The Nature of Change and Change Management
Concept of Change
• Change implies the creation of imbalances in the existing pattern of situation.
• Change is basically a variation in the common way of doing things.
• Organizations are also subject to change and so they are also required to manage
change to remain profitable and effective.
Organizational change
• Organizational change occurs when a company makes a transition from its current
state to some desired future state.
• Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost
constantly if they are to remain competitive.
• Factors such as globalization of markets and rapidly evolving technology force
businesses to respond in order to survive.
• Change Management
• It is a collective approach to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams and
organizations in making organizational change.
• Change Management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and
support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational
success and outcomes
• Causes of Change
• Changes affecting an organization are basically the result of its
environment.
• External as well as internal factors play a huge role here.
Forces of change
External Forces
These factors lie outside an organization. Neither the organization itself nor its
members are responsible for them. However, they always feel the effect of these
factors-
• Political / Legal forces
• Economic Forces
• Social Forces / Market conditions
• Technological forces
• Legal forces
Political and Legal Forces
• Political environment within and outside the country have an important impact on
business especially the transnational corporations.
• The corporate sector is regulated by a lot of laws and regulations.
Economic factors
• Access to resources, market demand, competition, inflation, interest rates, etc.
Technology Factors
• The adoption of new technology such as computers, telecommunication systems
and flexible manufacturing operations have profound impact on the organizations
that adopt them.
Social Changes
• Social equality, e.g., equal opportunities to women, equal pay for equal work, has
posed new challenges for the management.
• rapid change as the needs, desires and expectations of the customers change
rapidly and frequently.
• market is flooded with new products and innovations everyday.
• the consumers are treated as the kings.
Internal Forces of Change
• An organization and its own members are responsible for these changes.
• For example, the top management of a company might decide to diversify its
business. This decision will lead to several changes in which the company
functions.
• Internal Forces –
• Change in the Managerial Personnel
• Nature of the Work Force
• Deficiencies in existing organization structure
Nature of the Work Force
• Diverse Workforce, Better Qualified Workforce, High employee turnover and
Increase in the percentage of women employees (more dual career couple).
• Organizations have to modify transfer and promotion policies as well as make
child care and elder care available, in order to respond to the needs of two career
couple.
Change in the Managerial Personnel
• Old managers are replaced by new managers which is necessitated because of
promotion, retirement, transfer or dismissal. Each manager brings his own ideas
and way of working in the organization
Deficiencies in existing organization structure
• larger number of managerial levels, lack of co-ordination among various
departments, obstacles in communication, multiplicity of committees, lack of
uniformity in policy decisions etc
Types Of Change
Proactive change
• Proactive change is a change that is initiated by an organisation because it is identified as
desirable
Reactive change
• Reactive change is the change implemented by an organisation under pressure from
environmental factors.
Incremental Change
• Small continuous changes taking place in the organization , which ultimately develops
the organization through continuous improvement
Radical change
• Fundamental change , mainly due to external environment, major alterations taking place
in organisation
• Unplanned 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.
• Chief Executive Officer suddenly leaves the organization, significant public
relations problems occur, poor product performance quickly results in loss of
customers
• Planned Change
• Planned change occurs when leaders in the organization recognize the need for a
major change and proactively organize a plan to accomplish the change.
• Successful implementation of a Strategic Plan
• What Is Resistance to Change?
• Resistance to change is the unwillingness to adapt to altered
circumstances. It can be covert or overt, organized, or individual.
Employees may realize they don't like or want a change and resist
publicly, and that can be very disruptive.
• Employees can also feel uncomfortable with the changes introduced
and resist, sometimes unknowingly, through their actions, their
language, and in the stories and conversations, they share in the
workplace.
Kurt Lewin, three-step model:
• Kurt Lewin, three-step model:
• Lewin is responsible for introducing force field analysis, which
examines the driving and resisting forces in any change situation
• When Forces are in balance , the organization is in a state of inertia ,
does not change.
• Managers must increase the forces for change and reduce the forces
for resistance for change.
• Effective change occur by unfreezing the current situation and moving
to a desired situation and then refreezing the system
• Unfreezing Stage
• People will naturally resist change, the goal during the unfreezing stage is to create an awareness current
level of acceptability, is hindering the organization in some way.
• Old behaviors, ways of thinking, processes, people and organizational structures must all be carefully
examined to show employees how necessary a change is for the organization to create or maintain a
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
• Communication is especially important during the unfreezing stage so that employees can become
informed about the importance of change, the logic behind it and how it will benefit each employee.
• Moving Stage
• transitioning' or 'moving,' is marked by the implementation of the change ( some amount, job for children)
• Alter the behavior of individuals, departments or organization in which changes are to take place
• Moving implies developing new behaviors , values attitudes sometimes through structural changes or
Organizational development techniques
• education, communication, support and time are critical for employees as they become familiar with the
change
• Refreezing
• New behaviors attitudes values are established as the new status quo
• Lewin found the refreezing step to be especially important to ensure that people do not revert
back to their old ways of thinking or doing prior to the implementation of the change.
• Efforts must be made to guarantee the change is not lost; rather, it needs to be cemented into
the organization's culture and maintained as the acceptable way of thinking or doing.
• Positive rewards and acknowledgment of individualized efforts are often used to reinforce the
new state because it is believed that positively reinforced behavior will likely be repeated
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