The goal of planned organizational change is to find new or improved ways of using resources and capabilities in order to increase an organization’s ability to create value and improve returns to its stakeholders. An organization in decline may need to restructure its resources to improve its fit with the environment. At the same time even a thriving organization may need to change the way it uses its resources so that it can develop new products or find new markets for its existing products. In the last decade, over half of all Fortune 500 companies have undergone major organizational changes to allow them to increase their ability to create value. One of the most well-documented findings from studies have revealed that organizations and their members often resist change. In a sense, this is positive. It provides a degree of stability and predictability to behavior. If there weren’t some resistance, organizational Continue reading
Organizational Development
Organizational Change – Meaning, Definition, and Driving Forces
The concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as hiring a new person, modifying a program, buying a new computer for the department etc. Examples of organization-wide change are a change in mission statement, restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, “rightsizing”, new programs such as Total Quality Management, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to such change as “organizational transformation”. Organizational change means that there is a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates. Business organizations should reconsider the best changes in order to remain competitive. Every business that wants to remain competitive should be ready to embrace new managerial or operational changes. Every successful firm adapts new changes every time. Organizational change helps a firm survive and achieve its goals in a timely manner. Failure to initiate the Continue reading
Basic Concepts of Organizational Change
The change means the alteration of status quo or making things different. It may refer to any alteration which occurs in the overall work environment of an organization. When an organizational system is disturbed by some internal or external force, the change may occur. The change is modification of the structure or process of a system, that may be good or even bad. It disturbs the existing equilibrium or status quo in an organization. The change in any part of the organization may affect the whole of the organization, or various other parts of organization in varying degrees of speed and significance. It may affect people, structure, technology, and other elements of an organization. It may be reactive or proactive in nature. When change takes place due to external forces, it is called reactive change. However, proactive change is initiated by the management on its own to enhance the organizational Continue reading
Importance of Change in an Organization
One can try to predict the future. However, predictions produce at best a blurred picture of what might be, not a blueprint of future events or circumstances. The effective and progressive management of change can assist in shaping a future which may better serve the enterprise’s survival prospects. Change will not disappear or dissipate. Technology, civilizations and creative thought will maintain their ever accelerating drive on-wards. Managers, and the enterprises they serve, be they public or private, service or manufacturing, will continue to be judged upon their ability to effectively and efficiently manage change. Unfortunately for the managers of the early twenty-first century, their ability to handle complex change situations will be judged over ever decreasing time scales. The pace of change has increased dramatically; mankind wandered the planet on foot for centuries before the invention of the wheel and its subsequent “technological convergence” with the ox and horse. In Continue reading
Levels of Planned Organizational Change
A planned change is a change planned by the organisation, it does not happen by itself. It is affected by the organisation with the purpose of achieving something that might otherwise by unattainable or attainable with great difficulty. Through planned change, an organisation can achieve its goals rapidly. The basic reasons for planned change are: To improve the means for satisfying economic needs of members. To increase profitability. To promote human work for human beings. To contribute to individual satisfaction and social well being. Levels of Planned Organizational Change Planned organizational change is normally targeted at improving effectiveness at one or more of four different levels : human resources, functional resources, technological capabilities, and organizational capabilities. 1. Human Resources Human resources are an organization’s most important asset. Ultimately, an organization’s distinctive competencies lie in the skills and abilities of its employees. Because these skills and abilities give an organization a Continue reading
Change Agents in Organizational Change
Organizations and their managers must recognize that change, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The problem often lies in an inability to effectively manage change : not only can the adopted process be wrong, but also the conceptual framework may lack vision and understanding. Why is this the case? Possibly, and many practicing managers would concur, the problem may be traced to the managers’ growing inability to approximately develop and reinforce their role and purpose within complex, dynamic and challenging organizations. Change is now a way of life; organizations, and more importantly their managers, must recognize the need to adopt strategic approaches when facing transformation situations. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s organizations, both national and international, strived to develop sustainable advantage in both volatile and competitive operating environments. Those that have survived, and/or developed, have often found that the creative and market driven management of their human resources can Continue reading