Change Management

Dr Rajshree Mootanah
Department of Design & Technology
Faculty of Science and Technology
 Change Management

More commonly called:

• Total Quality Management
• Right Sizing
• Business Re-engineering
• Restructuring
 Causes of Change Management

• New technologies
• Global economic swings
• Change in existing competitors
• Economic cycles
• New competitors
 Challenges of Change Management

• People issues
• Uncertain future
• Consequences can be difficult to predict and track
• Resistance to change or resistance to uncertainty
 Causes of Failure of Change Management

• Misunderstanding / poor communications

• Lack of planning / ill prepared employees
• Ignoring resistance and hoping it will go away
• No clear vision
• Goal set too far
• Quick fix
• Previous experience / fear of failure / resistance / lack of incentive
Questions to be asked before planning change
• How to identify what should change?
• How to judge how ambitious the change plans are?
• What assessment can we make of the likelihood of these changes
being capable of implementation?
• What kind of architectures can be developed to enhance the
likelihood of implementation?
• What are the people / organisational issues of strategic cahnge?
• How can these issues be tackled?
 Implementing Change Management
• Helping staff – encourage flexibility and innovation
• Communication – reduce rumour and uncertainty, increase acceptance
• Commitment – employment policies, reward structures
• Early involvement – reduce behavioural resistances, reduce the need for
future coercion
• Change perception – emphasise on opportunities, manage expectation
• Avoid over organising – keep flexibility for quick adaptation to change
 Profile of ambition determines the success
or failure of Change Management
• A focus on a single factor can bring immediate success and longer-term
failure (Hampden-Turner, 1996)
• Market power is based on ‘distinctive capability’ (Kay, 1993)
• Reputation – market perception of the product / service
• Architecture – relationships of resources, including knowledge &
flexibility, internal external and networks
• Innovation- the capacity to change
Implementing Change Management
 Theory of change
Clinical approach:
Analysis of resistance to change, team effectiveness and dynamics,
leadership dynamics
Organisational Development (French & Bell, 1995): Planned change
to get individuals, teams and organisations to function better.

Linear model:
Unfreezing – get rid of old ideas
Changing – learning and practising new steps
Refreezing – Emotional support and coaching
 Theory of change
Emergent approach:
Build-up stage: appoint, nurture and encourage ‘level 5 leaders’ –
leaders who combine leadership qualities with a willigness to
acknowledge personal limitations.
Get the right people into place in terms of knowledge, experience,
skills and motivation.
Breakthrough: Organisation needs to build passion for its business,
products, services, capabilities, technology and people. Speed and
discipline is important.
(Collins, 2001)
 Resistance to Change Management

Organisation:
• Bureaucratic rigidities and hierarchies
• Fear of losing control and authority
• Lack of time
• Comfort with the status quo / Displacement from original aims
• No answer to “What’s in it for me?”
• No involvement in solution design
 Resistance to Change Management

Individual:
• Lack of awareness
• Fear of the unknown
• Lack of job security
• Lack of sponsorship
• Lack of incentive
• Work habits die hard
 Identifying Resistance to Change
• Lack of participation
• Openly expressing emotion
• Lack of attendance and absenteeism
• Reverting to old ways
• A decrease in productivity and missed deadlines
 Successful Change Management
• Be clear about the kind of change required
• Plan
• Pre-empt resistance – what’s in it for everyone
• Set short term goals
• Prepare employees – facilitate new skills
• Good communication
• Involve everyone
• Prepare for continuous adaptation
Successful Change Management
Successful Change Implementation
 Four Main Changes of Organisation
• Formative period: New organisation is getting started – changes are
focused on creativity
• Rapid Growth Period: Changes are focused on defining the purpose of the
organisation & mainstream business
• Mature Period: Changes are focused on maintaining established market
• Declining Period: Changes include tough objectives and compassionate
implementation
 Leadership & Change

Change acceptance

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance
 Leadership & Change: Helping staff

From
Why?
How will this affect me?
We do not do it this way
When will the change be over?
Who is doing this to us?
To
What are the new opportunities?
What problem will this solve?
What would it look like?
What can I do to help?
Who can help us?
 Strategies for Change
Competitive
benchmarking
Organisation-specific changes
Strategic organisational diagnosis:
Generic organisation-wide change
Employee surveys Strategy formation programmes (eg. business process
Customer Surveys engineering, TQM, time-based
Vision / strategy strategies, etc)
Managers’ views and inputs to
decision making Generic multi-organisational change
programmes (eg. closures, mergers,
Other stakeholders strategic alliances, joint ventures,
etc)
Culture
change Carnall, 2007