Change Management

"For The success of the organization, change management is inevitable." Discuss this statement in the reference to the contents in the Organization Behaviour Course and the dynamism of the organizations in the 21st century.

Change is the only thing that is constant; every minute every day there are changes everywhere. Whether minor or major to an individual, an organization, a country or the environment a change is a change and people need to prepare themselves and manage these changes for the smooth running of things.

Changes to an organization may be caused by internal or external factors, the internal forces may include a new CEO, introduction of a new system or equipment, organizational culture change, performance of the organization whereas the external factors may include competition, changes in government policies, cost of raw materials, technology, political etc.

Even though change is inevitable people are still reluctant to embrace it and hence resistance to change. So the question is why do people resist change? People may resist change because:

* They are afraid that the change will be a deadlock in their career or current performance.

* They are used to doing things the same way for many years.

* The resources available to implement the change are limited.

* They are afraid that the change will reduce or affect their powers.

* They are afraid of the uncertainties that are brought about by the change.

In addition the focus of the executives in a business and that of the employees is totally different, the executives are concerned with the investment involved and how the change will impact on the financial improvement as well as the customers whereas the employees wonder what the change means to them, do they still have a job, do they have the skills and knowledge to work in a different environment. In short they feel threatened by the change whereas the executives expect results. Due to this therefore it is important to manage change as well as the employees otherwise there will be loss of productivity, customer dissatisfaction, employee turnover etc. in the organization.

Change Management

Change management is the process that focuses on the implementation of changes to reduce costs and maximize benefits. Its main focus is people though it also focuses on the process as well as technology.

According to (Hiatt & Creasey, 2003) Change management is about managing people in a changing environment so that business changes are successful and the desired results are achieved. It is basically helping people through the change process. It is the systematic and structured approach to dealing with change so as to achieve the desired results (Blokdijk, 2008).

It may take the form of organizational or individual change management. The organization will focus on communication, training, culture or value system whereas the individual change management focuses on the tools and techniques

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