Business Change

CHANGE

In today's business world, corporations have become more complex and more unpredictable, in fact it is considered almost "healthy" that a corporation experience change and transformation. Companies need to be susceptible and ready to acknowledge the challenges that change presents with and try to overcome these for the benefit of the company as a whole. Due to the ever-changing business and social environments caused strongly by globalizations, this has meant that companies must keep themselves up-to-date, whether it is through using the latest form of technology or through the latest management fad. There are many factors involved with change and the successful management of it which can often be a difficult time for companies. One major barrier for change is resistance of people in organizations. 3 factors are crucial in a company's way of dealing with changes: Resistance to Change, Change Agent, and Principles for Change.

When managers try to carry out changes, the main problem that they may face is resistance. It is almost impossible for any change process to be implemented without some degree of resistance. The reason for this resistance is that people become ingrained with individual and group beliefs and values when change is addressed. Why try to understand resistance when one can just enforce his views on his subordinates? Understanding the causes or reasons behind the resistance and working towards productive change is the main objective of a successful, productive company. Personal and Group uncertainty are often the biggest causes of employee resistance to change. In the face of impeding change, employees may become anxious and nervous. Employees may worry about the way it will affect their work and their lives and whether they will be able to meet the new demands of their jobs. Individual instances of resistance include: Homeostasis, Habit, Primacy, Selective Perception, Superego, Self-Distrust and Insecurity. In these instances, change is seen as evil and not "healthy". Change is not looked on as a positive opportunity and thus is rejected by the individuals in a company, which may result in incohesiveness within the organization and eventual collapse. Personal instances of resistance like those stated above often hold companies back because of their conservative views as they often result from lack of individual confidence in oneself to be creative. Stemming from personal instances of resistances is the occurrence of group resistance to change. Sources of group resistance to change include: Conformity to Norms (Inertia), Vested Interests, Sacrosanct, Rejection of Outsiders, Overdetermination, and threatened power. Vested Interests is probably the most interesting source of resistance because how can interest in being the best be a resistance? Vested Interests can be a resistance because it often promotes conformity to norms, as workers are less likely to contribute their ideas to the advancement of innovation and as a result the company suffers as past new ideas become old, and new ideas are needed to survive in the ubercompetitive business world today. Rejection of Outsiders can be looked on as positive or negative, but more negatively, thus placing it as a resistance to change. Rejection of Outsiders might cause more cohesion within a group to rely on each other, and better teamwork BUT more importantly it causes the new and useful ideas from ever circulating within company conversations because employees block out these great ideas because the ideas originated from an external source. People view change as a threat to their power, status, security, familiarity and self-confidence and it is the nature of people that like things to remain the same. A good manager has to be able to work with and overcome this resistance and must be able to control the whole process of change. There are many kinds of resistance that the leader of change in an organization will experience. Individuals resist change when a change in habit is imposed will resist change when a change in habit is imposed, personal sense of security is threatened, one's income could be lowered, the change is ambiguous and contains a high level of uncertainty, or they become

guilty of selectively processing the information presented and do not understand the potential benefits that the changes could bring. Tactics to overcome resistance to change include:

education and communication, participation, facilitation and support,

negotiation, manipulation and co-optation, and coercion. To overcome resistance, the Contemporary Change Formula must be true, (D x S x P) > X. Dissatisfaction with current state, clarity of end state, practicality of steps to end state must be greater than costs of change for change to occur.

As change occurs, it is crucial to effectively manage this change. Business organizations and managers are constantly being faced with challenges in the process of getting work done through people. There are many challenges faced by business organizations and mangers due to the forces in the internal and external environment. For business organizations to excel and succeed, effective leaders are needed to help groups of people define their goals and find ways to achieve them. It is important to look at the aspects of leadership involved, if companies want to achieve successful organizational change and a problem they may be facing is the lack of employee commitment. For change requires a sense of direction which a leader can generate, but it may also need someone who can manage the change process effectively, proving to be a valuable asset to the company at the times when changes occur. Lewin's three-step model talks about the change process as unfreezing from the status quo, implementing the actual change, and refreezing to continue the journey. A change agent is a person who has the conviction, and the charisma to make things happen, keep people engaged, and effectively manage change. Change agents employ a number of skills--they must: 1) Understand, but not participate in, an organization's politics, 2) Be able to "deconstruct" an organization or process and put it back together in original, innovative ways, (3) Be keen analyzers who can clearly and persuasively defend their analyses to the organization and (4) Understand the financial impacts of change, whether brought on by radical overhaul or incremental continuous improvements. Qualities of a change agent include: Credibility, Homophily, Empathy, and Recipriority. Credibility is needed for people to put their jobs on the line to perform for the Agent. Empathy for the change agent is needed for employees to be genuinely attached to the agent and have a feeling of interpersonality as they feel that they are the same as the manager and will do anything to