Change Management - a Few Steps to Achieve Rapid Results - Essay Example

The paper “Change Management - a Few Steps to Achieve Rapid Results" is an intriguing example of an essay on management. It is the duty of the organization and its leader to provide the employees with an optimal working environment. In that environment, employees will optimize productivity and profit for the organization. The favorable state of recruiting apt employees, effective leadership traits, increasing productivity and good profits, can be actualized and continued, till the achievement of the set goals. But, when the organization does not perform up to expected levels, and in other cases wanted to expand and diversify its operations, the management method has to be changed. This is where the concept of organizational change or change management comes into the picture. That is, change management constitutes the structured changing or transitioning of employees, departments, etc, from a current state to a favorable future state. When this change shows positive results, organizations can extricate from tough situations and achieve success.

Organizations can positively begin their organizational change by strengthening its training process and the recruiting process, with the leader playing a prominent role. This importance of leader has been put forward by the former American President, Roosevelt (cited in Golden and Martin, 2004, p.36), who has said that “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants to be done” When the existing or old employees of the organization lack skill and knowledge about the new processes, the leaders should formulate and implement good training methods, before the organization indulges in change management. Wholesome training will do a world of good for the employees. They will become equipped, skill-wise and knowledge-wise, and will be able to undertake their allocated new works as part of organizational change, with renewed confidence. Also, after recruiting the new staff, organizations should train or coach or mentor the recruited staffs about the processes, for it to manage the changes optimally and to reach the top echelons.

The role of leaders in the post-recruitment period is crucial and multi-pronged. That is, it is the duty of the leader to quickly ‘impose’ his/her assumptions, ideas, principles, culture, etc on the newly recruited employees and thereby form an organizational culture. When the organizational change occurs, the employees will have a slightly unclear thought process, without any clear rules, regulations, work ethics and importantly organizational culture to follow. So, if the leader quickly forms an organizational culture, it will optimize the organizational change. In other cases, if the leader finds the existing culture is quite optimal, then he/she can ‘slightly’ modify it, according to the needs of the change management.

Motivation levels and thereby the contribution levels of the employees to the organizational change can be kept at optimal levels, only if the employees are rightly and ethically rewarded. That is, allocation of rewards, incentives, and promotions to the deserving and apt employees, is an important strategy to keep the motivation at a higher plane. The leaders can quickly get across the tenets of organizational change and the organization’s main targets, by appropriately linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the employees.

During organizational change, leaders and managers should also need to show decisiveness. This should happen, when the employee becomes too lazy, self-seeking, a troublemaker, or having many bad attributes. In those cases, they should show decisiveness, and remove or fire all of them from the organization. This need to remove the wrong people was stressed further by Collins in his work, Level 5 Leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve, published in the prestigious journal, Harvard Business Review. “They got the right people on the bus, moved the wrong people off, ushered the right people to the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it” (Collins cited in Grissom, 2006, p. 19).

An important component that should be incorporated into an organization, during the organizational change is effective communication channels. Effective communication channels can be established by focusing on the physical environment of the organization, with the leader taking the initiative. Leaders and managers should realize that effectively conveying and receiving information through communications (internal and external), increases substantially the performance of the employees and the organization. For that, the leader should go for an open-office layout. When the organization undergoes change, the cubicles should be preferred instead of offices with doors. Because, in an office set up, where teamwork will have a prominent place, face to face interaction would bring in more ideas, than one calling other into a closed room and having a closed discussion. Also, this will give employees equal and more opportunities, using which, they can contribute optimally to the organizational change.

When an organization is underperforming or wanting to expand its operations further, it will indulge in change management. As part of change management, the leader should initiate training programs, implement a common organizational culture, optimize motivation, exhibit decisiveness and actualize effective communication channels. When a leader initiates the above practices as part of organizational change with the fullest cooperation from the employees, the organization will be a great success.