What
is Change Management?
What is Change
Management? Change management is an art of making changes systematically
i.e. in a well-planned and organized manner in an operating organization.
Why
Change Management? “Change is the only constant thing
in our life.” Every organization undergoes change at one point or
another, may be temporarily, may be at the wrong time, may be too
early, may be too late or maybe, just may be… forever.
The reasons for the
organizational change in the current scenario may be external or
internal.The external factors affecting the organization can be
rise in competition among rivalries, changes in the economy, changes
in government policies, fluctuation in cost of raw materials, advancement
in technology etc. The internal factors can be appointment of new
leader i.e. CEO, decline in profitability, union problems, implementation
of new technology etc.These days, the most visible changes that
a common man encounters are Mergers & Acquisitions, Technological
changes and Downsizing.Thus, managing change is of utmost importance
to ensure the effectiveness of these desired changes, to take care
of the undesired side effects of the changes implemented in the
organization and to provide strategies to manage the resistance
to change.
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Resistance
to Change Management
“It is easy
to change the things that nobody cares about. It becomes difficult
when you start to change the things that people do care about
or when they start to care about the things that you are changing.”
— Lorenzi and Riley.
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Change is inevitable still people
are reluctant to accept this reality. It is a part of a human
nature.
People
resist change because of the following reasons:
1. They are afraid that the
change may act as an impasse to their current level of performance.
2. People are used to do things
in the same way as they are doing it from years. The quote,
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” also coveys the same
message.
3. Some people find limitations
of resources such as scarcity of time, scarcity of manpower
to implement the desired change.
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4. People in the higher level
of hierarchy consider themselves more powerful or influential
and are afraid that may be the change will eliminate their
power of influence.
5. They are afraid of the after
effects of change as the outcome is uncertain. They believe
in, “When change arises, think of the consequences.”
It is advisable for an organization
to adapt for changes otherwise new strategies will not be
perfectly implemented and the quality programs, if implemented,
shall not deliver the expected results.
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Effective
Change Management
Slowly seeking for acceptance
is not what we want from change management. This will unsettle
the present working scenario and will result in the same lower
levels of performance. When an organization is looking for
a change, the first and foremost thing to be taking care of
is to remove the reluctance to change.
Effective change management
can be done if we follow the under mentioned steps:
1. Accept the reality is the
first step. People don’t accept the change readily so a negative
frame of mind can never give desired results. They should
be rational as this helps in unbiased analysis and a better
judgment.
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2. Try not to avoid the ongoing process
(of change). Avoiding the process is not a solution but one should
follow the process. Change is not the objective but it is the process
to achieve the objective.
3. One should learn the art to anticipate
change which is going to happen in future. This is known as Change
Foresight. Do not wait for things to be take place, try to predict
it and be prepared.
4. Change is mostly done for the good.
So, an organization should evaluate long run benefits. Some may
argue that this is impossible to measure; nevertheless, it is very
essential to get the complete picture of the change. Change is mostly
associated with risk. Greater the change, greater the risk. But
the biggest risk in life is not to take risk at all. The benefits
associated to risk are so high that risk can be ignored.
5. In implementing the desired change,
group consensus is of utmost importance. A wrong change may lead
to a series of wrong changes. Taking decision, keeping in confidence
all the stakeholders is usually more effective.
6. Taking reference from the past
or from somebody who has already implemented that change successfully
or even unsuccessfully will certainly help in a better decision.
At least one can evaluate what change to implement and what not
to.
7. Do not expect quick results. It
might happen that after transforming any certain norm, result may
not be seen immediately. It may lead to anxiousness but reviewing
it patiently for a certain period of time will certainly pay off.
8. Some people in spite of knowing
that changing with the contemporary era is very essential still
are reluctant to accept this. If you feel the need to change anything
then you definitely have to change. Procrastination of a desired
change is not advisable as in long term it may be unmanageable.
Performing changes with a casual frame of mind can be disastrous.
At last to end the article I would
like to mention that no one should follow words ofMark Twain, “It’s
not the progress I mind, it’s the change I don’t like.”
Contributing
Writer: Pranav Chawla
B.E. (Polymer), MIT Pune, MBA (Operations + Marketing), IMT Nagpur
Management Trainee, Adani Group (From June 2011), Phone: +91-9822257199
(Maharashtra) +91-9621216275 (Uttar Pradesh)
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