Organizational Change Management

It is a well known fact and philosophy, that change is the one constant thing in this universe. Implementing and managing a major change, whether it is for an individual or a big company has always been difficult. One of the biggest challenges which an organization faces is, understanding the change required and implementing it. The challenge is overwhelming when the change has to be implemented across the entire organization and the departments.

The success of implementing an organization wide IT related change depends on the IT change management process and particularly on the Transition Management Team responsible and accountable for implementing the change. A dedicated team is necessary as there should be a group of people responsible and accountable for directing the organization through the process of change. The root for an organizational change usually comes from the analysis of the organizational vision and culture. An organization going through a major change should ensure that its people, processes, products and tools used should remain aligned to the vision and culture of the organization. The most important factor in the success of implementing the change is the communication of the change. An organizational change implies a big uncertainty about the results. This can induce tension in the minds of the employees. Hence, it is very crucial for the senior management to be as transparent as possible.

The next thing is to have a thorough action plan for the change implementation. This should include all aspects of the organization which should undergo the change and those which will be affected by the change. Training and workshops are the best ways to ensure that people are aligned to the change and have the knowledge required to implement the change in their day-to-day activities at work. We are aware that it is difficult to ask people to change the way they have been working for years. What if you are rewarded for changing? Yes, giving appropriate incentives is one way of easily making people adopt a change.

Finally, though it is difficult to exactly measure the effects of implementing an organizational change, especially in the short term, it is necessary to identify at least some aspects to analyze the effects of the change in the long term. This could be employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, sales percentage, etc.

Change is inevitable and crucial to the development of an individual as well as an organization. Obviously, we cannot and should not be wasting time resisting a change. Once a change occurs, or once a change is planned to occur, it is how one manages the change and its repercussions that really matters. Manage Changes module by Manage IT helps in planning and implementing IT infrastructure and application changes, managing organizational and work force transitions, thus improving the efficiency of any IT change release.

About Author:

Kintu Racca is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at kintu.r@spluspl.com