Managing a change in an organization is a very huge task that involves changing the organizational culture. An international business case study on factors that limit organizational change and how to manage it shows that companies growing and expanding into a new competitive space, expanding market scope and attaining a complex combination of knowledge and material assets sometimes fail to change and make the best out of new opportunities because they are still trying to get the best out of the old ones.
International business case study or organizational changes reports that to transform an organization needs cooperation, initiative, and willingness of the employees and managers in the organization to make sacrifices. Developing a change vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering employees for broad based action, and establishing that sense of urgency are just some of the factors that can enable a company embrace change. International business case study have also shown that managers rely on steering mechanisms to unexpected circumstances thereby ignoring any information that does not fit into the existing mechanism.
Creating a sense of urgency referred to in international business case study as one way of making the change easier for employees involves risky and bold actions that might include drawing up a balance sheet reflecting losses accurately, or other hard actions such as selling luxurious headquarters which the firm can no longer afford. To establish a sense of urgency means eliminating organizational needs that breed complacency.
Programs aimed to change often get support of only a few people and resources in the organization. The initial stages of change may well do with this, but progressing to attain successful change would need the support of additional resources and people are very important. Normally, a coalition is formed to guide the change in the organization, and is made up of the CEO and his team of senior managers, other managers, and employees.
Coalition should be powerful enough in terms of reputations and relationships, expertise, titles, and information, to successfully guide the change in the organization. If possible, the coalition should try to include union leaders, board members, and even key customers to increase backing for the necessary change to be made.
The guiding coalition should have a clear picture of the future that would provide direction in which the organization needs to move towards, often referred to as the change vision. This vision should be easy to understand as well as communicate; it should be appealing to employees, stockholders, and customers. An unclear vision can disrupt the transformation of the company and can often result to nothing more than confusion. Thorough discussion of the vision by partners in the coalition promotes a clearer understanding of it and even results to a well formulated strategy to achieving the vision of change.
Organizations need to change their functioning and way in which they conduct their business and services. The reason behind these changes might be external forces in economy, needs of customer or marketplace. These changes would affect whole organization and it can be known from level of opposition of leadership and employees. For any organization, if change takes place then it’s essential for all employees to understand three preliminary steps in the process. These three steps are as under: 1.What is needed to change? 2.What needs to happen to make it a reality? 3.How can we make it happen? The fact is, not every employee of the organization follows these principles in same way. But, understanding these concepts has really helped many organizations to successfully bring an effective change. Why individual opposes change? •People are insecure about loss of control by change •Lots of insecurities are being created due to change affecting the status quo •People are used to working in a particular laid down manner since long •Change requires hard work •There had been bad experience in past due to change. •Changes are forced upon people without any valid explanations. Reduce the conflict and build loyalty to change Reduce the resistance by providing obvious picture of change. Change should be step by step, planned and estimated. Engage people in this process and do inform them regularly. All you need to do is to reduce disruption through efficient planning. Leadership at every level should express people’s dedication to the change. Appreciate them for their involvement in change process and also give award to earlier pioneers. Key to effective change As a leader, one important thing is to study present culture of the organization and to know where you are. It is also necessary for a leader to identify employees who want change and those who are not happy with change. Take example from existing model that has effectively implemented change and also communicate with them regarding their experience with change. Don’t completely change existing culture immediately, but take advice from people about ways to implement the change and methods to solve the problems while implementation. Vision may help you in change, but this is not the only way. Steps leading to successful change Find out, what is taking place in areas, where changes have taken place by involving persons who will be in charge of results. Analyze the conditions with the representatives. Make strategic planning that leads towards success after change in organization. Continue activities with involvement of employees that will help in solving problems and also in improvement of change process. Finally measure, examine and estimate the change. Involvement of Critical Factors Collaboration and good communication is essential and plays important role in process. All processes, practices and functionalities give more values to customer, goals and performance for achievement of goals. There should be internal solutions. Horizontal, Vertical and multi directional interaction must be carried out before change in organization.
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