Friday, May 27, 2011

Change Management & Transition Management

By Afiq Ahmed Hasan


Global competition, challenges, company goals for higher profits, requisitions or structural change in the top management; all these factors call for one thing- Change Management.
British Airways had to alter its approach to content management on the internet, Cadbury had to cope with global changes by refocusing on its cultural and communication barriers, HP had its CEO resigning in 2005 and Kelloggs acquired Kebbler in 2001 which resulted in almost a double in its operations and revenues. These are to name a few companies that had faced different management faucets and were successful in their change management strategies.
Ever wondered what was that one essential aspect that all of them did not undermine at any stage? It was the focus towards its workforce. These companies never failed to understand what the employees needs are, and how to manage change with them with such huge internal and external changes happening with the organization.
This is exactly what transition management is about- it is managing people in a manner that they are groomed and directed towards the final change that has to be achieved. Most managers get around by deciding the employees that would be involved in the process, the change in their tasks, job duties and the deadline by which it has to be done; these are the processes of change management. The intricate details of managing people who have to work towards the change are taken into view by transition management.
Most companies complain that their work force resists change, is de motivated and exhibits little co operation in adapting to change. Even the best designed policies and practices would be of no use, if they are not communicated effectively to the employees and they do not carry it out with full commitment.
Taking it step by step, as a manager announces any change in the organization; there are several phases that employees go through. The first stage is where the workforce is at complete denial or resistance to the change anticipated. The second one is where it leads to panic amongst the employees as they start to realize the implications of the change. Third is when they take a turn and start realizing the positive aspects the change would bring to them. And fourth, is when they actually start performing and achieving the change related results.
As a transition manager, it is the second and the third stage where employees have to be communicated effectively, trained and made understood what the new process is all about. All structural details should be accounted for by the managers to understand how they can better the process for the employees.
Therefore, remain positive as a leader, trust your employees and give them all the resources needed for change. Help your employees at each stage for better adaptation, encourage and support them through constant communication. And once change objectives are achieved, do make it a point that you celebrate it with your employees.
This is how transition management acts as the back bone of change management.

6 Steps To Effective Management During Change

By: Karin Syren | Posted: 19th August 2005

6 Steps To Effective Management During Change
Copyright 2005 So-lu'shunz Management Services

Take the pain out of gain and decrease the upheaval
surrounding change by following six commonsense steps to effective management.

Step 1: Establish Objectives

The process must begin with a clear and detailed statement
of objectives and move from there to goal design. Goals
must be directly accountable to the vision while remaining
in alignment with the stated purpose of the organization.
This requires constant interaction with team members to determine that the they are on track, and with all internal clients to insure that the goals and objectives are pertinent to their needs, as well as to the organization's greater purpose.

Step 2: Organize & Plan

Efficiency in this area requires the ability and resources
to develop and effectively communicate design/redesign
plans and realistic schedules, while maintaining a balance between the broad view and day to day operation.

The existing departmental structure in the case of a
redesign is all-important to the success of the plan, as is
the ability for leadership to delegate responsibility,
while continuing to monitor and control outcomes.
Structure, though transitional, must take precedence, often
a challenge in an atmosphere of change.

Step 3: Communicate

Great communication, the delivery of clearly stated
information on the true state things, is timely, pertinent,
and requires confirmation that the message has been
understood. The more ways in which information is given,
the more believable it becomes and the more likely to
initiate action. By means of clear communication, a course
of action is determined, pertinent information is provided
and goals are met.

Step 4: Motivate

Motivation is the purpose provider, the impetus for action.
It is complex at best and takes more than one form,
depending on the level of the individual or team, the level
of the manager, and the product or service provided.
Experts acknowledge that the feelings of the individual or
team toward the motivator are key to the degree of
motivation achieved. It becomes ideal then to have the
full cooperation of those directly affected by the process
and for leaders to have a good understanding of and rapport with teams and team members, knowing what makes each tick.

Change is disturbance of the status quo, and will always involve a degree of resistance. Involving key staff in the design and implementation process, particularly when it involves drastic structure changes can be extremely productive.

Step 5: Develop Staff

Developing people ought to be a primary goal of any organization, and developing existing staff during a period of transition is practical and profitable. Leaders have the power to provide an environment rich in opportunity and resource, in which employees are encouraged in the area of self-development.

Place staff appropriately is critical to insuring staff
become long-term contributors who can be counted on in
periods of growth and transition. An effective leader understands that discerning the right fit of individual to position is critical to all present and future endeavors.
Ignorance in this area can be a costly flaw surfacing
during periods of change.

Step 6: Measure & Analyze

Finally, management is responsible for measurement and
analysis of both processes and individuals. Employees must
be made aware of their progress, in new and developing settings, as well as in familiar ones, in order to effectively draft and adjust personal goals and improve performance. Measurement and evaluation should be designed to reflect the vision while motivating and initiating self-government of the individual.

It is necessary to communicate a clear concept of the point
at which development issues end and performance issues
begin. Growth is a process best achieved and assessed
under relatively stable circumstances, though periods of transition are often an excellent proving ground in which star players often begin to shine.

Effective Skills

It goes without saying that the challenges inherent in the management process must be met with maturity and sophistication by each leader. The areas of interpersonal and leadership skills, as well as continued willingness to invest in self-awareness and personal growth are paramount in the profile of the great leaders who will guide organizations to effective change.

Interpersonal skills are of chief importance. Leaders must treat all staff equitably, developing solid working relationships across all levels. This may appear blatantly obvious, but sadly is all too often overlooked in the name of accelerated progress.

A great leader has a sincere desire for universal success, treating staff members as individuals, giving credit, taking pleasure in achievements. A great leader keeps the objective clear and uncomplicated, always acts as a role model, and stands back, letting others get on with their assignments.

A true leader will make the difference between an effective period of change and the failure of an otherwise brilliant plan. Do not overlook the advantage of adjusting the needs of the plan to allow for the needs of the people. It is not necessary to prioritize purpose over people, or vice versa. If leadership has done its homework, everyone in the organization will arrive at the objective simultaneously.

In Closing...

Essential to the process is an understanding of the
distinction between management and leadership.

Management ensures that things get done right, creating
process and systems and insuring efficiency. A manager
manages the process and records the efficiency.

Leadership revolves around people, concepts and ideas, establishing direction for those who will follow. It is discerning and articulating what is right, all the while educating the team to do the right things and to do them right.

Manage the process, lead the people, and educate them along
the way - commonsense.


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Karin Syren is a certified coach who has helped business leaders at all levels increase their effectiveness by increasing their awareness. Visit her site to find out how you can get a free EffectivenessCoaching consultation at http://www.solushunz.com

Monday, May 9, 2011

Not Accidental Revolutionaries: Essays on Open Source Software Production and Organizational Change

Abstract
Open Source Software research has established that OSS technology (tools and practices)
holds untapped potential. Based on a systematic literature review and a research engagement
over a three-year period of data gathering, my dissertation describes how organizations
leverage OSS practices to produce software. Leveraging OSS can be divided into two
processes: 1) inbounding (moving public assets inside a company) and 2) outbounding
(publishing) OSS. I outline the structural consequences these changes in software production
entail and provoke. My research question is: What is the relation between local renegotiation
of the term OSS and the organizational change provoked by OSS technology?
I chose a qualitative approach to examine the case companies, informed by
OSS research and institutional theory. The bulk of the data emerges from the industrial
ITEA-COSI project, which focused on software commodification. I aim to provide a narrative
of how the term OSS travels from the writings of enthusiasts to the daily work practices of
software producing organizations. The findings underline the importance of local
renegotiation of the term OSS. This renegotiation provokes structural changes in 1) the
organizations that adopt OSS technology, but more widely also in 2) the industries these
companies operate in.
The main contribution of this research thesis, reported in four essays, is directed at two
audiences: first, at academics, to promote the idea that OSS in organizations should be
researched in a sensitivized manner. This requires moving away from too simplistic
institutional contexts and ”the OSS business model”. Second, it is directed at practitioners, to
reduce uncertainty about the adoption of OSS technology and to help build a capacity to
accept, search for, motivate and reward contribution.

http://helecon3.hkkk.fi/pdf/diss/Aalto_DD_2011_013.pdf

BARRIERS TO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: A CASE STUDY OF A CHANGE PROJECT

ABSTRACT
An attempt is made in this article to identify the success and failure factors in
organizational change and learning process. The empirical study was made by following
an organization-wide project that aims at changing pricing practices in highly
decentralized sub-units through the efforts of corporate head office. The results show
that the highly decentralized organizational structure and the independent financial
status of the sub-units have proved to be the barriers to learning and change. In this
paper we outline those barriers of organizational learning that occurred in the case of
study.

http://www2.hull.ac.uk/hubs/pdf/ID 137 L Andersson, Pan W,.pdf

The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management

p. 317
http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=1gigO0XpXiEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA317&ots=mc_R0nHvYA&sig=7w3RLLDsCOCWnQl-P0GcXXDf7yg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Why do People Reject Technologies? – Towards a Unified Model of Resistance to IT-Induced Organizational Change

Based on Oreg (2006) this paper proposes a unified model of technology resistance including resistance as a behavior or behavioral intention (Kim and Kankanhalli 2009), a tri-dimensional construct of resistance to change (Piderit 2000) as an extension to Bhattacherjee and Hikmet (2007) and resistance as a personality trait (Oreg 2003) in order to enable a unified understand why people reject technologies. The evaluation of the model with a study of a new human resources information system shows that the resistance behavior of the researched 106 recruiters could be explained by their affective, behavioral and cognitive resistance to change as well as their individual personality trait resistance. Several implications for future research are discussed.


http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=digit2010&sei-redir=1#search=%22http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=digit2010%22

Organizational Change and Development

Organizational change is an important issue in organizations. It is actually a
process in which an organization optimizes performance as it works toward its
ideal state. Organizational change occurs as a reaction to an ever-changing
environment, a response to a current crisis situation, or is triggered by a leader.
Successful organizational change is not merely a process of adjustment, but also
requires sufficient managing capabilities. However, there are many topics to be
considered to achieve successful change. Hence, this paper discusses the causes of
organizational change, its elements, approaches, process, resistance, management,
and finally the possible factors leading to its breakdown.

http://www.nacs.gov.tw/english/_files/1000216-301.pdf

REDUNDANCY: BOUNDED OR GENERATIVE ORDER ? CO-EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE MANAGER SKILLS AND ORGANIZATIONAL WELL-BEING

The dominance of a reductionist approach in studies of managerial science has confined attention of researchers to the coarse aspects of the organization and its regularity. The method of analysis and solution of the problem has been to cancel interference generating unpredictability. The manager has been considered a major player in decision-making models based on the relationship between computational ‘facts’. The separation between the complexity of events and management skills has become increasingly wide. It is urgent to rethink theories and managerial skills that may consider human actions as carriers of meanings, the organizations as emergent relationships based on ‘values’ and organizational change as a permanent process of development and evolution of personal know-how. Our contribution to the role of redundancy is part of the mainstream studies of organizational change best practices. Our view is that change creativity is a property of ‘relational activity’ and that it is necessary that management is able to acquire those ‘subtle skills’, both in studies and in practice, to be a ‘co-generator of organizational values and well-being’.

http://complexityinstitute.com/contenuti/89/AIRS_2010_-_Redundancy_.pdf

Gender and Organizational Change: Is it Just a Woman’s Issue?

Abstract: This article examines how different constituents involved
in a process of organizational change, with mergers as one example
of such change, understand, engage, and negotiate this environment;
specifically how they create a sense of professional stability given
the myriad uncertainties that accompany organizational change. The
study on which this article in based reveals how faculty members and
administrators at New University an institution that recently
underwent a merger, engage the idea of gender equity within this
climate of organizational change. This was an involuntary
amalgamation ordered by the Minister of Education, between two
institutions with divergent histories; one a historically white
advantaged university and the other a historically black
disadvantaged institution. How did the constituents of the newlymerged
organization negotiate their competing and in some cases
conflicting interests, cultures, and objectives, to create a new
institution, whose mission aligns national equity objectives?

http://jotp.icbche.org/2011/4-2_Mabokela_p.47.pdf

Competition and Organizational Change

We develop a model in which competitive pressure is a catalyst for organizational
change. In our model, commitment to a narrow business strategy is valuable because
workers need to coordinate their efforts to build a strategy-specific capability. We show
that a monopolist may not be able to commit to a focused business strategy. However,
introducing competition can make commitment credible, thus leading to organizational
change and greater operating efficiency. Our model sheds light on a number of questions
in the intersection between the strategic management literature and the organizational
economics literature, including the importance of leadership styles, the existence of
X-inefficiencies, and the interactions between strategic positioning and organizational
capabilities.

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/FERREIRD/organizational%20change.pdf

Paper: Employee dissatisfaction with organizational change: An Empirical study of a technology services company

Employee satisfaction is one of the key factors that influences an organization’s performance and is
thus critical to the organization’s success. In this paper, we report on an empirical study of employee
dissatisfaction with organizational change, which resulted in huge staff turnover and hostility towards
management. We examine in-depth how and why such a high level of dissatisfaction, which was well
beyond management expectations, developed. First, we explore the organizational context and
systematically extract the constructs that lead to employee dissatisfaction. Then, we integrate the
constructs into a model to explain the dissatisfaction and resistance to organizational change. In this
model, “benefits,” “workload,” and “promotion” lead directly to employee dissatisfaction, while “age”
and “expertise” function as moderating constructs. Our study contributes to the literature by using
qualitative research methods to explore employee dissatisfaction with organizational change. Top
managers are best served by learning more about employee dissatisfaction, and making transitions
during organizational change smoother and more effective.

http://academicjournals.com/ajbm/PDF/pdf2011/18Feb/Wu and Wu.pdf

Paper: Organizational Culture and Discourses: a Case of Change in a Brazilian Public organization

http://www.anpad.org.br/periodicos/arq_pdf/a_1183.pdf

paper: Using Social Networks Theory as a complementary perspective to the study of Organizational Change

http://www.anpad.org.br/periodicos/arq_pdf/a_1182.pdf

Book: Organizational Change - Creating Change through Strategic Communication

http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=H4q8kjS5iloC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=%22organizational+change%22&ots=W6yb5y_RWj&sig=S3DjrWCSZHRpGcCGeGcYFPgoiNM#v=onepage&q&f=false

Book: Building Organizational Capacity for Change - Strategic Leader's New Mandate

http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=H4q8kjS5iloC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=%22organizational+change%22&ots=W6yb5y_RWj&sig=S3DjrWCSZHRpGcCGeGcYFPgoiNM#v=onepage&q&f=false