Leadership Challenges - Managing Change in Organizations
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Keywords
Chris Argyris, John P. Kotter, market share, ROE, Coalition, Vision, Strategy for Change, communication
Links
Tools
Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action
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Organizational change needs the full support of employees and managers in the organization. For this to happen, the guiding coalition needs to empower people to take action. In many cases the guiding coalition simply communicates the new direction to the people. But this is not sufficient to bring about change in the organization. The obstacles to change should also be removed. Very often, the people at different levels in the organization want to move in the new direction visualized by the coalition, but they are hampered by obstacles which block the way to change. The obstacles may be organizational structures, skills, systems, and superiors. To overcome these obstacles, the following steps are necessary: |
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Changing structures can be difficult because employees are accustomed to a basic organizational design, and are blind to other alternatives. Also they have invested significantly in the existing structure in terms of personal loyalties and functional expertise, and do not want to shift to a different structure. Though senior managers may appreciate the need to change the existing organizational structure, they might not be willing to arouse dissatisfaction among middle managers and their peers. Hence, any effort aimed at changing the structure must be carefully planned and executed.
• Train employees: Employees feel empowered and show an inclination to change, when they are equipped with the right skills and attitudes to operate in the intended organizational environment. As skills and attitudes are acquired over a long period of time, employees cannot be expected to shed all their old skills and attitudes and acquire new ones within a few days of training. Employees and managers need enough time for this. Sometimes, employees are provided training to acquire only technical skills and not social skills and attitudes. It is also common to find that after training the employees, nobody bothers to check how successfully they are employing their skills, and what problems they are encountering while using these skills. Leaders overseeing the change process need to pay enough attention to the new behaviors, skills and attitudes necessary to bring about the desired change.
• Align organizational systems to the vision: Organizational systems that are not aligned with the vision act as blocks to the required actions. Though systems are easier to change than culture, simply erasing all inconsistencies between the new vision and current systems in a day or two may not be possible. This too needs proper planning and consistent effort. For example, the HR department needs time to align the HR systems such as performance appraisal, compensation, promotions, etc. with the new vision.
• Confront errant managers: Managers resisting change can derail the process of change. Senior managers confronted with such errant managers, take recourse to marginalizing them. But marginalizing errant managers can take time, and is wasteful of the senior manager's precious time and energies. Another option, Kotter suggests, is to have an honest dialogue with such managers. The senior manager must make clear what the organization's expectations are. He should also ask what the organization can do to align the manager concerned with the change vision. If this dialogue does not yield any results, the errant manager should be fired.