First of all, it is important to say that organizational changes are really vital as for huge and small companies. Nowadays, organizational changes mean reviewing and modifying business processes or management structures. Furthermore, they help the entity to develop a company’s business environment and be competitive among the main competitors or partners. In order to be a step ahead than the competitors, the management of the organization should look for the methods or ways to do the cost and business more efficiently. In addition, it is necessary to underline the evidence of such entities which refuse to embrace business transformation. Clearly, quite often some of the settlements about modification are really difficult to make since they provide changes in the labor force or partners’ environment but top managers of the organization are to do it. Their main purpose is to overcome and deal with the changes correctly and out of heavy tolls for the company.
Domains of Organizational Change
The majority of scholars has different minds about the areas of organizational changes. Some of them single out a structure, strategy and organizational power; others add technology or ‘people’ (the corporate population) to the mentioned domains (Wischenvsky, Damanpour, 2006). Apparently, all the mentioned fields in the business processes are extremely interconnected. If the company attempts to imply alterations in one sphere it has to bring about changes in all areas. As for strategic changes, they can take place on large and small scales (Wischenvsky and Damanpour, 2006). For example, the strategic changes have sense when the entity is interested in shifting of the sources in order to start a new line of business or in the case when the organization makes productivity improvements in order to reduce its costs. So, strategic modifications are realized in three stages. The first one is understanding that the current strategies are no longer useful for the company at the moment. The second stage considers creation of a vision for the organization’s future (Wischenvsky and Damanpour, 2006). The third one consists of the changes’ accomplishment and creation of a new system in order to support strategic alteration (Worall, 2011).
Technological changes are usually a part of the larger strategic change. However, they can be introduced as the main object of the company’s changes (Worall, 2011). It is important to note that this type of changes really can be a threat for the company’s labor force, so directors should definitely understand who will be threatened by modifications. In order to reach great results during technology changes in the company, the directors should incorporate them into the company’s global system and set up the management structure which will provide support of the changes (Worall, 2011).
Structural changes might also emerge during implementation of strategic changes, or while they change the managerial style of the organization; for example, when the company’s administration makes the decision about acquiring another business or integration of it (Wischenvsky and Damanpour, 2006).
As for the people changes, the necessity of them occurs in that case when the company simply seeks the staff’s attitudes and behaviors in order to enhance their effectiveness or motivate a team’s or individual creativeness (Worall, 2011). It is important to note that providing and applying people changes is the most difficult for the company during the overall change process.
Overcoming and Dealing with the Organizational Changes
In order to successfully implement organizational changes throughout all the company’s management levels, the entity’s board of directors should be ready that labor forces will resist the changes. So, the managers have to know how to overcome this resistance and deal with the changes. First of all, it should be said that managers can handle the mentioned problems at two levels, namely, the individual and group levels (Durant, n.d.).
In order to overcome labor resistance and successfully introduce the set of challenges, the management should use several strategies. The first strategy is participation and involvement. According to international experience, a person who was involved in the change process would not resist these modifications (Durant, n.d.). It is absolutely important for those persons who play significant role in the company’s life to be involved into the decision making process. The main advantages of this method are that the workers cannot resist the changes; they also enhance the quality of the change decision, and obtain personal commitment (Durant, n.d.). However, this technique may be the way of poor solutions. Effective communication is vital when dealing with organizational changes, since inaccurate and not fully information can be a reason for resistance to alterations. If the board of directors creates the need communication program, it would be beneficial to deal with the mentioned problem. In additional, the reasons of future changes must be formulated very clearly and without ambiguity. Leadership plays a significant role during all the stages of the change process since a capable leader is able to reinforce psychological support for alterations (Basu, n.d.). Negotiations and agreement is the strategy that is implemented in such a case when there is the necessity to balance costs and benefits in order for all the stakeholders to have benefits (Basu, n.d.). Consequently, the managers use the method when people can lose significant things in the changes. They are powerful enough to resist strongly, and this will provide great deprivations to the company in the end (Durant, n.d.). If all the mentioned techniques are not working, the managers can use others techniques, which are stronger. So, the mentioned techniques are manipulation and co-optation, coercion and time of change (Basu, n.d.). These methods are not so clear and honest, according to the workers, however, they are effective.
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Firstly, it is important to note that it is more effective if overcoming of the resistance to the changes is done through the group. It deals with the group members who interact with each other and improve group cohesiveness among them (Basu, n.d.). Consequently, the company’s management level must consider the group as the basic unit of alterations.
There were identified some characteristics of the groups, such as the aid in dealing with the changes in the formal and informal groups by Darwin Cartwright (Durant, n.d.). Firstly, the role of groups is more important when both the change agents and people who will be part of the changes belong to the same group (Basu, n.d.). Second, modifications are easier to reach when persons have great cohesiveness belonging to the group. Thirdly, prestige of the group determines the degree of impact the group has over its participants. Furthermore, managers should provide full and clear facts to the group (Basu, n.d.).
Conclusion
Having analyzed all the information above, it is important to say that organizational changes are a vital part of the company’s life, and managers should understand this fact and take it for granted. Furthermore, the board of directors must set up programs the main goal of which is to support the organizational changes. Nowadays there are a lot of areas which can be exposed by changes; however the most vulnerable is the corporate population, and managers should pay more attention to this sphere during creation and implementation of the program of changes.
