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
