Organisational Change Management
Topics covered include changing behaviours, organisational transitioning, cultural transforming, renewing, reinventing, recreating, revitalising, repositioning and the human journey of change.
"...To create an organisation for handling an increasingly turbulent, complex and uncertain world..."
Edgar Schein, 1997
Historically organisational change management can be divided into 4 areas:
i) business as machines (mechanisation resulted in organisations being compared with machines, ie cogs and wheels; this resulted in a mechanical approach)
ii) business as organisational hierarchies (the last decades of the 20th century saw the start of the information age, ie information stored in computers, etc; focus became more on ways of transforming corporate organisational structures)
iii) business as a collection of people(at the start of the 21st century and despite technology claiming an increasing role in organisations, it was recognised that organisations are not machines or organisational structures but a group of people
...while a more formalised change process has emerged, attempts to transform companies also focus on leadership, user experience, and the human side of companies..."
Mike Raia, 2021
iv) businesses as organisations made for change (organisations
"...can prepare for the inevitable changes by applying tools and processes that expedite changes and even create positions within the organisation that facilitate transformation..."
Mike Raia, 2021
This requires flexibility to be encoded in organisational DNA
"...For any organisation to remain afloat, it must always position itself to competitively struggle for the limited resources from an ever-changing and dynamic environment, not only responding to change but looking out for change...... change is a regular feature of organisational life.....The mere mention of change can generate feelings of nervousness and tension, and as the change begins to take shape, organisational members may feel a sense of uncertainty and confusion. This may be due to the fear of the unknown......Organisations can be seen as a system of roles and stream of activities designed to accomplish shared purpose..."
David Aninkan, 2018
"...Management is always facing the question how to respond to change. The dilemma is usually whether to change objectives and strategies of the organisation, or the technology, or human resources, or the organisation structure, or the business environment..."
O. T. Olajide as quoted by David Aninkan, 2018
Planning and implementing organisational change can be described as being building a ship while it is sailing or a plane while it is flying, ie you need to keep the organisation operating while you are making appropriate changes. It can be like having 2 jobs:
"...Organisational change is not only a rational activity but also an emotional one that challenges deep-seated human fears and inspires human hope...... change is predominantly about matters of the heart, not the head. Organisations can operate in mechanical ways, but they also comprise living human beings who want meaningful work that allows them to have a life outside of work..."
David Aninkan, 2018
NB Effective change management is more than rational and logical in nature, it involves emotions.
Organisational capacity
"...Organisational capacity for change is positively correlated with financial and environmental performance. Common sense and systematic empirical research has shown that the more your environment is changing, or is about to change, the more important your organisational capacity to change is..."
W. Judge as quoted by David Aninkan, 2018
Resistance
"...Resistance is an inseparable aspect of change. This is primarily because people are uncomfortable with the new, the strange and the unknown and they would prefer stability even though progress is never attained by being static..."
As many change projects are not successful, ie estimates of up to 70% failure rate, it has been suggested that this could indicate a fundamental lack of reliable approaches, concepts, frameworks, techniques, etc for implementing and managing organisational change.
"...There is a wide range of contradictory and confusing theories and approaches..."
B. Burnes as quoted by David Aninkan, 2018
NB
"...change management is the process of continually renewing and organisation's direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of its external and internal customers..."
Moran et al as quoted by David Aninkan, 2018
This means that change is linked with other approaches like strategy, technological improvements, organisational development, etc.
Traditionally it was thought that you needed stability to improve performance, ie people needed routines to be effective. Yet change results in instability. More recently it has been suggested that people need to undergo continuous change. Therefore
"...Change management means to plan, initiate, realise, control, and stabilise the change process. On both the corporate and personal level by handling obstacles carefully......change management has also been defined as the effective management of business change such that executive leaders, managers and front-line employees work in concert to successfully implement the needed process, technology or organisational change......managing a change process is as important as the change itself..."
David Aninkan, 2018
In addition to the nature and type of changes, the management of the changes is important.
This is required to create readiness and awareness for change, commitment and change the mindset and attitude of change recipients to be more receptive to change, ie overcome resistance, etc.
Handling of change involves:
- analysing situational factors (this includes resistance, power dynamics, use of information, analysis, external and internal environments, etc.)
- determining the optimal speed of change (how quickly the change should be implemented, etc)
Interrelated skills (3) required in change management:
i) transforming skills (supporting a risk-taking environment; having self-awareness and self-confidence; articulating the benefits of change and the journey required; using action learning)
ii) mental skills (think holistically, ie understand the big picture)
iii) skills of empathy and understanding of feelings (use of symbols, analogies, metaphors, rules of thumb; ability to tolerate stress and resist confronting issues)
NB These skills demand the use of both the left and right sides of the brain, ie the whole brain!
Strategies to implement the change (5):
i) directive (use authority to impose the required change; increasing the chance of resistance occurring)
ii) expert (usually linked with technological change; generally linked with smaller operational change rather than across the whole organisation)
iii) negotiating (willing to accept adjustments and concessions to achieve buy-in so that resistance to the change is reduced; could result in increasing costs and time delays)
iv) educating (involves changing people's values and beliefs so that they support the change and are committed to the organisational values, etc
"...Winning hearts and minds......is a complex process that involves a mixture of activities such as communication, persuasion, education, training and selection..."
S.A Burtonshaw et al as quoted by David Aninkan, 2018
v) participative (has a number of advantages like
"...changes are more likely to be widely acceptable over other strategies; it promotes an active involvement of people and is likely to increase their commitment to, and enthusiasm for, the change process..."
David Aninkan, 2018
However, it could be more costly and take longer.