Verified Document

Change Management Research Paper

Organisations exist in a constantly evolving environment, warranting change. Organisational change occurs as a result of factors such as industry and market shifts, technological advances, socioeconomic changes, as well as political and regulatory shifts (Hayes, 2014). Adapting to change is a crucial ingredient of success in today’s world. Indeed, examples of previously powerful organisations that have declined or even collapsed due to failure to adapt to change are not uncommon. Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola, Kodak, Sears, U.S. Postal Service, Blockbuster, Yahoo, and Xerox are ideal examples. These organisations failed to innovate and embrace change, leading to either acquisition by other companies or collapse. In an ever changing world, organisations must remain innovative – they must embrace change by introducing new products, services, processes, and/or structures (Euchner, 2013). This paper critically evaluates research on change management. Following a comprehensive definition of the field of change management, attention is specifically paid to innovation in change management as well as the future direction of change management research. Defining Change Management

Change management within the context of organisations essentially denotes the process of initiating, implementing, and monitoring change (Hayes, 2014). It is the processing of managing the redirection or redefinition of organisational resources, processes, or other aspects that substantially change how an organisation processes. Change management is further defined as the management of transition from one state to another (Cummings & Worley, 2013). The process is anchored on diverse disciplines, including behavioural science, sociology, psychology, and information technology (Cameron & Green, 2012). Tremendous scholarly advancements have been made in the field of change management since the 1980s, and the field is now a major subject in organisational behaviour. Scholarly work has focused on issues such as reasons for change, change implementation, change evaluation, antecedents of successful change management, and change management challenges.

Change may involve introducing new products or services, terminating new products or services, pursuing new markets, withdrawing from some markets, reorganising business divisions, adopting a new organisational structure, introducing new processes, and so forth. These changes may be a driven by technological, economic, political, industry, and socio-cultural factors (Cameron & Green, 2012; Cristina, 2013). For instance, technological advancements have caused organisations in diverse sectors and industries to integrate social media into customer relationship building processes such as marketing. Equally, improved economic growth in developing countries has presented multinational organisations with significant market expansion opportunities. Irrespective of the reason, organisational change is mainly intended for enhancing internal efficiency, increasing competitive advantage, as well as improving bottom line performance (Hayes, 2014).

Scholarly work has also produced a range of change...

Popular change management models include Kotter’s 8-step model, Kurt Lewin’s unfreeze and freeze model, McKinsey’s 7-S model, and Deming’s plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008; Hayes, 2014). Though every model is unique in its own way, there are considerable similarities. The models depict change management as a systematic process that generally involves preparing for change, mapping the future desired state, addressing obstacles that may hinder change, executing change, monitoring change, and making change part of the organisation’s culture. Even so, change management remains a difficult undertaking for many organisations. At times, change may not bring about the anticipated outcomes, and at other times it may be abandoned before completion, leading to wastage of time, effort, and resources (Cameron & Green, 2012). All in all, if effectively managed, change can be beneficial to an organisation.
Innovation in Change Management

An important aspect of change management relates to innovation. Change in most part encompasses changing how things are done in an organisation or introducing better products and processes. This is the core of innovation. Simply, innovation is a key driver of organisational change (Euchner, 2013; Chen & Adamson, 2015). Organisations cannot survive in a constantly changing world unless they innovate (McKinley, Latham & Braun, 2014). They must pursue new business models, eliminate wasteful processes, adopt technology, make their products or services better, and so forth. Indeed, innovation is about taking advantage of internal and external factors to become more competitive in an ever changing environment. For instance, if a mobile phone manufacturer makes its handsets more physically appealing, it takes advantages of shifts in consumer preferences to gain competitive advantage in the fiercely competitive mobile phone industry. Equally, a financial firm that introduces online banking takes advantage of technological advancements to improve the customer service experience. These are just a few examples of how change and innovation are heavily interconnected.

The topic of innovation and change management is premised on a number of theories in addition to the previously mentioned theories. An important theory is the organisation learning theory. The theory views organisations as learning entities – they keep on acquiring knowledge (Cummings & Worley, 2013). Knowledge acquired at present and in the past helps an organisation navigate an increasingly uncertain future. Based on organisational learning theory, adapting to change requires learning. An organisation that successfully implements change is one that learns continuously. Internal and external triggers motivate organisations to invest in new learning required for innovation (McKinley, Latham & Braun, 2014; Hsu, 2015). External triggers may include customer needs, competition, new technology, demographic shifts, economic factors, industry changes, environmental concerns, and regulatory shifts. Internal triggers on the other hand may…

Sources used in this document:

References

Betz, F. (2003). Managing technological innovation: Competitive advantage from change. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2012). Making sense of change management: a complete guide to models, tools and techniques of organisational change. London: Kogan Page.

Chen, J., & Adamson, C. (2015). Innovation: Integration of random variation and creative synthesis. Academy of Management Review, 40(3), 461-464. doi:10.5465/amr.2014.0438

Cristina, V. (2013). The importance of an innovative leader in the organization. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 22(2), 703-709.

Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2013). Organization development and change. 10th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Euchner, J. (2013). Innovation is change management. Research-Technology Management, 56(4), 10-11. doi:10.5437/08956308x5604002

Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hsu, Y. (2015). Organizational innovation strategies: The value cocreation strategy (VCS) model. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 8(2), 6–20.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Change Management Organizational Change Organizational Change Aims...
Words: 3237 Length: 11 Document Type: Essay

Change Management Organizational Change Organizational change aims at ensuring that the implementation of changes in an organization is smooth and successful. Moreover, it ensures that the benefits of these changes are achievable (Burke 2010). The introduction of social media and technology has recently had much effect on business in the recent past. Accessing information by the organization is easier nowadays thus; the need for introducing changes to business to cope with the

Change Management Theory Change Management Is a
Words: 2715 Length: 9 Document Type: Case Study

Change Management Theory Change management is a discipline studied and implemented in various organizations. The existence of this discipline spans for over half a century currently. Thus, it is a discipline of old time, with quite a number of years in existence. However, it is surprising to note that despite the huge investments that various organizations and companies employ to facilitate organizational change studies still indicate that between 60% - 70%

Change Management in Public Organizations Change Management
Words: 6173 Length: 20 Document Type: Essay

Change Management in Public Organizations Change management involves an organization moving through adjustments to bring it into a different point in its development (Anderson & Anderson, 2001). Companies are almost always changing and growing, but when change management is involved these changes are calculated and they take place in a planned way. The goal is to move the company forward so that it can continue to grow and develop with the

Managing Changing Managing Change Reflect Critically Personal
Words: 2703 Length: 8 Document Type: Case Study

Managing Changing Managing Change reflect critically personal perspective philosophy managing change changed ( ) semester Drawing learning experiences semester (group case study, relevant change management theory, reflections relevant personal experiences organisational change), reflect critically personal perspective philosophy managing change changed ( ) semester. Managing change The world we are living in is always changing. The nature of the business world today is very different than the way it was decades ago. Change is inevitable.

Change Management and Resistance My Company Changed
Words: 1198 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Change Management and Resistance My company changed the client management system. There is no formal system for managing client information. Employees will now be required to use one client management system. We need to implement the plan and will create a change management plan. Identify the potential sources of resistance to change and develop strategies to manage resistance to change. We need to choose the appropriate channels to communicate the change

Change Management Fabrication International Change Management at
Words: 6346 Length: 20 Document Type: Case Study

Change Management Fabrication International CHANGE Management AT FI (i) Critical Assessment of Investment-Appraisal Process The investment appraisal process at Fabrication International (FI) is divided into four distinct steps. This appraisal process reflects the values and concerns of top management that it seeks to realize during the decision making process. FI is marked by traditional expectations of doing business. It expects its long time customers to continue doing business with it irrespective of economic realities.

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now