Today's business environment is making majeure changes like never ever before. The pace at which technology is changing is phenomenal. Organisations are forced to constantly adapt to new processes and procedures because of this change.
Change management is essentially transforming or changing the process and procedures wherever necessary. It can be a change at the project or team level or to a work process or work system. Change like such; having to do with structural rather than project level adjustments would warrant implementers of organisational change management.
What Is Organisational Change Management?
Organisational change management is more of a strategic approach to managing initiative transitions to allow positive adaptation from the organisation. Change management entails careful planning, communication, and implementation of change so that resistance may be minimised, employee acceptance heightened, and the transition smoothened.
Organisational change management is used to curb the adverse effects of any kind of general wide, structural change in a business. Organisational change management takes a top-down approach to managing change, whether it is new skills required for employees or the redesigning of roles and priorities or investment in new tools or software. It applies to the micro and macro levels.To have better understanding in organisational change management have a look at the training courses in Geneva provided by British Academy for training and development.
Organisational Change Management, A Significant Concern
Though project level change is important, it does not generally extend beyond the project sandbox. That means project change may sometimes be rather isolated or specific in some way. However, organisational change touches every employee of a specific company, be it individuals or teams working on different projects. Simply put, one might draw the conclusion that organisational change includes project change. Hence, organisational change tends to go deeper and last longer.
Thus, it is all the more important for companies to manage any organisational change as efficiently as possible. When successfully managed, organisational change can lift the spirits of employees and develop teamwork and job enrichment-the very components that will positively impact productivity and quality of work by cutting down production cycles and cutting costs. Through effective organisational change management, the organisation is always evolving and ready for any foreseen and unforeseen business change, during which it becomes important to motivate its workers so that employees remain productive when new technologies and methodologies are introduced.
Who Takes Charge of Organisational Change Management?
Many corporate stakeholders may actually manage an effective change. From company executives to HR professionals to middle managers, anyone can lead the way for constructive change and a proper transition.
At times, outside experts are brought in to assist organisations with the transition or lead an improvement initiative. Titles among these experts could include change manager, change management consultant, transformation manager, or change agent.
With executives or teams pulling changes into organisations, anyone in the organisation can truly make or break the change. As found by research from Gartner, the best organisations repudiate the traditional top down approach to change-leading, instead relying on their workforce, not just executives, to lead.
Essentials of Organisational Change Management
While every change could be considered advantageous to the organisation, employees usually resist it. Change, after all, is uncomfortable, and perhaps that is why one out of two change initiatives fails.
Change management is putting strategies in place to support people in getting over the discomfort and the unknown to embrace something new. The actualities will change with the company and the change being implemented, but often they include:
Setting the objectives and planning how to achieve them.Engaging stakeholders and securing buy in with the leadership.Communicating to employees the reason for change and obtaining commitment at every level of the organisation.Training employees in the new processes.Supporting the environment in which individuals and teams are given the ability to make change happen.Taking feedback and troubleshooting to stay on track.Evaluating and reporting on goals.The Principles of Organisational Change Management
Change management, similar to that in the broad sense, needs a really strong communication plan between managers and workers, but it has another priority. This is because this communication will occur on all levels of the organization. Organisational change management must address itself to the internal constituents, for this is going to be structural change because this is what organisational change is about.
Planning and training are but another area that can do organisational change management. The majority of today's factors of disruption or change driving forces come under the category of new technologies or communication methods. For a company to remain abreast with the latest emerging practices of that line, the managers also have to be in line through training their staff regarding all new technologies that they'll need to use at work. In addition to the functional application knowledge of new technologies, managers and other organisational leaders need to form an innovative culture whereby employees face change with an open and creative mindset that look for opportunities that the change represents.
Change at the structural level, for instance, can lead to the creation of new departments or teams that tackle the new business priorities. On the other hand, changes may even lead to merging or even elimination of certain departments. However, for both options, workers would have to expect some drastic changes in their respective duties of work. In these cases, organisational change managers need to put more emphasis on generating buy-in for organisational change. Through a continuous communication process with employees at every level, it is necessary to clarify concerns, show the alignment of these changes with new company goals, and emphasize the contribution each individual can make to the process of change.
Reasons Why One Should Pursue Career as an Organisational Change Manager
For those who thrive on making businesses tick, a career in organisational change management might entice them.
Here are very compelling reasons why this career path should be explored:
Impact greatness: Become that all-important cog in the wheel in the success and growth of the organisation. It can be ever satisfying to realise that the output will gain reward.Make use of versatile skills: Change management would virtually find itself applicable in all industries, whether it be healthcare or finance, technology or manufacturing. Hence, specialisations, work in these diverse sectors are made possible. A job in demand and to last: Change is constant in any business, and really, all these businesses deal with changes at quite a never before highest level. Thus, the changing hands will always be there. Challenge: Organisational change managers often work on complex problems, requiring creative and critical thinking skills. So for those who enjoy tackling challenges and finding solutions, this field is perfect.Cut across disciplines: It combines project management, psychology, and communication with business strategy. If you are after understanding the organization holistically, from people to processes, change management is a very good field to study.Polish leadership skills: Steering change efforts will allow you to practice and build leadership skills. With great leadership abilities gained from being a change manager, aspiring to higher roles within an organisation becomes that much more possible. Never stop learning: What makes the field dynamic is the changing methodologies and tools of change management, which guarantees any change manager continuous learning and professional development. Competitive Salary: Change managers can be very good earners, often because of the worthwhile pay they receive due to their specialised training. Change managers are also expected by Salary.com to be crossing well into the six figure range.
All in all, a career as an organisational change manager is a holistic package for personal gratification, professionalism, and adding value to the successful story of organisations.