Change Management

Manish Ranjan Singh - MBA General (Division B) Roll No. - 65

Change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organisations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organisational process aimed at helping employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. In project management, change management refers to a project management process where changes to a project are formally introduced and approved. Kotter defines change management as the utilization of basic structures and tools to control any organizational change effort. Change management's goal is to minimize the change impacts on workers and avoid distractions. Change management is a basic skill in which most leaders and managers need to be competent. There are very few working environments where change management is not important. Introduction to Change Management:The systematic approach and application of knowledge, tools and resources to deal with change. Change management means defining and adopting corporate strategies, structures, procedures and technologies to deal with changes in external conditions and the business environment. Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of business change to achieve the required business outcome, and to realize that business change effectively within the social infrastructure of the workplace. Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level...proactively addressing adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. Change Management is one of the most important disciplines of todays business environment. As the forces of commerce continuously evolve around us, businesses must keep ahead of the curve or suffer. Over the last fifty years, change has become the slippery slope that business must negotiate or they crash on the rocks below. There is a wealth of material available on Change Management, though most of it concentrates on the technical aspects, i.e. models, mapping and toolboxes. Change management is an important aspect of management that tries to ensure that a business responds to the environment in which it operates. There are four key features of change management: 1) Change is the result of dissatisfaction with present strategies 2) It is essential to develop a vision for a better alternative 3) Management have to develop strategies to implement change 4)There will be resistance to change

Resistance to Change:INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE

Habit Security Economic Factors Fear of the Unknown Selective Information processing

ORGANISATIONAL RESISTANCE
Structural inertia Limited focus of change Group Inertia Threat to expertise Threat to established power relationship Threat to established resource allocations

o o o o

Parochial Self interest Misunderstanding Low tolerance of Change Different assessments of the situation

DEALING WITH RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Education and Communication Participation and Involvement Facilitation and Support Negotiation and Agreement Manipulation and Co-optation Explicit and Implicit Coercion

Kotter and Schlesinger set above Six change approaches to deal with resistance to change.

Types of Change
DOWNSIZING Approaches to downsizing: Retrenchment Downscaling Downscoping

 Does not necessarily lead to increased productivity Can be an excessively costly exercise TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE There are a variety of new technologies being used, for example: Customer relationship management (CRM) systems Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Wireless technology Business process reengineering (BPR) Six Sigma MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Enable organizational growth at an accelerated rate Types of mergers and acquisitions: Excessive capacity Neighbouring market expansion New product or market investment Research and development Leveraging to create industries

Key Change Challenges

This table outlines the key change challenges for the three types of change. These issues need to be addressed when managing change:
Downsizing Employee retention. Avoiding hard landings. Minimizing political behavior and loss of teamwork. Survivor syndrome Communication Due diligence Cultural adjustment. Choice of restructuring technique New Technologies Goal synthesis. Choice of technology Identifying political barriers. The IT team. Communication Time frame. Contingency planning Mergers & Acquisitions Cost savings. Cultural adjustment. Balancing change and continuity. Due diligence. Employee retention Contingency planning. Power structure. Communication

Change Diagnosis of Organisation:

Six-box organizational model: The key focus here is on six variables purpose, structure, rewards, helpful mechanisms, relationship and leadership.

This model is useful to maintain awareness of all areas for consideration even though one variable may be identified as the main area for attention.

7-S framework: The 7-S framework: this focuses on seven key components that affect organizational effectiveness structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy and superordinate goals. The interconnectedness of these variables is vital to the success of change.

Star model:

An organization is effective when the five components of organizational design strategy, structure, processes and later capability, reward systems and people practices are in alignment.

Change On Culture
Organisational Culture refers to the pattern of basic assumptions, values, norms, and artefacts shared by organisation members. Culture provides guidelines for employee behaviour, interaction patterns, measurement of work, and expectations. There are at least three layers or levels of corporate culture. At the first level, the taken-for-granted assumptions are at the core of organisational culture; these are non-debatable and form the paradigm of the organisation. At the next level, values

and norms describe what is important in the organisation and they are issues that employee can discuss; they are often written down as the mission and goals of the organisation. The shallowest level is artefacts. These are the visible attributes stemming from the deeper values and norms, such observable behaviour of employees, the rules, regulations and physical aspects of the organisation. Change strategies driven by culture articulate a clear create an emotional commitment from employees Change strategies that set on changing merely automatically change the culture; however, changes systems legitimacy. set of values and principles in order to to drive transformational processes. the structures or systems will not in culture will give these structures or

John P Kotter's Eight Steps to Successful Change

American John P Kotter (b 1947) is a Harvard Business School professor and leading thinker and author on organizational change management. Kotter's highly regarded books 'Leading Change' (1995) and the follow-up 'The Heart Of Change' (2002) describe a helpful model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change. Kotter's eight step change model can be summarised as: 1. Increase urgency - inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant. 2. Build the guiding team - get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels. 3. Get the vision right - get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy, focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency. 4. Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people's needs. De-clutter communications - make technology work for you rather than against. 5. Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress and achievements. 6. Create short-term wins - Set aims that are easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones. 7. Don't let up - Foster and encourage determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones. 8. Make change stick - Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, new change leaders. Weave change into culture.

Scope of change management

The purpose of defining these change management areas is to ensure that there is a common understanding among readers. Tools or components of change management include:

Change management process Readiness assessments Communication and communication planning Coaching and manager training for change management Training and employee training development

Sponsor activities and sponsor roadmaps Resistance management Data collection, feedback analysis and corrective action Celebrating and recognizing success

Role of Change Management in an Organization

Change management plays an important role in any organization since the task of managing change is not an easy one. When we say managing change we mean to say that making changes in a planned and systemic fashion. With reference to the IT projects we can say the change in the versions of a project and managing these versions properly. Changes in the organization or a project can be initiated from within the organization or externally. For example a product that is popular among the customers may undergo a change in design based on the triggering factor like a competitive product from some other manufacturer. This is an example of external factor that triggers a change within the organization.

Role of Change Agent:Executives are looking for where the change process can best be managed. Most business strategies require major changes in people-related issues; Human Resource professionals develop and manage the key people systems needed to support organizational change. 1) Build relationships with clients: Forming partnerships with mutual responsibility for the outcomes of the change effort. Because the risk is higher than with most other HR roles the level of trust required is much higher. 2) Set a Leadership Agenda: Defining the ongoing role for leaders, such as communications, role modeling, reinforcement of desired behaviours etc. This requires the HR executive to understand intimately the dynamics, history and competencies of the leadership team and to have the tenacity to insist on the agendas accomplishment. 3) Solve Problems: Recommending solutions, a common expectation of HR professionals is not the same as solving problems. When it comes to the change agent role, the problems encountered are often loaded with emotional and political dynamics. 4) Implement Plans to Achieve Change Goals: - Successful organizational change on any significant scale can be attributed to the right strategy and appropriate change in organization culture.

Skills of Change Agent:1) Communicate ideas clearly, concisely, and precisely both orally and in writing. 2) Listen to others and incorporate their ideas and perspectives 3) Accommodate individual differences (cultural, socioeconomic, global, etc.) in your decisions and actions and be able to negotiate across these differences. 4) Engage in self-assessment, self-reflection, and analysis. 5) Reflect on what is happening to make meaning, gain perspective and understanding.

6) Engage in civil discourse and debate. 7) Mediate and resolve conflicts 8) Analyze power, structures of inequality, and social systems that govern individual and communal life. 9) Recognize the global implications of their actions. 10) Span boundaries. 11) Challenge the status quo effectively when appropriate 12) Creatively and collaboratively solve problems using critical thinking skills; search for families of solutions for complex multi-faceted issues. 13) Collaborate, network, develop alliances and coalitions, build teams 14) Involve others, inspire and excite participants, engender support and commitment. 15) See the big picture and the larger goal and understand the need for systemic change. 16) Adjust to the diverse and changing needs of both individuals and society as a whole. 17) Set realistic and clearly defined goals and objectives. 18) Be both a leader and a follower, as necessary. 19) See the paths, small steps, for changes needed for a more sustainable future, convert it into a tasklist and timeline, and follow through effectively. 20) Tolerate ambiguity and cope effectively with change.

Forces in Change Management :1)Globalization:A convergence of international activities such as the increase in overseas production of goods and services; increasing consumer demands in emerging markets worldwide; declining barriers to international trade aided by rapidly changing technology, have created a globalized economy in which inter-dependency among countries has emerged as the norm today.

2)Technological Change:
Technology is like a two-edged sword that can make our lives easier or worse. The Internet has revolutionized the way in which information is exchanged, communication facilitated and commerce conducted. Technology is rapidly changing and effective management demands more knowledge in these areas in order for companies to manage their resources and develop, maintain or keep their competitive edge.

3)Knowledge Management:-

Driving forces such as shifts in buyer demographics and preferences; technology, product and market innovation; changes in society, consumer attitudes and lifestyle all demand new ideas. This has created a need for knowledge workers. Knowledge workers comprise a company's intellectual capital and are made up of creative people with novel ideas and problem-solving skills. Managing its knowledge assets can give a company a competitive edge as it effectively utilizes the expertise, skills, intellect, and relationships of members of the organization.

4)Cross-boundaries Collaboration:An important part of knowledge management is effectively managing organization-wide collaboration. Use of appropriate technology and applications such as a virtual private networks; VoIP, e-mail, social networking websites such as Face Book, and even companysponsored blogs can facilitate communication between an organization and its stakeholders, and help in different types of internal and external collaborative processes. An example of a tool that can be used in cross-boundaries collaboration might be an easily accessible online database that provides a central source of information to employees, customers, or suppliers. 5) Nature of the Workforce 6) Economic Shocks 7) Competition 8) Social Trends 9) World Politics etc.

Eight Staged Process Of Change

1. Initiation: vocalization of need to change 2. Motivation: involving people in the detailed consideration of the proposed change 3. Diagnosis: searching for main cause of symptom 4. Information Collection: about diagnosis and development of alternative approach 5. Deliberation: evaluating alternatives
6. Action Proposal

7. Implementation: translating proposed ideas into action 8. Stabilization: internalizing the change and making it the part of organizations life

Change management process

The change management process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team or project leader would follow to apply change management to a project or change. Based on Prosci's research of the most effective and commonly applied change, most change management processes contain the following three phases: Phase 1 - Preparing for change (Preparation, assessment and strategy development)

Phase 2 - Managing change (Detailed planning and change management implementation) Phase 3 - Reinforcing change (Data gathering, corrective action and recognition)

Figure - Change Management Process