Effects Of Change Management On Organizational Performance In The Telecomunication Industry
[A CASE STUDY OF MTN NIGERIA]

Change management is a challenging and unavoidable process. It’s a continuous process that requires planning, coordinating, organizing and controlling skills (Huong Ha, 2014). It is important for managers at different levels in an organization to understand why change is important, when change is needed, what needs to be changed and how to successfully manage change. Change management theory is predominantly based on three schools of thought who are: The Individual Behavior School of Thought, Group Dynamics School of Thought and Open Systems School of Thought. The individual behavior school of thought believes that behavior is learnt through some external stimulus. They believe that behavior is caused by an individual’s interaction with the environment. Group dynamics theorists believe that individuals are members of a group and hence they behave in such a way to conform to group pressures. Proponents of this school of thought believe focus of change should be at group level (Schein, 1969). They further believe that when effecting organizational change emphasis should be through targeting group behavior rather than individual behavior since people in organizations work in groups (Lewin, 1958). Open system theorists on the other hand believe that an organization is made up of a number of interconnected subsystems and a change in one subsystem will bring changes in the other systems. This perspective focuses on achieving overall synergy rather than an optimizing any one individual subsystem (Mullins, 1989).
Organization will change by changing the attitude of managers and employees in the way they do their business (Hofer and Schendel, 1998). There are different type of changes which can be applied to different organization with respect to the situation and problem that they are facing at the time. It’s also important to manage the speed of the strategic change, being late in implementing the strategic change may make the change less efficient as it could have been. The speed of strategic change can be continues over time or can be done all at once. Transformation consists of changing organization culture. To go deeper, its fundamental change within organization which cannot be managed with the existing way of organization performance (Beckhard, 2007). All organizations are currently undergoing some type of change. Many of these change programmes arise from organized management strategies such as culture change, business process engineering, empowerment and total quality. Other change initiatives are driven by the need for organizations to reposition themselves in the face of changing competitive conditions. Strategic change often involves radical transitions within an organization and encompasses strategy, structure, systems, processes and culture (Beckhard, 2007).
In the context of change, T.O Palmer (2004), cited in Justin M.O.G et al (2013) is simply an alteration of an existing state or condition. According to him, change in itself is neither good nor bad: it is merely an observed difference between a pat and a present.
According to Issa, et al (2013), opined discussion on change has many facets (Pettigrew, 1990), although most of these classifications are interwoven and related. Change can be viewed in terms of speed, quantity of service, quality of service or the type of organization where change is experienced
Change management makes it easier for organizations to achieve success in meeting demand and face internal and external challenges (Bashir and Afzal, 2011). Organizational change is affected by outside challenges that cause internal instability (Avey el al., 2008; Mou, 2013). The external changes from the marketplace can include loss of market share, competitors’ acceleration in creating new offers, lower prices, and new business opportunities for growth (Hiatt, 2004). In his book titled Managing Change, Walmsley (2009, p.6) mentioned other external change triggers, which are "mergers or acquisitions", "a serious business downturn", and "legislative changes". He mentioned other change triggers which need a proactive approach such as organization decisions in rising cost, building a new strategy, making sales review or new technology available. O’Neill (2012, p.1) stated five driving forces that affect organizational change: A high degree of talent needed to solve problem in “high level activities", "mobile technology", the need of innovation, and distributed work that relates to the evolution toward less centralized organizational structures, location and work practices, and sustainability.