Change Management.

The CEO of a medium sized company once confided that, not too long ago, the major
responsibility of the Personnel Director was to organize the annual company picnic. The
Executive claimed that the Personnel Officer always carried the watermelon. While this
is an obvious exaggeration, there is no question that the Personnel Officer often served as
the “Rodney Dangerfield” (November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004, was an American
comedian and actor, best known for the catchphrase "I don't get no respect" and his
monologues on that theme) of corporate activity and as the comedian says, got “no
respect”………. People basically failed their way into personnel. The role was often
viewed as clerical, with the personnel department overseeing basic tasks such as
recordkeeping, regulatory compliance and payroll.

A lot has CHANGED, including the name that summarizes the activities. The personnel
function has become Human Resources. Human Resources Management, or HRM,
concerns a broad range of important company functions, including the recruitment,
selection, training & development, compensation, retention, evaluation and promotion of
personnel within an organisation. Responsibilities have expanded and greater prestige is
associated with the leading HR positions. The majority of top HRM Executives now
report directly to the CEO, and half of Fortune 500 firms assigned the top HR
professional to a Vice President position. While there is plenty of room for improvement,
the status of HRM activities has clearly changed and is continuing to improve.

My main intention of writing this article is to examine and explore “CHANGE” or

“CHANGE MANAGEMENT” citing HRM as an example as mentioned above.

Change (moving from one state to another state, possibly for only good) Management is the process,
tool and technique to manage the people-side of change processes, to achieve the required
outcomes, and to realize the change effectively within the individual change agent, the
inner team, and the wider system.

Change Management has also to be seen in the light of the discussion on Knowledge
Management, which took several turns during the nineties. When the establishment of an
intranet was suddenly feasible to any large organization, IT and management scientists
declared the beginning of the "knowledge society". The immature anticipation of
knowledge management was that every member of an organization would be highly
motivated to share information through a common platform and a quality improvement
process would be enabled more or less by itself. It took only a couple of years to realize
that this assumption was false. Up to now, there are no examples of a company in which
transformational learning is facilitated by an IT system only, because the early
protagonists forgot that information does not equal knowledge and that human
knowledge is in the muscles of the persons who make the parts of a larger system.

Content and Process

Organizations are highly specialized systems and there are many different schemes for
grouping and classifying them. Some are profit-oriented and some are not for profit.
Some are in the public sector and some are in the private sector. Many are regulated,
some are not. Some are foreign-owned and some are foreign-based. Some have been built
up over the years while others have been pieced together through mergers and
acquisitions. No two are exactly alike.

The preceding paragraph points out that the problems found in organizations, especially
the change problems, have both content and a process dimension. The languages spoken
differ. The values differ. The cultures differ. And, at a detailed level, the problems differ.
However, the overall processes of change and change management remain pretty much
the same, and it is this fundamental similarity of the change processes across
organizations, industries, and structures that makes change management a task, a process,
and an area of professional practice.

The Change Process

A very useful framework for thinking about the change process is problem solving.
Managing change is seen as a matter of moving from one state to another, specifically,
from the problem state to the solved state. Diagnosis or problem analysis is generally
acknowledged as essential. Goals are set and achieved at various levels and in various
areas or functions. The net effect is a transition from one state to another in a planned,
orderly fashion. This is the planned change model.

The word “problem” carries with it connotations that some people prefer to avoid. They
choose instead to use the word “opportunity.” For such people, a problem is seen as a bad
situation, one that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen in the first place, and for which
someone is likely to be punished — if the guilty party (or a suitable scapegoat) can be
identified. For the purposes of this paper, we will set aside any cultural or personal
preferences regarding the use of “problem” or “opportunity.” From a rational, analytical
perspective, a problem is nothing more than a situation requiring action but in which the
required action is not known. Hence, there is a requirement to search for a solution, a
course of action that will lead to the solved state. This search activity is known as
“problem solving.”

From the preceding discussion, it follows that “problem finding” is the search for
situations requiring action. Whether we choose to call these situations “problems”, or
whether we choose to call them “opportunities” is immaterial. In both cases, the practical
matter is one of identifying and settling on a course of action that will bring about some
desired and predetermined change in the situation.

10 Principles of Change Management

1. Address the “human side” systematically. Any significant transformation creates

“people issues.” New leaders will be asked to step up, jobs will be changed, new skills
and capabilities must be developed, and employees will be uncertain and resistant.
Dealing with these issues on a reactive, case-by-case basis puts speed, morale, and results
at risk. A formal approach for managing change — beginning with the leadership team
and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders — should be developed early, and
adapted often as change moves through the organization. This demands as much data
collection and analysis, planning, and implementation discipline as does a redesign of
strategy, systems, or processes. It should be based on a realistic assessment of the
organization’s history, readiness, and capacity to change.

2. Start at the top. Because change is inherently unsettling for people at all levels of an
organization, when it is on the horizon, all eyes will turn to the CEO and the leadership
team for strength, support, and direction. The leaders themselves must embrace the new
approaches first, both to challenge and to motivate the rest of the institution. They must
speak with one voice and model the desired behaviors.

3. Involve every layer. As transformation programs progress from defining strategy and
setting targets to design and implementation, they affect different levels of the
organization. Change efforts must include plans for identifying leaders throughout the
company and pushing responsibility for design and implementation down, so that change
“cascades” through the organization. At each layer of the organization, the leaders who
are identified and trained must be aligned to the company’s vision, equipped to execute
their specific mission, and motivated to make change happen.

4. Make the formal case. Individuals are inherently rational and will question to what
extent change is needed, whether the company is headed in the right direction, and
whether they want to commit personally to making change happen. They will look to the
leadership for answers.

5. Create ownership. Leaders of large change programs must overperform during the
transformation and be the zealots who create a critical mass among the work force in
favor of change. It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept responsibility for
making change happen in all of the areas they influence or control. Ownership is often
best created by involving people in identifying problems and crafting solutions.

6. Communicate the message. Too often, change leaders make the mistake of believing
that others understand the issues, feel the need to change, and see the new direction as
clearly as they do. The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular,
timely advice that is both inspirational and practicable. Communications flow in from the
bottom and out from the top, and are targeted to provide employees the right information
at the right time and to solicit their input and feedback. Often this will require over-
communication through multiple, redundant channels.

7. Assess the cultural landscape. Successful change programs pick up speed and
intensity as they cascade down, making it critically important that leaders understand and
account for culture and behaviors at each level of the organization. Companies often
make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all. Thorough cultural
diagnostics can assess organizational readiness to change, bring major problems to the
surface, identify conflicts, and define factors that can recognize and influence sources of
leadership and resistance. These diagnostics identify the core values, beliefs, behaviors,
and perceptions that must be taken into account for successful change to occur.
8. Address culture explicitly. Once the culture is understood, it should be addressed as
thoroughly as any other area in a change program. Leaders should be explicit about the
culture and underlying behaviors that will best support the new way of doing business,
and find opportunities to model and reward those behaviors. This requires developing a
baseline, defining an explicit end-state or desired culture, and devising detailed plans to
make the transition.

9. Prepare for the unexpected. No change program goes completely according to plan.
People react in unexpected ways; areas of anticipated resistance fall away; and the
external environment shifts. Effectively managing change requires continual
reassessment of its impact and the organization’s willingness and ability to adopt the next
wave of transformation. Fed by real data from the field and supported by information and
solid decision-making processes, change leaders can then make the adjustments
necessary to maintain momentum and drive results.

A leading health-care company was facing competitive and financial pressures from its
inability to react to changes in the marketplace. A diagnosis revealed shortcomings in its
organizational structure and governance, and the company decided to implement a new
operating model. In the midst of detailed design, a new CEO and leadership team took
over. The new team was initially skeptical, but was ultimately convinced that a solid case
for change, grounded in facts and supported by the organization at large, existed.

10. Speak to the individual. Change is both an institutional journey and a very personal
one. People spend many hours each week at work; many think of their colleagues as a
second family. Individuals (or teams of individuals) need to know how their work will
change, what is expected of them during and after the change program, how they will be
measured, and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them. Team
leaders should be as honest and explicit as possible. People will react to what they see
and hear around them, and need to be involved in the change process. Highly visible
rewards, such as promotion, recognition, and bonuses, should be provided as dramatic
reinforcement for embracing change. Sanction or removal of people standing in the way
of change will reinforce the institution’s commitment.

Change, Change, Change: Change Management Lessons Learned From the Field.
Change is possible; the need for change is increasing; change capability is necessary for
the organizations that will succeed in the future. Successful change management
requires:
o Effective communication,
o Full and active Executive support,
o Employee involvement,
o Organizational planning and analysis and widespread perceived need for
the change.

These are the big five when successful change is achieved. Implementing your change in
an organizational environment that is already employee-oriented, with a high level of
trust, is a huge plus.
This article has been focused on the key change management actions. With all of this
going on in a communication, I think it’s a wonder that organizations ever do it well.
Change management practitioners have provided a broad range of suggestions about how
to communicate well during any organizational changes.

Understanding and responding to the range of human emotions during times of intense
change, is also cited as critical. All of this may sound straightforward, but your
suggestions about how to do each of these successfully are priceless.

Your views, opinions, suggestions about this article, are welcomed at

mnahmed.1972@gmail.com

References:
1. Human Resources Management – An Experiential Approach, Bernardin &
Russell, McGraw-Hill.
2. Human Resources Management – A General Manager’s Perspective, Text and
Cases – Michael B, Bert S, Lawrence, Quinn Mills, Richard E Walton, The Free
Press.
3. Human Resources Management – Robert and Jackson, West Publishing Company
4. http://humanresources.about.com/od/orgdevelopment/