Change Management

(MBA- 223)

Mandalay Campus

MBA Program

9th Batch

Nilar Oo

Roll Number- MBA-II-54

10th March 2022

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….….. 3

Literature Review……………………………………………………………………..….4

Empirical Study…………………………………………………………………..…..….7

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….9

Reference………………………………………………………………………….…….10

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….11

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 Introduction

Change is unavoidable. Out of our control, our environments change every day; and as our
environments change we change the ways we conduct our business in order to adapt and excel. It
is often that the success of an organization is co-dependent on its ability to adapt to the new
changes within the environment. But our survival in a turbulent market place is often not linked
to how quickly we can put into place new projects or initiatives. Rather it is fundamentally
dependent on how quickly our employees can accept and deliver these changes. Change is
nothing without the total support of employees.

Cultivating change within our workforce is not a new phenomenon, but it has grown and
evolved from a foundational understanding into a recognized discipline. And as much as it has
developed over the past 25 years, thought leaders within the change management field are able to
demonstrate the ways in which they believe the areas of focus will shift in the coming years.

The increased pace of change over the past ten years has been dramatic. Competition has
heated up across the board. To succeed, the organization of the future must serve customers
better, create new advantages and survive in bitterly contested markets. To stay competitive,
companies must do away with work and processes that don’t add value. This hyper competition
has invalidated the basic assumptions of sustainable markets. So the ability to change
continually and successfully is considered to be essential to any organization’s survival. The
need for ongoing change requires an organizational ability to learn on a continual basis in a
coordinated and progressive way. Change management is the process of continually renewing an
organization’s direction, structure and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external
and internal customers. Change is an ever-present feature of organizational life, both at an
operational and strategic level. Therefore, there should be no doubt regarding the importance to
any organization of its ability to identify where it needs to be in the future, and how to manage
the changes required getting there. Due to the importance of changes in modern era, its
management is becoming a highly required managerial skill .The rapid pace of technological
innovation, a growing knowledge workforce, and shifting social and demographic trends, few
would dispute that the primary task for management today is the leadership of organizational
change. Since the need for change often is unpredictable, it tends to be reactive, discontinuous,
ad hoc and often triggered by a situation of organizational crisis. Although the successful
management of change is accepted as a necessity in order to survive and succeed in today’s
highly competitive and continuously evolving environment, a failure rate of around 70 percent of
all change programs is initiated. It may be suggested that this poor success rate indicates a
fundamental lack of a valid framework of how to implement and manage organizational change
as what is currently available to academics and practitioners is a wide range of contradictory and
confusing theories and approaches.

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 Literature Review

Definitions

Change: A change is the project, initiative or solution being introduced in the organization to
improve the way work gets done, solves a problem, or takes advantage of an opportunity. Nearly
any project, initiative or solution that improves an organization will affect how employees do
their day-to-day work. (Prosci)

Change Management: Change management has been defined as ‘the process of continually
renewing an organization’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs
of external and internal customers’ (Moran and Brightman, 2001: 111). According to Burnes
(2004) change is an ever-present feature of organisational life, both at an operational and
strategic level. Therefore, there should be n doubt regarding the importance to any organisation
of its ability to identify where it needs to be in the future, and how to manage the changes
requiredgetting there. Consequ ently, organisational change cannot be separated from
organisational strategy, or vice versa (Burnes, 2004; Rieley and Clarkson, 2001). Due to the
importance of organisational change, its management isb ecoming a highly required managerial
skill (Senior, 2002). Graetz (2000: 550) goes as far as suggesting ‘Against a backdrop of
increasing globalisation, deregulation, the rapid pace of technological innovation, a growing

knowledge workforce, and shifting social and demographic trends, few would

dispute that the primary task for management today is the leadership of

organisational change.’

Since the need for change often is unpredictable, it tends to be reactive,

discontinuous, ad hoc and often triggered by a situation of organisational crisis

(Burnes, 2004; De Wit and Meyer, 2005; Luecke, 2003; Nelson, 2003). Although

the successful management of change is accepted as a necessity in order to survive

and succeed in today’s highly competitive and continuously evolving environment

(Luecke, 2003; Okumus and Hemmington, 1998), Balogun and Hope Hailey

(2004) report a failure rate of around 70 per cent of all change programmes

initiated. It may be suggested that this poor success rate indicates a fundamental

lack of a valid framework of how to implement and manage organisational

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change as what is currently available to academics and practitioners is a wide

range of contradictory and confusing theories and approaches (Burnes, 2004).

Guimaraes and Armstrong (1998) argue that mostly personal and superficial

analyses have been published in the area of change management, and according

to Doyle (2002) there is even evidence to suggest that with only a few exceptions

existing practice and theory are mostly supported by unchallenged assumptions

about the nature of contemporary organisational change management.

Edmonstone (1995: 16) supports this observation when stating ‘many of the

change processes over the last 25 years have been subject to fundamental flaws,

preventing the successful management of change’.

Even though it is difficult to identify any consensus regarding a framework for

organisational change management, there seems to be an agreement on two

important issues. Firstly, it is agreed that the pace of change has never been

greater then in the current business environment (Balogun and Hope Hailey,

2004; Burnes, 2004; Carnall, 2003; Kotter, 1996; Luecke, 2003; Moran and

Brightman, 2001; Okumus and Hemmington, 1998; Paton and McCalman,

2000; Senior, 2002). Secondly, there is a consensus that change, being triggered

by internal or external factors, comes in all shapes, forms and sizes (Balogun

and Hope Hailey, 2004; Burnes, 2004; Carnall, 2003; Kotter, 1996; Luecke,

2003), and, therefore, affects all organisations in all industries.

While there is an ever-growing generic literature emphasising the importance

of change and suggesting ways to approach it, very little empirical evidence has

been provided in support of the different theories and approaches suggested

(Guimaraes and Armstrong, 1998). The purpose of this article is, therefore, to

provide a critical review of theories and approaches currently available in a bid

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to encourage further research into the nature of organisational change with the

aim of constructing a new and pragmatic framework for the management of it.

In order to do so the article has adopted Senior’s (2002) three categories of

change as a structure with which to link other main theories and approaches.

These three categories have been identified as change characterised by the rate

of occurrence, by how it comes about, and by scale. Although total quality

management (TQM), business process re-engineering (BPR) and other change

initiatives embrace several of these characteristics (Balogun and Hope Hailey,

2004; Pettinger, 2004) this article will concentrate on the main characteristics

370 R. T. By

of change and not on individual change initiatives. Finally, the article identifies

some areas for further research.

Change

KEYS TO ADAPTING TO CHANGE

The need to know how to adapt to changes was already well understood by the naturalist Charles
Darwin with his famous theory of evolution. Adapted to today's world, the key is to establish a
clear, structured framework for managing the effects of change. There are many theories, but one
of the most accepted continues to be that formulated by John Kotter, professor of leadership at
the Harvard Business School, in his book Leading Change (1995).

Kotter started from the premise that for a change to be successful directors, managers and senior
executives have to want the change to happen. From there, the author established eight steps or
phases that are listed below:

Create a sense of urgency

Make change look like a necessity for each and every member of the company. For example,
change can be proposed as a business opportunity.

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 Build a coalition

Identify different leaders within the company to establish an alliance. The aim is to bring
together people who share the same vision in order to involve them in the change process.

Create a road map

To reduce resistance within the organization, it is essential to establish a way forward. The path
must be easy to communicate, understand and remember.

Communicate effectively

The road map must be transmitted persistently. To do so, it is essential to respond honestly to all
the doubts and fears raised by the members of the organisation.

Remove barriers

Once the majority of the members are convinced of the benefits of the change, it will be time to
make it effective and to detect possible barriers at the organisational level as they arise.

Ensure short term wins

Change can be a long process and is not without difficulties. Therefore, the best way to maintain
motivation is by setting short-term goals that allow progress to be observed.

Build on change

The roadmap is not monolithic, but can be revised during the process so that neither small wins
are seen as the final success nor small failures lead to frustration.

Anchor the change in the company

Once the change has been brought about, the time comes to consolidate it and make it a part of
the company culture. In this way, the following changes will be seen as a development.

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 Empirical Study

A Case Study

Conclusion

Observation

Findings

Reference

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 Appendices

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