Managing Organizational Change
The modern life of an organization has only one certainty, which is a change, and it’s inevitable. Change has a considerable impact on the organizational functions and on managers. Organization operation cannot be successful if the managers are unaware of the need for change and also unable to bring the change in the organization and the methods that should be used to implement the changes. It means that no matter the type of an organization, all require internal changes. If a company is not able to adjust and cope up with changes in time and the situation at hand, there might be possibility that the firm will not survive in the market or its existence. Human beings, who perceive these changes, benefit from them, and the change must suit their interests and objectives. The change must be acceptable and supportive to the human beings. But if the changes are noted to be uncomfortable and controversial to the people, the change will be rejected. It will make managers play a vital duty to deal with such prospects and persons rejection against the changes in an organization, (Notter, & Grant, 2011, pg 91).
Organizational changes can be perceived to the modification in the organization-structural framework, job roles, attitude and behavior, values and norms, and the rules and regulation. The change in an organization can be viewed as a call for a change of the relationships, responsibilities or the code of conducts of individuals who are the key members of an organization. The organizational change entails modifications, adjustments and the alteration needed to go on with the relation to attitude and outlooks of the company members, job relationship and duties, structure and guidelines, and interpersonal dealings.
Organizational changes can be viewed from two different perspectives. First it can be viewed from an internal change perspective and lastly as an external change. Internal change is the changes that are implemented in the management style, resource mobilization, tools equipment, machinery, methods, technology, techniques used, process and procedures, and the organizational structure. On the other hand, external changes refer to changes of the external environment of a business. That is the economic socio structure, government policies, location, acts and regulation, science and technology, political changes and labor market, (Connors, & Smith, 2012 pg 85).
The current organizations in the global market are open systems. It is because both internal and external factors and forces are associated with its activities. The common objectives of an organizational change are higher performances, technological advancement, cooperation and support, and decreased turnover and scrap. These objectives are aimed to bring out the changes in organizational structure and guidelines, which suit the existing environment and the working behavior pattern of human resources.
An example of a company Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) was founded by Lillian Wald in 1893. The organization started with 10 nurses, was financed by private donations and intended to provide health care and education services to poor immigrants of Manhattan who had limited access to health care (VNSNY, 2015). This is the largest and oldest homecare company and the nation’s largest not-for profit community-based health system. Today VNSNY provide home health services to all five boroughs of New York City, Suffolk, Nassau Counties, and Westchester thus covering all the population, without the age discrimination, who are in need for home bound healthcare. VNSNY is offering a wide range of home health care services like adult care, community mental health, geriatric managed care, long-term home health care, children and family services, wound and infusion services, and last but not least hospice and palliative care.
Considering the fact that homecare is now a competitive, market-based enterprise, VNSNY had to transform itself from an industry with a service orientation to one with a business orientation. This company has had so many challenges in the last few years due to significant changes. This caused downsizing the number of workforce, layoffs. The general workforce sustains the majority of damage facing layoffs as part of the fallout from state scrutiny of enrollment practice. Initially it was expected a huge patient enrollment that would require increase of number of mid-management positions. Because of redesign in the Medicaid policy guidelines, the whole home care industry needed to be changed. This caused suspended patient enrollment that led to excessive amount or middle and upper management positions have to be retrained or laid off.
A number of factors are forcing change at the Visiting Nurse Services of New York, involving reduction of upper and mid-management by retraining the staff and termination of extra created positions. Changes in reimbursement and economy are the factors that make the company to transform in order to get work done in the most efficient and effective manner. This project discussed a need for change. In order to process with the change Team restructure would be necessary to reduce the number of extra created mid management positions. Assuming that the primary service provided by home care organization is nursing care, proper training about admission and guidelines for home care services should be conducted.
Causes of need of change
- Changes in environment. This calls for an organizational change. It can be as a result of; Economic and market changes, technological changes, legal and political changes, and lastly availability of resources changes, that is money, materials, human resources and market changes.
- Changes in the managerial level: This is brought about by; retirement of managers at different departmental levels due to age or the service bars as per rules and regulation of the company, promotion of junior staffs managers to middle managers, demotion or transfer or long leave or training or study leave, dismissal from the jobs of the management team, and resignation or employees turnover from the company services. Every manager is entitled to his or her management style, philosophy, management approaches, and value and attitude. This often brings the necessity for change in an organization so as to suit replacements, (Banfield, 2011 pg 29).
- Deficiency in present organization: Lack of cooperation, increasing conflict, decreasing productivity, increasing cost and scrap losses, and barriers of communication in an organization is brought out by short comings, defects, duplications of work, time and efforts, resources, deficiency in the organizational structure, working procedure, and management process. This hinders the firm from attaining its goals. Any adjustments or modification or alteration made will help the organization to change, (Jackson, S, Schuler, & Werner, 2011 pg 121).
- Check the growth of inflexibility: for the company to grow, it should be able to achieve flexibility so as to meet its growth and development needs. Managers should be working at their level best to make sure that the company is making dynamic and flexible changes to achieve its growth and also development. Changes from this particular perspective, benefit the firm as a whole.
Change Management, (Leban, & Stone, 2008 pg 85).
Methods and management of organizational change
- Identify the problem: the management team of the organization is required to familiarize with the organizations problems which may be internal r external. The performance gap in the chat indicates that there exist some organization problems. The performance gap is visible and can be clearly seen in decreasing in productivity, decreasing profitability and sales, and increasing visible employees’ turnover and absenteeism. When the management team familiarizes themselves with the nature and the causes of the company problems, they realize they need for organizational change so as they can find solutions to the problems.
- Favorable environment: the management team work for creating a proper environment in the organization by making the employees and other members of the company realize the need for an organizational change for the betterment of them all and the organization. Failure to create a positive attitude about the organizational change to the people, the members will protect against the sudden change, hindering a lot of implementation to be affected. This helps the managers to involve the people in the need for an organizational change and by this, the management team will create a good environment for change. The self-realization by the management team for the need of organization change will not be sufficient enough. It makes them to let other people to know and get convinced of the necessity for change.
- Analysis and diagnosis of the problem: after identifying the problems, the management team through a continuous study and analysis of the problem, the managers do diagnose the basic nature of the performance gap and help out to find the causes. They perform a research where they collect information and the data about the problems the firm would be facing. The data is collected using different diagnostic methods; questionnaires, interviews, and observations, (Price, 2011, pg 32). The information analyzed, make the management team to devote their time and energy, so as to come up with different options after having undergone a well detailed research, consultation and proper thinking if necessary, out sousing help from specialists and resource persons. Each alternative given a thought should be evaluated in terms of its cost and the benefits it can bring to the organization.
- Plan to change: this is the key stage for a need of an organizational change. The management group is required to prepare a thorough plan and program for the company change. The plan should be able to explain vividly what change, how changes and when the changes are supposed to take off or be affected. These particular changes of the firm will be associated with tasks, people structure, and the technological advancement of the company. If the company is to undergo a structural change, it may call for reorganization of departments or divisions or sections or subsections, re-defining the span of control, delegation of the authority, and decentralization. The tasks changes may involve job specialization, job enrichment, job redesigning, job enlargement, job redefining, and changes in the working relationship. Technological changes may include; changes in the production process, new products and product modification, and a different system of quality control, new employment and selection process. Changes to be implemented that relate to the people include; training and management development programs, promotion policies, Human Resource Management policy and other schemes that are aimed to motivate the employees in the organization. After analyzing the nature for change in an organization, it helps the managers to formulate strategies that they will while planning to change, (Schermerhorn, 2012, pg 89).
- Implementation of change: this is the most challenging process in the need for change in an organization. The management teams always have a challenging task of implementing plans and programs of changes. The plan for change may be very effective to an organization change but may fail to be implemented due to various explanations. This brings the issue of the management team responsibilities to implement those plans, need to be discharged with a lot of care, alertness and patience. Lots of problems, protest, pressure, control hinds an effective and efficient implementation of change. The management team are supposed to succeed in overcoming this kind of hindrances
- Feedback: the management group should be involved in evaluating the effectiveness of the changes implemented. This kind of evaluation and assessment are supposed to be carried out during and after the implantation of change to the company. It should b done by the managers and other members of the organization who are concerned with the success confirmation. If the changes implemented are not of any beneficiary to the attainment of the company’s goals, the change is regarded negative. This stage calls for the collection of adequate and relevant information, and data. It helps the managers to perform an objective evaluation of any alteration, adjustments and modifications which are felt necessary during thorough, detailed discussion and consultation. It’s done well so as to confirm to the attainment of a good result.
Visiting Nurse Service of New York has had a change management. It has engaged its employees in their need for the company change. Its recent change was directed towards the intrinsic values and the motivations of the employees. The change was referred as the employee engagement. The change is expected to bring about the behaviors of the employees that are supposed to go align with the operations of the company and be able to bring the efficacy in the global market segment. The firm also is aiming to foster a thorough integrated system of communication that will create a brand relation with its members. The change is aiming to enhance the company’s operation practices by integrating the approach which wills replicate the employees engaging fully in the values and this will make them become more inherent at their personal level, (Smith, & Mazin, 2011 pg 58). Visiting Nurse Service of New York does conduct an engagement survey twice every year. It serves to highlight areas that actions are required and new measures and implementation of the need for change can be executed at ago. The company values the needs of their potential customers, and it knows that to bring a tremendous result, the employees must recognize the value intrinsically. Therefore, the employee engagement is the main focus for the organization in all countries that it serves. This makes the company’s operation be efficient.
Visiting Nurse Service of New York has adopted two change management tools that make sure everyone is part of the change the company has implemented or is to implement. The tools are Force Field analysis and AKADAR model. Force Field analysis was developed to scrutinize the problems that are causing an opposition to the changed system. The company has been able to induct employees who are in need to undergo training. The AKADAL model helps the company to create awareness about the need for change, generate desire in the employees to help in transitioning process, give knowledge to the employees that they can help bring the desired change, and lastly develop the ability where people go through the change and provide them with the continuous reinforcement to stand for change, (Phillips, & Gully, 2012 pg 154).
Resistance
Employees resist the change through the denial. They refuse to acknowledge that there exist a problem and solution must be found. Also, many employees embrace the change but when after realization that it takes time and effort to be implemented, they undermine the change, ( Kegan, & Lahey, 2009 pg 241).
Conclusion
Communication is the key to a successful need for change for an organization. When the management does communicate the changes to the people, tell them why the change need to be invertible, and how they will benefit from the change brings a positive desire to embrace the change. The company’s management team should have a good and straight forward positive aspect about change so as to trigger the employees mind, and they can follow their progress and embrace change. Visiting Nurse Service of New York has been embracing the change rather than resisting it. This has translated into the future endeavors about the change management of the organization. This help to ensure that the company is poised to the global market and its environment conditions.
Recommendation
Companies should be adopting the changes but not avoiding them. The changes are supposed to bring a translation towards the new change. This will be achieved by communicating the change to the employees and ensure that all do their best to bring change. Success implementation of the change of any nature, specific regards to organizational structure, design, culture, management and leadership makes the change to fit along with the organizational goals.
The company is supposed to identify the problems that do exist in the companyof the need of change. The company Board of Governors must do an essential task by training the top management team. The training will help them to acquire some unique skills that will be of necessity to go through the transition processes.
References
Banfield, P. (2011). Introduction to human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Connors, R., & Smith, T. (2012). Change the culture, change the game: The breakthrough strategy for energizing your organization and creating accountability for results. New York: Portfolio Penguin.
Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.
Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change: How to overcome it and unlock potential in yourself and your organization.
Leban, B., & Stone, R. (2008). Managing organizational change. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Notter, J., & Grant, M. (2011). Humanize: How people-centric organizations succeed in a social world. Indianapolis, Ind: Que.
Phillips, J., & Gully, S. M. (2012). Organizational behavior: Tools for success. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Price, A. (2011). Human resource management. Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Schermerhorn, J. R. (2012). Organizational behavior. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Smith, S. A., & Mazin, R. A. (2011). The HR answer book: An indispensable guide for managers and human resources professionals. New York: American Management Association
