Managing change effectively

Introduction

Change is usually happening in the organization and every day, there are new projects and initiatives launched to improve performance, enhance competitive advantage, and increase profits. Change management refers to the approach of driving adoption and usage so that initiatives deliver expected results and outcomes.

Change management

The ability to deliver results on multiple changes tends to allow the organization to achieve their strategic vision and also thrive in today’s changing landscape. The application of change management tends to enable the organization to deliver results on each change more effectively and also build competencies that grow the capacity of the organization to tackle more changes. Change management is essential as it helps in ensuring that suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders understand and also support the change. It also helps in creating an opportunity for development of best practices, team development, and leadership development.

Change occurs when the organization is making a transition from its current state to the desired future state. Managing change effectively will involve planning and implementing the change in the organization in a manner that will minimize employee resistance and the cost to the organization (Reiss, 2012). As a way of managing change effectively, it will be essential to check that employees affected by the change agree with or understand the need for change. It is also necessary to provide them with a chance of deciding how to manage change and be involved in planning and implementation of the change. I will consider the use of face-to-face communication as a method of handling sensitive aspects of the organizational change management. I will encourage the managers to ensure they communicate face-to-face with employees as it is a good method of conveying and developing understanding. Involving and informing people is a good method of managing change as it creates an opportunity for others to participate in the planning and implementation of the change (Reiss, 2012). It helps in enlightening burdens and spreads the organizational load; thus, creating a sense of ownership and the familiarity among the people affected.

The biggest hurdle to encounter during change process is resistance to change from employees. The resistance from employees can be as a result of lack of understanding of why the change is happening, loss of control and ownership of the work processes, and the fear of the future state. Resistance to change tends to have a long-lasting and detrimental impact on the return on investment that the project delivers. Therefore, it is essential to manage resistance (Stansverry et al. 2008). As a way of overcoming this hurdle, education and communication will help in minimizing the negative reaction. I will consider informing employees of the nature of the change and also the logic behind it before it happens. Another obstacle can be poor support and alignment with the middle management. Middle managers may be reluctant to support the change as they may perceive that the change does not align with their operational objectives. The lack of support is very common with middle managers.  As a method of overcoming the barrier, it will be essential to ensure that middle managers have full involvement in the decision-making process. In this way, the managers will get the chance to learn several aspects of the change so that they can also feel valued in the organization.

Conclusion

Creating a successful organizational change is not easy; however, the management should consider different factors to ensure that they fully implement the change successfully.

Reference

Center, A Jackson, P, Smith, S & Stansverry, F (2008). Public relations practices: the managerial case studies and problems. Prentice Hall

Reiss, M (2012). Change management. Books on Demand

 

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