Change Management

1.0 Introduction

Today change is constant and it is rapidly occurs in organizations. The change in an organization happens either in public sector or in private sector. Thus, it can be seen that leaders who anticipated with the change and react rapidly and responsibly to the change take place in the organization are more successful than those who notice less about the change. However, organizational leaders who are anticipated and invent the future tend to become more successful. This is because those who invent the game or start the changes first are the leaders in their industry while other organizations only act as the followers that try to adapt with the change. There are also organizations that failed to survive with the change.

2.0 Definition of Change Management

Based on the Australian National Training Authority (2003), change management is a strategic activity focusing on getting the best results from the change process. It tends to make connections between strategy and the change management itself. In a review of effective strategy-making and change management for high-performing VET organizations, Mitchell (2002) describe strategies as “making choices about which customers to focus on, which product to offer, and which activities to perform”. He also describes it as “a dynamic and ongoing activity”. Therefore, strategic management is about the ability to identify, choose and implementing activities that would help to enhance and aid in the long term performance of an organization.

In addition, change management is concern about how to manage the change which is part of or a consequence from a strategy in order to suit with the organization’s context and the type of change required (Mitchell, 2002). Horton (1990) added that change management is about exploring choices and choosing suitable pathways.

3.0 Types of Change

            Crouch (2002) stated that “if you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.” Thus, identifying the change is the first crucial step for an organization before determining the suitable strategies and plans needed to be implemented in an organization. This is because different kind of change requires different strategies and plans to effectively gain employee engagement and acceptance of change (Tucker, 2007). The second step is to identify the suitable approach that can be implemented in an organization in order to overcome the resistance to implementing organization change as the change management theories effectively support and help on how to deal with developmental and transitional change. However, it is less effective at dealing with successfully implementing transformational change. Therefore, the second step can be applied once the type of change that the organization is experiencing has been identified.

            Change in an organization or in a management is inevitable. There are different strategies used for different kind of changes. Thus, is important to identify the current situation or the change take place in that time. According to Tucker (2007), there are three common types of change that occur most frequently in organizations. Those change involved are developmental, transitional and transformational.

3.1 Developmental Change

Developmental change occurs when a company makes some improvement to their current business. It occurs as they decide to have an improvement in term of processes, methods, or performance standards. Company which adopts developmental change will continually process the change to stay competitive among other competitors. As a result, this type of change would possibly cause little stress among employees.

In a major change such as the decision to close a division, employees may be more likely to accept the change if the company attempted to implement developmental change as the first step in streamlining the business. Through this strategy, employees could see that the company tried different strategies before determining that closing the division is the only option.

3.2 Transitional Change

As compared to the developmental change, the transitional change is more intrusive. Transitional change replaces the existing processes or procedure with something that is completely new to the organizations. Transitional phase is the period when the old process is being dismantled and the new process is being implemented.

Some examples of transitional change are reorganization of the corporate structure, designing or creating new products and services, and implementing new technology in the working environment of the organization. Transitional change might not necessarily require a significant shift in culture or behavior of the people involved. However, transitional change is more challenging than the developmental change and the future of the organization is unknown when the transformation begins. This situation can somehow turn out to add a level of discomfort to employees.

As the future of the organization which undergoes transitional change is unknown, it makes the employees to feel that their job is unstable. This situation may increase the personal insecurities among employees. Employees may start to feel that their working environment is threatening them and their position is unprotected.

Employer could overcome this situation by providing education or information to the employees about the new implemented procedures. This step should be commenced at each stage of the new process because it may allow employees to feel that they are actively participated and engage in the change. The level of resistance to the change may decrease as the employees’ level of engagement in the new procedure increases. This will eventually help employees to adapt with change better. Thus, company or the organization that undergo change should constantly and continue to inform the employees of their status. This is to support and helping them deal with the personal adjustment they will be forced to make.

3.3 Transformational Change

Transformational change occurs after the transition period. Transformational change may involve both developmental and transitional change. Besides, it is also common for transitional and transformational change to occur in cycle. As an example, when company is facing with the emergence of radically different technologies, significant changes in supply and demand, unexpected competition, lack of revenue or other major shift in how they do their business, developmental or transitional change may not offer the company the solution they need in order to stay competitive  among other competitors. Instead of just implementing the new processes, the company may need to drastically transform themselves.

4.0 Coping with Change Management

Change in management involves both an individual within the organization and the organization itself. Therefore, both perspective need to be take into account in order to ensure a successful change management. First, the most crucial step in managing any type of organizational change is to understand how to manage change with a single individual within an organization.

In understanding the role of individual in change management, employer should know how one person could make a change successfully. This is because in change management, the organizations don’t change but the individuals do. Therefore, the successful of a project depends on the employees who could manage and do their work independently and do different job assign to them. Employees should also be able to cooperate among each other in completing the work been assign. An effective change management requires the understanding of how one person could make a change and adapt to it successfully.

Secondly, employer should understand the organizational change management. Organizational change management is the ability to understand what tools need to be used in helping individuals to make a successful change. As change happen one person at a time, there are processes and tools that can be used to facilitate this change thus, aiding employees to adapt with the change successfully. Communication and training are some of the tools used to facilitate changes.

5.0 Summary

            Strategies cannot simply be copied from other organizations whether in the same or different industry as every organization is unique in their own way (Mitchell, 2002). Therefore, an organization should emphasize the purpose of the change before they applied it in their organization. This is to achieve a clear objective of the work and help them to plan for future. In addition, Gooley and Towers (2000) highlighted that partnering and collaborative arrangements are considered essential to the survival of the organization. Management also needs to be very active during change phases to institute reinforcement tactics. This step is important as some sort of reinforcement is necessary to produce changes in behavior Robbins, 2005). 


Nota kaki payung: This article is for INTAN wilayah tengah  :)
ps: Nampak sangat xtau nak share apa dah :p