Change Management: Need of the hour

INTRODUCTION
Change management is managing the process of implementing major changes in IT, business processes, organizational structures, and job assignments to reduce the risks and costs of change, and to optimize its benefits. Change management is focused on the issues of managing the resistance and discomfort experienced by people in an organization when new processes or technology are introduced. (Managing Enterprise Content Glossary, retrieved October 5th, 2009) Change management has been defined as the process of continually renewing an organizations direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers (Moran and Brightman, 2001: 111). According to Burnes (2004) change is an everpresent feature of organisational life, both at an operational and strategic level. Therefore, there should be no doubt regarding the importance to any organisation of its ability to identify where it needs to be in the future, and how to manage the changes required getting there. Consequently, organisational change cannot be separated from organisational strategy, or vice versa (Burnes, 2004; Rieley and Clarkson, 2001). Due to the importance of organisational change, its management is becoming a highly required managerial skill (Senior, 2002). Graetz (2000: 550) goes as far as suggesting Against a backdrop of increasing globalisation, deregulation, the rapid pace of technological innovation, a growing knowledge workforce, and shifting social and demographic trends, few would dispute that the primary task for management today is the leadership of organisational change. Since the need for change often is unpredictable, it tends to be reactive, discontinuous, ad hoc and often triggered by a situation of organisational crisis Burnes, 2004; De Wit and Meyer, 2005; Luecke, 2003; Nelson, 2003). Although he successful management of change is accepted as a necessity in order to survive and succeed in todays highly competitive and continuously evolving environment (Luecke, 2003; Okumus and Hemmington, 1998), Balogun and Hope Hailey (2004) report a failure rate of around 70 per cent of all change programmes initiated. It may be suggested that this poor success rate indicates a fundamental lack of a valid framework of how to implement and manage organisational change as what is currently available to academics and practitioners is a wide range of contradictory and confusing theories and approaches (Burnes, 2004). Guimaraes and Armstrong (1998) argue that mostly personal and superficial analyses have been published in the area of change management, and according to Doyle (2002) there is even evidence to suggest that with only a few exceptions existing practice and theory are mostly supported by unchallenged assumptions about the nature of contemporary organisational change management. Edmonstone (1995: 16) supports this observation when stating many of the change processes over the last 25 years have been subject
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Change Management: Need of the hour

to fundamental flaws, preventing the successful management of change. Even though it is difficult to identify any consensus regarding a framework for organisational change management, there seems to be an agreement on two important issues.

Firstly, it is agreed that the pace of change has never been greater then in the current business environment. Secondly, there is a consensus that change, being triggered by internal or external factors, comes in all shapes, forms and sizes, and, therefore, affects all organisations in all industries. While there is an ever-growing generic literature emphasising the importance of change and suggesting ways to approach it, very little empirical evidence has been provided in support of the different theories and approaches suggested (Guimaraes and Armstrong, 1998). The purpose of this article is, therefore, to provide a critical review of theories and approaches currently available in a bid to encourage further research into the nature of organisational change with the aim of constructing a new and pragmatic framework for the management of it. In order to do so the article has adopted Seniors (2002) three categories of change as a structure with which to link other main theories and approaches.

`These three categories have been identified as change characterised by the rate of occurrence, by how it comes about, and by scale. Although total quality management (TQM), business process re-engineering (BPR) and other change initiatives embrace several of these characteristics (Balogun and Hope Hailey, 2004; Pettinger, 2004)

Change Management: Need of the hour

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study is to gain an overview of change management To understand what are the most important parts of change management according to the literature The following research question is answered: management for ICT project management? To understand the reasons why change is needed today in the organisations To know why managing change is important To know the benefits of change management To know significance of change management To understand what role does change management play in an organization To recommend strategies to implement change management in an organization What is the importance of change

Change Management: Need of the hour

LITRETURE REVIEW
A study on change management (Baekdal T., ed. al., 2006) says that there is a cultural change taking place in the modern companies. The daily lives are becoming project oriented. Teamwork has become important but still people today need to do work in their individual way. So we need to alter our expectations and make our values like information, responsibility, awareness, tolerance and teamwork more flexible and make them ready for the change. Working project oriented for a specific task and working project oriented all the time is creating a management problem in the companies. Change management deviates from traditional projects in the way that it is more about people. Higher efficiency comes not from working harder, but from within. Higher efficiency comes from inner-energy, self-motivation, self-worth, and complete understanding for the entire process. We need to focus on this if we want to change or improve the company. Change management should focus on creating an environment in which the change can be implemented (Kemp & Low 2008). This definition gives a basic starting point when trying to understand the concept and planning change management practices. Price & Chahal (2006) explain that change always requires a strategy. Implementing something new, such as an ICTsystem requires change as well as a strategy for it. To bring about effective change, change management is needed. Although an extensive amount of literature exists on change management, rather few of them provide a practical set of tools for it. According to Hughes (2007), many scholars avoid giving explicit tools for change management because one set of tools is not likelyto fit all situations. The author also makes a distinction between change management tools and change management techniques. Hughes says that the environment of the company has an effect on the tools and techniques to be used. By environment the author means matters such as organizational and national culture, size of the organization, geographic location, and in some cases even gender issues.

Change provoked by the outcome of the project can mean a number of things. It can be divided into two larger entities: technological changes and cultural changes. Technological changes are changes in systems and tools and this means that people must familiarize themselves with new tools and ways of working. This can often be tackled by effective training and support. However, cultural changes are more difficult to cope with. Cultural changes can mean changes in the customs or the organization itself. Cultural changes can change management styles, attitudes, standards, adaptability to change and power equilibrium. These kinds of changes easily create
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Change Management: Need of the hour

resistance and the issues must be effectively handled by the project manager. Tools for reducing resistance include such as: user participation, effective communication, support, leadership and commitment from the top. (Milis & Mercken 2002)

Customs organisations operate in a complex environment of constant change. They are required to respond to the promotion of economic development and to comply with regional, national and international obligations. To accommodate changes in these areas, it is important to determine a certain management type to implement change processes. As well, it is critical to identify the most significant characteristics of change management theory. In defining change management, the three constituents identified by Nickols (2004) the task of managing change, a body of knowledge, and an area of practical application are regarded as being the most relevant to this particular investigation. Having addressed the first two of Nickols constituents in part one of this article, the last is now addressed and draws as well on Kanters (1999) approach. (Jansson J., n.d.) Recent analyses of organizational change suggest a growing concern with the tempo of change, understood as the characteristic rate, rhythm, or pattern of work or activity. Episodic change is contrasted with continuous change on the basis of implied metaphors of organizing, analytic frameworks, ideal organizations, intervention theories, and roles for change agents. Episodic change follows the sequence unfreeze-transition-refreeze, whereas continuous change follows the sequence freeze-rebalance-unfreeze. Conceptualizations of inertia are seen to underlie the choice to view change as episodic or continuous.(Weick K. & Quinn R., 1999)

According to By R. (2005), it can be argued that the successful management of change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive and succeed in the present highly competitive and continuously evolving business environment. However, theories and approaches to change management currently available to academics and practitioners are often contradictory, mostly lacking empirical evidence and supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of contemporary organisational change management.

Change Management: Need of the hour

APPLICABILITY FOR ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Reasons for Change
Changes in the organization may be driven by external or internal factors. External factors like market conditions, state of the economy may cause the organization to take decisions such as adding another product to the existing line or shutting down a particular operation. Technological innovation too may lead to changes. For instance increased automation may lead to an issue of surplus manpower, which is a big change for the organization to tackle. Internal factors may include changes in certain processes to make them more efficient or a change in the organizational culture due to a takeover or merger.

Why Managing Change is Important

The importance of change management stems from the fact that change can and does affect the organization at different levels and in different ways. For instance, when the company has to respond to major external changes in the political or economic environment, it may even necessitate altering the organizations short and long-term goals. This is a serious matter and the senior management may need the assistance of independent change management consultants to manage the change effectively. The importance of appropriate change management strategies in such a scenario extends to the very survival of the organization. In situations when the change is not so critical (but equally big), such as changes in a process or introduction of a new product, the importance of change management lies in communicating the changes adequately to the employees concerned. The idea is that if people are made aware why a particular change is being implemented and how it will benefit the organization (and hence them too), they are more open to accepting the change and learning to work with it. This reduces the learning curve significantly.
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Change Management: Need of the hour

Without good change management strategies in place, implementation of the change becomes a nightmare.

Benefits of Change Management

Working through a list of benefits of change management can be a really useful process and is a step I insist those tasked with planning change should take. Why? Well, often we get so deep in the planning process that we lose sight of the forest and only see the trees. Reading through a broad list of benefits, such as those listed below, can spark really useful thoughts and ideas about the change process you are working with. You can use it as a checklist to hold against your planning. As you run through these benefits of change management have a pen and paper nearby so you can write down ideas that come to your mind, or areas of the change you'd like to pay more attention to. You can ask "in what ways does this benefit correspond to my plan"? The greatest importance of change management is that it provides conceptual scaffolding for the people, the process, and the organisation implementing change. It is a framework used to support and understand the change and its effect on the organization and its people.

Benefits of change management to the organization:

Change is a planned and managed process. The benefits of the change are known before implementation and serve as motivators and assessment of progress The organization can respond faster to customer demands Helps to align existing resources within the organization Change management allows the organization to assess the overall impact of a change Change can be implemented without negatively effecting the day to day running of business Organizational effectiveness and efficiency is maintained or even improved by acknowledging the concerns of staff The time needed to implement change is reduced The possibility of unsuccessful change is reduced Employee performance increases when staff feel supported and understand the change process Increased customer service and effective service to clients from confident and knowledgeable employees Change management provides a way to anticipate challenges and respond to these efficiently 7

Change Management: Need of the hour An effective change management process lowers the risk associated with change Managed costs of change: change management helps to contain costs associated with the change Increased return on investment (ROI) Creates an opportunity for the development of "best practices", leadership development, and team development.

Benefits of change management for individuals / staff:

Effective change management supports a smooth transition from the old to the new while maintaining morale, productivity, and even company image Provides management and staff support for concerns regarding changes An efficient change management process creates the correct perception of the change for staff and public Helps to plan efficient communication strategies Minimizes resistance to change Improves morale, productivity and quality of work Improves cooperation, collaboration and communication A carefully planned approach to change reduces stress and anxiety and encourages people to stay loyal to the organization Increased employee acceptance of the change Personal loss/gain to individuals is acknowledged and addressed Change management reduces disruptive aspects and emphasises positive opportunities in the change process

Further benefits of change management:

Careful planning helps to ensure that the change process is started and managed by the right people at the right time Planned change management allows you to include specific tasks and events that are appropriate for each stage in the change process Change management ensures that customers, suppliers and other stakeholders understand and support the change

Significance of Change Management

Change Management: Need of the hour

1. Understanding environment (society, government, customers) It is important for organization to understand, assess and gauge the dynamics in its external environment in order to envisage and establish an appropriate relationship with various actors like government, customers and society. Therefore managers by knowing the subject of change management can better be prepared to understand whatever is going on in the environment.

2. Objectives, strategy formulation & implementation (to develop competitive advantage) Second is consequent upon knowing the impact of change at extraneous level on its own internal dynamics, and the foremost is objective setting and seeking competitive advantage.

3. Employees (trained, high performing work practices, reliable organisation) The employees are the recipient of change plan. One such perpetual concern of senior managers is to make organization highly reliable, therefore employees ought to be trained and high performing one in today's hyper competitive world.

4. Technology Issues Technology is considered the engine of growth in today's world. Perhaps the greatest challenge for contemporary organizations is the acquisition and integration of technology in its strategy, structure and process. As such the concern of top managers is how to avoid organization being obsolete and how to cope and absorb the impact of changing information and communication technologies which have decisively influencing production and consumption behaviour?

5. Globalization The management of international economic and political forces what is today known as internationalisation and globalisation is yet another important factor influencing decision making of organization. No organization or nation can stay independent and indifferent to whatever is happening at international (political) level. For instance the impact of September 11 events have been tremendous on the economies and organizations of developing countries like Pakistan. Similarly supra national institutions are becoming more assertive over nation states not only in political terms but also on social issues like child labour and gender issues. So government and states are considered somewhat less sovereign in imposing their will over their subjects (individual and organizations) against the ever increasing and complex interdependencies amongst states. For example the compulsions and legal provisions of international treaties like WTO and ISO certification regimes have decisively influenced the organizations and economies
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Change Management: Need of the hour

of the developing world. Hence imperative for managers, CEOs and entrepreneurs from smaller or larger organizations alike, of different sectors of economy, is to understand the complexities of globalisation and its impact on organization' business.

Role of Change Management in an Organization

Change management plays an important role in any organization since the task of managing change is not an easy one. When we say managing change we mean to say that making changes in a planned and systemic fashion. With reference to the IT projects we can say the change in the versions of a project and managing these versions properly. Changes in the organization or a project can be initiated from within the organization or externally. For example a product that is popular among the customers may undergo a change in design based on the triggering factor like a competitive product from some other manufacturer. This is an example of external factor that triggers a change within the organization. How the organization responds to these changes is what that is more concerned. Managing these changes come under change management. Reactive and proactive responses to these changes are possible from an organization. Change management is done by many independent consultants who claim to be experts in these areas. These consultants manage the changes for their clients. They manage changes or help the client make the changes or take up the task themselves to make the changes that must be made. An area of change that needs attention is selected and certain models, methods, techniques and tools are used for making these changes that are necessary for the organization. When there is a process in an organization it is not an easy task to make changes to this process immediately. Sometimes a single organization may have varied business entities and changes in an entity may be reflected in another entity. In such organizations changes are not so easy. There are different types of organizations which have many branches across the world with varied cultures. Implementing a change in such organizations is a task by itself. The change process can be thought of a process which stops the current process, makes the necessary changes to the current process and the run the new process. It is easy said than implemented. Stopping a current process in some industry is fatal for that organization. Hence it has to be done in steps which have the minimal effect in the process. These changes cannot take place for a longer time in the organization since that may also be a disaster for the organization. The involvement of the staff concerned is also very important for the change process to be smooth.
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Change Management: Need of the hour

The change process could also be considered as a problem solving situation. The change that is taking place could be the result of a problem that has occurred. You should know that a problem is a situation that requires some action to be taken positively to handle that situation. This positive action is known as problem solving. The change process could be problem solving for a particular situation. In this process there is a move from one to state to another so that the problem gets solved. The change process is leaving the current state and moving to the final state through some structured organized process. Managing the changes in an organization requires a broad set of skills like political skills, analytical skills, people skills, system skills, and business skills. Having good analytical skills will make you a good change agent. You should evaluate the financial and political impacts of the changes that can take place. You should know that following a particular process at that instant would fetch you immediate financial effects and start that process so that the change process is noted by the management. The workflow has to be changed in such a manner to reflect the financial changes that are taking place. Operations and systems in the organization should be reconfigured in such a manner that you get the desired financial impact. Hence change management plays an important role in an organization. This allows the organization to give a reactive or a proactive response to the changes that happen internally or externally. Knowing the change management and its process would help an organization and it s processes to be stable.

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Change Management: Need of the hour

CONCLUSIONS
The constant growth in world trade, globalisation processes and security requirements are putting pressure on all stakeholders to adapt to the changing conditions. Nowadays, customs organisations are facing very real challenges as their performance has a significant impact on the flow of trade and revenues. It follows, therefore, that finding effective tools for handling changes is one of the keys to survival in a rapidly changing world. There is a range of management theories that deal with change processes and offer various perspectives. Change management differs from other management systems by adopting a holistic approach to the problem of change. Reform efforts must be based on the internal and external conditions of the organisation. Change management strategies range from the empirical-rational, normativereductive, power coercive and environmental. The choice of strategy depends on the target group, the degree of peoples resistance to change, timeframe, expertise, and other factors. Strong and qualified leadership, deep conviction, motivation, patience and flexibility must endure and are needed to manage the sometimes messy and turbulent process of change as well as to handle any resistance to that change. Change efforts stand or fall by their leaders. A clever and skilled leader has the ability not only to achieve good results in business performance but also to effectively manage the human aspects of change. Based on basic human needs, strong motivation is one of the most effective tools in achieving sustainable results. It is evident from this article that change is an ever-present element that affects all organisations. There is a clear consensus that the pace of change has never been greater than in the current continuously evolving business environment. Therefore, the successful management of change is a highly required skill. However, the management of organisational change currently tends to be reactive, discontinuous and ad hoc with a reported failure rate of around 70 per cent of all change programmes initiated (Balogun and Hope Hailey, 2004). This may indicate a basic lack of a valid framework of how to successfully implement and manage organisational change since what is currently available is a wide range of contradictory and confusing theories and approaches, which are mostly lacking empirical evidence and often based on unchallenged hypotheses regarding the nature of contemporary organisational change management.

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Change Management: Need of the hour

RECOMMENDATIONS
Make broader use of theoretical approaches and practical methods of change management with regard to both the administration of customs and taxation.

Elaborate an implementation strategy that includes motivational elements. This depends on the people in charge of implementation learning how people are influenced by the comprehensive changes demanded by the new customs strategy.

Launch a uniform information campaign about the new customs strategy. Since the new customs strategy entails changes that will influence the whole organisation to a certain degree, all staff members must receive adequate information.

Estimate the time needed for implementation tasks and relieve persons responsible for these tasks from their regular work assignments accordingly. This will also raise levels of motivation as it will send a clear and distinct signal that implementation tasks are accorded high priority.

Calculate and plan the time for regular follow-up meetings with every group as well as joint.

Information meetings with all persons in charge. This information should be passed on to those people who will implement the results achieved by change leaders in practice.

Design and launch training for team building so that all those involved work towards a common goal. Start from the top; Top managers must provide an example in this respect.

Design and launch methods that can influence trade and the wider public in order to achieve the preventive effects desired. Dealing with preventive issues is one of the most complicated tasks in customs business.

Develop methods to deal with resistance to the change process and train change managers accordingly. This is a frequent problem in situations relating to comprehensive changes:
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Change Management: Need of the hour

people working in the organisation oppose the changes because they will disrupt their regular working routines and create insecurity. Start benchmarking programs to obtain a broader view of stakeholders needs and expectations. In other words, collect external opinions about Customs performance and make use of others experiences from large-scale reform efforts. These reference points can also be used to measure the value and quality of the customs strategy.

Reduce the old-fashioned, bureaucratic decision-making system and introduce delegation of power to middle managers. Routines should be reformed and replaced by an improved system of delegation and follow-up.

Analyse and select the most appropriate methods for the various tasks required by the new customs strategy. There are essential differences in the methodologies for implementing legal changes and those that influence attitudes and values in the provision of service and prevention.

Analyse and identify the most appropriate models of organisational schemes and management, bearing in mind the different nature of the tasks to be performed by Customs.

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Change Management: Need of the hour

REFERENCES
Moran, J. W. and Brightman, B. K. (2001) Leading organizational change, Career Development International, 6(2), pp. 111118. Burnes, B. (2004) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics, 4th Ed (Harlow: Prentice Hall). Rieley, J. B. and Clarkson, I. (2001) The impact of change on performance, Journal of Change Management, 2(2), pp. 160172. Senior, B. (2002) Organisational Change, 2nd Ed (London: Prentice Hall). Graetz, F. (2000) Strategic change leadership, Management Decision, 38(8), pp. 550562. De Wit, B. and Meyer, R. (2005) Strategy Synthesis: Resolving Strategy Paradoxes to Create Competitive Advantage, 2nd Ed (London: Thomson Learning). Luecke, R. (2003) Managing Change and Transition (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press). Nelson, L. (2003) A case study in organizational change: implications for theory, The Learning Organization, 10(1), pp. 1830. Okumus, F. and Hemmington, N. (1998) Barriers and resistance to change in hotel firms: an investigation at unit level, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 10(7), pp. 283288. Balogun, J. and Hope Hailey, V. (2004) Exploring Strategic Change, 2nd Ed (London: Prentice Hall). Guimaraes, T. and Armstrong, C. (1998) Empirically testing the impact of change management effectiveness on company performance, European Journal of Innovation Management, 1(2), pp. 7484. Doyle, M. (2002) From change novice to change expert: Issues of learning, development and support, Personnel Review, 31(4), pp. 465481. Edmonstone, J. (1995) Managing change: an emerging consensus, Health Manpower Management, 21(1), pp. 1619. Pettinger, R. (2004) Contemporary Strategic Management (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan). Kanter, Rosabeth Moss (1999), The enduring skills of change leaders, Leader to Leader, no. 13, summer, pp. 1522.
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Change Management: Need of the hour

Nickols, F (2004), Change management 101: a primer, Distance Consulting, Howard, OH, http://home.att.net/~nickols/change.htm.

Kemp, M. J. & Low, G. C. (2008) ERP innovation implementation model Incorporating change management Business Process Management Journal Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 228-242 Price, A. D. F. & Chahal K. (2006) A strategic framework for change management Construction Management and Economics March, 24, pp. 237-251 Hughes, Mark. (2007) The Tools and Techniques of Change Management Journal of Change Management Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 37-49 Milis, Koen & Mercken, Roger (2002) Success factors regarding the implementation of ICT investment projects International journal of production economics 80, pp. 105117

Baekdal, T., ed.al. 2006. Change Management Handbook - Handle change management projects more effectively. Available at: http://www.baekdal.com/downloads/changemanagementen.pdf [Accessed 5 Jan 2013] Jansson, J., n.d. The Importance of Change Management in Reforming Customs. World Customs Journal, 2 (2), pp.33-43. Available at: http://www.worldcustomsjournal.org/media/wcj/2009/1/Jansson.pdf [Accessed 5 Jan 2013] By, R., 2005. Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change Management, 5 (4), pp.369-380. Available at:
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Pasanen, A., 2009. Change management as a part of successful ICT project management. Helsinki School of Economics Masters Thesis in International Business. Weick K. & Quinn R., 1999. Organizational Change and Development. University of Michigan Business School, University of Michigan. MBA & Company, n.d. The Importance of Change Management in Organizations. [online] Available at: http: //www.mbaandco.com/blog/the-Importance-of-change-management-inorganizations [Accessed 5 Jan 2013]. Change-management-coach, n.d. Benefits Of Change Management. [online] Available at: http://www.change-management-coach.com/benefits-of-change-management.html [Accessed 5 Jan 2013]. Management-hub, n.d. Role of Change Management in an Organization. [online] Available at: http://www.management-hub.com/change-management.html [Accessed 5 Jan 2013].

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Zeepedia, n.d. Benefits And Significance Of Change Management. [online] Available at: http://www.zeepedia.com/read.php?benefits_and_significance_of_change_management_change _management&b=29&c=2 [Accessed 5 Jan 2013].

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