Sunday, September 25, 2005

The importance of Organizational Change in Today's Society

Organizational change is the corner stone for providing a better method of doing business. In order for a company to gain success, the CEO must learn how to think outside of the box. Experienced and visionary companies learn early how to master the art and skill of change. The purpose of this paper is to examine why organizational change is important for research practices. In addition, the focus of this paper will investigate the need for the organizational change method.


Discussion
Accepting Change
Concept. Learning how to adapt to change is an important step for organizations and those in diverse groups. Change is a concept that will happen whether one chooses to flow with the process or not (Drucker, 2001). As seen today, change is mounting all around us. Those that do not change run the risk of falling behind. This ideology is detrimental to companies that do not desire to face the challenge.


According to a report conducted by ProSci, discovered that, “more than 50 percent of participants had implemented dramatic process change, more than 90 percent implemented process changes that crossed departmental boundaries and almost 50 percent expect the change to impact their entire enterprise” (Drucker, 2001) The percentage is vital in determining and correlating the benefits of change and the expected outcome to implementing change.


Change. Organizational change is best defined as a process that, “implements new procedures or technologies intended to realign an organization with the changing demands of its business environment, or to capitalize on business opportunities” (Drucker, 2001). The key to successfully implementing change involves good leadership and people to determine the outcome. With change happening in various directions, managers must learn how to evaluate each scenario that arises. A change program must be prepared and handled properly to overcome discomfort within employees. If follies exist within the change process; the organization will not reach its anticipated goals or objectives.


Global Communications
Success.
Successful companies value the effectiveness of their employees and consumers when making changes in the organization. For instance, Motorola a global communications corporation uses team work and employee relations by listening to their employees and working together. By paying attention to employees and working together, the company eliminated 732 defects per million over a period of time. People play an important role in pursuing and carrying out organizational change within companies. However, this will occur when leadership understands the importance of properly managing, communicating and enacting with employees (Drucker, 2001).


Enacting. The process of change will occur when a company is “pushed into action or pulled out of action” (Eisenbach, Watson, Pillai, and 2005). When a company finds itself pushed into action the results turn into a conflict or struggle. If a company is being pulled into action the company begins to choose new and different strategies based on the changes in technology or other savvy business ideas. According to the article by Brown and Eisenhart there are three key characteristics of successful managers in organization experiencing change will fall into:


Successful managers provide clear responsibility and priorities with extensive communication and freedom to improvise;
Successful managers enhance learning about future possibilities by experimenting with ideas. Although the future is uncertain, it is possible to learn something about it;
Successful managers link current projects to the future with predictable intervals (Eisenbach, Watson, and Pillai, 2005).


The authors in the case study state that change agents must recognize the components within the organization to gain success (Heiubach, Montgomery, Weimer and Heerwagen, 1995). By not recognizing the importance of the organization system companies run the risk of failing. Break-downs within the organization unfold when significant aspects of the organization are ignored or underestimated.


Conclusion
Organizational Change
Opinion.
There is a strong need to understand the benefits of incorporating organizational change into companies. Without a clear concise plan to develop these processes organizations will run the risk of failing in today’s market. Every company will need to learn how to effectively use this method and introduce it into its plan. Good leaders will quickly embrace this ideology and take the challenge to enrich the company. The purpose of organizational change is to make good organizations great and this can only be achieved by keeping up with changes in technology. Furthermore these changes must be implemented and carried out by managers willing to take the extra step and lead by example.

References
Drucker, P. F. (2001). Organizational Change. Management Challenges. Retrieved September
18, 2005 from http://www.managementfirst.com/change_management/articles/changes.php

Eisenbach, R., Watson, K., & Pillai, Rajnandini. (2005). Managing Change. Management First.
California State University, San Marcos. Retrieved September 18, 2005 from http://www.managementfirst.com/change_management/articles/managingchange.php

Heiubach, J.G., Montgomery, J.C., Weimer, W.C., and Heerwagen, J.H. (1995). A Case Study:
Integrated work environment and organizational change. Richland, WA Pacific Northwest Laboratory. Retrieved September 18, 2005 from http://www.osti.gov/bridge/product.biblio.jsp

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