The Strategic Change Management

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ABSTRACT

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects. For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities.

Stakeholder engagement is a critical factor in the success of business change, especially business transformations, which may require significant cultural change. Business transformation typically involves people, process and systems changes which need to be delivered in order to produce a step change within the business. The design of effective processes and application of appropriate technology is not enough to ensure success. Insufficient acceptance and adoption of the new processes, arising from inadequate engagement of stakeholders, is a common cause of transformation failures.

The same is true for public sector transformation, whether internally within public and civil organizations or in pursuit of broader civil and social reforms. Organizations are constantly changing, often as a result of events which affect the status quo, such as process improvements, the introduction of new technology, organizational restructuring or mergers. When we're involved in such activities, the greatest challenge for organizations is often to achieve the cultural or behavioral shift that is often required to achieve the planned benefits, even when it is recognized that change is required. Behavioral change in organizations does not just happen. Typically, it will only occur if an initiative has direction, leadership, very clear goals and benefits for its key stakeholders; and of course, all of these are communicated well, consistently and in a timely manner. For it to be successful, change management needs to be practiced for some time, to ensure sustainability. Lasting cultural shift will only be achieved through clear leadership, creative planning, and skilful communication and by developing a coherent strategy that will drive and sustain real change.

Fine’s research shows that "human beings tend to resist change, even when change represents growth and development... [And will lead to] greater efficiency and productivity. [Since] changes in an organization affect the individuals within that organization, and individuals...have the power to facilitate or thwart the implementation of an innovation (Fine, 1986, p. 84). Why do employees resist change? Primarily because they fear the unknown. That is, they feel anxiety about how the change will affect them, their job performance, and their relationship with other employees, and other job related factors. In fact, psychologists say that fear of the unknown is a rational, rather than an irrational, response to change. A small amount of uneasiness is to be expected from most people when the status quo shifts, simply because people need time to adjust their thinking, their job performance, and their social relationships to any changes made. Thus, resistance to change is inevitable, and managers must allow for some resistance when they are planning to implement change. Indeed, some resistance to change may even be positive because it slows down the speed with which innovation might otherwise proceed and allows time for people to adjust to it (Fine, 1986, pp. 88-89). Unfortunately, resistance to change sometimes goes beyond a healthy unease for the unknown, as some researchers have discovered. Nancy Feldman (1972) studied a series of changes in the Tulsa Public Library system and found the following types of employee resistance: task avoidance or postponement, hostility (stated or unstated), resignation, and underproduction (meeting only the minimum expectations of one’s work). A few years later, other library researchers found several more indicators of employee resistance to change: increased absenteeism, increased employee impatience, frustration, and sabotage (Plate & Stone, 1974; Veaner, 1974). To manage change effectively, administrators must understand why an employee’s initial reaction to a new proposal, that is, uneasiness and fear of the unknown, sometimes accelerates into more negative behavior like decreased job performance or sabotage.

Table of Contents

S. No

Description

Page No.

1.

Introduction

5

2.

Stake Holders And Change Management Process

8

3.

Change Management Strategies and Tactics

10

4.

Managing Resistance to Change

15

5.

Conclusion

16

6.

References

17

INTRODUCTION

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects. For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities.

Change management is a basic skill in which most leaders and managers need to be competent. There are very few working environments where change management is not important.When leaders or managers are planning to manage change, there are five key principles that need to be kept in mind:

Different people react differently to change

Everyone has fundamental needs that have to be met

Change often involves a loss, and people go through the "loss curve"

Expectations need to be managed realistically

Fears have to be dealt with

Here are some tips to apply the above principles when managing change: Give people information - be open and honest about the facts, but don't give overoptimistic speculation. ie meet their OPENNESS needs, but in a way that does not set UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.For large groups, produce a communication strategy that ensures information is disseminated efficiently and comprehensively to everyone (don't let the grapevine take over). Eg: tell everyone at the same time. However, follow this up with individual interviews to produce a personal strategy for dealing with the change. This helps to recognize and deal appropriately with the INDIVIDUAL REACTION to change.

Give people choices to make, and be honest about the possible consequences of those choices. ie meet their CONTROL and INCLUSION needs. Give people time, to express their views, and support their decision making, providing coaching, counseling or information as appropriate, to help them through the LOSS CURVE. Where the change involves a loss, identifies what will or might replace that loss - loss is easier to cope with if there is something to replace it. This will help assuage potential FEARS. Where it is possible to do so, give individuals opportunity to express their concerns and provide reassurances - also to help assuage potential FEARS. Keep observing good management practice, such as making time for informal discussion and feedback (even though the pressure might seem that it is reasonable to let such things slip - during difficult change such practices are even more important).

Where you are embarking on a large change programmers, you should treat it as a project. That means you apply all the rigors of project management to the change process - producing plans, allocating resources, appointing a steering board and/or project sponsor etc.. The five principles above should form part of the project objectives.

Here the organization in discussion is General Motors. General Motors Company, commonly known as GM (listed General Motors Corporation before 2009), is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, and the world's largest automaker, by vehicle unit sales, in 2011

GM employs 202,000 people and does business in some 157 countries. General Motors produces cars and trucks in 31 countries, and sells and services these vehicles through the following four regional segments, which are GM North America (GMNA), GM Europe (GME), GM International Operations (GMIO), and GM South America (GMSA), through which development, production, marketing and sales are organized in their respective world regions, plus as fifth segment GM Financial.

STAKE HOLDERS AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Stakeholder engagement is a critical factor in the success of business change, especially business transformations, which may require significant cultural change. Business transformation typically involves people, process and systems changes which need to be delivered in order to produce a step change within the business. The design of effective processes and application of appropriate technology is not enough to ensure success. Insufficient acceptance and adoption of the new processes, arising from inadequate engagement of stakeholders, is a common cause of transformation failures.

The same is true for public sector transformation, whether internally within public and civil organizations or in pursuit of broader civil and social reforms.

The overall aim of the engagement process is to achieve the desired outcomes. The desired outcomes should, therefore, always be at the forefront of planning an engagement process. They need to be clearly stated – setting out exactly what is sought from the proposed changes in process, technology, etc. The delivery of the technology, the process and the process outputs themselves are not the main focus, which must be on the achievement of the outcomes. This enables some latitude in determining how the outcomes are achieved – what technology, process and process outputs are used – so that stakeholders have a sense of purpose.

The following are methods’ that we can use to engage stake holders in change management process.

Sponsorship- Ensuring sponsorship for the change – in business, at a senior executive level from both internal ‘supplier’ and ‘customer’ perspectives – in public life, from institutional heads representing providers and receivers of services. Often, work needs to be done in advance to define the scope and context of the engagement in order to gain commitment to the engagement programme.

Involvement- Involving the right people in the design and implementation of changes, to make sure the right changes are made – so ensuring their effectiveness. Also that no stakeholder group is inadvertently or intentionally excluded – so ensuring legitimacy. And, at the outset, involving the right people in the design of the engagement plan itself. Seek active participation. Consultation is good but programmers where the deliverables are ‘done to’ or ‘done for’ the stakeholders are less likely to lead to successful outcome than if they are (in part) ‘done by’ stakeholders.

Impact-Assessing and addressing how the changes will affect people. ‘Sweeping issues under the carpet’ is a frequent cause of failure, yet often the issues present an opportunity to increase stakeholder engagement, by getting them to participate in finding or developing solutions.

Communication- Telling everyone who’s affected about the changes… and listening. Early communication the context in which the stakeholder engagement is taking place is important: – for sponsors, a common understanding of context and purpose ensures consistent leadership; – for other stakeholders to align participants, clarify their roles, and ensure the process is responsive to their needs.

Readiness- Getting people ready for the changes, by ensuring they have the right information, training and help. The timing and resources required are often underestimated but the requirements can be reduced by the planned involvement of key stakeholders.

Responsibilities- Ensuring people understand and accept their responsibilities, and are held accountable. Unambiguous definition of participants’ roles is a pre-requisite.

Compliance- Addressing resistance; in most cases revisiting 1-6 above, but occasionally requires the removal of negative influences. Former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell said "The good followers know who the bad followers are, and they are waiting for you to do something about it." I agree. However, the necessity to remove a significant number of negative people usually indicates a failure in design, planning or management. Mass removal of protesters, and their replacement by sycophants, is a recipe for disaster.

When considering stakeholders, there are very few one-to-one relationships. Most stakeholders are, and have been, influenced by a range of relationships in and around your project, program and your organization.

Stakeholder management is a key facet of organisational management where stakeholder management is often aligned with marketing, branding and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Similarly, stakeholder management central to change management and the ability to realize the benefits the change was initiated to deliver. The benefits will not be realized unless the key stakeholder communities accept and embrace the changes.

Project and program management also has a focus on effective stakeholder management. In a change initiative, the project and/or program undertakes the work to deliver the elements needed to facilitate the change but are only ever part of the journey from concept to realized value.

A typical evolution of a change initiative would flow along these lines:

The organisation decides on a major organisational restructure and as a consequence initiates a change management process and appointed a change manager. The change manager develops the business case for the program of work and the executives responsible for the organizations portfolio management approve the business case and agree to fund and resource the program. The program manager sets up the program management team, established the program management office (PgMO) and charters a series of projects to develop the various deliverables needed to implement the change.

The projects deliver their outputs. The program integrates the outputs with the operational aspects of the organization. The organization’s management make effective use of the new systems and processes. Value is created for the organization and its owners.

The change manager is the sponsor and primary client for the program but the people who need to be convinced of the value of changing are the operational managers and their staff. If the organization does not accept and use the new systems and processes very little value is generated. Within this scenario, stakeholders in the operational part of the organisation, and particularly the managers will be key stakeholders for a range of different entities:

They are stakeholders in the organisation itself and part of the organisational hierarchy. They are stakeholders in the change process being managed by the change manager. As end users of the new systems and processes they are also stakeholders of the program. As subject matter experts (SMEs) they are likely to be stakeholders in at least some of the projects. In one respect change management is stakeholder management. Therefore, in a change management initiative, stakeholder management should be an integrated process coordinated at the change manager’s level. All of the organisational elements working on the change need to coordinate their stakeholder management efforts to support the overall outcome. Confusing and mixed messages don’t help anyone.

But this is just one typical business scenario. When considering stakeholders, there are very few one-to-one relationships. Most stakeholders are, and have been, influenced by a range of relationships in and around your organization. Consequently, focusing on a simple one-to-one view is unlikely to provide the best outcome for anyone.

When considering GM as an example for organization, GM works in a world of tough competition where more and more companies are launching more and wide variety of new model to increase the level of competition. Like any other company which operates in this domain GM is also highly customer focused and drives the business on marketing and customer satisfaction. Stakes holders are taken in consideration (all the kind of stake holders (customers, employees, suppliers etc ...). GM as a leader in this domain holds the main share in the market. Stake holder analysis is very crucial in this type business to forecasts the opportunities of change process.

Change Management Strategies and Tactics

Organisations are constantly changing, often as a result of events which affect the status quo, such as process improvements, the introduction of new technology, organisational restructuring or mergers. When we're involved in such activities, the greatest challenge for organisations is often to achieve the cultural or behavioral shift that is often required to achieve the planned benefits, even when it is recognised that change is required.

Behavioral change in organisations does not just happen. Typically, it will only occur if an initiative has direction, leadership, very clear goals and benefits for its key stakeholders; and of course, all of these are communicated well, consistently and in a timely manner. For it to be successful, change management needs to be practiced for some time, to ensure sustainability. Lasting cultural shift will only be achieved through clear leadership, creative planning, skilful communication and by developing a coherent strategy that will drive and sustain real change.

A Strategy for Change

Three important principles are central to managing change:

It is not the goal in itself: it is a means to an end, and the end is an improvement in an organisation's performance or an impact on culture. It is about effectively managing the activity that will lead to an environment where some form of transformation is achieved and improvements in the organisation's performance are realised.

The "targets" of change must play an active role in realising the change: Successful Change projects will identify and communicate the vision, letting the employees know they are expected and empowered to play an active role in making the change and realising the planned benefits.

An organisation's employees are their greatest asset: and at the same time, potentially, they are also the greatest challenge. For a vision to become reality, those at the "coal-face" must believe in the goals of the initiative, the reasons why is is required, and have the desire and commitment to support and achieve it.

There are many strategies and techniques to support Change, particularly those aimed at impacting the values, attitudes and habits that we as individuals demonstrate while we are at work.

Benefits Planning

The fundamentals of success are contained within five key steps. Before launching a project, the team should conduct the following:

Benefits Identification : The early identification and agreement of the benefits and in particular the outcomes that the programme is to produce is essential.

Executive Sponsorship: sponsors must communicate and drive strategic business objectives. Gaining effective sponsorship and leadership is the first step in the change to be implemented.

Readiness Assessment: An assessment of the readiness of the organisation to adopt the changes required will enable a realistic implementation plan to be developed.

Benefits Realizations Planning: Having identified the benefits of the programme it is important to detail the plan to show all the key actions and responsibilities to achieve the planned benefit

Resistance Management: A major obstacle to successful Change is employee resistance at any level, typically due to: lack of awareness about the need behind the initiative, fear of the unknown, fear of losing control. It is essential to identify and manage all stakeholder groups to minimise resistance and build support.

Execution and Implementation

Once the project has been launched, the project should conduct the following 4 key execution steps.

Communications Plan: If staff understand what the change is and why it's required, how to implement it becomes far less of an issue. It is critical to develop carefully structured communications plans and mechanisms to inform staff about the programme and how it will affect them.

Manage the Plan: It is imperative to monitor the actions within the Change Management plan, continuously assessing progress and if necessary revising the plan accordingly.

Education & Training Plan: A key element of the Change is Education & Training, where the aim is to provide the employees in the organisation with the skills, tools & techniques required for them to perform their role effectively as the changes are being implemented.

Active Resistance Management: By actively listening and monitoring feedback on the planned changes during implementation, to identify any areas where resistance is being encountered.

Resistance and Reinforcing

Once the programme is underway, there are three further steps focused upon sustaining the initiative.

Measuring Benefits: Measuring the benefits delivered by the programme assessing the progress achieved against the benefits and the outcomes identified at the start.

Identify Gaps and Manage Resistance: If the some of the anticipated benefits have not been realized this may be because of gaps in the actions undertaken or unexpected resistance. Identification of gaps and resistance enables the identification of corrective actions to reinforce the change.

Reinforcing: Having achieved the new behaviors, process, practices etc, it is all too common for organizations to slip back to operating and behaving along the original familiar lines.

In GM ongoing change process is inevitable since the market is too tough with competition and the global changes happening in this business. New and wide variety of model is introduced extensively in to this market which makes the competition tougher. The change process is effective considering the involvement of important stakeholders. From the backslaps business run GM came in to the fore front of business in placing effective change management co-coordinating all the departments and stake holders and other units of business in a well manner, which slowly showed the changes in the business which lead the company in to the fore front of competition with a major market share. The success of the company lies in the proper change management convincing all the stake holders.

Managing Resistance to Change

It is normal to experience resistance whenever there is change. understanding that there will be resistance to change will help you anticipate resistance, identify its sources and reasons, and modify your efforts to manage the issues of change to ensure the success of your change efforts. Resistance is actually healthy. Try not to react against it defensively. It is good for you because it makes you check your assumptions and it forces you to clarify what you are doing. You must always probe the objections to find the real reason for resistance. Many times, it comes down to personal fear.

As the leader, you must take the time to understand resistance and you may have to come at it from several different angles before it is conquered. You must understand what your employees are feeling, as well as thinking.

Ways to reduce resistance to change:

Involve interested parties in the planning of change by asking them for suggestions and incorporating their ideas. Clearly define the need for the change by communicating the strategic decision personally and in written form. Address the "people needs" of those involved. Disrupt only what needs to be changed. Help people retain friendships, comfortable settings and group norms wherever possible.Design flexibility into change by phasing it in wherever possible. This will allow people to complete current efforts and assimilate new behaviours along the way. Allow employees to redefine their roles during the course of implementing change.

Be open and honest. Do not leave openings for people to return to the status quo. If you and your organization are not ready to commit yourselves to the change, don't announce the strategy. Focus continually on the positive aspects of the change. Be specific where you can. Deliver training programs that develop basic skills as opposed to processes such as: conducting meetings, communication, teambuilding, self-esteem, and coaching.

Conclusion

Change management is a process where the process or organizational operations are moved to a different mode. To make this process easy may include stake holders also in the process. Also the adaptation to different change management models also helps to make this smooth. Resistance is a part any change, so the selection of correct change management process will help.