Ajao
Ajao
Ajao
Abstract
Change is a common phenomenon; in fact it is the only thing that is
permanent in life. Today, as never before, organizations are facing an
environment that is changing rapidly and the task facing managers is to help
organizations respond and adjust to the changes taking place. Change
programmes are necessary today precisely because of the shift in time and
relationships that we have seen throughout the organizational world. The
sophistication of information processing technology, complexities of human
nature, together with increase in globalization, means that managers are
bombarded with more new ideas, new products, new challenges than ever
before. To handle such an increase in information, accompanied by a
decrease in the decision-making time managers can "afford to take, managers
must improve their ability to handle change for organizational growth and
effectiveness. This paper examines issues involved in managing planned
organizational change - that is change specifically targeted at helping
organizations respond to events taking place around them. First, it examines
the concept of change, reasons or forces for change, types of change as well
as areas or target of organizational change. We also consider why people
and organizations resist change and how to overcome such a resistance. We
also review various processes and models for managing organizational
change. The concepts of organization development re-engineering and
innovations as major approaches to changing the culture and people within
an organization are also discussed.
Introduction
Managing changes has become a sine qua non for achieving organizational growth and
effectiveness in the present dynamic and highly competitive environment. Apart from being a means
for striving for competitive edge and continued business survival, it has equally become a strategy for
improving and promoting organizational effectiveness and overall performance in the rapidly
changing business world where the past is not a good prologue to the future.
Many organizations today face a dynamic and changing environment, requiring them to adapt.
"Change or die " is the rallying cry among today's managers worldwide, this is the major reason why
many organizations have explicit change management programmes to increase the ability,
effectiveness and efficiency of people throughout the organization in order to anticipate and learn
from the changes that are occurring.
Besides, the general acceptance of the need for change management among practicing
executives have generated a critical question How can change be introduced, implemented and
managed effectively considering the status quo of people, structures, technology and operation in the
organization? This paper provides a basic answer to this question.
External Forces
These arise from the organization's task and general environment. There are many forces in the
environment that impact on an organization, and recognizing the nature of these forces is one of a
manager's most important tasks. If managers are slow to respond to these forces, the organization
will lag behind its competitors and its effectiveness will be lower. Some external forces propelling
change are:
• Competitive forces: These propelled change because organizations must attempt to match or
exceed their competitors on at least one of the dimensions of competitive advantage: efficiency,
quality, innovation, or customer responsiveness.
• Economic, Political and Global forces: These continually affect organizations and force them to
change how, when and where they produce goods and services. Economic and political unions
between countries are becoming an increasingly important force for change.
• Ethical forces: It is also important for an organization to take steps to promote ethical behaviour
in the face of increasing governmental, political and social demands for more responsible and
honest corporate behaviour.
Internal Forces
A variety of forces inside the organization may cause change. If top management revises the
organization's strategy, organization change is likely to result. Some of these forces are:
• Demographic and Social forces: Managing a diverse work force is one of the biggest issues
confronting organizations recently. Changes in the composition of work force and the increasing
diversity of employees have presented organizations with many challenges. These have led
managers to change their management styles and learn how to effectively understand, supervise
and motivate employees.
• Unions can force change when they negotiate for higher wages or strike. Other forces for change
may be reflections of external forces like socio-cultural value shift, technology, etc. Even though
the force is rooted in the external environment, the organization must respond directly to the
internal pressure it generates.
Types of Change
Organizational change can be of two major classes: planned vs reactive change. Planned
change, this is also known as proactive change. It is the systematic attempt to redesign an
organization in a way that will help it adapt to changes in the environment or to achieve new goals
(Stoner et al, 1995). It is a change that is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in
anticipation of future events (Griffin, 2004). Reactive change is a piecemeal response to events and
circumstances as they develop. The importance of approaching change from a planned, as opposed to
reactive perspectives is reinforced by the frequency of change. Managers who sit back and respond
only when they have to are likely to spend a lot of time hastily changing and rechanging things. A
more effective approach is to anticipate forces urging change and plan ahead to deal with them.
Evolutionary vs Revolutionary Change. Evolutionary change is a change that is gradual, incremental
and specifically focused. It involves a change in the basic nature of an organization's strategy and
structure in an attempt to improve and adapt to changes in the environment i.e. an attempt to increase the
effectiveness of the way an organization currently operates. Revolutionary change is a change that is
sudden, drastic and organization-wide. It involves an attempt to find a new way to be effective, new
goals, and new structures. An organization can employ one of several approaches like reengineering,
restructuring or innovation to implementing revolutionary change to bring about quick results (Gareth,
1998).
Human elements constitute the most critical aspect of every organizational change because
change in other aspects (structures, strategies, technology, operations, etc) of the organization must
always have a multiplier effect on human elements of the organization. The basic questions is, How do
we put new wine info old bottle? Before we can put in something new, we must flush out something
old.
A new change in the organization cannot be forced on people, it can only be successfully
introduced after the human elements (workforce) have gone through the psychological process of
letting go of the old nature and identity. This psychological change involves three processes.
Ending Neutral zone New
1.Ending: This involves the removal or flushing out of the old ideas, nature and identity
from the individual workforce. This may arise as a result of inadequacy or insufficiency
of the old idea to cope with the present and future challenges
2Neutral Zone: This is a stage between the old and the new. The old has gone and the new
is yet to take place. It can be characterized as a situation of "emotional wilderness"
between the old and the new where the individual completely eliminates the old nature
from consciousness and strengthens the hope of surviving the new way of life.
3New: This is when the change has actually taken place. It is the beginning of the new
nature and way of life.
These levels at which change can take place are obviously interdependent - it is often
impossible to introduce change in one area without changing another i.e. change in one aspect has a
multiplier effect on other aspects or areas,
Resistance to Change
One of the most-well-documented findings from studies of individual and organizational
behaviour is that organizations and their members resist change. A major obstacle to -the
implementation of new policies, goals or methods of operation is the resistance of organization
members to change. Power struggles within the organization will determine, to a large degree, the
speed and quantity of change. It is expected that long time career executives will be a major sources of
resistance. This incidentally, explains why boards of directors that recognize the imperative for the rapid
introduction of radical change in their organizations frequently turn to outside candidates for new
leadership. The resistance or hostility to change may take many forms — strikes, withdrawal of
cooperation, reduction in output, or sabotage all of which are damaging to the organization (Yomere
and Osaze, 1996). There are several reasons that may prompt members of an organization to resist
change.
• Uncertainty: The biggest cause of employee resistance to change is uncertainty about the causes
and effect of change. In the face of impending change, employees may become worried, nervous
and anxious about their ability to meet new job demand or how the proposed change will affect
their lives. Even if there are pockets of dissatisfaction with the current work situation, they may
feel that things can be worse off after the implementation of the new change.
• Threatened Self-Interest and Unwillingness to Give up Present Benefits: The cost of change in
terms of loss of power, prestige, salary, promotion prospect, valued social-relationships and status
may not be sufficiently offset by the rewards of change. Thus the fear, rightly or wrongly, of
loosing something of value can bring about resistance to change.
• Different Perceptions: Different member in the organization have different assessments of
situation, hence members whose view and assessment is different to that of the manager's
introducing the change will oppose the change vehemently because they perceive the situation
differently.
• Fear of Inadequacy: Organization members may resist change if the proposed change will
demand things from them, which they may not be able to fulfil. For example, the new change may
demand new skills, new behaviour patterns or attitudes, different ways of thinking or relating to
people.
Awareness of Weaknesses in the Proposed Change: A change may be resisted because some
individuals have perceived potential problems that have apparently been overlooked by the
change initiators. The change may be desirable but the organization may not be able to afford the
resources required to implement it.
Resistance can be useful for an organization because it is an indication that something is
wrong. When the reasons underlying the resistance are identified, the change initiators may recognize
that those who are resisting the change may be doing so in the overall interest of the organization.
This seen in this light, resistance can generate alternative proposals or lead to useful modifications.
Resistance to Resistance to
change change
Source: Griffin, R.W. (2004), "Managing Organizational Change and Innovation", Management; New
Delhi, A1TBS Publisher,
Managers must understand why, how and when to implement change. A manager who when
implementing change follows a logical and orderly sequence such as the one shown in Figure 2 is
more likely to succeed than a manager whose change process is haphazard and poorly conceived.
Conclusion
We live in an "age of discontinuity". Before, the past was a pretty good prologue to the
future, Tomorrow was essentially an extended trend line from yesterday, today it is no longer true
because economic shocks have continued to impose changes on organizations. If environments'were
perfectly static, if employees' skills and abilities were always up to date and incapable of
deteriorating, and if tomorrow were always exactly the same as today, organizational change would
have little or no relevance to a manager. But the real world is turbulent, requiring organizations and
their members to undergo dynamic change if they are to perform at competitive levels.
Managing the process of change, to enhance organizational growth and effectiveness as a
central challenge facing managers and organizations today, have been the major focus of this paper. It is
our utmost belief that if all the issues and recommendations highlighted in this context are
implemented, managers and their organizations will have a smooth ride in their change management
programmes (a continuous process), which will eventually lead to their growth and effectiveness in
the present turbulent and highly competitive business world.
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