Organisations operate within an ever-changing
environment and must constantly adapt and evolve to meet these changes. Low-performing
organisations will react to change least effectively, as they prefer to hire
extra staff, rather than high-performing organisations, who look at how they
operate to improve their efficiency to negate the need to hire additional
staff.
Hiring staff is expensive and can lead to further inefficiencies if those staff are hired full-time to fulfil a part-time need. Inexperienced staff who are new to the organisation often fill spare time by undertaking unproductive menial tasks that add little value to the efficiency and profitability of the organisation.
The type of organisational change varies according to the size, sector, and volatility of the organisation’s environment. Some of these changes may evolve due to:
- Economic turbulence.
- Technological shifts.
- Environmental regulations.
- Legislative changes.
- Competitors.
- Economic market trends.
Change, no matter how large or small, must have the permission of those involved within the areas affected by the change and the strategic sanction of the Board of Directors. Organisational change refers to the actions that an organisation needs to undertake to modify a strategic part of the organisation in the way that it operates; this may include:
- Relocation.
- Outsourcing Functions.
- Internal Operating Processes.
- Culture.
- Corporate Hierarchy.
- Management Structure.
- Technology or Infrastructure.
Change management is a logical systems-driven approach that deals with change through the transformation and transition of an organisation's change project. The purpose is to implement the strategies for effecting and controlling the change process as well as helping people to adapt to the change, which can be either:
- Transformational: these changes are significant in scope and scale and often signify a dramatic departure from the current operating status quo.
- Adaptive: involves gradual changes, small iterative changes that are undertaken when products, processes, workflows, or strategies evolve.
- Organisational Wide: a large-scale transformation that affects the whole organisation and how it operates, an example of which could be withdrawing from a market.
- Personnel Change: this occurs when an organisation experiences hyper-growth or market contraction, necessitating a significant employee engagement or retention shift.
- Unplanned: typically defined as a necessary action following an unexpected event that could not be predicted, such as a pandemic closing an entire market.
- Remedial: implemented when
changes are identified to address a deficiency or poor organisational
performance, whether operational, quality, or financial.
The critical factor affecting the success of any change initiative is that it must have the full support of the organisation that is the subject of the change. The change must be seen as being needed, relevant and sustainable. In other words, change must be seen as necessary and achievable to be implemented successfully. Critical change management success factors include:
- Nature: the change process must be viewed from a holistic perspective instead of its constituents, as any change process will fail to meet the goals of an organisation if it is not implemented in an integrated manner.
- Strategic Support: Director and Senior Management support is essential for achieving sustainable outcomes from a change management project. With vision and direction being driven from the organisation's top, sustainable change will occur and will succeed.
- Multidisciplinary: change involves project teams from all parts of the organisation that are required to ensure the success of a change management project. They must be coordinated with a collaborative approach from the various change management stakeholders, as they fulfil the role of change agents responsible for facilitating change throughout the project.
- People: the crucial success factor of any change project is its people; hence, involving people at each stage in the change management process is vital as their involvement will increase their level of commitment. They will function as the drivers of change instead of reacting to it.
- Continuous Improvement: change
is a mission as efforts must be driven and directed for the fulfilment of
any change management initiative to achieve success. Flexible
organisations and an open culture receptive to change will improve their
overall efficiency and effectiveness in achieving success in any change
endeavour.
Effective change management requires the involvement of skilled change agents responsible for ensuring the success of change initiatives by demonstrating the required competencies. Change agents must be capable of connecting quickly with people, communicating, and convincing stakeholders to support the change, as well as dealing with the emotional upsurges that may arise because of evolution.
They should be comfortable managing conflicts and dealing with ambiguity, as a singular approach can never affect the desired results for effective change management. What bodes well for one organisation might not be suitable for another as the circumstances that govern it may differ.
Change management involves collective ownership from all stakeholders, including Directors and Senior Managers, change agents, problem owners and the people affected by the change. They will be more likely to be committed and contribute actively towards realising the end goals of change if they are all involved in the change management process.
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