Change in management is an effort to deviate from normal operations to new processes, and in a different way believed to be better than the actual procedures. Managers play a central role in the process of implementing change; they are concerned with exercising the functions of management, including planning, staffing, controlling, organizing, and supervising.
However, change faces resistance from the employees because of fear of loss of jobs, financial security, and fear of the unknown. In this regard, this paper focuses on importance of implementing change in an organization and the role of managers in the implementation process.
There are different types of changes in an organization, which include missionary changes, machinery changes, tactical changes, and operational changes. Hershey, Blanchard, and Johnson (2008) affirm that the reasons for change can be caused by either internal or external reasons. Some of the external reasons include legal requirement from the government, high competition, the costs of raw materials – which may be lower or higher, technological advancement, pressures from outside, and inadequate labour.
Internal causes of change come from the organization itself, especially when there is a decline in earnings. This is done to improve processes and produce high quality goods. A change in management can also bring about change because new managers will come in with new skills. Organizations change to employ new technologies, and it is the role of managers to plan for the integration of new systems in their organizations. Furthermore, when people’s morale is low, change can boost it for efficient productivity.
Change starts with the examination of the current process to determine the need for change and the extent of change. When implementing change, managers must lead other employees. They are believed to be mediums of change and their role is to make sure that the process of change takes place in a systematic way until all the processes are changed and are permanent.
Managers should have good management skills to encourage others into change procedure. They must be confident, have strong interpersonal skills, flexible and ability to obtain ideas from different sources which have experienced change process (Montana & Bruce, 2008).
Kotter and Cohen (2002) argue that some employees are usually contented with change, but others are not. The refusal of change is sometimes brought about by the fear of the unknown. The employees may not trust those who are implementing change because they fear loosing their jobs and their status.
Some may view change as an interruption of culture traditions or group relationships, and this may cause personality conflicts. Employees will agree for a change when they believe that it will be to their benefit or for personal gain, and if they are given a chance to participate in change decision making.
The role of managers is to prepare and evaluate each person’s response to change. They must have a good attitude towards resistance and should seek individual’s opinions towards change and educate people about change, involving them in decision making brings out positive results.
The manager ensures that they involve even those people who are at the lower level of management because they can make the change process to fail or succeed. Employees, especially those who are in the departments to be affected by change, should be talked to, especially when deciding the steps to take to initiate change. Managers are supposed to get feedback from the employees, and their suggestions put into considerations.
When change is initiated it is important for the manager to monitor the progress. This is essential because of many forces that are likely to disrupt the progress such as resistance. The manager informs people about the progress of change. Selecting leaders among those who resist change can bring good results without intimidating the effort to change although sometimes when these leaders feel that they are trapped, they are likely to resist completely than when they were never involved.
Additionally, managers deal with fear from the employees by answering questions and tackling rumors concerning change. This can be achieved by creating question and answer sessions with all those whose processes are to be affected. Resistance can also be avoided by discussing how change will defend people and increase equality throughout the organization.
Managers sometimes promise pay rise where necessary, and rewards for work well done. When all else has failed, managers can force change and threaten those who refuse with job loss, not being promoted, transfers, or even removal from office. This is applicable where change is expected to improve the organizational performance (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2008).
Moreover, there are several steps that are followed in the change process. The steps include assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Assessment involves thorough examination of the environment to determine the strong points and the weakness of the organization.
It is in this step that the change required is recognized and the major issues such as resources are put into concern. The current position is analyzed and a change method is formulated. Additionally, the risks and effects that go together with the change are identified.
Second, planning entails setting goals and objectives to be achieved because objectives give a justification of undertaking the choice of activities. The areas that need improvement are examined and the surrounding trends for openings are analyzed. Processes which have become inefficient such as serving customers are examined for improvement. Information from trusted external sources is gathered, and communication to the employees about the plan is established.
Implementation is the next step, which entails change from the current processes to new ones. This is an important stage because it will determine whether the change will take place or not.
Change implementation is prone to resistance from employees because some prefer the processes to continue as they are. In this case, the reasons for change should be explained to workers. Montana and Bruce (2008) contend that communication and involvement of people in plan and implementation is very important. Likewise, training is done in this stage for people to develop new skills.
Evaluation comes after implementation, and it entails assessing the impact of change. This is to determine whether the goals and objectives were met and to check whether the plans that were set have deviated. Any problem caused by the change of processes is identified and the user’s sensitivity of change is analyzed. If all the processes have been approved, then a new process takes effect immediately.
In conclusion, change is important in any organization and requires a wide range of skills such as people skills, corporation skills, and logical skills. Having these skills would lead to a better change which will have an impact, especially on the finances, process efficiency, leadership assurance, and communication effectiveness throughout the organization. Change in workforce could mean better processing of goods and customer satisfaction.
Business settings have become dynamic in today’s businesses and nothing remains constant or predictable and thus, change has occurred due to technological changes with improved communication channels and this improves customer demands and so, change is vital in any organization.
References
Gomez-Mejia, L. R., Balkin B. D., & Cardy, R. L. (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change (3rd ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hershey, P., Blanchard, K., & Johnson D. (2008). Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Kotter, J. P. & Cohen D. S. (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Havard Business School Publishing.
Montana, P. & Bruce H. (2008). Management. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.