Change Management is a systematic approach to deal with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes or technologies.

Importance:

It allows employees to understand and commit to the shift and work effectively during the transition.

Without effective organizational change management, company transitions can be rocky and expensive in terms of both time and resources.

Types of changes in organizations:

-> Re structuring: changes in organizational structures and reporting lines

-> Re Engineering: changing the processes or the way the work is done

-> Mergers and Acquisitions: changing the identities of the organization

-> Strategy change: changing priorities , ultimate direction and purposes.

-> Cultural change: changing values , attitudes and behaviors

The common result that happens when change management occurs is panic. Employees become worried about the changes which is about to happen and they become insecure and confused.

The interesting fact about this is that there is a specific pattern of this phenomena/process though it varies in intensity. In simple words , panic happens for every employee whenever there is a change in management and it occurs in a specific pattern but the intensity will be different for each individual.

The pattern:

The above graph represents the pattern in which humans respond to disruptive changes. Humans basically love stability . so, whenever something that disrupts stability happens, they become worried.

-> Immobilisation - when the employee hears of the news of a change in the management, he/she will not be able to cope up with the situation and the brain protects him/her from thinking.

-> Denial - This is the phase where the employee tries to deny the changes and try to convince himself that it does not concern him or it is not going to happen.

-> Anger - after the second phase of denial , the employee will feel frustrated that these things are not in his control and hence become angry and irritated.

-> Negotiation - the employee tries to negotiate with the upper management or his coworkers or even god to stop the change from happening.

-> Depression - after all the efforts , he realizes that the change is going to happen whatever he thinks or does and this realization makes him fall into a stage of depression.

-> Testing - coming out of depression, employees start developing new behavior patterns and they will look at their current situation from a new perspective. They will find new ways and perspectives and try to move into a level of acceptance.

According to John Kotter who is an expert in change management, a company must do the following things to implement a smooth and easy transition or change in management.

-> Establishing a state of urgency - employees must feel that the change is really necessary or else it will result in the sinking of the company or something like that.

-> Creating the guiding coalition - you need strong people who will lead the organization through the change . Vision and strategy - the top management must have a clear vision and strategy which will make the employees confident.

-> Communicating the vision to the employees - transformation is impossible unless the employees are willing to help, often to the point of making short term sacrifices . employees will not make sacrifices unless they believe that this change is useful without credible communication, employees won't cooperate.

-> Removing obstacles which hinders the new vision - management must help in removing the blocking elements so that employees will have a feeling of confidence.

-> Creating short term wins - managers must actively look for ways to obtain clear performance improvements , establish goals , reward the people involved with recognition , promotion and even financial incentives.

If any one is interested in knowing more about CM, refer the below links:

CHANGE MANAGEMENT 1/2 - HRM Lecture 11

CHANGE MANAGEMENT 2/2 - HRM Lecture 11

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