Change Management the Objective of This Study

Change Management

The objective of this study is to examine the evolution of change management. The work of Hiatt states that the field of change management is a confusing and often complicating field for study as change management "is the application of many different ideas from the engineering, business. And psychology fields." (2011, p.1) The body of knowledge which has become known as 'change management' is such that has expanded to "encompass more skills and knowledge from each of these fields of study." (Hiatt, 2011, p.1)

History of Change Management

Change management today is the result of "two converging and predominant fields of thought "an engineer's approach to improving business performance and a psychologists' approach to managing the human side of change." (Hiatt, 2011, p.1) Historically and traditionally, companies that embraced what Hiatt refers to as a "mechanical approach to business improvement" failed to accept change management concepts until they experienced some type of resistance or met with challenges during implementation of the change. Hiatt reports that even after they came to this conclusion many organizations way to approaching change management was "ad hoc and lacked a solid framework for actively managing change through the process" since the engineers' view was such that isolated the problem focused on people and then sought to rid the problem or formulate a solution for what was perceived as a problem in the initiative for improvement. From the view of psychologists, the focus has been on the way that the individual "thinks and behaves in a particular situation." (Hiatt, 2011, p.1)

II. Merging of the Fields

The result is the merging of the two schools of thought. Hiatt writes that the key differences in the two approaches may be viewed as shown in the following table which lists the focus of both the engineer and psychologists, the business practices, starting point, measure of success and perspective of change.

Figure 1

Engineer Psychologist

Focus Processes, systems, structure People

Business Practices BPR, TQM, ISO 9000. Quality Human Resources, OD

Starting Point Business issues or opportunities Human resources, OD

Measures of Success Business performance, financial Personal change, employee

Financial and statistical metrics resistance

Perspective of change Shoot the stragglers, carry the Help individuals make sense

Wounded of what the change means to them

Source: Hiatt (2011)

III. Observing Change Management

Those who have observed changes in business have acknowledged that when attempting to apply either of these two approaches alone will result in an unsuccessful change. Coner writes in the work entitled 'Managing at the Speed of Change" that understanding the psychology of change results in a shift to a change process that is structured. (Hiatt, 2011, p.1) Kotter in leading change is reported to present an eight-step model for leading change and Ackerman and Anderson presents change management concepts in "a combined process with business improvement activities." (Hiatt, 2011, p.1) The contributions made by the engineering and psychology fields are such that produce "a convergence of thought that is crucial for successful design and implementation of business change" or stated otherwise a business "must constantly examine its performance, strategy, processes, and systems to understand what changes need to be made. Increasing external and internal factors have made this a strategy essential for survival." (Hiatt, 2011, p.1)

Summary and Conclusion