Change Strategies: Critical Review and Application

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Introduction Change is a peculiar and elusive concept that has taken a lot of struggle to contend with and make the society understand. In spite the fact that change is inevitable, it is a paradox to realize that it results majorly from the acts of the ordinary stakeholders. The society struggles to embrace change yet an aspect in our nature works so hard to block it. The modern society tries restructuring the systems that is the social, political, economic and business systems preparing them to come to terms with the need for change (Bates, 2000).

This is despite the difficulty experienced in making people understand. To understand what change is and how change ought to be handled several questions come to mind that is what causes change, the change processes and the strategies to curb change, the effects of change (Bates, 2000). Change is therefore the process where individuals and groups in an organization shift from the current state of operations to a predetermined future state (Beerel, 2009).

Organizational changes can be planned or unplanned, incremental or transformational change and therefore the form of management in place must be able to identify the type they are dealing with. This assists the stakeholders be in control of the scope and perspective most so during turbulent time during change. Through change management, the relevant stakeholders are made to come to terms with change and accept it.

Through proper change management procedures mission, strategic, technological, operational and behavior the stakeholders can view changes as a positive aspect (Beerel, 2009). For change to happen successfully some functions must be handled conclusively; change has to be initiated, and then championed through agents with support from the sponsors and organizational leaders (Brown & KaÌ„tz, 2009).

The leaders of an organization must integrate everybody if change and change management is expected to happen smoothly. There should never be an assumption that there are clicks in an organization that are responsible for change and hence others should only wait, the responsibility should be collective (Brown & KaÌ„tz, 2009).

Overview of change strategy Besides the characteristics of change, change strategies remain vital components when it comes to the determination of the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization in dynamic times of change. Change strategies are therefore factors that need to be given due considerations in the change management process (Bates, 2000). For a change strategy to be effective the following tips have to be given due consideration.

This will help when dealing with the issues when dealing and developing the right strategies; the formulated strategies must be made available to all the stakeholders, resistance should be given room and appropriate means should be given, this is because resistance doesn’t mean that a trespass has occurred but means that some change process has been initiated.

The overall impact of the strategies to be implemented must be projected, how it will influence the organization’s Visions, Missions and objectives and the culture (Bates, 2000). Therefore, an option needs to be chosen from either a change-change situation, change of the culture situation or prospects of failing criteria.

Change also demand for trust from all the relevant stakeholder, trust is needed most when there is no enough time to give an explanation on change being undertaken. Without trust what appears to be change may not be change in the end. The organizational leader’s commitment is of fundamental when it comes to implementing a change strategy (Cameron & Green, 2009), commitment must therefore be solicited from them first in its well-communicated form so that a failure is not faced at all costs.

Pain is the major driver of change and without a sacrifice, which drives people out of the comfort zone then, then change would remain a dream. This is the main reason that the leadership is needed to have a strong stand even in a situation when not all the other stakeholders are going to accept. All the necessary organizational resources need to be used to satisfactorily ensure that the actual change required is met; this could go to an extent of making rewards to allow room for change.

It is therefore clear that various strategies depict open characteristics of the differences that in the underlying assumptions in organizations and change. For clear communications of the individuals involved in the change process to be made, the meaning of strategy has to be mentioned in its bold conceptual framework (Cameron & Green, 2009).

In addition, the strategy to be employed depends largely on the certainty or level of predictability of the change platform, alongside this is the creation of room for the stakeholders to deliberate and agree on how to handle the looming change process. Planning and control functions of any organization are normally affected by uncertainty; therefore, the appropriate change strategy in such a case is the interactive strategy where several aspects of the organization are brought together and an observation made on how they relate when slight changes are made.

Questionnaires are used to find out on how the stakeholders feel about change strategies implemented (Brown & KaÌ„tz, 2009). Detailed description of the change strategies There are therefore five major strategies for change identified; power strategy, it employs the top down approach Change Strategies. (2004). In such a case the employees are kept at bay of the change process hence, they have a little input on idea generation for change since very little of their inputs is required.

The managers believe that change can be undertaken effectively even without considering the opinions of the involved stakeholder; this is a harmful assumption hence making such a strategy unpopular. The second strategy is the systematic strategy; here the methodology approach to change is followed, goals, procedures and methods to realize change are put in place.

Planning is then incorporated in the system; time limits are set since it would demand that certain objectives are met within some deadlines. Another strategy is the negotiation strategy, which involves the interactive approach; the employees’ ideas are given a great proportion in this process as opposed to the power strategies.

Therefore, in the above approach the change idea is developed together through sharing of ideas and opinions between the workers and the business leaders Change Strategies. (2004). The other change strategy is the programmatic change strategy; this procedure is done in stages Change Strategies. (2004). An analysis of the change approach and strategy is assessed and evaluated; the change is introduced in bits and the employees made familiar to the change through the learning objectives achieved together.

The evaluation for change is done in a way that future adjustments can be made. Under negotiation strategy, all the wishes and interest of the workers are incorporated; conflicting interests are outlined and negotiated to clarify the problems identified. Negotiation is important in bringing a unified agreement about diverse opinions by different groups within an organization Change Strategies. (2004).

Alternative change strategies The modern organizational environments do not call for the dogmatic change strategies with vast bureaucracy, which may result in the derailment of change procedures and processes. There are therefore other patterns in the dynamic environments where changing dimensions are so frequent (Christensen, Horn & Johnson, 2008).

Alternative strategies therefore involve the perspectives that an organization can resort to incase there is a failure in the other identified strategies. The first is the change capacity; this strategy defines the extent to which an organization is able to navigate change through an organization, it navigates change in all the details and aspects that calls for its application. In any form of a formal organizational setting, capacity change is responsible for the expansion of the desired outcome and hence directs the influence that the change has on the right place hence safety (Cormier, Nurius & Osborn, 2009).

This is mainly achieved through constant application of leadership skill since this is the surest way to jump-start and implement change hence facilitating its sustainability. With sustained change, the influence level of the organizations to the surrounding environment rises, this translates into an increased level of involvement by the stakeholders in the organizations even during times of fierce change and instability (Christensen, Horn & Johnson, 2008).

It is a hard nut to crack initiating change when this strategy is lacking since anyone approached for change will always be skeptical and there will be no one willing to act on the proposed changes. Therefore, this form of change agent is recommended for application throughout the process of change since it is quite prudent and it is the subjects of the change themselves that can always influence the change towards the desired direction by the organization in discussion (Cormier, Nurius & Osborn, 2009).

Secondly, the leadership should always be on the watch to integrate all options and make several possibility outcomes at standby (Cummings & Worley, 2009). This is an emergency measure that helps resolve the likely crisis in case a wrong change process is put in place. Sometimes leaders may be under pressure to implement a change strategy without enough time to consider the repercussions hence the need to put options in place in waiting for any unfortunate occurrence.

This stage also involves the incorporation of the other employees to help in the formation of the alternatives since getting the necessary information is quite easy. The options developed should frequently be reviewed to ensure that they are up to date with the relevant technological standards. Environmental scanning is also vital to help in the SWOT analysis of the business (Cummings & Worley, 2009).

Practice application of theory to a specific change situation Good theories are the most practical tools of dealing with change that have ever been devised on the surface of the earth (Green, 2007). Change is also never instant and this is harmful since it blocks people from realizing the successes that are achieved because of the changes made.

In the process of change as have been noted earlier, communication to the stakeholders if vital to make everyone aware of whatever should be accomplished, the progress at each stage should also be reported to the stakeholders and the challenges faced accompanied by how the challenges are to be addressed (Green, 2007).

All the challenges are grouped together as received from all the partners and their viewpoints. The differences must also be identified and placed in their relevant groups. Thereafter, the right methods of mitigation and strategies to handle appropriately the identified and grouped challenges are consolidated (Cummings & Worley, 2009).

The above activities all narrow down to change strategy theories. Majority refers theory of change as paths towards change or change engines. A theory of change sets on stage a representation that guides towards the path that directs change and makes sure that you are on the right track. Therefore, without a theory to manage change, it is as if a vehicle riding in the bush without any aims (Ndulo & Grieco, 2009). This proves the practicality of change theory and its essentiality as part of doing transformation of a business or organization.

Theories of change occurs in a diverse forms which depends on the subjects that are dealt with, their planning and control procedures. One of the most advocated for form of change theory is the outcome map, this is a diagram that can be observed as it shows how strategies and outcomes are related. The results integrate both short term and long-term results, which depicts changes and how they occur at each level of management in an organization.

An outcome map is a theory that is easier to deal with since it has no defined procedure of forming it; each map has a unique way, which is highly dependent upon the unique needs of the organization. The most important and fundamental thing is to give every stakeholder space to give their views which must be accommodated in developing the theories (Patterson, 2008). It is also important to place to book all the assumptions for the formation of the theory.

The initiatives, principles and philosophies are also integrated and ultimately inclined towards the direction of desired change not forgetting the efforts made. For the theory of change to work the outcome map has to be developed in time and a list of assumptions have to be instituted and clearly defined. The outcome map as a theory of change articulates all the assumptions applied by the workforce in their efforts to explaining a change process (Patterson, 2008).

As a result, the above assumptions explain the interconnectivity of the change levels right from the preconditions running through the short-term and the long-term procedures. The outcome map defined above is made up of the following elements; the directions that shows a variety of outcomes and how they are related as they are considered to be the before conditions of a future goal.

The second element is the signs definition that is strong enough to give value to the measurement of success (Patterson, 2008); this is connected to the intervention measures that are applicable to the preconditions along the way in every step of the change intervention procedure. Lastly, the outcome map presents and explains al the assumption under each situation clearly showing how the whole theory is likely to bring sense.

The major strength of the theory above is that it has an inherent common nature of sense (Ndulo & Grieco, 2009). The main competitive advantage that it offers to its users is the fact that the other available theories are not that up to the task in directing change procedures.

Finally, it is important to note that outcome maps are only a single approach among many and mainly applicable in selected cases of change. It is though factual that outcome maps have been used severally and is a proof that it can be adopted for change management in majority of the situations available (Patterson, 2008).

References

Bates, T. (2000). Managing technological change strategies for college and university leaders. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.

Beerel, A. C. (2009). Leadership and change management. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Brown, T., & KaÌ„tz, B. (2009). Change by design: how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York: Harper Business.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2009). Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of organizational change (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page.

Change Strategies. (2004). Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge Scholars Pub.

Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting class: how disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cormier, L. S., Nurius, P., & Osborn, C. J. (2009). Interviewing and change strategies for helpers: fundamental skills and cognitive behavioral interventions (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2009). Organization development & change (9th ed.). Australia: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Green, M. (2007). Change management masterclass a step by step guide to successful change management. London: Kogan Page.

Ndulo, M., & Grieco, M. (2009). Power, gender, and social change in Africa. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Pub.

Patterson, K. (2008). Influencer: the power to change anything. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Change Strategies: Critical Review and Application

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