Change Management: Managing People Through Organisational Change

Change is inevitable and many changes occur within an organisation. For transitions to go smoothly, change management is necessary.

Correcting flaws, misalignment, and defects within an organisation is the aim of any transition, but change management is much more than that.

Change management is a form of service transition when an emerging technology is in development.

The ability to smoothly and efficiently change the technology over to the service operation status becomes dependent on the change management itself. This applies on when there are adjustments in the company, like for an instance, if you have a new executive or if you want to adopt a new technology in the infrastructure.

Change management will be the way to make the transition seamless and undisruptive. How so? Read on.

IT Changes vs. Change Management

So what is the difference between IT change and change management?

IT change basically covers all IT issues which may include IT flaw fixes, bug resolutions, or general technology issues.

For example, if your office printer doesn’t work, it’s an IT change as you would call for an IT specialist to come in and fix the problem.

Change management is more complex—it is an umbrella concept that encompasses IT change as well.

When you have a change in upper management, like when a new CEO comes onboard for example, change management will be in charge of the iteration within the company.

IT change is in direct alignment with primarily IT-related problems whereas change management covers changes in the corporation as a whole.

Change management plays a big role for the transition of processes, controls, and staff as well as any IT-related change that may take place.

Changes That May Occur

Change management deals with multiple items in addition to IT infrastructure.

One is handling change in mission and strategy. If you’ve decided to implement a different mission statement or strategy in your business, change management has a direct hand in this.

It also takes part for when people come and go.  Resignation and onboarding processes both bring significant changes in the organisation.

Policies and legal agreements also change regularly. When a state passes a new law or policy that directly affects you business and hiring of people, change management comes into play.

Other points covered by change management are internal and external processes, integration of new technologies, and product updates.

The bigger question is: why is change management necessary?

When a system becomes unavailable or degraded during normal service hours, it is crucial for a business to get it back up again, right? Change management would be responsible for this.

Further, it is a prerequisite any organisational change which is an alteration in an organisation’s objectives, strategies, procedures, technology, structural arrangement, and people.

It also includes restructuring such as mergers and acquisitions, expansion, modernisation, and diversification.

Characteristics of Organisational Change

To better understand organisational change, let us look at some of its features.

New Administration Frame-up

Any change, big or small, affects the organisation’s existing set up. Thus, the administration has to bring about a new management setup to incorporate changes.

New changes can be applied into the old and existing management activities.

Distributive in Nature

A change in one part, teams or departments, may affect another part of the organisation.

Some parts may also be affected to a larger extent than other parts, as they may experience a more direct impact compared to those farther to the center of change.

Teams that may be impacted by this change include service quality, customer service, technical marketing, and operations teams.

Continuous in Nature

Organisational change is not static, rather, it is continuous in nature.

As long as the organisation exists, changes are bound to occur. Some changes may be minor while some may be major ones, but it is certain that organisational changes will constantly take place.

Reactive and Proactive

A change may be reactive or planned.

Reactive change is unplanned and takes place as a result of a previous change in the organisation’s environment.

For example, when a competitor changes its marketing strategies, you may have to make changes too in your plans as a countermeasure.

On the other hand, some changes can be planned and proactive.

Key Factors for Organisational Change

An organisational change takes place due to several factors which may be internal or external.

Internal factors include management, workers, job design, or strategies; while external factors include competition, government, customers, suppliers, or dealers.

Organisational change occurs because of a variety of factors some of which are explained below.

Technological Change

To remain competitive in the market, an organisation must upgrade and align itself with the latest technology, like how banks go digital and adapt to mobile banking, for example.

Environmental Causes

There may be changes in environmental forces such as competitor strategies, change in consumer tastes and preferences, and change in government policies.

Inevitably, organisations need to adjust to some of these changes in the environment.

Change in Management Systems

A change in management philosophy can have a huge impact on organisational activities. Example: Companies that do away with old appraisal systems to find new methods of evaluation.

Management Personnel

There may be changes in the management personnel of an organisation as well.

Such changes in the constitution of management may result in a change of management perspective and subsequent changes in organisational structures, policies, aims or objectives.

Business Cycle

Every business passes through different phases such as introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

Changes in business cycle make it critical for an organisation to introduce new systems.

Challenges of Organisational Change

An organisation may face challenges such as the obsolescence of technology, lack of employee training in expertise, and issues in organisational strategies.

Growth and Expansion

When organisations plan for growth and expansion, they need to bring about necessary changes in organisational activities.

It may not be possible for them to achieve growth and expansion with the existing organisational setup, thus change must occur.

New Business or Market Entry

Organisations that wish to enter new businesses on market segments need to introduce changes in their policies, structures, and strategies. Example: A company operating at a national level planing to enter the international market.

Onboarding Employees

Organisational change occurs when groups and departments within an organisation move.

However, in order for those departments and those groups to move, the employees within those areas must change as well.

Organisational change management helps develop clearer goals, vision, roles, and processes.

To achieve optimal results, businesses at times opt to outsource specialists in managing organisational change. This will help ease your organisation through difficult periods of transition because the specialists know exactly how to deal with any change in your organisation.

You need to have a change management strategy that ensures everyone affected by the changes is engaged sufficiently.

Success isn’t guaranteed but is measurable. It is only when those affected by the change actually make the transition that the organisation will realise successful outcomes of the original change intended.

Having a clearly defined vision, a structured project plan, and a well-designed solution will not assure a successful change if it doesn’t happen at an individual level.

If people are not cooperative, any of these aspects won’t drive change successfully.

ADKAR Model Implementation

In order for employees to adopt, fully utilise, and be proficient with the change, there must be a high level of awareness.

You need to inform them what the change is about and why it is necessary.

The employees must also have the desire to participate and engage in the change. After such, you need to make sure they also have the knowledge to contribute to it.

Once they have the knowledge, provide them with the ability and the opportunities to perform the change.

When they start to practice the change, adopt it, and utilise it, you must have a reinforcing system in place to help sustain that change.

This system sheds light on an individual’s needs during the change. It also directs what kind of support you can provide to help them successfully make the transition.

The Bottom Line

Organisational change can range from small incremental change to very large disruptive change.

Businesses undergo several changes in its lifetime. These include job roles, organisational restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, business processes, and supporting systems and tools.

Effectively managing the people side of change is very important. To always be in the loop with the latest trends on recruitment, follow our blog or contact us.