Organizational change can occur due to the introduction of new information technologies. This may affect the structure of work flow in the company, reporting lines of employees, and product offered, among other aspects.
The leaders at various levels in the management chain are critical in organizational change management. They may be charged with the sourcing of the new technology, deployment of the new technology to the various departments and management of the time frames of implementing the new technology.
Critical to the success of the change and its adoption by the company is the company’s employees. The employees will be using the new technology in the day to day work. As such, any challenges either due to attitudinal problems or lack of technical know-how will impart on them most.
The leaders must, therefore, communicate to the staff on the need for the new technology. The leaders must communicate to the staff on the impact of the new technology to the overall business objective. This is useful in addressing the attitudinal problems of staff that may impede change.
The new technology may also present challenges on the technical front. The leaders must be careful to implement a training session to enable staff to adapt to technology. The training helps the staff understand how new technology differs from the previous technology. This is critical in understanding the process flow of the new technology and how it imparts on them in their duties.
The use of rewards by leaders as encouragement can be critical in the organizational change. Different individuals adapt to changes in different ways. The role of rewards is critical to the people considered to be early adopters and the early majority. The early adopters are employees who have liked the change and hence adapted it.
On the other hand, the early majority is the group waiting to see how the early adopters are using the new technology. Their adoption of the new technology is dependent on seeing effective use of the new technology by the early adopters. The leadership must, therefore, identify early adopters in their team and encourage them to use the technology. One way in which they can be motivated is through awarding them.
This paper has been critical in evaluating the challenges presented to leaders at various levels of managements. It has underlined the significance of leaders as change agents in the institution. It has also attempted to present the different qualities that leaders must have to act as change agents.