Organizational change scenario in an organization
How are we able to survive this world which is in a constant change? We, as humans have the ability to adjust with the changes that happen in our environment. We are rational beings, so even if how complex things may seem, we are able to cope up with any of those. For whatever reason, we are able to survive over generations.
Today, organizations deal with rapid changes like never before. The leaders in an organization may have not changes in a long period of time but, the market has already changed in a lot of ways that it makes them have a hard time on coping. Globalization has increased the markets and opportunities for growth and returns. In the past, organizations were satisfied in having a good reputation and having income in a certain part of the world. But, today’s trend is no longer that way. The more a company invests in spreading its wings to the different parts of the world, the more chances of increasing its income and making a reputable name in the market there will be.
The demands of the past have never been like of these days. As technology become sophisticated, the more the consumers demand for something more efficient, high-quality, easy to have, yet economical. It is a pressure for the organizations to meet.
A lot of changes have taken place, not just in our personal lives but also to the organizations in the market. It is critical especially to the leaders and managers of an organization because it is their job to be the ones to initially adapt with all the changes.
In an organizational setting, a change happens when the company needs to change its strategy in order to increase its profit and become more known to the consumers, it can also add or omit a major practice, or it may want to change the actual nature on how it operates. And, just like people, organizations need to evolve through life cycles and undergo changes, for them to develop.
Through time, issues about leadership, power and politics, organizational structure, culture and managing organizational change arose. Changes should be done in an organization not for the sake of undergoing a change, but should be geared to improve the performance of organizations and the people in those organizations (McNamara, n.d.).
In an organization, we understand that there are other leaders except for the owners or those at the top position. There are also the shareholders, the board of directors, managers, the employees, etc. Without these people in the position, it would cause limp to the organization. That’s one of the biggest problems when the management wants to create a change. That change proposed by the management is, of course supposed to be for the betterment of the whole organization. But, due to some misconceptions and conflicts between the whole team inside the organization, a change or some changes designed to enhance their performance will be blocked, or if not be carefully scrutinized. In the long run, the interrogation or the trial-and-error per se would cause the change to progress slowly until it’ll end up being stuck. That change is supposed to happen in a period of time when it is a trend and a need to materialize, but because it is delayed, that change would no longer be useful in the next period of time.
Another difficulty in having a change is when it comes to the team which does the deed. Let’s say for example in a fast food chain setting, McDonald’s, as an example. McDonald’s had been at the top of the industry for several years until it decided to undergo a strategic management. It is not for the sake of just having some change in their environment, but for the sake of becoming better. McDonald’s had extended its chains to the different parts of the world but, it seemed like it had never improved with its delivery of service. Until in 2000, it decided to improve its customer service. It’s a very good idea. But, the team who does the deed would be having difficulty in performing the change. The fast food chain has a lot of branches that its heads would be having difficulty with evaluating whether the change that it planned would be materialized the way they had sought it out to be. Yes, they could give instructions to the top managers, then the tops managers will be the ones to disseminate the instructions to each division. But, due to communication barriers, the interpretation of an individual might come out different from the other. Take note, this is a global setting, dealing different cultures and beliefs.
There are a lot more challenges in materializing change in an organization. Not just the mentioned scenarios are happening in an organization that seeks for change. A lot more happens, as expected and as unexpected. So, I recommend the organizations who wish to make a change happen to consider the following in managing change: assess the need for change, designing the plan for change, coach those who will lead others through the transition to change, help others adapt to change, dealing with resistance to change (Sundararajan, 2009).
References:
Sundararajan, S., 2009. A Conceptual Study on Organizational Change in Current Scenario [online]. Available at; <http://www.articlesbase.com/organizational-articles/a-conceptual-study-on-organizational-change-in-current-scenario-957832.html> [Accessed 04 June 2011].
McNamara, C., n. d.. Organizational Change and Development (Managing Change and Change Management) [online]. Available at: <http://managementhelp.org/org_chng/org_chng.htm> [Accessed 04 June 2011]
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