Managing Change - Beitler - Case Study Example

Name Instructor Course Date Managing Change 1. Introduction Organisational change is mostly stimulated by vital external forces, for instance, extensive cuts in funding, remarkable increases in services and declined market opportunities. Typically, organisations undertake structural, strategic or technical shifts in the organisation to advance to a different level in the organisation life cycle. These developments may include shifting from a vastly reactive organisation to a sufficiently proactive stable environment (Hussey 254). Management of change is a set of process administered to ascertain significant changes are implemented in a systematic and controllable manner. One of the objectives of management change is the configure people and culture with strategic changes in the organisation, to overcome change resistance so as to increase engagement and attainment of the organisation’s goals for efficient transformation. Achieving sustainable changes in the organisation begins with an understanding of the organisation’s current state, followed by the execution of targeted and appropriate strategies. A comprehensive strategy of managing change would result in the achievement of desired objectives, develop a sense of ownership, facilitate measurable and sustainable improvements and also fabricate measures to respond to future changes (Graetz, et al 357). 2. Description of the project Beitler started his career at Bain and Company, an international management consulting firm in the United States. As a CPA, he was initially to accounting and auditing engagements of the organisation. While he clearly observed the significance of the work, he did not find the job to be exceptionally fulfilling. He did not find himself making any impact on the organisation’s future effectiveness. Eventually, he had the chance to work in the company’s management advisory services (MAS) practice with a large number of clients from different industries. Creating strategic plans and adjusting structures within the entire organisation were quite exciting to Beitler. However, he started to question the effectiveness of the high-flying plans and restructuring. Beitler doubted whether everything was changing. Certainly, there was a slight change in the financial statements, and in most cases, the financial statements looked worse. Beitler developed two approaches for implementing change in an organisation. These were organisational learning (OL) and organisational development (OD) approaches to organisational change. OL consultants focused on creating learning programmes that will enhance learning in workers and groups. However, with the OL center on individuals and groups, it was mostly complicated to see how the company benefited from the changes implemented (Lunenburg 5). The OD practitioners centered on group intervention processes. These include conflict management and collective decision making processes. These interventions appeared to have short-term effects on implementation of organisational changes as noted by Beitler. Lastly, after many years of irritations as a facilitator, consultant, manager, and leader of change efforts, Beitler created a systematic strategy-driven approach to implementing and planning organisational change. The strategy-driven approach developed for organisational change presumes that each organisation is more efficient when all the forces are pulling in a similar direction. Restructuring interventions, team building, or conflict resolutions are doomed to fail unless all members of the organisation become aware of the organisation’s mission, and strategies used to fulfill the mission. The first step for change proposers and OC consultants is to be sure the organisation has well-crafted strategic plan which indicates clearly how the senior management proposes to achieve the organisation’s mission. Commonly, the organisation may have a fuzzy mission and an idealistic strategic course of action. In such instances, the OC must recommend for a strategic planning conference with the senior managing team. Once the organisation is assured to have a well-crafted, and well communicated strategic course of action, the change leaders or OC consultants must ascertain that the present organisational culture, structure, and workforce will sustain the strategy. Invariably, efforts to implement even the best-developed strategies will not succeed if the organisation’s culture, structure, and workforce are not supportive. The strategic plan is the most essential target for change at an organisational level since it affects everything that happens within the organisation. Any attempt to change the organisation’s culture, structure, or workforce without aligning them properly to the strategic plan will be wearisome, and fruitless (Hargreaves 12). Senior managers must take the responsibility of drafting an applicable strategic plan. Beitler also supported the idea of increasing workers participation in the planning processes, but the ultimate responsibility of strategic planning belongs to the senior managers. There is no alternative to this leadership responsibility. The function of the OC consultant in the planning process is to act as a facilitator. The OC consultant assists the organisation in positioning itself in the competitive environment. This process requires a detailed analysis of the external environment threats and opportunities, as well as an internal examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the company (Durant 4). 3. Analysis of Change 3.1: General Observations Change is a common part of an organisation’s life cycle. In fact, the capacity to enact significant change is essential for an organisation’s competitive triumph. However, successful management of change is both intense and challenging. This section explores the axiom change and discusses the complexities that managers and leaders face when tackling change in an organisation. Not only must managers foresee the content of change, they also ought to handle the characteristic features of change such as the global environment, dynamic workforce, and dramatic technological advancements. This section also introduces the concept of change, its organisational components, and some crucial approaches to management. The business world and management are not an exemption to the necessity for change. An endless inventory of factors that influence the business world may be listed from the broad effect of global markets to unconventional behavior of workers. In spite of its appeal, organisational change is versatile and so much complicated that it cannot be rendered by applying a single linear, stepwise approach. As with any complicated phenomenon, the most rational starting point is to gain a clear understanding of the problem and variables enclosed within that frame of organisational change. It is significant for managers not to leap into change if they have no understanding of the costs of their actions. There are various ways of achieving change in an organisation, but the simplest way is to begin by appreciating the complexity of change, and comprehension of the elementary theories of change. The strain of organizational change is simplified on the basis of its significance to the success. As the characteristic objective of change is to provide improvements in an organisation’s performance as soon as possible, change is typically associated with improved organisational efficiency. Change is also concerned with creating a strategy, structure, system, culture, and human resources that are adapted to the organisation’s mission and environment. 3.2: Change Drivers There has never been an era where change has failed to occur. Nowadays, the unpredictability of factors that lead to change in organisations has increased, and rate of responses to such changes has also risen among organisations so as to stay in the game. A lot of organisations seem to be in a continuous state of change, and the spaces between one adjustment to another tend to disappear. Technological advances continue to gather speed, so the pace at which obsolescence takes place also increasing. Organisations cannot overlook developments that yields advantages over their competitors, and is only extremely rare that a new development may be substituted for an older one without causing changes in jobs, structure, skills, and often culture. Competition is also on the rise, and becoming more global. Organisations are compelled to reach the costs and standard of quality achieved by pacemaker in the industry. Many industries are served on a global basis and in these environments it is no longer reasonable to think in single-country isolation. This trend is presumed to be more imperative with the rise of Internet and E-Commerce. Customer’s demand is also increasing, and nobody accepts low quality goods or poor services. To be competitive, organisations must respond rapidly to customer needs, and these factors can result in change over time. It is no longer prudent for an organisation to disregard the way customer expectations and needs are changing. Wise managers will strive to stay ahead of these changes in the organisation. These changes mean the organisation has to periodically alter the way it interacts with its customers, which means different services, structures, systems, and culture. Privatisation of publicly owned businesses has continued to rise with the disappearance of their monopolistic protection. This is a global trend, and even if the ownership does not transform, new systems are often introduced to create market forces and competition. Countries demographic profile is also changing. In most European Union countries and the U.S, the proportion of younger people is declining while that of older people is rising. This will result in continued pressures to these countries and organisations. Contemporary national matters include the increased burden of health-care and pension provision, and the likelihood of rising the national retirement age. Corporate concerns will include finding methods of dealing shortages in skills, changes in attitude to the deployment of older people, and issues of motivation in flat organisational structures that provide little opportunities for promotion (The University of Adelaide 15). 3.3: Change Perspectives and Assumptions As a universal rule, the objective of change is formulating an organisation into being more productive by devising ways of developing or supporting its competitive advantages. To the leaders of change, this reveals that the process of strategizing is crucial, sustained by careful planning and before a rigorous programme of implementation. Occasionally, an organisation’s strategy is sufficient in bringing up the changes it needs to be competitive and perform at elevated levels. This is to say that if change is undertaken with the intent of improving the alignment of an organisation and its marketplace, then the probability of its success is high. Change is identical to the planning technique and the concept of strategic positioning. Moreover, analysing competitors, goal setting, risk management, careful review of resource distribution, and performance measurement are key prerequisites in conventional change-strategy formulation. Structural change requires managers to think about their intentions, their workers capabilities, and the competitive and environmental context. Even if, the structures, strategies and systems that come with change are smoothly introduced, there is a possibility of everything going wrong if the human part of change is not managed properly. It common for people to feel uncomfortable with change and either try to evade it or disregard it especially if they see the company’s change as illicit or unanticipated (Stephen 223). 3.4: Resistance to Change and the Role of Leadership It is extremely difficult to evade change since new concepts promote growth of an organisation as well as its members. Change in an organisation occurs for many reasons, and creates new opportunities; however, it is often met with criticism from conservative groups of individuals (Lunenburg 8). Poor Communication Changes in an organisation begin with key decision makers. It is the duty of these policy makers to pass the details of the decisions to their team members and ensure that all complaints and questions are handled changes is implemented. Unfortunately, as rumors of the changes spread through the hierarchy, details are often twisted and members end up receiving imprecise, second hand information. Therefore, poor communication may result in resistance to change in an organisation. Self-Interest Self-image often interferes with people‘s capacity to adapt to change. Some people will opt to retain the status quo to advance their own agendas, whereas others have diverse motivations. In the long run, workers acting on their personal motives, instead of the organisation’s greater good, will resist these changes. Feeling Excluded Organisation’s often implore advance input to make sure everybody has a chance to voice their thoughts and feelings. However, if workers hear of an abrupt change, in which they have no input, they will feel barred from the process of making decisions and perhaps be offended Lack of Trust Trust plays a significant role in running a successful organisation. When members of an organisation feel they cannot trust one another or the key decision makers, it then becomes extremely difficult for them to acknowledge the organisational changes. They may credit these changes for some negative reasons or presume they will lose their jobs eventually. Strong leadership is needed to direct the process of change management in any organisation. Unworthy leaders who simply provide are not sufficient in inspiring workers attitude towards organisational change. People need to be involved in the organisation’s decision to embrace changes in the environment. 4. Evaluation of the change Intervention Beitler used a strategic planned approach to facilitate senior management into implementing new changes in the organisation. The effective steps used in facilitating the changes include: I) Review of the Company’s Current Mission Statement Each member of the senior management team was to share his/her vision for the organisation. The company’s CEO will then share his vision last. Once everyone had shared his opinion, an agreed-upon vision in the structure of a mission statement was drafted on a flipchart and taped on the notice board. This process appeared to be time consuming, but was necessary for guiding the subsequent discussions. The company’s mission statement is to provide essential insights and information that assist individuals, private companies and the society perform to their potential. The mission statement clearly defines the objective (and customers) of the organisation. II) SWOT Analysis This step is similar to step 1, and its implementation is also time consuming. The OC consultant must strive to keep everyone involved in an environment of elevated liveliness and bold debate. The initial half in SWOT investigation is the opportunities and threats (OT). The discussion began with analysis of current threats, current responses, before moving to future threats within current responses in an organisation. Lastly, the external analysis involved identification of all external investors and their pledges. The external investors include suppliers, customers, regulators and other associate groups. The last half of SWOT is the strengths and weakness (SW). The strengths and flaws of the organisation must be openly and honestly discussed by all stakeholders involved in the change. III) Brainstorming Alternatives Here, the OC must develop some creative thinking. The aim of these alternatives is to maximise opportunities and strengths so as to minimise weaknesses and threats. The OC should be ready to stimulate his thinking outside the box. IV) Feasibility and Consequences It is essential not to take short cuts in this step. Each alternative strategy must be analysed based on several criteria before implementation is realised. V) Choice of a Strategy VI) Analysis of the Organisational Support Organisational support is crucial for the successful attainment of a strategic plan. VII) Drafting the Strategic Plan VIII) Development of Tactics These tactics are the steps that ought to be taken when executing the strategic plan. IX) Assignment of Responsibilities X) Communication and Follow-up Best crafted strategic plans will not succeed if they are not communicated properly. 5. Conclusion The main objective of managing change is to engage workers and persuade their adoption of a new method of undertaking their previous jobs. Whether it is a system, process, job responsibility or organisational structural change, a mission is only successful when individual workers change their workflow and behaviors. This is the essence of managing change in an organisation, mobilising the individual change needed for an initiative to be completed successfully and provide value to the organisation (Bovey 9). 6. Recommendation If changes occurring in your organisation tend to pose negative effects on people and processes resulting in unintended outcomes, appropriate measures and skilled resources must be implemented to counter these adverse effects. Change is a process, managing it, controlling it, and achieving it is also a process that managers should not view with a single approach. Actions and approaches must be customised to fit the organisation’s circumstances. 7. Works Cited Hussey, D E. How to Manage Organisational Change. London, Angleterre: Kogan Page, 2000. Print. Fiona Graetz, Malcolm Rimmer, Aaron Smith, & Ann Lawrence. Managing Organisational Change. John Wiley & Sons, Australia: McDougall Street, Milton, 2011. Print. Fred C. Lunenburg. “Forces For and Resistance to Organizational Change” National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision 27. 4 (2010): 1-10. Print. Margaret B. Hargreaves. “Evaluating System Change: A Plan Guide” 1. 1 (2010): 1-22. Print. Michael W. Durant. “Managing Organisational Change” 1. 1 (1999): 1-7. Print. The University of Adelaide. “Leading Change, Transition & Transformation.” Life Impact 1. 1 (2008): 1-21. Print. Thomas, Stephen J. The Workbook for Successfully Managing Change in Organizations: A Users Guide. New York: Industrial Press, 2002. Print. Wayne H. Bovey. “Resistance to Organizational Change: The Role of Cognitive and Affective Processes. Leadership & Organizational Development 22.8 (2011): 1-11. Print. Read More