Change is inevitable in the life of an organisation.

In today’s business world, most of the organisations are facing a

dynamic and changing business environment. They should either change or die, there is no third alternative.
Organizations that learn and cope with change will thrive and flourish and others who fail to do so will be wiped out. The
major forces which make the changes not only desirable but inevitable are technological, economic, political, social, legal,
international and labour market environments.
In very simple words, we can say that change means the alteration of status quo or making things different. “The term
change refers to any alterations which occurs in the overall work environment of an organisation.”
“When an organizational system is disturbed by some internal or external force, change frequently occurs. Change, as a
process, is simply modification of the structure or process of a system. It may be good or bad, the concept is descriptive
only.”
There are a number of factors both internal and external which affect organizational functioning. Any change in these
factors necessitates changes in an organisation. The more important factors are as follows:
External Forces
Every organization exists in some context; no organization is an island in itself. Each must continually interact with other
organizations and individuals- the consumers, suppliers, unions, shareholders, government and many more. Each
organization has goals and responsibilities related to each other in the environment. The present day environment is
dynamic and will continue to be dynamic. Changes in social, political, economic, technology, and legal environment force
organizations to change themselves. Such changes may result in organizational changes like major functions production
process, labour-management relations, nature of competitions, economic constraints, organizational methods etc. In order
to survive in the changing environment, organization must change. How the change in various environmental,
organizations, must change. How the changes in various environmental factors necessitate change in the organization
may be seen in following context:-
• Technology: When there is a change in technology in the organizational environment and other organizations
adopt the new technology, the organizations under focus become less cost effective and its competitive position
weakens. Therefore, it has to adopt new technology, its work structure is affected and a new equilibrium has to be
established.
• Marketing conditions: Since every organization exports its outputs to the environment, an organization has to
face competition in the market. There may be two types of forces which may affect the competitive position of an
organization –other organizations supplying the same products and, buyers who are not buying the product. Any
changes in these forces may require suitable changes in the in the organization. For example, when Indian economy
was liberalized, there were many foreign organizations that entered the Indian market. This forced many Indian
organizations to realign themselves with the new situations. The result in that there have been many cases of divesting
the business and concentrating on the core business, acquiring core business, and developing competitive competence
to face competitive threats. Similarly, there may be changes in buyers in terms of their needs, liking –disliking and
income disposal for a product. These changes from the organizations to bring those products which meet buyer’s
requirement.
• Social changes: Social changes reflect in terms of people’s aspirations, the needs, and their ways of working.
Social changes have taken place because of the several forces like level of education, urbanization, feeling of
autonomy, and international impact due to new information sources. These social changes affect the behavior of people
in the organization. There, it is required to make adjustment in its working so that it matches with people.
• Political and legal changes: Political and legal factors broadly define the activities which an oganisation can
undertake and the methods which will be followed by it in accomplishing those activities. Any changes in these political
and legal factors may affect the organization operation.
Internal Forces
It is not only the changes in external factors, which may necessitate organizational changes; any change in
organization’s internal factors may also necessitate changes. Such a change is required because of two reasons:
changes in managerial personnel and deficiency in existing organizational practices.
• Changes in the managerial personnel: Besides environmental changes there is a change in managerial
personnel. Old managers are replaced by new mangers, which necessitated because of retirement, promotion, transfer
or dismissal. Each new manager brings his own ideas and way of working in the organization. The relationships, more in
the organization. The relationships, more particularly informal ones, changes because of changes in managerial
personnel. Moreover, attitude of the personnel change even though there is no changes in them. The result in that an
organization has to change accordingly.
• Deficiency in Existing organization: Sometimes, changes are necessary because of deficiency in the present
organizational arrangement ad process. These deficiencies may be in the form of unmanageable span of management,
large number of managerial levels, lack in co-ordination between various departments, obstacles in communication,
multiplicity of committees, lack of uniformity in policy decisions, lack of cooperation between the line and staff, and so
on. Beside these internal factors, there are two more internal factors that give rise to organizational changes.
• Nature of the work force: The nature of work force has changed over a passage of time. Different work values
have been expressed by different generations. Workers who are in the age group of 50 plus value loyalty to their
employers. Workers in their mid thirties to forties are loyal to themselves only. The youngest generation of workers is
loyal to their career. The profile of the workforce is also changing fast. The new generation of workers has better
educational; they place greater emphasis on human values and questions authority of managers. Their behavior has
also become very complex and leading them towards organizational goals is a challenge for the managers. The
employee turnover is also very high which again put strain on the management.
• To avoid developing inertia: In many cases, organizational changes take place just to avoid developing inertia
or inflexibility. Conscious manager take into account this view of organization that organization should be dynamic
because any single method is not the best tool of management every time. Thus, changes are incorporated so that the
personnel develop liking for change and there is no unnecessary resistance when major change in the organization are
brought about.