Managing Change in Organisations Assignment
Introduction
Choose an organisation with which you are familiar. This should ideally be the organisation in which you currently work, or one for which you have a sound knowledge of internal communication processes, organisational culture and management style.
The assignment is not designed to be completed as an external project based on information that is solely in the public domain. If in doubt consult your tutor.
Scope
The Study Pack contains a broad spectrum of models, frameworks and ideas for the analysis of organisational change. The assignment will require the application of most, or all, of the following: environmental turbulence, organisation structure and life cycle, types of change, management style and type of organisation, change strategies, involving stakeholders, organisational culture, leadership, and models for continuous change.
Required
Write a report on Managing Organisational Change in Your Organisation. The report should have three main sections:
1. The Background to Change.
I work in a medium sized software development firm named Infosys. In a very competitive environment it introduced a new step in the development cycle to improve quality ? code inspections. The affected population? The designers and testers? recognized the value of code inspections. They saw the value to both to quality and to improving all designers’ familiarity with software that they did not design, but with which they might have to interface. Everyone affected was given training in how to conduct and participate in code inspections. However, like most quality efforts, code inspections require a fair amount of data collection and analysis. The firm failed to provide any tools or automated way to collect and collate the data. There were designers who actually created and made available such tools on their own, but the company did not recognize them for their spontaneous efforts. Further, the firm did not add any time in the design schedule to accomplish the extra design step. This lack of infrastructure and poor recognition for extraordinary efforts quickly soured the affected population. This organizational change had clear business value and eventually was implemented. However, properly supported, it could have been accomplished in one design cycle and less than one year. Instead, full implementation dragged on over several years and impacted many design cycles.
2. The Process of Change
This section should examine the organisation’s stakeholders and its culture. It should explore and evaluate how these and other models and tools could be used in a practical way to bring about change in the organisation.
In order to successfully manage change processes, it is necessary to analyze the phases of this process. Managers need to know in which phase they have to expect what types of situations and problems. Most successful organizations are those that are able to adjust themselves to new conditions quickly. This requires planned learning processes that lead to improved organizational effectiveness. Ideally, employees are able to reflect their own behavior in relation to the organizational context (e.g. processes, products, resources, customers).
Normally, people perceive change processes in seven typical stages.
The seven phases of change can be described as follows:
| Phase | Description |
| Shock and Surprise | Confrontation with unexpected situations. This can happen ‘by accident’ (e.g. losses in particular business units) or planned events (e.g. workshops for personal development and team performance improvement). These situations make people realize that their own patterns of doing things are not suitable for new conditions any more. Thus, their perceived own competence decreases. |
| Denial and Refusal | People activate values as support for their conviction that change is not necessary. Hence, they believe there is no need for change; their perceived competency increases again. |
| Rational Understanding | People realize the need for change. According to this insight, their perceived competence decreases again. People focus on finding short term solutions, thus they only cure symptoms. There is no willingness to change own patterns of behavior. |
| Emotional Acceptance | This phase, which is also called ‘crisis’ is the most important one. Only if management succeeds to create a willingness for changing values, beliefs, and behaviors, the organization will be able to exploit their real potentials. In the worst case, however, change processes will be stopped or slowed down here. |
| Exercising and Learning | The new acceptance of change creates a new willingness for learning. People start to try new behaviors and processes. They will experience success and failure during this phase. It is the change managers task to create some early wins (e.g. by starting with easier projects). This will lead to an increase in peoples perceived own competence. |
| Realization | People gather more information by learning and exercising. This knowledge has a feedback-effect. People understand which behavior is effective in which situation. This, in turn, opens up their minds for new experiences.
These extended patterns of behavior increase organizational flexibility. Perceived competency has reached a higher level than prior to change. |
| Integration | People totally integrate their newly acquired patterns of thinking and acting. The new behaviors become routine. |
Only if change managers understand these phases of change, and only if they act accordingly, they will be able to successfully manage change processes without destroying peoples motivation and commitment.
3. Ongoing Change
This section should draw conclusions based on the previous two sections, and propose models for the structure, operation, management, leadership and planning of the organisation in future that will help to ensure that ongoing change is managed effectively.
It’s clear that culture change is an ongoing process, so it’s very hard to identify organizations that have “completed” a successful culture change. We can, however, find examples of change-in-progress, in organizations that range from Harley-Davidson to the Pittsburgh Symphony. As we look at several examples, in this installment and the next, we will see some version of the process described above in each-even in organizations that did not originally set out to change their cultures!
Levi-Strauss is a company that did engage in a purposeful culture change process. In 1985, a group of minority and women managers requested a meeting with the CEO, complaining of discrimination. The CEO convened a three-day facilitated retreat at which white, male managers engaged in intense discussions with minority and female managers. These discussions revealed that there were, indeed, hidden attitudes in the organization that were in conflict with its espoused values.
Since that time, Levi-Strauss has worked hard to generate cultural change. The company developed an “Aspiration Statement” including desired beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour. The statement specifies the company’s commitment to communication, ethical management practices, employee empowerment, and recognition for those who contribute to the mission of the company.
Employees at all levels also participate in training sessions on leadership, diversity, and ethics. Employee evaluations are based partially on how well they support the “Aspiration Statement.”
To underscore the fact that changing an organization’s culture can take a long time, we would note that at Levi-Strauss, change has not been entirely positive in the lowest tiers of the hierarchy. Increased teamwork and peer evaluation have demanded major adjustments in people’s expectations and behaviour, and that has led to increased conflict at times.
Prescriptions for change–keeping score provides necessary feedback
Leadership, vision, communication, and action are the building blocks to profitable change. However, for change to occur, activities must be measured and evaluated, and results compared. In simple words, What gets measured, gets done. What gets rewarded, gets done again! Suitable rewards might include money, promotion, recognition, autonomy, preferred work assignments, overtime, and training and professional development opportunities.
Measurement must be simple and easy to understand. Every business situation can be measured in one or more of four quantitative terms:
- units produced
- time to produce
- cost to produce, and/or
- customer satisfaction
The results of measurement must be quickly and freely communicated within the organization to close the loop of motivation-action-results, motivation-action Prescriptions for change–staying ahead once you get ahead Change cannot be a one-time event within the business. Change is a continuous process. Some specific suggestions for remaining ahead once you arrive:
Abandonment
Every three years, an organization should challenge every product, service, and policy with the question, If we were not in it already, would we be going into it now?
Non-customers
Study what goes on outside the business, and especially study your non-customers. That is where changes in the market will appear first.
Basics
Get back to and stick to the basics. Organizations pick up extra baggage along the way. The more successful you are, he more excess baggage you pick up. Success breeds wouldn’t it be nice extras such as new tools, better or newer trucks, more telephones, longer vacations, larger or newer offices, and other excess baggage items into the organization.
Conclusion:
The successful organization will be structured for learning, innovation, and constant change, and for the systematic abandonment of whatever is established, customary, familiar, and comfortable. A manager can safely assume that a person with some knowledge will have to acquire new knowledge every four or five years or become obsolete. Learning is essential to mastering change. Learning must be a lifelong process!
Change and uncertainty is managed by having a plan for the future. With a plan, uncertainty ceases to be a threat and becomes an opportunity. When the opportunity of change and uncertainty knocks, the successful business will continuously create the resources of people, technology, and knowledge to respond.