Organizational Change
Organizational change fundamental in an organization and it is considered as a process whereby
the institution maximizes performance on its trail to achieve its objectives. The change occurs as
a response to a dynamic surrounding. The dynamic surrounding can be as a result of a reaction to
a situation or occurrence at hand or even may be driven by a leader or manager of the
organization. Success in organizational change is a process that entails adequate management
skills and abilities. A study conducted by McKinsey, (2007) indicates that in a total of 1537
organizations that experienced the process of change, only 37 percent of the organization’s
leaders affirmed that the process was viable in making the performance better. With respect to
long anticipated goals such as improving the organizations ability, having quality interactions
with the customers and suppliers, only 30% of leaders related these with organization change.
Thus, the objectives of organizational change are multi-faceted.
Change as a natural Process
The natural changing process of an organization optimizes performance as it focuses on getting
into an ideal state. The natural process takes place as a result of the change that occurs gradually
with the organization as a result of a variety of factors. The natural occurrence can also be as a
result of domination of specific type of force whereby a different organizational objective is
realized ultimately arising to a natural change in the organization. The natural process can take
place through unfreezing with commences with the understanding of the organization issues by
the employees and the general or vision that makes them to naturally respond to the change.
Under normal circumstances the process will some stages whereby there should be adequate data
showing the ideality state of the organization. The data must also be relevant to the vital
objective of the organization. Finally a solution should be given to help the employees and other
staffs reduce the bad feeling of resistance to change. The process can also be naturally made
static while in the moving stage. This can be countered by a reverse natural process whereby the
organization falls back to the status quo.
Shaping the change process (Targets of change)
The factors that influence the organization’s life are diverse comprising of the factors related to
external environmental changes and the ones that make the leadership within the organization
better. The organization should giving considerations for change, the outer environment, and the
condition within in order to determine the issues to make changes on. Organizational change
often targets the following include vision, strategy, culture, structure, system, production
technology, and leadership style (Yang, 2009). Vision is about a firm’s organizational core value
but one that also relevant to the surrounding. When an organization undergoes change main
value should be determined in order for preservation of the transformation process. Strategy is
the organization’s long term objectives, steps and resources required to be given consideration in
the formulation of decisions. The strategy change can be categorized into the enterprise strategy
change, the ultimate and worldwide increase change. Culture is referring to the employees’
collective value, norm, and basic assumption. The change considered is altering the content of
the whole value and/or basic assumption. Typically, the explicit culture can be altered with ease
or changed when comparing it to the implicit culture. Structure is an formal system of the duty
and the authority. Structural change is making the organization’s various ways of disintegration,
power distribution, and level of formalization different. System is the formal regulations,
guidelines and processes such as reward system, performance determination methods, objectives
budget system, etc. that are employed in operating the organization. Production science and
technology is the technical, knowing, the skills, the material, the machine, the computer, the tool
and different equipment which changes inputs to outputs. Management is the dictating force in
the organization. Leadership style affects the group dynamic and also the relationship with its
employees.
Resistance to change
Studies conducted by Lewin’s force-field analysis model, describe an organization to be open.
The two forces research by Lewin, (1951) include one that pushes the organization to a new
direction and is normally the driving force. The second force is resisting the organization from
change and is considered to be the restraining force. In the case of a driving force is bigger than
the restraining force, organizational change occurs, and the organization will deviate towards a
new direction. When restraining is bigger than the driving force, organization will remain still. In
case the two forces are equally powerful, the organization will be normal for a short period of
time. Just before an organization changes, there are various forces to prevent them from change,
which is the above-mentioned restraining forces. Restraining forces can be grouped into three
levels: organizational level, secondary unity level, and individualistic level (Yang, 2009). Factors
in the organizational level are its outlook inertia and system forces, organizational way of
operation, and the force from previous success. Issues in secondary section include the
standpoint disparity and interest conflict in various departments. Issues in personal level include
the lack of understanding, untrustworthy, lack of certainty among others. How to take control of
these issues that may prevent the successful change of the organization. The active ways to gain
organization members' support includes education, communication, participation and
involvement. The passive ways to eliminate members' resistance include assistance, negotiation
control, and coercion (Kotter, 1979). These methods are most effective in different situations
therefore the superintendent must manage the organization change
Reasons resistance
According to Pung, (2007) only 38% interviewees think their company’s organization change
has successfully increased their work performance, and only 30% believe their organization
change has achieved the organization’s goal of long-term health. It is mainly because there are
many factors that will influence the success or failure of organizational change. The 6 most
important factors include the insufficient readiness for change, lack of systematic plan for
organization change, fast solution expectation, the focus of change activity instead of result, poor
management in change process, and mismatch between change plan and organization context
(Yang, 2009). To achieve successful organizational change, all these factors have to be
considered carefully. The following section will explain each of them briefly. Readiness for
change refers to the degree of positive acceptance of the necessity of change, and the positive
attitude toward the effect of change on self and the organization (Armenakis, 1993). The higher
the preparation, the higher the acceptance and executive power of the member shall be. The
lower the preparation, the higher the resistance to change, and the higher the probability of
organization change to fail will be. Another common reason for organizational change to fail is
that many organizations don’t consider the systematic viewpoint to make a holistic plan for
organizational change. For example, the attempt to make change through education only, and to
overlook other factors that may affect employee’s behavior such as organizational system,
structure, culture, etc. Moreover, some organization applies the identical changes plans to all
departments and individuals without considering their differences. The fast solution expectation
is another error organization makes. They often assume introducing a set of organizational
changes can solve all the problems, and recruiting an outside consultant can assist on everything.
With this expectation, the organization will depend on the consultant too much, and invest too
little, and will end the change plan too early if the achievement does not meet their expectation.
In addition, when planning the organizational change, members often take the change activity
too seriously, but neglect the change goal itself. Thus, members participate in the activity
vigorously, but the achievement is actually very limited. Poor management in change process is
another commonly made mistake. Many factors have to be considered and attended to in the
unfreezing, moving or freezing stages. Overlook certain factors many lead to total failure of the
organizational change. Finally, the match between change plan and organizational view can also
play a vital role in the success or failure of organizational change. Organizational change aims to
put forth new ways of thinking and behavior. When the new ways and interfaced alongside the
old ones, the oversized opposition tends to induce the plan to fail. Therefore, in design of a
change plan, the organization's context should be incorporated.
References
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Laurie, F. (2009). Change Leadership and Communication for Business. Columbus: OH 43221.
Metcalfe, B., & Mimouni, F. (2011). Leadership Development in the Middle East. Cheltenham:
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