Identify and assess the process of planning and managing change within an organisation.
What role should HR play in change management?
Planning and Managing Change in an Organization
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Business transformation and change is often difficult and involves changing organization
culture and employees attitude towards accepting new way of doing things in the organization.
Change management refers to organization practices and structured procedures that management
of an organization adopts to lead people towards achieving a new vision or the stated goals of an
organization (Cummings & Worley,2014). The process of planning and managing change begins
by understanding the employees and their capacity to change. According to Hayes (2014),
change management process encompasses three stages as follows:
Change preparation: This stage entails the preparation, assessment and strategy
formulation. The leader in charge of the change process has to define the change management
strategy and prepare the change management team. This preparation is done in readiness to carry
out the required organizational direction in alignment with the corporate level strategy, and
finally the change management leader has to develop the sponsorship, model.
Managing change: Phase 2 involves thorough planning and proper management and
implementation of change process. The management team in this phase develops change
management plans, take action on decisions made on earlier phase and implement plans on the
functional level and operational level of the organization.
Reinforcing change: The last phase involves data collection, corrective plans, and
acknowledgment. In this level, the management has to collect and analyze data from relevant
departments. On the same note, the management also looks out for challenges that the team is
facing and develop strategies that help to manage resistance from the employees.
The responsibility of Human Resource Management in change management process
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Human resource management plays a critical role in change management because many
of the issues tackled concern the people’s aspect of change. The human resource has the
responsibility of ensuring that employees are motivated to undertake and participate in the
change management program (Kuipers et al., 2014). The human resource department is also
responsible in aligning organization goals, with the change management process.
On the same note, Human resource has to ensure that impetus for implementation of
change at every managerial level is available such as the provision of structured framework for
change. Furthermore, the management must provide mechanisms of aligning the management
concerns with those of the employees (Raineri, 2011). This is achieved by identifying and
establishing a workable change management process and finally Human resource management
has to reinforce change management communiqué as a means of attaining the desired change.
In conclusion, Managing change as a progression from an organizational point of view
helps to make certain that the right actions are taking place at the right moment. And those
workers are gaining the right information they require to proceed through their personal process
of change. The three processes is a sequence that in the end ensures that change impact is seen in
the organization’s performance. Human Resource Department plays a primary role in managing
and overseeing the change process. This role is imperative as it helps to align organization goals,
change objectives, and the change process to ensure a smooth transition to achieve organization
sustainability.
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References
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014). The
management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public
Administration, 92(1), 1-20.
Raineri, A. B. (2011). Change management practices: Impact on perceived change
results. Journal of Business Research, 64(3), 266-272.
