CHANGE

MANAGEMENT
AND HUMAN
RESOURCE
CONSIDERATION
Who is involved in the operation of information system?
i. Computer technology requires specialized organizational subunits, information
specialists, and a host of other supportive groups (Kling and Dutton, 1982).
ii. An information system of any complexity requires a formal organizational unit or
function – an information systems department, a management information systems
department, or a management services group – the name varies from organization to
organization.
iii. Information specialists include both insiders and outsiders. Programmers, systems
analysts, e.t.c In addition, external specialists such as hardware vendors and
manufacturers, software firms, and consultants are frequently involved in the day-to-
day operations and long-term planning of information systems.
iv. A third element of the information systems package is the technology itself- both
hardware and software.
v. End users are not truly members of the information systems department, but they are
certainly not outsiders. Users are representatives of departments outside of the
information systems group for which applications are developed.
The computer package. Many groups, individuals, and organizations are involved in the
design and management of information systems.
The Organization
Senior management
Major end users (divisions)
Work groups
individuals
Information System Division
Managers
Systems analysts
Technology Systems designers
Systems programmers
Hardware Application programmers
Software Maintenance programmers
Database administrator
clerical

The environment
Major vendors
Consultants
Competitors
Government
 Job Titles of Information Specialists
Job Title Description
Systems analysts Works with users to define information requirements
Systems designer Designs and chooses alternative systems to perform
tasks specified by analysts
Applications programmer Designs, codes, and tests computer programs based on
the systems analyst’s specifications
Maintenance programmer Enhances and makes changes in existing programs
based on the systems analysts' specifications
Systems programmer Maintains operating system software that controls the
schedule and flow of application programs
Program librarian Maintains a library of programs
Database administrator Defines and controls the organization’s database
Office automation director Develops policies and practices to further office
automation
Microcomputer Develops and manages telecommunication links
coordinator
Job Title Description
Telecommunications Develops and manages telecommunication links
director
Operator Operates the mainframe computer
Data control clerk Mounts tapes, handles card and other manual/clerical
functions
Data entry clerk Enters data through a keypunch machine or terminal
End users Skilled users of information systems who help
information systems specialists define the information
requirements
 How Information Systems Affect Organizations
(i) Organizational structure generally refers to the overall shape of the
organization in terms of its hierarchy, centralization, and principal division
of labor.
(ii) Early research on information systems suggested that organizations would
become more centralized and that middle management would tend to
disappear over time because computers would give central, high-level
managers all of the information they required to operate the organization
without middle management intervention.
(iii)Organizational culture refers to the central values, norms, and day-to-day
activities of organizations. What are organizational values? Values are the
announced and official goals and desirable conditions in the organization.
(iv) Organizational norms refer to the actual day-to-day operational goals and
behaviors in an organization. In many instances, the values built into
information systems do not adequately reflect organizational values.
(v) Politics means simply the competition between organizational subgroups for
influence over the policies, procedures and resources of the organization.
(vi) Information systems inevitably become bound up in the politics of
organizations because they influence access to a key resource, namely,
information. In powerful ways, information systems can affect who does
what to whom, when, where, and how in an organization.
 Systems and Decision Making
(i) Information systems directly affect how decisions are made in
an organization by altering the manner and frequency with
which information is delivered to key decision maker.
(ii)Information systems speed up the decision-making process by
making information more readily available to key decision
makers at lower levels in the hierarchy and to a larger number
of decision makers. This greater speed and scope of information
dissemination is one of the most important effects of
information systems to date.
(iii)Information systems affect two aspects of work: the overall
aggregate level of employment and the quality of work in
specific organizations.
(iv)Early research suggested that information technology would
significantly reduce the quality of work. It was feared that
computers would bring about an inevitable decline in skills.
(v) Early research also pointed to harmful changes in the
social character of work. It was speculated that computers
would increase the isolation and fragmentation of work.
(vi)Most of these negative implications and potentials for
information technology have not been realized. Clearly,
there are areas where particular jobs have lost skills.
(vii)On the other hand, many information technologies have
enhanced the skills of jobs, extended career paths, created
entirely new occupations (microcomputer coordinators,
managers, etc), and allowed more complex decision
making and job enrichment.
 Implementation Challenges
(i) Implementing new business/IT strategies, particularly when
they involved large-scale innovative technologies, involves
major organizational change.

(ii)Successful implementation of these new strategies and

applications requires managing the effects of changes in key
organizational dimensions such as business processes,
organizational structures, managerial roles, work
assignments, and stakeholder relationships.

(iii) Figure 1 emphasizes the variety and extent of the

challenges reported by 100 companies that developed and
implemented new enterprise information portals and ERP
systems.
 GREATEST CHALLENGES
Intranet Enterprise
Portal Challenges
Security, security, security
Defining the scope and purpose of
the portal
Finding the time and the money
Ensuring consistent data quality
Getting employees to use it
Organizing the data
Finding technical expertise
Integrating the pieces
Making it easy to use
Providing all users with access
Enterprise Resource
Planning Challenges
•Getting end user buy-in
•Scheduling/planning
•Integrating legacy systems/data
•Getting management buy-in
•Dealing with multiple/international
sites and partners
•Changing culture/mind-sets
•IT training
•Getting, keeping IT staff
•Moving to a new platform
•Performance/system upgrades
 User Resistance and Involvement
(i) Any new way of doing things generates some resistance from the
people affected. For example, the implementation of new work
support technologies can generate fear and resistance to change in
employees.
(ii) One of the keys to solving problems of user resistance to new
information technologies is proper education and training. Even more
important is user involvement in organizational changes and in the
development of new information systems.
(iii)Organizations have a variety of strategies to help manage business
change, and one basic requirement is the involvement and
commitment of top management and all business stakeholders
affected by the system.
(iv)Direct end user participation in business planning and application
development projects before a new system is implemented is
especially important in reducing the potential for end user resistance.
 Change Management
(i) People are a major focus of organizational change management. This
includes activities such as developing innovative ways to measure,
motivate, and reward performance.
(ii) So is designing programs to recruit and train employees in the core
competencies required in a changing workplace.
(iii)Change management also involves analyzing and defining all changes
facing the organization and developing programs to reduce the risks
and costs and to maximize the benefit of change.
(iv)Some key tactics change experts recommend include:
 involve as many people as possible in e-business planning and
application development
 Make constant change an expected part of the culture
 Tell everyone as much as possible about everything as often as
possible, preferably in person
 Make liberal use of financial incentives and recognition
 Work within the company culture, not around it
 A Change Management Process
An eight-level process of change management for
organizations is illustrated in Figure 2. this change
management model is only one of many that could be applied
to manage organizational changes caused by new business/IT
strategies and applications and other changes in business
processes.
Figure 3: A process of change management. Examples of activities involved in successfully managing
organizational change caused by the implementation of new business processes.
Models for managing change

There have been several different suggestions about how

transformational change might be managed. Some of these ‘models’
for change are described as follow:

Lewin: Force Field Analysis

Kurt Lewin describes the forces that came into conflict over planned
changes by suggesting two opposing forces:

The driving forces that support the need for change, and
The restraining forces that oppose and resist the change
 FACTORS AFFECTING A DRIVING
RESTRAINING FORCE
Any of the following factors might be a driving force or a
restraining force:
The people involved in the change, and what they want for
themselves
The habits and customs of the individuals
Their attitudes
The relationships between the people involved
Organization structures within the entity
Vested interests
The entity’s policies
The resources available to make the change
Regulations
Events (happenings)
Lewin argued that each driving force or restraining force has a strength,
which might be measured on a scale of 1 to 5. The strength of the total
driving forces and the strength of the total restraining forces can therefore
be measured.

Force field analysis

Ideal state Current state

Target for change

Restraining forces Driving forces

Lewin also argued that:
Change will not occur if the forces resisting the change are stronger than the
driving forces for changes.
Changes is only possible when the driving forces for change are stronger than
the restraining forces against change.
A key task of the change manager is therefore to ensure that the strength of the
driving forces is stronger than the strength of the restraining forces. There are
two ways that this might be done.
Strengthen the driving forces for change
•It might seem that the best answer is to strengthen the driving forces for change.
However, Lewin argued that by increasing the driving forces, management run
the risk that the restraining forces against the change will also grow stronger.
The best approach is therefore to try to reduce the restraining forces against
change. Management should therefore:
•Identify the main restraining forces against change and
•Consider ways of reducing their strength, for example by discussing the issues
and difficulties with the individuals concerned, or by trying to win the support of
key individuals who currently oppose the change.
 LEWIN: UNFREEZE, CHANGE, RE-
FREEZE
Lewin also suggested an approach to introducing planned
transformational change, which is sometimes called ‘prescriptive
planned change theory’
He suggested that a planned process for change should begin with:
Identifying the cause of the problems and the reasons why change
is needed, and
Identifying the opportunities of making improvements through
transformational change

The change process then needs to go through three stages:

Unfreeze
Movement (change)
Re-freeze
 Unfreeze

The process of ‘unfreezing’ is persuading employees that

change is necessary. Individuals will not want to change
anything if they think that the current situation is acceptable.
Employees should therefore be encouraged to recognise what is
wrong with the current system or current situation and
management should encourage employees to feel
dissatisfaction. Employees should be ‘unfrozen’ out of their
acceptance of the current situation.
 Movement (change)
The changes should then be made
To introduce change successfully, the support for change must be strong
enough to overcome the opposition. This is consistent with Lewin’s
force field analysis.

Management should be given sufficient resources to implement the

changes. (Having sufficient resources to make a change can be a driving
force for change).

To change managers should try to involve the employees affected and

get them to participate in making the changes. Participation in making
changes helps to reduce the resistance to change.
 Re-freeze
Lewin argued that even if change is implemented, there is a risk
that before long, employees will go back to their old ways of
doing things, and the benefits of the change might be lost.

It is therefore essential that once change has happened,

employees should be encouraged to carry on with the new way of
doing things.

One way of doing this might be to reward employees for

performance based on the desired behaviour and results.

The process of getting employees to carry on with the new

system is called re-freezing.
 The Gemini 4Rs
Another model for introducing transformational change was promoted
by Gemini Consultants. This is known as the 4Rs model.

The elements of the model are as follows:

Re-frame Create the desire for change
Create a vision of what the entity is trying to achieve
Create a measurement system to set targets for change and
measure performance

Re-structure Examine the organization structure, and create an

economic model showing how value is created by the entity,
and therefore where resources should be used.
Re-design the processes so that they work better to create
more value.
Revitalize This is the entity’s commitment to the future. Find new
products and new markets that fit well with the entity’s
environment.
Invent new businesses.

Change the rules of competition by making use of new

technology

Renew Development individuals within the organization. Make

sure that employees have the skills that are needed and that
they support the change process.
Create a reward system to motivate individuals to seek
change.

Develop individual learning and creativity within the

entity