Leading a successful change intervention in a modern organisation: Key elements to consider (original) (raw)
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Implementing change in organisations: key challenges
Journal of Management and Financial Sciences
A VUCA world (described with four attributes: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) and the resulting need to implement changes continuously in almost every area of organisational activity have enhanced the awareness of organisations with regard to searching for skilful managers/leaders of change and building up competencies in change management amongst their staff. At the same time, however, quite a large proportion of changes fail. The paper aims to identify major challenges faced when implementing significant changes in an organisation using two case studies as an example. The first case study concerns a change to the Agile approach in an organisation’s operations, while the second one – the implementation of the Design Thinking concept in the work of project teams. The obtained results have become a starting point for more in-depth studies on change management focused in particular on factors contributing to organisational change success or failure and the role of ...
In this paper we build on Burnes' 2005 review and critique of organisational change approaches and explore more recent developments. Through systematic review of mainstream change and management literature it is demonstrated that the content of individual approaches and the number and scope of change approaches has increased since 2005. The contribution of this paper is to outline the spectrum of change approaches and paradigms that emerged, and to describe a revised research agenda needed to accelerate progress in understanding organisational change.
All changes great and small; Exploring approaches to change and its leadership
2005
Although the growing need for change in organizations it is widely acknowledged it is asserted that up to 70% of change initiatives fail. While there have been attempts to understand the reasons for failure these have been seen as inconclusive, and a need for further empirical work has been identified. Within the growing literature on change leadership there are assertions that the root cause of many change problems is leadership behaviour. This article begins by exploring the change literature and, in particular the broadening of this literature with the inclusion of complexity and evolutionary theories. From the literature the authors propose a typology of change approach is proposed. In examining change the authors also examine emerging thoughts from the change leadership literature. Combining these different streams of literature leads to three core research questions, which are: (1) What approach to change management is likely to be most effective in today's business envir...
Organisational change research: challenges and assumptions. What about possibilities?
2017
As organisations have been attempting to deal with the practical difficulties that change brings, the debates and discussions seemed to have played to a number of themes and assumptions. Although the former has benefited from extensive research the latter has been neglected over the past seven decades. Whilst researchers have focused on planned and emergent change and the discourse and practice approaches, others have proposed dualism/paradox, change agency, behavioural and positioning theory as these are assumed will help management resolve challenges and achieve successful change. However, a study is yet to be carried out on what the taken-for-granted assumptions that these debates play to really are and what they could offer to an area that has been claimed to be under-theorised over decades. This lies at the crux of the paper’s aims and objectives. Through content analysis and the interpretation of the qualitative, empirical data, it has been found that employees’ preferences ha...
Leadership challenges in change intervention and navigation
African Journal of Business Management
The success of any change intervention depends on the leadership of the organisation. It is therefore important to note that leadership is an enabler of any type of change. Quite often organisations require transformational leadership for the successful implementation of any change intervention. Transformational leaders focus on three critical activities namely the creation of a compelling sense of vision, the mobilization of commitment to the vision and the implementation of change. In general leadership can be seen as the driving force to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. Effective leaders know that the successful implementation of change begins with attending to the human aspect. Therefore, leadership is about the leader' ability to influence people and allowing them to change perceptions, behaviours, attitudes and finally action. It is about arousing human potential and allows for leaders and followers to be united in pursuit of high level goals common to and accepted by all parties involved. This article will mainly focus on the above scope.
Responding to Change in a Large Organization from a Leadership Angle
The reality today is that organizations and leaders are faced with unrelenting demands to change. Globalisation, competitiveness and ever changing business environments have forced organisations to constantly consider innovative changes. The challenge today is for leaders to be able to reduce the resistance to change, and thus allowing for successful change navigation. It is therefore necessary to be mindful of the various approaches to change in order to ensure that change can be successfully implemented. The success of any change intervention depends on the leadership of the organisation. It is therefore important to note that leadership is an enabler of any type of change. In general leadership can be seen as the driving force to ensure effectiveness and efficiency. Effective leaders know that the successful implementation of change begins with attending to the human side in the organisation. Therefore, leadership is about the leader’s ability to influence people and allowing them to change perceptions, behaviours, attitudes and finally action. This paper is an attempt to address specific requirements, referring to relevant leadership competencies and providing more empowering views on the essence of leadership in navigating a successful change intervention.
Organisational Change: A Critical Review of the Literature
2016
This paper presents a literature review on change management. Change management has been defined as ‘the process of continually renewing an organisation’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers (Moran & Brightman 2000). Kanter (1992) contends that we live in a constantly changing world, and change has an impact on the individuals and the organisation as a whole. In this context, organisations have to look into the future to find new advantages. New technologies, new products, new competitors, new regulations, and new people with new values and experience is the order of the modern organisation. Nevertheless, theories and approaches to change management are often conflicting, lacking in empirical evidence and based on unchallenged assumptions about the nature of modern organisational change management. This paper looks at some of the main theories and approaches to organisational change management as an important fir...
Case Study Analysis on an Organisation Change Management & Change Process
Introduction This case study focuses on a fast growing online business services startup platform in Australia. It operates as its own functioning business unit under the umbrella of News Ltd, who own a cluster of individual digital companies also known as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, one of the world’s largest global media companies. This case study examines a change that occurred when almost the entire senior management staff level was replaced including the CEO two years ago. Organisational change is something that occurs throughout an organisation’s life cycle and effects the entire organisation rather than one part of it. Employing a new person is one example. Change is increasing due to a number of forces including globalisation led by rapidly advancing technologies, cultural diversity, environmental resources and the economy; therefore the ability to recognise the need for change as well as implement change strategies effectively, in a proactive response to internal and external pressures is essential to organisational performance. Internal changes can include organisational structure, process and HR requirements and external changes involve government legislation, competitor movements and customer demand (Wood et al, 2010). Change does not need to be a painful process, as it may seem when observing the amount of failed change management initiatives with reports as low as 10% of researched success rates (Oakland & Tanner, 2007), when successful change management strategies are utilised and planned, including effective communication strategies, operational alignment, readiness to change and implementation, which all lower and overcome resistance (Wood et al, 2010). There is a great amount of literature on the negative aspects and difficult management with employees resisting change, however Wood et al (2010) challenge this notion by questioning the change management process as people do not resist change itself but aspects of the change that affects them personally such as fear of the unknown, status, remuneration and comfort. Resistance to these changes is a healthy reaction and can be managed effectively in the beginning by ensuring communication and using one of the change initiatives described here .
POSSIBLE STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE THE ROLES OF LEADERS IN CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Organizational change is an essential part of business development. It is notoriously difficult and more often than not, proposed changes in an organization fail to achieve their objectives. This is due to the inadequacy or dismissal of leaders in disseminating changes to their followers in a way that encourages them to embrace and implement change(s). Organizational leaders have a very difficult job; however, they must not shirk their responsibilities towards the bread and butter of their organization-the employees. Leaders are solely responsible for ensuring that employees have a sense of belonging and significance in their organization. Once this is realized, the process of change management becomes easy and employees will be less resistant to change and more secure in their abilities and their positions. Nonetheless, there remains a lot to be learned surrounding the best ways to bring forth change in an organization. This paper provides a review of the available literature in the area of change management, covering the drivers of change and the attitudes of leaders and employees to organizational change. It also introduces some strategies that leaders can execute in their efforts towards widely accepted and successful changes in their organization.