Management of Change - Week 11

Management of Change

There is continuous pressure on organizations to adopt new technologies, be competitive and revise strategy for their survival. The cases where conventional approaches can be lucratively applied are getting rarer. "Stable states" are a mirage; recurrent, disruptive change is becoming more and more familiar. Organizations must persistently align themselves with their environments either by reacting to external events or by proactively shaping the business.  Notable to organizational change theory are the institutional theory, neo-institutional theory, organizational ecology theory, evolution theory and political theory. One of the dominant perspectives within ‘planned approaches’ to change is that of Lewin (1951), which argues that change involves a three-stage process:

· Unfreezing current behavior

 · Moving to the new behavior

· Refreezing the new behavior 

This three-step model was for many years the dominant framework (Todnem, 2005). Ever since its formulation, the theory has been reviewed and adapted, with stages being divided to make more precise steps. For example, Bullock & Batten (1985) developed a four-stage model:

· Exploration

 · Planning

 · Action

· Integration

 Building on the work of the early theorists, change has been consistently conceptualized in two basic ways. The first sees change as a rational, strategic process where the organization chooses a new course of action and adapts to change. The second approach views change as evolutionary selection, where organizations typically resist the change happening around them. (Flood & Fennell, 1995).

Training in skills and professional development of the IT workforce is critical and it is an important driver of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Technological change may be either incremental (gradual changes over time made for general improvement) or breakthrough (major change due to new advances), which applies new knowledge to existing problems. It is likely to lead to new jobs, and to old jobs being phased out. A business that does not keep up with technological advances will fail sooner or later. Willingness to change means flexibility, but unforeseen events at any point in the business process make that difficult (Kotter, 1995). Good management of information flow will reduce, but not eliminate, unforeseen events. Kotter observes that other initiatives, such as total quality management, rightsizing, restructuring and cultural change are also forms of change management. Kotter (1996) produced an 8-step model:

 · Establishing a sense of urgency

 · Creating a guiding coalition

 · Developing a vision and strategy

 · Communicating the change vision

 · Empowering employees for broad based action

 · Generating short term wins

 · Consolidating gains and producing more change

· Anchoring new approaches in the culture.

 Aladwani (2001) postulates that the tools of management of change are leadership, communication, training, planning, and incentive systems, which can all act as levers and can move great obstacles with a minimum of effort when applied correctly. Organizational change can occur at different levels which require different change strategies and techniques (Goodstein & Burke, 1991). Lashunda (2010) gives three levels

 · Changing the individuals who work in the organization

 · Changing organizational structures and systems

 · Directly changing the organizational climate

Meyer & Rowan (1977) point out the need to sustain those parts of the business that are working well while making changes. Daily essential tasks must be maintained while addressing fundamental change. The changes within the company reflect changes in the wider social, economic, political and technological environment, and organizations need to respond to those changes. The necessary internal restructuring is likely to be strategic or 'mould-breaking'. The mound that needs to be broken is the rigid, autocratic, bureaucratic approach to organization and management. 


Reference 

Anyieni. A 2016, Organizational Change: A critical review of the literature, 1-7, June 12 2018,<http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/123456789/18185/Organisational%20Change.pdf?sequence=1>