Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Organizational Change - An Overview

Introduction

The only thing that is permanent on the face of the earth is change; and this is also applied into different varieties of business. The change is somehow important if it is intended to begin the improvement. Every organization needs change in improving the business environment or managerial aspect. The change depends unto what extent it should reach and what difficulties it will cross. Sometimes, organization takes the changes to align in the economic variations and it is truly hard to pulse the wave of economic climate.

Organizational change is defined as the process by which organizations reach the desired goals. Organizational change occurs when an organization restructures resources to increase the ability to create value and improve effectiveness. A declining company seeks ways to regain customers; a growing organization designs new products. A well-planned organizational change creates value for stakeholders.1

In a business manner, the organizational change is about a significant change in the organization, such as reorganization or adding a major new product or service. This is in contrast to smaller changes, such as adopting a new computer procedure. Organizational change can seem like such a vague phenomena that it is helpful.

Specific Types of Organizational Change

There are different overall types of organizational change, including planned versus unplanned, organization-wide versus change primarily to one part of the organization, incremental (slow, gradual change) versus transformational (radical, fundamental), etc. Knowing which types of change the business is doing helps all participants to retain scope and perspective during the many complexities and frequent frustrations during change. One form of organizational change and development will be discussed below.

Unplanned Versus Planned Change
Unplanned change usually occurs because of a major, sudden surprise to the organization, which causes its members to respond in a highly reactive and disorganized fashion. Unplanned change might occur when the Chief Executive Officer suddenly leaves the organization, significant public relations problems occur, poor product performance quickly results in loss of customers, or other disruptive situations arise.

Planned change occurs when leaders in the organization recognize the need for a major change and proactively organize a plan to accomplish the change. Planned change occurs with successful implementation of a Strategic Plan, plan for reorganization, or other implementation of a change of this magnitude. The planned change, even though based on a proactive and well-done plan, often does not occur in a highly organized fashion. Instead, planned change tends to occur in more of a chaotic and disruptive fashion than expected by participants.

Change Program Stakeholders
For an organizational change program to succeed, the business should depend upon a range of people. These people can be divided into five stakeholder groups.4

A stakeholder is any person with an interest in the process or the outcome of the proposed organizational change. There are five stakeholder group given, together with each description and examples of duty.

1. Change Recipients – They are the intended receivers of the products of change or change outcomes. Example: They are the end users of new software, such as a new accounting package, employees of two merged companies.

2. Decision Makers – They are the people that approve a change effort and decide its scope and direction. Examples: Steering Committee Members, Project Sponsor, or Chief Executive Officer.

3. Resource Holders – They are the people authorized to release financial and human resources requires by a change effort. Examples: Chief Financial Officer, Financial institution such as a bank, or a Line Manager.

4. Program Implementers – They are the people charged with the responsibility for bringing about the change. Examples: Program Manager, Project Manager, or Project Team Members.

5. External Parties – They are the people that are not the intended recipients but who are impacted by the change. Examples: Suppliers whose access to a business is restricted after a change in business hours, or a broader community impacted adversely by a new product that contaminates the local environment.

Once the business had identified the stakeholders, consider the key messages that a business will need to deliver to each group in order to gain their support. Once the business had settled on the key messages for each stakeholder group, start the communication.

Various Models for Change Management
There are numerous well-organized approaches (or models) from which to manage a change effort. There are Strategic Management Models, Action Research Model, Plan Do Check Act Model, Lewin’s Change Management Model, and Mckinsey 7S Model.

Lewin’s Change Management Model
Lewin’s Model for change which also called the Freezing Models has three phases; the Unfreeze, Transition, and the Refreezing.5 Unfreeze is where the problem should be thawed into pieces and needed to study each part. The transition steps in when the process is on-going to face the solution and transformation changes. And the last, the refreezing takes the place when the organization is already absorbing the new process. Kurt Lewin exampled this is the cube of ice; on how will you change the form of the cube of ice in to another type by not letting it evaporate.

Strategic Management Model
Many organizations undertake strategic planning. The implementation of strategic planning, when done in a systematic, cyclical and explicit approach, is strategic management. Strategic management is also one model for ensuring the success of a change effort. Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire organization, while the focus of a business plan is usually on a particular product, service or program.

There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc.6

The two kinds of models are very effective tools for the managerial change. If the models are going to apply on the stakeholders of the company, the proper assessment is needed to apply the models. The models for organizational change are presented as the basis on how to make the change in the management possible as the economic environment asks for change.

Conclusions
The organizational change is different in the other kinds of changes. Although it is necessary for the organization to adopt the prospect changes, it is advisable to first undergone through a series of investigation. Other approaches for a change also involve the technological aspect, like changing for the old technology and adopting a new kind of technological-based process. Other prefers to focus on the traditional way like on the factor of changing the customs of the employees or the rules inside the workplace.

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