Importance of change management in organizations

Change is the result of a structured and planned process to make an organization more efficient and profitable (Thompson, 2018). It is highly important that companies move with the times and adjust operations in response to increased competition, technological advances, stakeholder expectations and other pressures. Business change is the act of moving from where the company is now to where the company wants to be (Thompson, 2018). The change in an organization could be relatively small, such as improving the organization’s leave procedures, to massively transformative, such as introducing a new department.

The most common causes for organizational changes are as follows.

New leadership at the helm of the company or within its departments

This is a cause that the author has experienced. I work in the BPO industry where there was a change in the management due to the previous CEO’s resignation. Once the new CEO arrived, the first thing that the management did was to change the structure of the departments.  

Shifts in the organizational team structure

I have experienced this cause as well. Due to different reasons, sometimes, the management might find that the existing structure of how the operations run in a certain company or department in an organization is not feasible. Therefore, it is important to change it and try out a different team structure.

The implementation of new technology

Technology is one of the major things that is affecting most organizations in the world. Since the computer was invented in the 1940s, and the internet comes into play in the 1980s the technology has been in a long run. People are in the process of finding new tools to work faster and more easily. Therefore, Most organizations are in the process of identifying how these new technologies can be used to make company operations more efficient and productive.

The adaptation of the new business model

The author thinks that this is one of the most crucial reasons for organizational change because it plays a major role towards change resistance. A certain organization’s plan to make a profit is called a business model (Kopp, 2022). Due to different reasons, the organization may find that the existing model is outdated and doesn’t add value towards the mission of the organization anymore, therefore it needs to be changed.

The process of guiding an organizational change to a successful resolution is called organizational change management (Storbiersky, 2020). According to Storbiersky, effective change management includes three major areas.

Preparation – How an organization prepare for the change

Implementation – How the change is being implemented in the organization

Follow through – How does the review process works and what needs to be adjusted within the new change

Covid 19 virus attack is the major reason why most organizations are in a challenging time. As the world is emerging from the pandemic into a time of geopolitical turmoil, it is evident that tough times are ahead which will affect people as well as organizations across the globe (Lee, 2022). Inflation is high, oil prices are volatile, supply chains are threatened, stock markets are down, interest rates are rising, earning reports for many are below expectations, and organizations are starting to cut back to make their numbers.

In today’s world, the pace of change adoption is high. Today’s workforce is open to embracing change and wants to work for organizations that are changing. But the interest is not sufficient if there is no proper management. Therefore, organizations need to look at organizational change from a more programmatic perspective rather than trying to implement things without planning ahead.

References

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G. (2008) “The nature of planned change,” in Organization Development & Change. 9th edn. Mason, OH, Canada: South-Western, pp. 24–45.

Kopp, C.M. (2022) What is a business model with types and examples, Investopedia. Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/businessmodel.asp (Accessed: November 27, 2022).

Lee, D. (2022) The importance of Change Management in challenging times, CMC partnership global. Available at: https://www.cmcpartnership.sg/blog/the-importance-of-change-management-in-challenging-times (Accessed: November 27, 2022).

Storbiersky, T. (2020) What is organizational change management?: HBS Online, Business Insights Blog. Harvard Business School. Available at: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/organizational-change-management#:~:text=Organizational%20change%20refers%20to%20the,operate%2C%20or%20its%20internal%20processes. (Accessed: November 25, 2022).

Thompson, J. (2018) The definition for a business change, Bizfluent. Available at: https://bizfluent.com/facts-7214659-definition-business-change.html (Accessed: November 27, 2022). 

Comments

  1. Onita Jayawardena8 December 2022 at 05:34

    Agreed. Further to that employee confidence, competitive advantage, growth and dynamic can be seen as positive effects that can be brought by change management (Jalagat, 2015)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wasana Perera14 December 2022 at 11:04

      Thanks Onita, yes it's true. Change management plays an increasingly important role in modern organisations. Change management and project management are going hand in hand in my opinion. Because change comes as a project. This is my personal experience though. Change management focuses on the ‘people side’ of change, whereas project management focuses on delivering the ‘product side’ of things (Buehring, 2021) .

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