Understanding change management

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Understanding change management is essential for successful information systems development and implementation in the 21st century

The topic which I am going to explore is regarding the change management and system implementation in 21st century. The company which I have worked as an internee for six months was going under the change process. That company was trying to automate their office work and to reduce the paper work. They were using specific user friendly software for keeping the records, logs, payments details, events etc.

Change is sociological, technological and transformational (from one state to desired state)(reference).

As if we look at human nature then we will realise that most of the people want change whether in his/her social life or professional life. But some people don't like change, because change is new and it's difficult to learn new things, new techniques, new relationships but some people do like learning new things if the change is in the area of their interest. In my company everyone was enjoying change except the clerical staff, because they were used to do paper work so it was difficult for them to learn computer skills as they were not highly literate to computer.

Change has a significant importance in the business organization and IT industry. Managing change in such organization requires skills like political skills, technical skills, leadership skills, professional skills, people skills and business skills.

Golembiewski, Billingsley, and Yeager (1976) identified and discuss three type of change. They are alpha, beta and gamma.

Alpha change is small and step by step, alpha change could be a gamma change for another.

Beta change is gradual and incremental but its faster as compare to alpha change, in beta change you can review the change process or activities.

Gamma change is huge and big, it's a paradigm shift.

In my company the change was gamma and the trigger of change was technology, as they were automating the company and changing the old system to a new one. The leaders were bringing computers to reduce the traditional paper work. They were giving training to all employees to get used to that specific software, email system, file transferring and sharing, system and documents security.

The concept of the change management is introduced in most of the businesses nowadays, but how to cope with the situation and how to make the business successful totally depends on the nature of the organization. The key part involve people, ideas and technology, it depend on how they understand change and how to adopt with that change.

The world is changing very fast so the same is true for any type of organization, the organization would be a successful one that adopt changes with the situation and on the other hand it would be difficult to survive for the organization that doesn't change with the situation and environment.

Lewin (1951) introduced a three step model for change, which is unfreezing+change or transition+ refreezing. It is like the same which is shown in the below diagram, if you have a cube of ice and you want a cone of ice, then you should melt the ice first then put the water in the cone shaped pot and refreeze it. So the same rule will be applied to the business organization, first you should understand the change that what the change is about then you should have a plan and the leaders should convince the employees and should get their trust.

http://www.consultpivotal.com/lewin's.htm

The organization where I worked dint not use Lewin's model but the situation was similar to lewin`s model. They first planned to have a change and had a strong support from the upper management. The leaders had the trust of the employees, and they convinced all the staff from the benefits on working on computers. They had a vision and were trying to communicate that vision. They involved people in the process and motivated the staff. They also provided training for the staff in order to get used to with the new platform.

Lewins (1951) also introduce a force field analysis, force field analysis model means that some forces will be in favour of changes while some forces will be against changes.

Force field analysis give you a clear view of driving and restraining forces for change, the organization should first unfreeze the driving and restraining forces, then they should identify the restraining and driving forces and should put the arrow according to the nature of force, the bigger the force the bigger the arrow. In the third step the organization should decrease the restraining forces and increase the driving forces. Following is the diagram of force field analysis model.

http://www.accel-team.com/techniques/force_field_analysis.html

As in my organization the restraining forces were the lower staff (clerical staff), they didn't want computers as they were not highly literate to computers but they have been motivated by the upper management that they will get trained and their salary will be increased, so the motivation is the forces.

Change Agent:

Change agent is the leaders, experts and strategic thinkers with a vision across the organisation or in other words change agent is a person that acts as a catalyst for change. They take risks but bring success to the organisation. They have the techniques of dealing with complex situation. They are selecting people and volunteers to be a part of change.

In my organisation the change agent was senior manager, he decided to bring the change and convinced the upper management. He motivated the lower staff and act as a change agnet.

10 school of thoughts:

Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel (1998) 10 School of thoughts also plays an important role in managing change and system implementation. The ten schools of thoughts are as follow.

1. Design

2. Planning

3. Positioning

4. Entrepreneurial

5. Cognitive

6. Learning

7. power

8. Cultural

9. Environmental

10. Configuration

The organization where I was working used planning school, power school and configuration school. I would discuss and relate only these three schools to the organization where I worked.

Planning school involves swot analysis and checklists of different activities. In swot analysis we do analyse the strengths and weakness of the organization internally and also analyse threats and opportunities externally. In planning school you have to set objective according to your budget.

Power school involves power and politics, while configuration school of thought is transitional, revolutionary and pick n mix.

The leaders of the organisation did SWOT analysis and planned everything according to change. They had set milestones and each activity was monitored and controlled. We had to follow and obey the order by the Manager, he was the boss and he was trying to do what he had wanted.

Planned change Vs emergent Change:

Planned change is deliberate while emergent change is unplanned. In planned change you have the detailed plan, objectives, checklists and budget while in emergent change is spontaneous and you have to adopt change with the situation and you have to manage everything quickly and cleverly without affecting your business. But in most of the organizations the change becomes emergent, in which case the leaders have to manage the change.

Kotter (1995) eight step model suggests a series of steps for successful business implementation, these steps are as follow:

? Establishing a sense of urgency

? Forming a powerful guiding coalition

? Creating a vision

? Communicating the vision

? Empowering others to act on the vision

? Planning for and creating short-term wins

? Consolidating improvements and producing still more change

? Institutionalizing new approaches

The key points which I can derive from the above eight points are that you have work hard in order to have a successful change in organization, you have to be plan carefully and you have to be patient. The leaders should have a clear vision for change and they have to communicate their vision and must achieve what they plan. They have to remove the obstacles which are in the way of change. In my opinion the leaders who follow the kotter`s model properly will never be fail and they will achieve the change successfully according to their plans.

In my organization the change was planned as the upper management has announced the change early and they started work on the plan early and they set objectives and milestones. Each activity was monitored and controlled. If I relate Kotter`s model to my organization then I would say that it was not followed exactly but most of the steps were similar to the kotters model but the change was successful.

Consultancy approach in organization:

The original meaning of consultancy is to consult expert to fix your problem, to give you advice. A consultant may require in organization in all fields like technology, communication, organizational structure and managing change etc. A consultant might be an individual or a group of individuals. Consultants are expensive. Before consulting an expert the leaders must check double that whether the organization really requires consultant`s opinion or advice, if it does then the leader should also check the why the internal recourses are not able to fix the problem. Sometime the organization need change but the leaders don't know the exact area of change, then they hire consultant to bring that change.

Now the question arises that why we need consultants, there are a lot of reason for using consultants but in my opinion the answer to the question is that most of the leaders are unaware of change, but when the change becomes real compulsory then the leaders trying to save their face and use the consultants, another thing is that most of the organization trying to up-to-date their system and employees according to the environment, so in that case they use consultant to train their employees.

The organization in which I worked was going under change as I have mentioned above, all the employees need to be trained, the leaders of the organization consulted third party to provide training to the employees and to build specific software for the organization.

Modes of consultants:

Schein (1985) defined 3 modes of consultancy.

* Expert

* Doctor/Patient

* Process

I would like to relate these models to change which had been undertaken by the organization where I worked for six month. The model used in my company was Doctor/Patient. The Doctor/Patient model is more personal relationship between the consultant and the client, in which the consultant analyses and prescribes the threats to the organization and this relationship may be extend depends on the nature of organization and problem. In Doctor/Patient model Consultant is active and Client is passive. In my organization the leaders knew that by bringing technology to our company will solve many problems but they didn't know how to bring. They hired a consultant and the problem was identified and provided a prescription for a solution. The leaders of my company knew their sickness and interpreted that sickness to the consultant correctly. Then the consultant provided a prescription and the upper management was ready to trust their diagnosis. The doctor/patient model assumes that client will be healthy when consultant leaves.

Conclusion:

Based on the experience and studying a change management subject I came to know that change is an important factor for an organization and individual. Some people cannot define the change in words while some say that change happen with the time. If I give an example of myself, when I came to UK everything was changed for me, I were speaking different language, the climate and weather was changed. But I liked it because I was facing new things, so the same rule applies to the business organisation. In the present world of competition, every organisation is trying to get more profit and customer satisfaction. I believe that leadership qualities are the most important for the organisation, which is facing change. Change is difficult but it is not impossible, the good leaders can make it simple and easy.

Change may be planned or may be emergent but you should have the capabilities and resistance to that change. In 21 century you should change your organisation according to the customer requirements. In case of internal change you have to get the trust of all the management staff, and you should be loyal to your organisation and your staff, because change may be a gamma for someone else in the organisation.

From my study it can be conclude that for managing change in 21 century is challenging task, the leader of the organisation has to be sharp and should have leadership qualities in order to resist to the change. Change may affect individuals or organisations, the leaders can't throw money to fix every problem, they need flexible staff. In last I would say that managing change in the present world is very difficult but leaders who have trust of their employees and follow the change management theories will be successful leaders. When a leader is successful then automatically the organisation will also be successful.

References:

Golembiewski, R.T., Billingsley, K. & Yeager, S. 1976, Measuring change and persistencein human affairs: Types of change generated by OD designs', Journal of Applied Behavioural Science

vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 133-157

http://www.consultpivotal.com/lewin's.htm

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change: why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59-67.

Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr.. ISBN 0226476502. OCLC 2185305

Lewin K. (1951) 'Field Theory in Social Science', Harper and Row, New York.

http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/represent/forcef.html

http://www.accel-team.com/techniques/force_field_analysis.html

Mintzberg, Henry; Ahlstrand, Bruce W.; Lampel, Joseph. (1998) Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management New York: Free Press.

http://www.power-projects.com/LeadingChange.pdf

http://www.bsmimpact.co.uk/downloads/wp/KotterChangeModel.pdf

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/pdcoutts/leadership/Kotter.htm

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=192978&sectioncode=26

http://www.answers.com/topic/consultant

http://www.ashridge.org.uk/Website/Content.nsf/wCON/What+we+do?opendocument

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=192978&sectioncode=26

http://www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/consulting

cosultnacy article http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/30/5/635

Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership,

Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997

http://www.vancouverconsultants.com/node/1174

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