Managing Change and Innovation - Essay Example

REFLECTIVE DIARY MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION By Name Class (Course) Instructor (Tutor) Institution The City and State The Date MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION Introduction The most common concepts that come to mind when we speak of organizational change are change, quality, expertise, creativity, and innovation. In the past few decades, a number of different models have developed to bring about organizational change and also improve organizational structures. Different sectors have the feeling to usher in new organizational concepts that will bring about change that will counter the challenges presented by new competitors in the market. Organizations and individuals face the challenge of managing change. Individuals must be able to manage their own change and that of an organization in which they are in order to produce desired outcomes (Todnem, 2005: 370). Change Management The process of changing an organization be it in the production process or its products and service outputs can be a messy and a disappointing task as it is can be satisfying. For organizations to have an effective change it is necessary to develop and systemize the concept of change management and to consider what prerequisites are necessary in order to introduce a change management system. The organization must understand what change is all about and also understand the concept behind it. Change do not always go as planned and sometimes it fails as a result of many things like change fatigue as a result of numerous changes with no good outcomes, culture (how things are done in an organization) among others. In order to manage change, different aspects of change must be understood. The different aspects of change include drivers of change which can be explained as those forces that compel an organization to change, levers of change which are the techniques and tools the organization will use to effect the change, enactors of change which are those factors that either assist in effecting the change or provide resistance to the change and the affecters of change which are the critical variables that influence change. The organization must come up with a framework that it will use to sustain the change one it is facilitated. There are different types of change that can be experienced by an organization in the course of its operations. The first type of change that can befall an organization is the incremental change which happens in periods of equilibrium and in small steps. This type of change aims at doing things better and providing continuous improvement. The discontinuous change, on the other hand, happens when the organizational is in not in equilibrium and it acts like a transformational change that is doing things differently unlike in the past. The other type of change is that which is done after anticipating something is coming and is called anticipatory change. It is effected without clear planning and its aim is to gain a competitive edge and to establish an event that will happen in future. Change management attempts in an organization or any other place is always faced with some kind of resistance. The responses received after a change proposal may come as a commitment to effect the change, indifference in opinion or total resistance. Resistance to change may be any human barrier or structural pressures that get in the way of the said change. The resistance experienced when introducing change management can be effectively avoided by applying the required change on a project at the very beginning. There are several reasons why employees resist organizational change and they are discussed below (Furst & Cable, 2008: 453). Loss of job in the organization- it is not the nature of human beings to effect changes that will impact negatively on their current situation. This means that any administrative and technological change in an organization that will in any way eliminate or reduce the role of an employee will be resisted. Employees will always view this kind of change as not good to their current situation. Forcing this kind of change will not yield the desired results and therefore it demands the organization to have a thoughtful change strategy that will not trigger a stronger resistance. Use of Reinforcing Systems that do not Reward- managers in any organization will always get what they reward. Change management that has no tangible rewards will face resistance from organizational stakeholders. Lack of any kind of reward does not motivate the employees to take any part in effecting the change and support it change for a long time. This means that organization should be willing to alter their reward systems so that they can include the employees. The rewards to be used should not make the process of change expensive. Rewards should not always be in form of money and benefits and they may include engaging your employees in operational decision-making (Stanley at el, 2005: 435). Politics in the Organization- employees may resist change because of politics so that they can show the change is wrong. The change may be resisted to prove that the person in charge of the change is not capable of effecting the change while others may offer resistance because they fear they will lose power in the organization as a result of the change. When instances like this arise in some organization employees will be fully committed to seeing that the effort of change fails. Resistance because of politics in an organization may be frustrating but it is advised to take positive steps to counter such resistances. The Fear of the Unknown- when employees of an organization do not have good information about the change and its impacts they will fear the outcomes of the change. Change must be planned and should not come as a surprise on the organization and its stakeholders. The absence of a good communication system in an organization can sabotage the effort of change as the employees will be informed well and in time. A two-way communication can be used to counter resistance due to fear of the unknown by making sure information is relayed to the junior workers and back to the managers in form of feedback. Poor Timing and the Fear to Fail- sometimes how and when an organization introduces change management can create resistance. Resistance can arise because a particular change management was not introduced at the right time and in the right methods. This means that people may agree with the change but disagree with how it is going to be made. On the other hand, the fear of failing by your employees to successfully effect the change may make them offer resistance. Employers may resist change because they are worried that they will not fit into the new working requirements (Erwin & Garman, 2010: 40). The resistance to change can be countered by having a plan of implementing the change in the organization. The people engineering the change should first establish the main reason why the change is important to the organization and then form a strategic team that will spearhead the change. The strategic team should then start by informing the people in the whole organization and then persuade them to act on the change by removing any barriers to change and by encouraging them to take risks. The team should also come up with short term rewards to motivate the employees and they may also assess the change and make the right adjustments to the program. Innovation Change go hand in hand with innovation and in some ways change may lead to or promote innovation. Change can be interpreted as the gradual development and improvement of the existing status of an organization while innovation is the introduction of new systems, skills, and procedures into an organization. Innovations do not continue with what has been happening in the past but it introduces a new way that was not there at all. Organizational behaviors like being encouraged to take the risk, putting up with failure, looking up to other organizations for better practices and being encouraged to think outside the box promotes innovation (Poole & Van de Ven, 2004: 60). Organizations who act upon the opportunities and possibilities as a result of innovation to effect change will not only survive but also they will successfully compete and even flourish in the face of emerging adverse and fluctuating economic conditions. Innovation can also be used as a tool by entrepreneurs to exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or different services. Innovation in economics combines raw materials, physical and mental labor and capital in a new way. Entrepreneurs must look for sources of innovation and know how to apply them and change their fortunes in any business. Through innovation, organizations enjoy strategic advantages that promote their existence in the market. An innovation of a new product or service gives an organization the strategic advantage that no one else can offer a similar product. Some services can be offered to customers in innovative ways that other competitors cannot match and an example may be internet banking. Intellectual property rights give companies the strategic advantage that no one can use their innovation unless they pay a license or other fee. An organization can decide to be innovative and reconfigure some important parts of an existing process used by many in order to have that competitive edge. The change in context around any system can force people to be more innovative so as to utilize the new context. For example, the rise of users of a particular product can accelerate the process of improving the product through creative ways that will attract more users. The growth of LINUX operating system has been linked to the change in a context where the number of people using it increased. The increased number of people who use the internet has made organizations be innovative and device ways that will engage the internet users. The usage of internet has led to the innovation of mobile banking and online booking of places like hotels and airlines (Brown & Osborne, 2012: 220). Other than the change in a context which may mean change in business environment or change in customer’s needs the other drivers of innovation include technology and intensified competition. Technology is a powerful driving force in the innovative capacity as it pertains to both the evolution of innovations and the way they increase in number. Technology is not only a driver of innovation but also an enabler. If organizations are competing it means that they are aiming at producing the latest innovation in order to hit the market. Therefore, competition is a key driver of innovation and it drives firms to adopt efficient production processes and to offer customers with new products and services. Innovation done in any kind of organization has four different dimensions to it. The first of the four dimension is the product innovation which aims at improving the existing product or coming up with a new product that does the same. Service innovation dimension is one that aims at using a service in different ways to differentiate products of an organization. The dimension of process innovation aims at improving the manufacturing and the process of delivery. Business process innovation optimizes the processes to help customers make business in the simplest way. An innovation cannot be thought of now and the next minute it is being implemented in the market. Good innovation which translates into good and marketable business ideas involves a long and complex process in their creation. The act of improving and finding new applications for existing ideas which defines innovation must undergo a process an innovation process. The process of innovation be split into five steps and the first one is identifying the objectives. An organization must clarify the goals of the business innovation and all the parties in the organization should be involved (Tidd at el, 1997: 100). The analysis step involves the evaluation of the current market situation, customers and their needs and challenges. The level of competition should also be evaluated and look which implemented innovations the organization can learn from. The third step of development and design aims at developing a portfolio of ideas that are based on the information and thoughts gathered in the previous step. The portfolio of ideas may include ways that you could innovate to achieve the goals discussed in step one. Once the ideas are developed a firsthand evaluation and prioritization is done and a series of innovations that can be tested are achieved. The fourth innovation process is the conversion of the ideas into practical innovation products that could be directed toward the identified market. The main idea here is not to launch the innovation fully into the market but to do testing within a limited scope to gauge the customers’ reaction to the new innovation. This is the most important stage of the innovation process as it determines what is modified or changed in the innovation based on customer feedback. The last step of the innovation process is the commercialization where tested innovations are developed into full-scale operations. Conclusion Change management in an organization can be good if it is well thought but sometimes it can be damaging it the implementation process is not well formulated. Change management should be used by organization to increase their productivity by doing the right changes to their existing business plan. Organization should also be very careful with change management because it can make them to be eliminated from the market and cease to exist. Albert Einstein ones said that “we cannot solve the problem with the same thinking we used when we created them”. This means that organizations must be innovative and should not dwell on one way of producing their products and packaging. Innovation should also be thought well before being implemented as they can also make or destroy an organization. This is what I have learned in this class and it will impact my future career positively. References Todnem By, R., 2005. Organisational change management: A critical review.Journal of change management, 5(4), pp.369-380. Tidd, J., Bessant, J.R. and Pavitt, K., 1997. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change (Vol. 4). Chichester: Wiley. Brown, K. and Osborne, S.P., 2012. Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. Routledge. Stanley, D.J., Meyer, J.P. and Topolnytsky, L., 2005. Employee cynicism and resistance to organizational change. Journal of Business and Psychology,19(4), pp.429-459. Furst, S.A. and Cable, D.M., 2008. Employee resistance to organizational change: managerial influence tactics and leader-member exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), p.453. Erwin, D.G. and Garman, A.N., 2010. Resistance to organizational change: linking research and practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(1), pp.39-56. Poole, M.S. and Van de Ven, A.H. eds., 2004. Handbook of organizational change and innovation. Oxford University Press. Read More