2.2.6 Managing Change
Change management is the process, tools and
techniques to manage the people to tally with business change to achieve
the required business outcomes as well as realizing that business
change effectively within the social infrastructure of the workplace.
Organizational change management is very important globally and it is
influenced and affected by different internal and external factors,
positively or negatively (Burnes, 2004). The future is full of
surprises, uncertainty, trend and trend breaks, irrationality and
rationality, and it is changing and escaping from our hands as time goes
by (Manaerman 1998). Organizations these days are literally fighting
against all elements for survival. With the ever changing environment,
continuous change must be inculcated in the day-to-day running of
organizations if they want to keep pace with the goings on. From
information technology (IT) to consumer tastes and preferences, change
has affected all elements in the environment. Burkes (2004) stated that
change is so complex and multifaceted that Carnall (2003) suggested that
mastering the challenge is not a specialized activity to be facilitated
or driven by an expert but an increasingly important part of every
manager’s role.
Change management is a structured approach to
transitioning individuals, teams and organization from a current state
to a desired future state. This process involves defining new values and
behaviors, roles and positions among the workers in an organization to
overcome resistance to change and to cement goal congruence and a common
vision between an organization and its customers. Pettigrew and Whipp
(1993) proposed a model for a successful change management to occur in
an organization that involves five interrelated factors: Environmental
assessment-collect and utilize information on internal and external
environment; Leading change- creation of a positive climate for change,
the identification of future directors and linking together of action by
people at all levels in the organization; Linking strategic and
operational change; human resources as both assets and liabilities and
coherence of purpose. This clearly shows that change must be accepted by
all the facets of an organization and that the fact that it is
continuous, stakeholders must realize that the change process must be
understood and must achieve the goals and objectives set by the
organisation. Strategic change in an organization is key in the
development of plans which are critical in the day to day running of
organizations. Strategic change does not necessarily cause a mission
drift. Rather it is a process meant to re-energise an organization’s
business processes whilst maintaining the core objectives of the
organization (Burnes, 2004).
2.2.7 Change Management Practices
The action research model advocates for a systematic collection of data and then selection of a change action based on what the analyzed data indicates. It aims at providing a scientific methodology for managing planned change. The process of action research consists of five steps which are diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action and evaluation (Lewin, 1951). The same approach seems to be supported by Dawson (2005) through the process/contextual perspective. It states that to understand the process of change, we need to consider the past, present and future context in which the organization functions, including external and internal factors.
The substance of the change itself and its significance and timescale including the transition process, tasks, activities, decisions, timing, sequencing, political activity, both within and external to the organization and the interactions between these factors. Dawson identifies five specific aspects of the internal context which are human resources, administrative structures, technology, product or service, and the organization’s history and culture. He also identifies four key features of the substance of change which are the scale, its ‘defining characteristics’, its perceived centrality, and the timeframe of change initiatives. The substance of change influences the scale of disruption to existing structures and jobs. The transition process may be slow and incremental, or rapid. In addition, managers can draw upon evidence from the context and substance of change to marshal support and to legitimate their own proposals through organizational political action. It’s therefore the interaction between context, substance and political forces which shape the process of organizational change (Dawson, 2005). Lewin (1951) also developed the three - step model, which states that successful change in organizations should follow the steps of unfreezing the status quo, movement to a new state and refreezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be considered to be an equilibrium state. To move from this equilibrium, there is need to overcome the pressure of both individual resistance and group conformity - unfreezing is necessary. It can be achieved in one of three ways where the driving forces, which direct behavior away from the status quo can be increased, the restraining forces, which hinder movement from existing equilibrium can be decreased or a combination of first two approaches (Robbins, 2003).
