Effective Change Management Essay

Managing Change in Organizations: Strategies for Success

Change is one of the business practices that play a significant role in every organization. Change plays a pivotal role in determining the success of an organization. This is more so in the contemporary business world where the level of competition has increased significantly. The ability of a certain organization to handle change effectively has been the main driver in developing its competitiveness.However, change is usually faced by a number of complications. This is because change is usually faced by a high level of rejection from the people who are affected by such change. This follows the reason that change involves altering the daily arrangements and procedures of carrying out different operations. For instance, change can lead to reduction in operational costs.As a result, an organization can be able to under price their competitors. Change can also help in improving the quality of products and services produced. Again, this contributes in developing competitiveness.In this case, the change affects the employees. This involves the increment in the working hours followed by a slight increment in salary. This change can easily be welcomed by some but to others it is highly rejected. This change was driven by an increase in the demand after getting a new contract that was to begin in a couple of months.

Change Management Plan and the Outcome Analysis

As already noted, change is usually faced by a number of obstacles that tends to threaten its performance. In order to have an effective change process, it is therefore advisable to have a good plan that will promote change in an organization. As already noted, this change is likely to affect a number of activities in the organization. Therefore, it is necessary to have a good plan in order to overcome these obstacles.The human resource managers have an important role in facilitating change in an organization. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the human resource activities are driven towards change. According to Wilson (2005), human resource is the main agent of change in an organization. In a firm, both human and non human resources are of great significance for high performance.Although there are other non human equipments like machines, their effectiveness is significantly determined by the human resources. Human forces are the one that directs the production process and hence are major determinant of their effectiveness.This implies that it is important to take into consideration the human resources while promoting change within an organization. It is the role of the human resource to ensure that any barriers to organizational change are overcome in order to promote change.The outcome of this change process yielded positive results. Although there was some resistance at the beginning of the change project, it was finally successful. Every employee was cooperative and the expected results were achieved.The success of this project can be attributed to a number of factors. To start with, employees were coached on the benefit of the change process (both to them and to the organization). This helped the employees to realize the need for the proposed change. This cultivated cooperation among the employees in realizing change.Another strategy that contributed to the success of the change process is integration of employees in the change process. Employees were given a chance to contribute to the project. This developed a sense of ownership among the employees. Employees felt that they are valued and that they are part of this change. Therefore, there was an incentive for cooperation.

Strategy Recommendations for Effective Change For Short-Term, Small-Scale, Long-Term, and Large-Scale Change Management Projects

As already noted, it is important for every organization to have effective strategies in order to realize a successful change process; there is need to have effective change strategies for short-term, long-term, and large-scale change management projects.The design of the change project must be made in such a way that it addresses the appropriate changes within an organization (Cummings and Worley 2005). The general population in an organization should be considered as part of the change process. Everyone’s idea should be treated with respect.In order for the change process to be effective, it is advisable for the managers to have plan to the change. This may require the firm to carry out restructuring, making necessary innovation among other things.It is important to note that each member in an organization should be treated with respect and every person’s idea should be respected (Armenakis & Harris 1993). The managers should also have a deep personal conviction in order to fully support the proposed strategies.Motivation is another important factor which can significantly improve the effectiveness of a change management project. When employees are motivated, they will become more committed to their respective duties because they believe that their hard work is recognized. When their efforts are recognized, employees will get a sense of identity with an organization.They will have a feeling of identification with the organization. They will somehow have a sense of ownership to an organization. Consequently, they will be committed to meet the organizational goals. Motivated employees will therefore tend to embrace change as they will believe that this change will bring about improvement in the organization, which they have already identified with (Jansen, 2004).An organization has a wide range of change approaches that it can apply in its change process. These approaches play a significant role in managing change in change projects. One of the main approaches that can be used to manage change is top down- directive approach (Yazdani 2011). This is an approach where we have an autocratic boss who is responsible for making important decisions affecting change in an organization.His or her decision is the one that determines the course of actions taken. This implies that there is no room for open discussions since he is the only individual to decide. Therefore, there is no transparency in this method. However, this method is usually faster since there is no time wasted in conducting decisions. Another approach is the action centered method.This is a method where various solutions to a certain problem are tested to get the best. Therefore, this method is based on trial and error system. This method is good as it help an organization to achieve its optimum possible points. However, this approach suffers from the fact that it consumes a lot of time.There are forces that drive change in an organization. These forces play a significant role in facilitating the effectiveness of the change process in an organization. These forces are of great importance in driving change in an organization. There are two categories of change which promotes change within an organization.These include external and internal factors. One of the factors that are necessary in organizational change is the organization’s urge to change. It is also important for an organization to have a belief that the business can perform better than what it is doing in the present.Therefore, it will be determined to embrace change within an organization.

In some cases, an organization may be faced by much inefficiency that increases their operational costs (Ghiselli 1972). In this case, a need to improve the level of efficiency in an organization increases the need for organizational change.Change is also driven by the need for reorganization in order to have increased efficiency. Some of the external drivers to change include the uncertainty of economic situations and therefore a need to have preparation for such uncertainties (Carzo and Yanouzas 1969).In the contemporary market, consumers need for quality services and quality products is increasing. This forces organizations to adopt change. High level of competition is also a major motivation to change in order to retain competitiveness.According to Varelas (2005), even minor changes in an organization does not always invite embrace from employees; it requires necessary concentration from the human resources. Any attempt by the management to make changes is likely to nurture anxiety among the employees. Even a slight change can cause a great complication in an organization (Wallerstein 1993).This is because different people have varying levels of sensitivity to changes. Some people are very sensitive even to slight changes. Therefore, it is necessary to have good planning of any changes in an organization in order to avoid such inadequacies.It is also important to explain to employees how the new changes will look like. Employees need to be informed about the impacts of changes in an organization. It is also necessary to inform employees on how they will benefit from these changes. This will reduce the chances of rejection hence promoting the success of an organization.Another way through which changes can be promoted in an organization is through motivation (Meier and Loewenbein 2003). Motivation can be defined as the set of reasons which affects one’s decisions to engage themselves in particular behaviors. When employees are motivated, they will become more committed to their respective duties because they believe that their hard work is recognized.They will be motivated to work harder in order to maximize the returns of an organization. When their efforts are recognized, employees will get a sense of identity with an organization. They will somehow have sense of ownership to an organization. Consequently, they will be committed to meet the organizational goals. In the long run, the organization’s profitability will increase from the increased employee productivity.Therefore, when employees are motivated, they will be ready to embrace any change which they believe will contribute to the improvement in the organization’s performance (Jansen, 2004).In conclusion, this discussion has clearly shown that change is a critical process in every organization. Change process is usually faced with rejection because it involves several changes, which affect the normal arrangements in an organization. It may also involve slight changes in the organization’s culture. Therefore, there is need to have effective change projects in order to promote change process in an organization.

Reference List

Armenakis, A. & Harris, S. (1993). Creating Readiness for Organizational Change. Human Relations June 1993 46: 681-703.

Carzo, R. and Yanouzas, J. Effects of Flat and Tall Organization Structure. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2, Laboratory Studies of Experimental Organizations, 1969, pp. 178-191.

Ghiselli, E. Leadership and Managerial Success In Tall and Flat Organization Structures. Pemonnei. Psychology, 1972, 25, 617-624.

Cummings, T. and Worley, C. (2005). Organization Development and Change. Mason, OH: InfoTrac College.

Jansen, K. (2004). From Persistence to Pursuit: A Longitudinal Examination of Momentum during the Early Stages of Strategic Change. Organization Science; 15: 276-294.

Meier, H. and Loewenbein, O. 2003. Changing Roles in the Organisation of Companies; Demographics and Project Management Demand Hybrid Skills. ISSN 1392-1142, Sisteminian Tyrimai: 2003.28.

Varelas, E. (2005). Driving Organizational Change. Retrieved from http://archive.boston.com/jobs/hire_authority/110705.shtml

Wallerstein, N. (1993). Empowerment and health: The theory and practice of community change. Community Dev J 28 (3): 218-227.

Wilson, J. (2005). Human Resource Development: Learning & Training For Individuals & Organizations. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Yazdani, B. et al. (2011). Factors affecting the Empowerment of Employees (An Empirical Study): European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 20, Number 2.