Change In The Management Of The Organization example essay topic

'Managing Change' Massive change is impacting on all facets of society, creating new dimensions and great uncertainty. Instant communication, super small high-tech equipments, the globalization movement, the deadly terrorist attacks in the U.S., the emerging of foreign investments in China nation are all the changing dimensions of the world. These are few of the changes which have occurred around last two decades. The issue facing people in business today is how to manage such changes. The origin of one change has an impact on other origin of changes. For example, technological break thorough of the communication in computers resulted in tremendous change of behavioral through an extensive and immediate involvement of the average citizen in world event.

In the past, it took time and a lot of money to reach the person across the continent but now it is only one click on the button and a cost under $1. The impact of the change affects the individual, on organization, and on geopolitical. The management of change by individual, organization, and national and international bodies is critical to survival in the decades ahead. The individuals who invest their most formative years in an education and their most productive years in occupational activities must be able to build to personal competence both to survive and manage change. Organizations require flexibility in structure and appropriate strategies if they are to survive and be viable in the future.

And government, institutions, and international coordination must create the appropriate environment to permit individuals and organizations to prosper and create the fruits of civilization. The emphasis is primary on how individuals and organizations can deal with change successfully and develop appropriate strategies and structures for the effective management of change. Management of change must provide guidelines for institutional and structural change as well as for individual. (Scott and Jaffe, 1995) If persons have a motivation to face a change, they are likely to take people with them and they can bring organization to change. This is an effective one. Also, there are many changes that are brought by the change in an institution, such as the government.

The impact of change can be seen on poor as well as rich. The government policies can change the environment of living conditions of an individual. Scott and Jaffe (1995) point that organizations and individual must operate in the environment exist today and will exist in the future. The main thrust is to identify, classify, and organize such environment. Then the task is to provide guidelines and prescriptions for organizations and individuals, to manage such environment in effect manage change.

AN OVERVIEW OF CHANGE Every facet of life from behavioral ethics to organizational and even national survival is undergoing change as forces external to facet changes. Three origins of change such as: 1. Institutional-structural 2. Technological 3.

Social-behavioral Almost any change in the management of the organization falls under the structural change category. The implementation of new pay incentives, an affirmative action program, and a move from functional to product structure are all examples of structural changes. Successful structural changes are accomplished from the top down. The experts of administrative or structural improvement originate at upper middle to top managers.

Technology change relates to the organization's way of doing its work. A good example of technological change is the adoption of robotics to improve production efficiency in the automobile industry. Technological changes are more effectively implemented from the bottom up. The lower-level technology experts act as idea champions. Social-behavioral is the most difficult change because it is dealing with an individual and human behavior. The examples of these change are change in nature of workforce to be more culture diversity, or the social trend in increasing of urban living.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE Why do people resist changing? In order to have an effective change management, we must clarify the reason why some people or organization resisting to change. Some people companies hold on to what they know, keep up to their current routines in order to protect themselves from the changes. According to Robbins (2003), for them, changing means having to give something up. They feel that changing means decentralization and delegation of authority. Another reason why some companies defend their present way of doing things is to protect their personal stability.

Basil and Cook (1974) assert that they fight change because they are afraid of the future. In doing so, they overlook the fact that there can be compelling reasons for making changes, for example outward circumstances, the survival of the company or the safeguarding of its future. In this case, passivity is fatal for both the entrepreneurs and their employees. In short, resisting change will do more harm than good. The entrepreneurs will ruin their businesses, and any employees and waste energy which could be used for more productiveness. In this present scenario instead of losing oneself in the past, it is better to reach for the future.

COPE WITH CHANGES In order to deal with change in the organization, it is required the cooperation between both managers and employees. Scott and Jaffe (1995) suggest that for the managers, first, they should check their attitude about the situation or the direction the company is taking, and takes the chance to learn and grow. If they decide to be deliberately positive, optimistic and enthusiastic, you stand to gain a great deal. Scott and Jaffe (1995) also point that it is important for employees as well to accept personal responsibility for changes, since this is the only way they will be able to participate in the way they are carried out. Today, the courage to stand up for one's beliefs is more than ever in demand. (Carnell, 1991) The circumstances of changes may be confusing, frustrating, sometimes frightening and depressing.

This can put people off or make them wish to fight the changes. However, Scott and Jaffe (1995) insist that there is no particular way for carrying out changes. If the company were to wait until it had found the perfect solution, no changes would ever be made. When changes are made, there is almost always some loses. Additionally, as an employee, it is necessary to adjust the working priorities to the new conditions early on and to develop new areas of authority. Only those who are prepared to adjust themselves to new situations constantly will have a chance of keeping their company or their job during the next few years.

(Carnell, 1991) Other considerations of dealing with changes are stress and anticipation. Since adjustment will require a lot of mental energy, if the change goes too quickly, is too big or takes too long, the people concerned will suffer from emotional fatigue. Then they might be burnt out. This is why it is important to work on coping with stress.

One of the keys to success is anticipation. Robbins (2003) believe that the communication help relieving this problem. Basil and Cook (1974) also suggest that by instead of changing with the times, it is always better to change a bit before the times do. APPROACHES TO MANAGING CHANGES There are many techniques for managing changes for example, Lewin's Three-Step model which recognize three steps of changes: unfreezing, movement, and refreezing.

(Robbins, 2003) Another approach is using Organization Development (OD). Organization Development is the application of behavioral science knowledge to improve an organization's health and effectiveness through it's ability to cope with environmental changes, improve internal relationship and increase problem-solving capabilities. (Basil and Cook, 1974) Basically, OD is an effort of planned and managed from the top. OD focuses on the entire organization; plant, firm or work group to attain the set intended goals. It involves the creation and the subsequent reinforcement of change by using four major interventions: techno structure, human process, human resource management and strategic intervention. (Robbins, 2003) For managing change, this process is divided into three steps: entry, normative change, and structural change.

In the entry stage the aim is to establish a felt need for change using three approaches. The first approach is interviewing or survey information. The means is to find information in what people wants and what actually happen. The second approach is used to demonstrate the value of OD through particular projects. The final approach is a direct attempt to change values through the use of T-groups or similar technique. For the second step is Normative change which is the process of directing the targets / organization members to the new social norms.

The intent is to change the climate of the organization. The final step is structural change; it involves placing advocates of OD in position where they have the power, prestige, and flexibility to conduct further OD projects such as the technology change. (Carnell, 1991) However, the approach that I would like to introduce is ADKAR a model of change management. This model is rather new since it was developed by Prosci in 2000.

According to Prosci website (web), the ADKAR model comprises from five areas given as follows: 1. Awareness of the need to change 2. Desire to participate and support the change 3. Knowledge of how to change (and what the change looks like) 4. Ability to implement the change on a day-to-day basis 5. Reinforcement to keep the change in place The process of this model is by completing the worksheets, rating each area on a scale of 0% to 100%, and assigning a score.

For Awareness, list the reasons why the change is necessary and rate the degree to which the person, in this case might be an employee, you are trying to change is aware of the reasons or need to change (0% - 100%). For, Desire, list the factors or consequences (good and bad) for this person that create a desire to change. Consider these motivating factors, and then rate his / her desire to change (0% - 100%). For Knowledge, list the skills and knowledge needed to support the change and rate this person's knowledge or level of training in these areas (0% - 100%). For Ability, evaluate the person's ability to perform these skills or act on this knowledge. To what percent this person's ability to implement the new skills, knowledge and behaviors to support the change is rated (0% - 100%)?

Finally, Reinforcement, list the reinforcements that will help to retain the change. To what percent do you rate the reinforcements as helping support the change (0% - 100%)? Then transfer the scores from each worksheet and highlight those areas that scored a 50% or below This model mainly focus on consider the first area in which the score was 50% or below. Regarding to ADKAR model, we must address this area before doing anything else. For example, if ability was the area selected with the low score, then several steps are required to move forward.

The model suggest that o The person will need time to develop new skills and behaviors. o The person will need ongoing coaching and support. o Outside intervention or support may be required. Basically, the ADKAR model evaluate the individual who involving in change and address an inadequate area. This process gives an insight as to where the individuals are in the change process. This model also bases on some parts of motivation techniques and some parts of Lewin's Three-Step model. As suggested from the model, for deploying a major change in the organization, a critical step in change management is organizational awareness of the reasons for change and desire to change at the employee level must be addressed as resistance will be a natural reaction to change. As the change moves into implementation, developing knowledge about the change and the ability to implement new skills are required.

Once the change is in place, reinforcement is used to avoid moving backwards to old behaviors. IN CONCLUSION At the moment, a wave of change is flooding the entire world and is transforming companies and work routines. Entrepreneurs, businessmen and self-employed persons have to adjust to this, as are employees in training centers, government agencies, charitable institutions and the armed forces. The changes affect all branches of industry, all social strata, continents and cultures. The dynamics of change increased clearly in the last decade, and this will speed up in the near future. The pressure will continue to increase.

Companies are faced with the challenges posed by theses drastic changes, new competitive pressure, the globalization of markets and a continuous worldwide reorganization of the economy. They will be faced with new technologies, socio-cultural shifting and supervisory changes. Of course these immense changes will mean further problems, which we will also have to learn to manage. Companies which refuse to change or change too slowly will have sizeable problems. They will find it difficult to survive in the age of instability. Change forces choices.

People who always keep positive attitude may embrace many changes and find the positive in them. Basil and Cook (1974) note that people who have faced a serious crisis will look back years later and point to that event as a significant turning point. Most would rather not go through that pain again, but it was always a key part of their growth. For effective change, first, the organization should understand the element of changes such as resistance, which lead them to choose the proper approaches. There are many approaches, as described earlier, such as Lewin's Three-Step model, Organization Development (OD), or ADKAR model. These models allow us to recognize the change in order to find the solution; prevent crisis.

Nonetheless, Basil and Cook (1974) state crisis can be a danger that weakens or destroys the organization or crisis can be a growth opportunity. Therefore, successfully dealing with change in the organization means choosing to grow and develop continuously.

Bibliography

Robbins, P. Stephen, Organization Behavior 10th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003.
Carnell, Colin A. Managing change, London: Routledge, 1991.
Scott, Cynthia D. and Jaffe, Dennis T. Managing change at work: Leading people through organizational transitions, Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, 1995.
Basil, Douglas C. and Cook, Curtis W. The management of change, McGraw Hill, 1974.