Advantage for being an external change agent
Discuss about the concept of change and introduce the theories and models of change.
Organizational Development is considered as the process which covers the field of the theory, research and practice. It is dedicated to increasing the knowledge and effectiveness to achieve more successful organizational change and performance. Organizational development is the way of action planning and execution and diagnosis with the aim of transferring knowledge and skills to organization in order to get improvement in their capacity for resolving the conflicts and managing future change. There are various factors liable to bring the change in the organization (Parkin, 2009, p. 154). These are globalization, information technology and managing innovation. This report will describe the concept of change and introduce the theories and models of change. The 5 major kinds of activities will be described which should be carried out by change agents when executing and planning the change. The role of diagnosis and feedback in the process of organisational change is important as it determines to evaluate the success of the organizational change. The case study will be considered while making the task to show the importance of organizational change. Diagnosis, action planning, interventions and evaluation are the four major steps of the organizational strategies which help to make changes in the organization in effective manner.
A change agent is the person who acts as a medium for increasing the change process within an organization. Organizational development practioner is the example of the change agent who applies various strategies within the organization to implement the change. This person is liable to bring changes in the organisation in order to take benefits of shifting circumstances. An employer of the large organization is engaged with the organization and he has recognized the issues even in the case of employee perceive things differently.
Being an external change agent in the organization is more advantageous in comparison of internal change agent. It is because internal change agent has knowledge about the entire circumstance and scenarios of the organization whether it is good or bad; in such case internal change agent can take advantage to make changes in the organization only for the benefits of himself or his dear ones. On the other hand external change agent would be new for the organization who would understand the situations from the beginning by analyzing the previous records. They can give the specific expertise that is unavailable internally (Green, 2012). The employer has engaged with the organization that has good experience in his field and can also bring a unique and potentially more determine perspective into the organizational development process. External agent has the ability to explore the hard issues. The problem has been identified and the resolution is proposed but due to different perspectives on different ideas, the thinking is clashed. Being an external change agent it is likely effective because it will not raise internal disputes due to no acquaintances with external agent. External change agent is the professional who works for the limited period of time for any organization. The organization is needed wide major change which can be accomplished with the help of external change agent. External change agent is able to build trust quickly in the term of diagnosing. Confidentiality data can enhance due to effective external change agent. There is different consulting process such as entry, contracting, diagnosing, intervening and evaluating. In first process of entry, external agent should learn company ‘jargon’ which will time consuming. Contracting is the second process in which third party role would be maintained. Confidential data can be increased in the third process of diagnosing.
5 kinds of activities
The role of the change agent in the organization is important. There are various activities which are required to be considered while implementing the changes in the organization. These activities of change agent are mentioned below:
Investigating
It has been analyzed that the executing change is considered as straightforward as implementing the obvious activities. An organization is wide as there are number of employees who have different behaviours and attitudes towards the work and dealing with behaviour of different people requires digging below the outside to know about the dynamics of the organization. Investigating is the major activity of the external agent that helps to understand the issues within an organization and look for clues for preventing change from happening. It would help to determine the steps to remove obstacles and bring about success (Brown and Osborne, 2012, pp. 119). The activity of investigating is the major activity to find out the issues within an organization.
Advocating
Organizational change is necessary for enhancing the productivity by adapting latest trend. It is the requirement of every organizational change to have someone who speaks up in favour of it. External change agent is effective in engaging with people to participate and attain support for the initiative. It is the major activity of the change agent while implementing the change in the organization because advocating helps to get know more about the needs of the employee. This activity helps to make employee comfort and motivate towards the change. An employer (external change agent) keeps beating the drum of change at the time when employees are busy with other activities.
Encouraging
Motivation is the major factor in making changes in the organization. Encouraging is the activity of the external agent that helps to motivate other employees of the organization in the context of brining change with enthusiastically. It has been analyzed that change occurs when an individual make changes in their activities, attitudes and behaviour. There are many employees in the organization who are having efficient skills but they do not want to take risks and step outside their comfort zones. Personal implications of people should be understood by the change agent in an effecting manner so that it can facilitate people feel effective about making the changes. In this activity, employer (change agent) is helping employees by their own personal transitions in the spirit of change coaching.
Advising
Changes can be done in effective manner if change agents understand the needs and different expertise of the employees in the organization. It has been analyzed that change agent relies on his expertise to create his authority within the organization. Knowledge of the external agent is helpful to define the purpose and advantages of the change so that the employees of the organization could understand about the demand of the change (Stagl, 2011). Knowledge is the process which can be transferred directly by training, but it shares everyday via meetings and conversation. Change agents are knowledgeable and confident.
Lewin’s Change Model
Managing
Change cannot be done in the organization without proper planning that is why it is necessary for the change agent to ensure that there are targets goals and time frame for the project. Only in that manner, a change agent would be able to keep people on track to attain them. Managing is the activity which helps out to manage the goals and changes of the organization in an appropriate manner (Stagl, 2011). Change agents can explore ways to hold people responsible and make sure those effective rewards or punishments are handed out in important terms. Managing activity is vital in the organization as it helps change leader to set out the responsibilities. Change agent provides the training to the employees regarding amendments in the organization (Palmer, Dunford, Akin and Buchanan, 2009).
Kurt Lewin change theory has comprised three step models which are significant component of change management strategies for managing the change at the workplace. It has been found that this change management model was introduced in 1940 and the component of this model still remains reliable and relevant today (Kaminski, 2011, pp. 3). The three steps of Lewin’s Change model are Unfreezee, Transition and Freeze.
It is the step of model that reduces the forces that are determined to maintain the status of the organization and take apart the current mindset. The need for change can be defined to the people by presenting a challenging issues or event. A change agent is appointed for analyzing the need of change in the organization and this problem is the medium that builds the pressure for movement of thinking (Mitchell, 2013). For instance, important information has been delivered to the field, but then negative activities are constantly to occur, this may encourage the management of the organization that message is not being heard by employees and there is some needed changes are in order.
The external agent is facing the issue to define the needs of the change within the organization due to different perceptions of the working employees. In such case, the change agent can emphasize gaps between the current state and desired state. There are various ways to unfreeze such as compel people to understand the need of change and let them know that old strategies and functions are unable to perform. In the step of unfreezing, external change agent need to develop the initial awareness of the requirement for change. It is necessary because most of the people in the organization want stability (Medley and Akan, 2008, pp. 490).
Transition is the second step of the Lewin’s model which can be lengthy because people at this stage are looking for better things to do. An employer has recognized the issue within an organization but the perception of employees are entirely different towards identified issue which raise the concern in the organization. This process of model is lengthy and will not happen in a substance of just a few days. Time is required for this process to feel comfortable to people and initiate to response in ways that are helping the change initiative. There may be chaos and perplexity at this stage though with an efficient structured approach to amend this can be handled well (Brisson-Banks, 2010, pp. 244). There are various way of transition that helps change leader to make changes in the organization in an effective manner such as by communicating and involving with them. Immediately address the barriers or issues of people who have negative thinking about the changes.
Freeze is the last process of this model that is used by change leader in case of things is okay regarding changes within an organization. It has been assumed in this step that changes are stick and can be freeze in this step. It is required to establish the performance and reward systems for evaluating the influencing the change consistency (Manchester et. al., 2014, pp.85). Regular meetings are required to maintain the changes in the organization as per this step.
It can be anticipated that external change leader can face the trouble in implementing the changes at the stage of advocating. It has been found by considering the scenario that due to different perception regarding amendments in the organization conflicts are raised. It is the stage or activity of the change agent where he can find and analyze the needs of the employee (Rahim, 2017, pp. 280). It is because employees are unaware about the importance of the changes and they are engaged in their old strategy of working. In such case, external change agent needs to conduct the meeting to know more about the issues regarding change. Training session should be conducted in effective manner by appointing well trained trainer so that employees do not get afraid to get engage in new working style. Lewin’s change model has three steps in which external change agent can face the issue in implementing the change at the first step of this model that is Unfreeze. It is hard to move those people who are engaged with their work from many years.
Organizational diagnosis is considered as an effective term of looking at an organization to define gaps between the current state and desired outcomes and how it can attain its objectives. The role of diagnosis and feedback in the process of organizational change is vital as it help to increase the productivity of the employee (Grafton, Lillis and Widener, 2010). The diagnostic considerations using the open system model which comprises the input, transformations and outputs, boundaries, feedback, equifinality and alignment. It is vital for the change agent to consider the feedback of the employees in the process of organizational change. The diagnostic cycle has the great importance at the workplace as it includes orientation, gaol setting, data gathering, interpretation, feedback, action planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (Schein, 2015, pp. 25). It is important for the change agent to consider the major system components while implementing the diagnosis. The key feature of this model is that organizational inputs can be utilized as inputs for maintenance and growth. With the help of diagnosis open system mode, the organization is continually changing. There are many companies such as Google, Amazon and many more that adopts this model to enhance the productivity of the employee.
The diagnostic model suggests feedback is an important variable in the organization as it facilitates to gather the information about the changes. As it has been analyzed that external change agent has identifies the issues within an organization and implemented the change but employees of the organization are not agreed with the changes (Burnes and Cooke, 2012). In such case, feedback procedure is effective to get the concern of employees regarding the changes. It would be helpful for the external change agent to understand the different perception of different employee regarding the change. It will encourage external agent to describe the importance of occurred changes to the employees so that they could understand behind the changes within the organization.
It has been evaluated as per the case study of Boeing that it has adopted the diagnostic model for the change in the organization. Boeing is Aeroscope Company Manufacture of commercial jet liners and security system. There is a cultural diversity in Boeing which raises the conflicts in the organization. Lack communication has been the source of this issue that is why it is vital for the organization to use the various familiar techniques to make the relationship good in the organization (Tang and Zimmerman, 2009). The below mentioned diagnostic model has been used by Boeing to make change in the organization.
Data collection is also integral factor in organizational development (Cummings, 2009, pp. 32). Data gathering is considered as the process in which data are accumulated and this is to attain all the information required in order to attain the goal of the organizational development. In planning the collect data, change agent should consider the certain questions such as when, why, where, what, how and who. A collected data is helped in diagnostic process that gathers the vital data to be used in constructing the actual details of the organization.
The diagnosis and feedback in the process of organization change can be attained effectively by following the diagnostic open system model. Diagnosis is come under collaborative process between organizational members and the change agent to gather the relevant information. The component of open system model is mentioned below:
Organizational level inputs
It involves the general environment which comprise political, social, technological and environmental factor which come under external factor. They can directly affect the organization directly or indirectly to attain the goals of the organization. The change agent should focus on various external factors while implementing change in the organization. Along with the structure, human resource system, measurement system, strategy and organization culture are covered the organizational level inputs. It is necessary for the change agent to analyze the organizational level inputs before implementing the changes (RapidBI, 2018).
Organizational level outputs
The role of organizational level outputs is huge in the success of change. It covers organization a performance, productivity and stakeholders satisfaction. However, change in the organization should be implemented as per requirement but it is essential for the change leader to analyze the profit, stock prices and financial conditions of the organization (Bushe and Marshak, 2009, pp. 50). Productivity of the employees should be considered for the success of diagnosis and feedback in the process.
Diagnosis and feedback are essential for getting response of the employees regarding the change. By considering the given scenario, it has been analyzed that employees will be satisfied if they get to know about the importance of change in the organization (Hayes, 2014). For instance, an external change leader should conduct a meeting in which the discussion topic should be about the needs of the change in the organization. However, it is not possible that everyone understand the need of the change of the organization. In such case as per diagnosis and feedback process, external change agent should use force field analysis to recognize and remove barriers to the change sticking and at the same time focus on maintaining a forward looking on the new installations. There are various forces when a change is introduces, some forces drive it and other forces resist it. There are some steps which should be followed by manager in the diagnosis and feedback process.
Specify the issues or problems carefully: An issue can be explained as the difference between what exists in current situation and what should exist.
Explain objectives: it is necessary for the change agent to describe the objectives and show the situation after resolving the issues in the organization regarding the change.
Brainstorming: the role of brainstorming is vital to determine the driving and resisting forces that contribute to the concern (Litchfield, 2008, pp. 653).
Analyze the forces: the forces which drive the change can be analyzed by manager in an efficient way to develop the strategy.
Comparison of strategy: the comparison of strategy should be done against company or departmental objectives (Cliff Notes. N.d.).
Apart from that Performance and reward system should be encouraged by change leader to show the benefits of the changes in the organization. The target and certain incentives should be declared by change leader to motivate employees. one on one discussions, reports, memos, training programs and newsletter can be taken in help to educate employees about the change which would be helpful for them see the logic of the decision. With the help of diagnosis and feedback system, deficit in the ongoing situation are recognized and the advantages of the replacement are stressed (Oswick, Grant, Marshak and Wolfram Cox, 2010, pp. 11). Toyota and British Airways are the examples that have adopted the performance rewards system to motivate employees effectively.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that managing change is the vital process in the organization. There are many advantages of external change agent that helps organization to bring change with good effect. The activities of external change agent determine the steps to remove obstacles. Lewin’s change model has been introduced with three steps that are unfreeze, transition and freeze. The role of diagnosis and feedback in the process of organizational change is vital as it help to increase the productivity of the employee. Open system model and various steps have been described to show the attainment of diagnosis and feedback process in the organization.
References
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