Change Management- A Concept towards sustainability
Globalization, workforce diversity and technical revolution are the drivers behind the growth and evolution of the business model. This is ably supported by creativity and innovative practices of the business organization which makes it imperative for the business organization to undergo change in order to remain sustainable in the longer run (Carnall, 2018). Plethora of business organization have changed their business model owing to the growth in technology, for instance major retail giants are exploring their options in online sales to stay competitive. Thus, it can be said with absolute surety that change is inevitable and every business have to become flexible and dynamic to stay focussed on its goals. Thus, it can be said that new business strategies and disruption can be disruptive to the existing business model; hence the need of the hour is to ensure change management in the organization with the underlying objective of sustainability (Cameron & Green, 2018).
Drawing on the above introduction as the preamble of the assignment, the assignment here requires developing a comprehensive understanding of the change management and why it is extremely critical to the success of the business organization. The report will provide a detailed understanding on the theory of change management, some of the models pertaining to change management and the factors which are important for effective change management.
Change management in the simplest of terms can be understood as the study which helps the organizations to prepare, equip and support the individuals to successfully adopt the change in order to ensure the attainment of the organizational goals and objectives. Change management helps in providing a structured approach to support the individuals in the organization to transit from their present state to the desired states. In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the topic, Change management has to be learnt at three levels (Doppelt, 2017).
It is human natural psychology to resist change, and the humans of all creatures are the biggest resistors to change. However, if implemented in a way which helps in creating positive synergies around the working environment, change management can be wonderful and highly successful (Kuipers et. al., 2014).
The important part in change management is to make the employees understand the rationale and the logic behind change. Employees mostly resist change because it’s their natural reaction, and they fear change because of their job stability and also have a fear of unknown. Ineffective implementation of the change management process can cause high resistance in the organization and can also lead to high employee turnover. Thus, as an organization it becomes imperative for the organization or the change agent to openly discuss about the proposed change, engage the employees in the process, comprehend and respond to their feedback on the proposed change and at last address their grievances and concerns related to change management(Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
One of the prominent models which help the organizations in focussing on the individual involved in the change management is the ADKAR model. The 5 step bottom up method focussed on the individuals behind the change:
- Awareness- The first step in the process of change management at an individual level is to increase the awareness regarding the change. This awareness of the change can be related to the change in tech, policies, procedures, business model or anything, the bottom-line here is to create an awareness regarding the need for change.
- Desire- The second step in the model is creating a desire in the employees to engage and participate in the process of change management. Change agents are created from within the organization and helps in better diffusion of the process.
- Knowledge-The goal of knowledge in the ADKAR model is to ensure that every employee in the organization is aware of the process of the change management and are aware of their specific roles.
- Ability- Ability is related to the extra hours, training or the knowledge required by the employees in order to complete their tasks.
- Reinforcement-As the name suggests, reinforcement is related to ensuring that sufficient training, incentives and rewards are given to the employees to ensure that the change is sustained until it becomes a new norm.
Individual Change Management
(Source: Lozano, Ceulemans & Seatter, 2015)
It is literally impossible for the project team/Change agent to manage change on a person by person basis. Thus, organizational change management helps in providing the steps and action which then help in supporting hundreds and thousands of people for are impacted by the change. The organizational change management starts with identifying the group, people who will have to change and the ways they will need to change. The next structured step is creating a customized plan (ADKAR) model to pacify and give sufficient information to the people who will get impacted by the change. This then sets the tone of the organization for the change. Lewin’s model will further explain the readers on the process of change in the organization (Van Der Voet, 2014).
The Lewin’s model is easy to approach, implement and put in action as it divides the entire process of change into three different stages and pays undivided attention to ensure a smooth implementation of the change.
(Source: Booth, 2015)
- Unfreeze the current process, practices and perceptions-Immediately after realizing that the company needs to change, it is the responsibility of the organization to unfreeze the current process and have a deeper look on how the things are being done. The clear cut implication of unfreezing is to understand and analyse every single step of human interaction for the potential improvements. Unfreezing is also applied to the resistance of the company towards the change; hence everybody has to be made aware of the change so that every person is on the same page.
- Make the Change- This is the step in which the change is actually implemented in the organization and every person is given sufficient training, knowledge, communication on their tasks to be achieved in the change process. Another benefit of making the actual change is to listen to the feedback of people on the change and then to make changes if required.
- Refreeze the Status quo-This is the last though the most important part of the change management process. All the steps prior to refreezing are futile if the organization is unable to implement the new change as the new norm, and every person in the organization abides by the change.
This is an organization wide core competency which provides competitive differentiation and the ability to effectively adapt to the ever changing world. Enterprise change management means effective change management is embedded into the organizations roles, structures, process, projects and leadership competencies. The end result of this capability is that individuals start embracing the change quickly and so does the organization better respond to the market changes. This type of change management capability is a resultant of strategic choices the organization makes in the course of business (Pugh, 2016).
Thus these are the three levels of change management, and it is important for the organization to carry out the change in accordance to levels of change management. Next important step in the learning and understanding of the topic is known why change management is so critical and crucial for the survival of the organization.
Need of change management/ the battle for Survival
Some of the important factors emphasizing on the importance of change management are:
In the earlier days organization used to engage in the process of change management once in a blue moon, but this has changed considerably and organizations in the present are facing more complex, much faster and more interdependent and more cross functional changes than ever before. Thus organizations have to bring change at many fronts to achieve the desired results. Hence, change management becomes extremely important to achieve the desired results for the organization.
Organization quite often meet the requirement but are unable to deliver the expected results, it is like delivering the necessary outputs without delivering the expected outcomes. There has to be a perfect balance in meeting the requirement ad achieving the desired outcomes, this gap in the two can only be ascertained and assessed by Change management, implying the importance of it (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
It is absolutely clear that change management increases the likelihood of the project success three times, if implemented properly in the organization. The underlying objective of change management is always to better the processes and increase the efficiency of the employees and the organization.
ADKAR Model of Change
It is extremely important for the organization to manage the people side of change while implementing change management in the organization. Most of the times, people are not involved while bringing technical or system oriented change in the business organization. However, this has to be changed as people are most important to the business organization. And this may result in decreasing productivity, time consumption, resistance and also absenteeism which ultimately lowers the productivity of the employees. Hence, managing employee side of change is highly important (Burke, 2017).
Employees are the biggest asset for the organization and many a times they completely ignore the employees in lieu for raging profits. For instance if the organization wants to bring a new process in the system, and on Monday night they inform the employees to gather for the training on Tuesday, it is no way to treat the employees. They have to be treated in the manner they feel appreciated and empowered, thus effective change management helps in achieving this objective.
The section here will see the five most important factors significant to the change in the organization. The factor goes on as:
There is a simple explanation here, when strategy changes organization structure must also change to accommodate the strategy. Thus citing that change in strategy is one of the most important factors behind the organizational change (Rosemann & VomBrocke, 2015).
The environment here is related to both the micro and the macro environment; the organization has to ensure that it takes care of the changing environment and creates strategies to stay unaffected by the changing environment.
The size of the organization is very important factor which affects the organizational change. Different size of organization calls out for the change in the hierarchical structure indicating the importance of change management (Benn, Edwards & Williams, 2014).
During the nascent phase of the organization, it has no policies and procedures in place. It is a very informal system to working in the office environment. As and when the organization grows they have to make changes in the organization to better achieve the organizational goals. Such as bringing machine automation, deciding on decentralized or centralized decision making and many more. Thus, age of the organization is another major factor behind the change.
Technology can be kept in the same weighing balance as strategy while evaluating and comparing the factors of change management. The business is changing at a rapid pace due to the evolution and increased adoption of technology in business operations. Thus, business in order to gain significant advantage of this growing technological revolution has to accommodate the change in technology, implying that technology is a major factor behind change management (Hardin & McCool, 2015).
Conclusion
“Change is the only constant in the world”, thus change is inevitable and it is highly advised that business in order to accommodate the changing business environment engage in the practice of change management. An effective change management can only be implemented if the change agent or the change team is open in its communication and explains the rationale of the change to the people who will be affected by the proposed change. It is impossible for a business to achieve the goal of sustainability without carrying an effective change management in the organization.
References
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.
Booth, S.A., 2015. Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises. Routledge.
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Carnall, C., 2018. Managing change. Routledge.
Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hardin, B. and McCool, D., 2015. BIM and construction management: proven tools, methods, and workflows. John Wiley & Sons.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.
Kuipers, B.S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J. and Van der Voet, J., 2014. The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public administration, 92(1), pp.1-20.
Lozano, R., Ceulemans, K. and Seatter, C.S., 2015. Teaching organisational change management for sustainability: designing and delivering a course at the University of Leeds to better prepare future sustainability change agents. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, pp.205-215.
Pugh, L., 2016. Change management in information services. Routledge.
Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Van der Voet, J., 2014. The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), pp.373-382.
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