Executive summary Changes are now becoming familiar with every aspect of life, especially in business environment; people

are more concerned about bringing changes, not only to their products or services but also the way of doing things. To be successful in the market, it requires changes in every organisation to adjust and adapt with the changes in surroundings. Generally, managers are required to possess adequate skills and knowledge in planning, leading and supporting for the implementation of changes. The report will discuss extensively about organisational changes from the nature and reason for such changes. It also discuses as to how to effectively manage changes in organizations. Resistance to change is a major factor that hinders success in change management. Therefore, preparing an effective plan and employing right communication tools are crucial for dealing with change resistance from organisational members as well as to implement successfully, the target changes. In addition, management team play an important role in choosing the most appropriate strategies to manage the organisation chaos during the change process.

TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction .................................................................................................................... page 3 The nature and need of change .................................................................................... page 3 Changes strategies ........................................................................................................... page 5 Challenges for managers when initiating the change .................................................... page 6 Strategies for effective managing the change process ................................................... page 7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... page 8 References

Introduction The world is changing rapidly and business environment is also facing huge changes for the last two decades. Due to the instability of global financial crisis, doing business now becomes more intensive and harder than ever. It requires every organisation to be ready for changes in order to keep pace with competitors as well as customers demand. Therefore, change management is critical for management team to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in market share. The report aims to shed a light to change management area in organisation. Firstly, the nature and need for change are identified in order to provide a basic understanding about organisational changes. Secondly, the text proposes some change strategies including Kurt Lewins change model and force field analysis to provide techniques for management team in handling with changes in organisation. Undoubtedly, that there are always resistance for every change. And in such a broad view as organisational changes, it appears as though, that managers will encounter a great deal of challenges when implementing changes. Therefore, the next part of the report will examine some crucial challenges that managers have to handle when initiating the organisational changes. Finally, the report offers strategies to effectively manage the change process in organisation. The nature and need for change It is unquestionable that organisations have to face with rapid changes on an ongoing basis. To be able to survive and gain competitive advantage in the market place, organisations are required to realise changes and adapt themselves to successfully respond to changes. Organisational adjustments, modifications and adaption can be considered as the nature of organisational changes. These changes are significant to essential alterations which organisation should carry out to keep up the survival and gain competitive advantages in the market. Basically, organisational changes can be classified into two major forces: internal and external. Internal forces can lead to the changes taking place within the organisational boundary such as changing processes and procedures, job responsibility, techniques and technologies, equipment and machinery, structure and management style, staffs and managers (Bharijoo 2005). On the one hand, organisations facing the downtime of their performance should consider for major changes within their internal structure. It requires restructuring the organisation and make the best use of their resources and focus on their core competencies in 3

order to maximise their productivity and profit. On the other hand, growth pressures can also lead organisations to change significantly. Once a company is growing, there are some crucial changes that are needed to be brought to ensure that they can handle the complexity of the new operations and opportunities. In addition, changing management team can sometimes result in changes in management style and business strategies. It is unavoidable and essential for every organisation to implement their changes to keep pace with the rapid changes of the external environment which is more important for the survival of the company. External forces such as scale of economic, social structure, government regulations, technology, political changes and market are of significance to influence on the organisational changes. Regarding the market share and competition, the markets for products and service which is declining or increasing usually drives the organisation into pressure of relative changes (Palmer et al. 2009). The instability of global economy nowadays requires a great deal of changes in organisations so that they can adjust and execute their competencies. For instance, the global financial crisis that took place in 2008 led to the bankruptcy of many companies. In order to respond quickly and seek success in the market, organisations are required to changes themselves accordingly such as reducing staff, maximising working machines and people as well as looking for new markets. It is undeniable fact that government plays an important role in business environment now. The new trend for business practice today is green business which concerns about the health of global environment. Basically, organisations have to be more inclined towards friendly business environment. It requires organisations to change the way to structure processes and manufacture products. The rapid development of technology also brings about a great deal of changes in organisation, especially organisation which operates in technology-based industry (Allen 2009). Since technology reduces the product life cycles, organisations should always stay alert to these changes in technology in order to meet the customers demand quickly and sufficiently. Change strategies The business world is a rapidly changing place and becoming smaller due to the development of technology, telecommunication and transportation. The capacity of adaption to changing conditions is a key factor for organisational survival. For many organisations, change is yet a great unknown factor that often results in failure because of the resistance from their employees. Therefore, it requires an extensive knowledge and sufficient preparation for 4

organisation to successfully bring out changes which are accepted and supported by staff. This section will discuss about Kurt Lewins change model and Force field analysis - two major strategies which are widely known in the management and consultant practices. Kurt Lewins change model Originally introduced in 1947, the Lewin model is considered as the simplest theory but extremely practical in dealing with changes. The theory suggested three stages in the change process, including unfreezing, changing and freezing (Bowman & Jarret 1996). In order to achieve the success of changing, organisation should follow these steps. 1. Unfreezing Since people play a crucial role in every organisation, it is unquestionable that their embrace or resistance would decide the success or failure of changes. To achieve success, organisation is supposed to create changing readiness and preparedness of their people. This will help to reduce the possible resistance when changes are undertaken. In this step, Kurt Lewin described that the unfreezing of an organisation as a critical phase in organisation renewal and a key pace towards achieving change. Particularly, it is critical for employees to realise the dissatisfaction of the current situation and provision of a new change desirably (Smith 2005). Managers should create a need and urgency for change which are unavoidable for the survival of organisation. 2. Changing Another name of this step is Transition which means the process. According to Kurt Levin, change is not a simple event. After creating a readiness to change, it is essential to define exactly what needs to be changed. This phase can be the hardest step during the times of implementing changes into the organisation, since people are required to learn about change, understand and work with change in such a given time. Managers should get everyone in the organisation involved in the change by using role models as well as allowing them to help make changes by their own solutions. Moreover, in this phase, the comprehensible picture of desired change should always be communicated so that people do not get lost where they are aiming to achieve. 3. Freezing 5

As indicated by Kurt Lewin, this phase give the change permanency at the new level which should be included in the organisational goals at the beginning of changing process (Bowman & Jarret 1996, p. 216). After all changes are completed, it is of significance to freezing the condition again and to establish the new phase of stability. Practically, this step can be a slow process when people adapt the changes and get used to it. Changes now become new routines and norms in the organisation. Force field analysis This method was also developed by Kurt Lewin in 1935. Basically, it is a technique and specialised way to weight pros and cons when applying changes. This analysis suggested organisation to identify all forces which are for and against the decision of change. In light of knowing all pros and cons, managers can utilize strategies to maximise factors that support changes in conjunction with minimising factors that resist changes in organisation. It is critical for organisation to understand all forces that makes people resist or accept change. Once completing the Force field analysis, the changes can be carried out with the confidence of success. Challenges for managers when initiating the change Generally, resistance is the most popular factor which challenges every organisation when conducting changes. It is also one of the most common causes for the unsuccessful change in organisation. As a matter of fact, there is a certain extent of deep attachment of people to their organisation, particularly process, procedure and way of thinking. The ability to accept the change varies from people to people. The lack of involvement is a major challenge for all managers when bringing changes into organisation. Employee play crucial role in implementing the changes. Inherently, people possess an inherent fear of change because of discomforting with uncertainty, attaching to the established ways of doing things or just simply dislike of change (Jones et al. 2009). In some organisations, it is noteworthy to realise the resistance from middle managers which can lead to the strong resistance from the lower level of employees. These managers can be major factor leading for the change failures.

Organisation culture change is one of the major challenges that is usually faced by managers while implementing changes. In some organisation, the corporate culture towards change can be an important factor which can assist or reject the changes. As a matter of fact, people usually make decisions based on their feelings and intuition. In organisation that has a strong existing culture and everything is already set up and processed in the certain ways for many years, it can be a great problem for manager to break up the status quo, point out the dissatisfaction of current situations and pursue new changes. One of the crucial challenges that managers may face when changes are implemented is the lack of comprehensive communication strategies. It requires extensive programs from the beginning of change process to deliver a clear picture to employees about changes in organisation. Most of the time, the leaders have inadequate communication tools to transfer the message of changes to various departments in organisation. In fact, it is not only communication from the side of managers but also from the employees side. They need to understand clearly why changes are brought about and more importantly, how they should react to support the changes. It is undoubted that a lack of communicating strategy can direct to a big loss of organisation in making changes. Strategies for effective managing the change process Plan to change Planning is of significance for every success. In the process of change, managers are required to prepare a detailed and comprehensive plan for organisation in order to provide a clear explanation what, how and when changes are to be brought into. The more specific the plan is, the more likely the success is. Depending on particular changes, managers should consider the organisation culture to propose appropriate strategy to enhance to change process (Self & Schraeder 2008). For instance, if it is a change in organisation structure, the plan should be widely recognised in all departments and divisions. Effective communication Top manager is responsible for change regarding to planning, leading and implementing. Thus, their reaction to a proposed change is of importance in the mind of organisation members. It is not always the case that every member in organisation can clearly understand

the needs and urgency of changes which are carried in. Therefore, it is critical for managers to extensively communicate and to encourage others to give feedback (Johnston et al. 2008). It enhances the participant of all members in implementing the changes. In addition, receiving feedback from employees is also a good chance for management team to realise how effective the plan for change is and how to maximise the effectiveness or reduce the failure if possible. Moreover, effective communication is also about openness and honesty including all information about changes and challenges facing when changes are carried out. Dealing with resistance Dealing with change resistance is critical to achieving successful change. Change resistance is unavoidable in every organisation. Therefore, the key to managing and dealing with resistance is clearly understanding the nature and reason of change resistance (Dam et al. 2008). Manager is supposed to communicate and listen seriously to organisational members to assess the valid reasons of their resistance. In some certain extent, managers can employ their authority and power to overcome the resistance. Conclusion In the rapidly changing world, change is required in every organisation to adjust and adapt and eventually achieve success in the market place. Dealing with change requires extensive efforts from management team as well as organisational members. The most important thing in organisational change is preparing the needs and urgency of changes, then planning effectively to implement changes. In fact, there are certain challenges such as employees resistance, organisational culture which can reduce the rate of success in change. Typically, managers should prepare themselves with adequate skills and knowledge in planning, leading and supporting for changes in organisation so that they can achieve the success.

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