, marketing, delivery, among others. Consequently, organizations are tasked with wisely investing in technology that will not be outdated in a couple of years ( Cummings & Worley, 2014 ). The latest technology offers better profit margins for companies, but it might be expensive to change to keep growing.
Globalization – is the expansion of an organization on a worldwide scale. Organizations are now required to be constantly aware of any social, political, market forces, or industry variables in the invested countries to stay ahead of the competition. Such awareness is key as the organization readies itself to implement the changes at lightning speed or gradual and continually in the ever-changing business climate.
Management logistics – the change in the supply chain process requires the change in original plans of how goods, services, or related items are outsourced. Most organizations must have more than one reliable supplier, for if one fails, the other can help meet the deficit. Changes in the logistics process are critical as it determines a company's success.
Relationships with the employees – good relationships with employees are critical in running a successful organization. However, bad relationships need to be changed to run a profitable organization. Unprofessional, unmotivated employees need to be changed as they risk tarnishing a company's reputation.
Statutory regulations – various industries face different regulations from the government. Developed laws force organizations to change to conform to the newer standards. For instance, tobacco companies were forced to put pictures that showed the effects of smoking on their packs with warnings messages to the users. Such changes made the tobacco companies change their packaging, informing the users of the dangers of smoking. The changes made some of the smokers to quit because of the horror picture. Likewise, this was a change that made the tobacco conform to the newly introduced regulations.
Models and Interventions of Change Leadership
Formulation of strategic development approaches typically involves the annual process of planning and developing plans that need to be put in place for the coming year and beyond. Such plans summarize the shortcomings of the year's work looking for areas to improve for the foreseeable future. With the ever-changing business landscape, it is impossible to plan a strategy that caters to all the hurdles the future holds, so management needs to be flexible, dynamic, and robust to identify the challenges to make the necessary changes. Organizations that are well equipped have a shot at dealing with the setbacks and can make necessary changes to deal with the market's emerging opportunities. The strategic development formulation should seek to answer questions like what business is the organization in (mission)? Where does the organization want to be (vision)? How is the organization doing? What is going well, and what is the organization failing in? How did the organization reach that point? How can the situation be improved? What can be done to get there? Such questions help an organization develop a strategy development moving forward.
One of the most popular change models was proposed by Dr John Kotter. It is an eight-step process that can act as the guiding outline that can be custom made to fit all organizations. The model was crafted from Kotter's observations of innumerable leaders and organizations (Kotter, 2014) . The change model has an eight-stage that mainly focuses on the change in employee response to change. The eight-step process for leading change includes: creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, forming a strategic vision and initiatives, enlisting a volunteer army, enabling action by removing barriers, generating short-term wins, sustaining acceleration, and instituting change. This change model's merit is that it is easy to use and follow as it focuses on preparing employees for a change instead of focusing on the changes themselves.
Another popular model is the McKinsey 7-s management model that focuses on important factors that change might impact. McKinsey's model is key as it reminds the organization leaders of the business aspects that should be defined before effecting a change in the organization ( Ravanfar, 2015 ). The 7-s management model includes strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, and skill.
Leadership and management skills
The managers must be the agents of change to guide the process from start to finish. An able leader should convince the stakeholders of the change's need and have a smooth transition (Hayes, 2014) . Furthermore, leaders should be able to compromise with the stakeholders and guide as they listen to the challenges; they face to give a word of encouragement. Such leadership is necessary to man manage to effect change and avoid cases of frustrated employees.
Incorporating both the McKinsey 7-s management model and Kotter's change management model guarantees evaluating the effectiveness of the change. McKinsey 7-s management model mainly looks at the business end of things to impact change while us Kotter's change management model looks at how the change affects the workforce. Therefore, to effect change, it is vital to have a visionary leader who can see the position they want to take the organization and develop the strategies for execution. Besides, such leaders should have the capability to effortlessly motivate the involved stakeholders without getting frustrated but opt to guide where they notice faults. Visionary leaders will notice all the shortcomings of the strategy and effectively develop solutions during the changes whilst motivating the people.
Training and mentoring the workforce will ensure continuous changes. Such acts reassure the workforce that the organization has their interest at heart and becomes more committed to the changes. It will reduce the resistance as the workforce becomes more mentored and empowered to become agents of change.
Timing Change
To properly implement change, data must be collected for analysis as it requires the assessment of internal and external factors is key. The data gathered should include both primary and secondary data collected from primary and secondary resources. The primary data can be gathered from individuals and groups in the organization through surveys, questionnaires, or a series of interviews by human resources. Secondary data is primarily created for gaining insight within an organization's decision making in the billing and service records. Statistical data is critical in revealing the patterns and identify company trends.
To effectively justify the change's timing, the need for change should be backed with evidence of why the change is necessary. Reliance on quantitative and qualitative research is necessary to back the need for change. Such research uncovers the organization's deficit and approaches the leader needs to take to effect change. On the other hand, such information better explains the need for change to all the stakeholders and the urgency.
The gathered data is used to support the timing in making changes to be successful. Failed changes can be accounted for in their ineffectiveness due to bad execution timing (Carucci, 2018) . Hence, a leader should assess the need for change before deciding if the change is necessary. Leaders should use the opportunity to communicate to the workforce and explain the context of the change, reasons for change, the plan (vision), and what is expected of them during the process.
Conclusion
Change is not easy to effect, so various factors determine whether the change is internal or external. The rate of success of the change is imperative to understand how to roll it out. Therefore, strong visionary leadership is required to direct the change as it determines the success or failure of change. Simultaneously, there is a need for a conducive environment and resources that will foster the change. The need for change should be driven by qualitative and quantitative research that uncovers the current employed system's shortcomings.
References
Carucci, R. (2018, January 11). To Lead Successful Change, Science Says You Must Consider Timing. Forbes . https://www.forbes.com/sites/roncarucci/2018/01/09/to-lead-successful-change-science-says-you-must-consider-timing/?sh=356f5eb47d3a
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change . Cengage learning.
Freedman, M. (2017, September 8). 5 Effective Ways to Beat Your Competition . Business.com; business.com. https://www.business.com/articles/5-ways-to-beat-competition/
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management . Palgrave Macmillan.
Kotter, J. P. (2014). Capturing the opportunities and avoiding the threats of rapid change. Leader to Leader , 2014 (74), 32-37.
Ravanfar, M. M. (2015). Analyzing Organizational Structure based on 7s model of McKinsey. Global Journal of Management and Business Research .
