"Change is inevitable.

Growth is optional."

ORGANISATIONAL
CHANGE

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with

change, both from the perspective of an organization and on

the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change
management has at least three different aspects, including:
adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting
change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the
core of all three aspects. For an organization, change
management means defining and implementing
procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in
the business environment and to profit from changing
opportunities.

Organizational change means any change that

occurs in the work environment. The change could be

minor or major. Usually Organizational change realigns organizational systems and deal with the
factors prevailing in the external environment of
an organization. Sometimes, a change is effected to
revamp the internal systems of the organization.
Organizational change can be described as a
situation which emerge due to some management
decisions that have an effect on employees.

Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to

organization-major change, as opposed to minor changes such
as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc. Examples
of organization-major change might include a change in
mission, restructuring operations, new technologies,
mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing", new programs
such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc.
Some experts refer to organizational transformation. Often this
term designates a fundamental and radical reorientation in the
way the organization operates.

WHY
Successful adaptation to change is as crucial within an

organization as it is in the natural world. Just like plants

and animals, organizations and the individuals in them
inevitably encounter changing conditions that they are
powerless to control. The more effectively you deal with
change, the more likely you are to thrive. Adaptation might
involve establishing a structured methodology for
responding to changes in the business environment , such
as a fluctuation in the economy, or a threat from a
competitor, or establishing coping mechanisms for
responding to changes in the workplace, such as new
policies, or technologies.

 Change should not be done for the sake of change -- it's a

strategy to accomplish some overall goal. Usually

organizational change is provoked by some major outside
driving force, e.g., substantial cuts in funding, address major
new markets/clients, need for dramatic increases in
productivity/services, etc. Typically, organizations must
undertake organization-major change to evolve to a different
level in their life cycle, e.g., going from a highly reactive,
entrepreneurial organization to more stable and planned
development. Transition to a new chief executive can provoke
organization-major change when his or her new and unique
personality pervades the entire organization.

HOW
Successful change must involve

top management, including

the board and chief executive. Usually there's a champion who
initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive
and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to
translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan.
Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort.
Communications about the change should be frequent and
with all organization members. To sustain change, the
structures of the organization itself should be modified,
including strategic plans, policies and procedures. This change
in the structures of the organization typically involves an
unfreezing, change and re-freezing process.

 The best approaches to address resistances is through

increased and sustained communications and education. For

example, the leader should meet with all managers and staff to
explain reasons for the change, how it generally will be carried
out and where others can go for additional information. A plan
should be developed and communicated. Plans do change.
That's fine, but communicate that the plan has changed and
why. Forums should be held for organization members to
express their ideas for the plan. They should be able to
express their concerns and frustrations as well.

For Whom
Stakeholders are people who have some form of interest in the
change, whether they are the targets of the change, managers
or other interested parties.
Sponsors are people with power who have a direct interest in
the project. As described elsewhere, you need to carefully
manage your sponsors to gain support and avoid opposition,
especially where they are also Targets.
Targets are people who will intentionally be affected by the
change. You many want them to change what they do and
think, or even what they feel and believe. Deeper change, is,
of course more difficult.

It is easy to focus on sponsors and targets and forget that there

may be many other people who may unintentionally be
affected by the change. For example when a process is
changed, everyone who is connected with the inputs and
outputs of the process may be affected.
You may work with a wide range of internal and external
partners to effect the change, from the IT Department to
external consultants and trainers. These people need to be
fully on board. In particular, if they will require any significant
level of resourcing to be effective in the change, they must be
allowed and encouraged to estimate what they will need to be
successful and supported in their bids to acquire this resource.
There are often a wide range of people who might have some
more distant interest. For example if there are going to be job
losses, then government and the media may have an interest.

Examples
Clients (Business Clients or Consumers)
Competitors
Employees (Management)
Third parties (Suppliers and Business partners)
Capital suppliers, Investors, Shareholders
Government (local, national, International)
Communities (environmental, professionals)

FORCES OF CHANGE

The forces prompting change can be categorized as,

EXTERNAL CHANGE FORCES
INTERNAL CHANGE FORCES

Forces For Change

Nature of the workforce
Technology
Economic shocks
Competition
Social Trends
World Politics
Conditions That Facilitate Organizational
Change
A dramatic crisis
Leadership turnover
Stage of life-cycle
Age of the organization
Size of organization
Strength of current culture

Attitudes Towards Change:

A Long-Term Perspective
Assumptions:
Change involves not only learning something new
but unlearning something that is integrated into an
individuals self / social system
No change unless there is motivation to change
Most adult changes involve attitudes/values/self
concept and can be painful and threatening
Organizational changes effected through individual
changes in key members
Change is a multistage cycle and all stages must be
planned and negotiated
Management of change is not necessarily only
rational management but also emotional management
of people

Resistance To Change
Individual resistance
Habit
Security
Economic factors
Fear of the unknown
Selective information processing
Organizational resistance
Structural inertia
Limited focus of change
Group inertia
Threat to expertise
Threat to established power relationships
Threat to established resource allocations

Overcoming resistance to
change
Education and communication
Participation
Facilitation and support
Negotiation
Manipulation and cooptation
Coercion

Begin at the beginning in

organizational change
Perhaps

the most asked but least

answered question in business
today is What can we do to
make our business survive and
grow? The world is rapidly
changing into something too hard
to easily predict, with a hundred
opportunities and pitfalls passing
by every moment.

Organizations need to move beyond the

buzzwords into deciding what actions
they need to perform that will help them
grow and develop. In response to this
problem, this article will provide you a
framework for coping with organizational
change independent of buzzwords or the
latest management fad. Organizations
must first decide on the framework their
organizational change long before they
choose a buzzword to implement.

The major decisions

Levels,

goals and strategies

Measurement system
Sequence of steps
Implementation and
organizational change

The levels of organizational change

There are four levels of
organizational change:
shaping and anticipating the future (level 1)
defining what business(es) to be in and their
"core competencies (level 2)
reengineering processes (level 3)
incrementally improving processes (level 4)

Level

1- shaping and anticipating

the future
At this level, organizations start out
with few assumptions about the
business itself, what it is "good" at,
and what the future will be like.
Management generates alternate
"scenarios" of the future, defines
opportunities based on these possible
futures, assesses its strengths and
weaknesses in these scenarios
changes its mission, measurement
system etc.

Level

2 - defining what business to be in and

their "Core Competencies
Many attempts at strategic planning start at this
level, either assuming that 1) the future will be
like the past or at least predictable; 2) the future
is embodied in the CEO's "vision for the future"; or
3) management doesn't know where else to start;
4) management is too afraid to start at level 1
because of the changes needed to really meet
future requirements; or 5) the only mandate they
have is to refine what mission already exists.
After a mission has been defined and a SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats) analysis is completed, an organization
can then define its measures, goals, strategies,
etc.

Level

3 - Reengineering (Structurally
Changing) Your Processes
Either as an aftermath or consequence of
level one or two work or as an
independent action, level three work
focuses on fundamentally changing how
work is accomplished. Rather than focus
on modest improvements, reengineering
focuses on making major structural
changes to everyday with the goal of
substantially improving productivity,
efficiency, quality or customer
satisfaction.

Level

4 - Incrementally Changing your

Processes
Level 4 organizational changes are
focusing in making many small changes to
existing work processes. Oftentimes
organizations put in considerable effort
into getting every employee focused on
making these small changes, often with
considerable effect. Unfortunately, making
improvements on how a buggy whip for
horse-drawn carriages is made will rarely
come up with the idea that buggy whips
are no longer necessary because cars
have been invented.

Implementation and Organizational Change

The

success of any organizational change

effort can be summed into an equation:

Success

= Measurement X Method X
Control X Focused Persistence X Consensus
Like any equation with multiplication, a
high value of one variable can compensate
for lower levels on other variables. Also
like any equation with multiplication, if one
variable equals 0, the result is zero.

Focused persistence, good project management and the

sequence of implementation
The

sequence of implementation is also an

important factor. There are four basic options,
with many variations of them. The first involves
the entire organization from the start, with the
whole organization intensively working at once
on making the change.
Another option is a more relaxed approach, in
which divisions or business units of the
organization go at their own pace. This option
can often become an incremental approach like
the first or second village. Many conglomerates
or other companies with diverse operations try
this approach.

third option is similar to the

previous one, with the focus
being on individual business units
doing the implementation. In this
case, however, business units
implement roughly the same
things in roughly the same time
schedule. Unisys, the computer
company, is using this method on
some of its organizational change
efforts.

fourth option is to create a pilot project in

one division or business unit, learn from its
mistakes, and then apply those lessons to the
rest of the organization. Examples of this
option include the Saturn car facility at
General Motors and the Enfield plant of Digital
Equipment Corporation. Its important to note
here that creating pilot projects is a high-risk
business. In both cases, the lessons learned
from these pilot projects have not gained
widespread acceptance in their parent
companies due to their heavily ingrained
cultures.