Change Management
I have explored for a definition of ‘change’ and have come to agree with Berg (1979); that much of the present confusion and ambiguity in the field stems from the fact that we actually know very little about the nature of change.
Change for me is a process whether planned or unplanned that shifts one from its’ current state’ to a ‘different state’. According to Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, Change is the only constant!
Holland and Skarke (2003) say that defining change management under any circumstance is difficult, but in a nutshell, it is the process of aiding an organisation, group or person through change, i.e. a focused effort to bring about change.
The term ‘management’ implies effort to plan and exert the change, therefore, change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organisations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organisational process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment.
Change can be described through different lenses and approaches such as:
- Planned Change: This is when change is planned, deliberate, a product of conscious reasoning and actions.
- Emergent Change: Spontaneous and unplanned change. This could result from external factors
- Episodic Change: Infrequent, radical, intentional.
- Continuous change: On-going, cumulative and evolving
- Developmental Change: is one that enhances or corrects existing aspects of an organisation. It may be planned or emergent.
- Transitional Change: is episodic, planned, one that seeks to achieve a known desired state that is different from the existing one.
The pandemic has led to rapid globalisation and catalysed technological disruption to the way business is now done, but many organisations that haven’t accepted that reality still struggles with remaining competitive in the current complex environments. Therefore, one of the quickest ways to turn the tide is by applying change based on the combined ideology from Lewin’s (1951) and Schein (1987), three stage process:
- Unfreezing the existing organisation equilibrium and creating the motivation to change;
- Moving to a new position – i.e. Learning new concepts and new meanings from old concepts
- Refreezing in a new equilibrium – reiterating and Internalising new concepts and meanings.
The phrase change management on its own, assumes that we function in stable business environments, therefore transiting from one state to the next is linear, however, globalisation and technological advancements have caused the business environments to become increasingly more complex every passing day. As such, change encountered in our organisations today require a more transformational approach to dealing with these complexities, because though the change may start in one small part of the operating model, the domino effect is usually far more reaching than anticipated.
Therefore transformational change is anything but linear and requires transformational leaders to manage these types of changes, whether it’s scaling up the business, improving on operational processes or moving into new markets, these changes have an impact on the operational model, technology, processes, culture and people within the organisation.