Organisational Change

There is nothing permanent except change. It has become an inescapable fact of life; a fundamental aspect of historical evolution. Change is inevitable in a progressive culture. Change in fact, is accelerating in our society. Revolutions are taking place  in political, scientific, technological and institutional areas. Organisations cannot  completely insulate themselves from this environmental instability. Change is induced by the internal and external forces. Meeting this challenge of change is the  primary responsibility of management. An organisation lacking

adaptability to change has no future. Adaptability to change is a necessary  quality of good management. Modern managers have the responsibility to devise management practices that best meet the new challenges and make use of the opportunities for the growth of the organisation.

Managing change is an issue that comes closest to describing the totality of a manager's job. Practically everything a manager does is in some way concerned with implementing change.

1.       Hiring a new employee—Changing the work group

2.       Purchasing a new piece of—Changing work methods equipment

3.       Rearranging work station—Changing work  flows

All require knowledge of how to manage change effectively.

Organisational change refers to a modification or transformation of the organisation's structure, processes or goods. Flexibility requires that organisations be open to change in all areas, including the structure of the organisation itself. In a flexible organisation, employees can't think of their roles in terms of a job description. They often have to change the tasks they perform and learn new skills. The most flexible organisations have a culture that (a) values change, and (b) managers who know how to implement changes effectively.

More and more organisations today face a dynamic and changing environment  that, in turn requires these organisations to adapt. Change has become the norm  in most organisations. Plant closing, business failures, mergers and acquisitions, and downsizing have become common experiences for most organisations. Adaptiveness, flexibility and responsiveness are terms used to describe organisations that will succeed in meeting the competitive challenges that businesses face. In the past,  organisations could succeed by claiming excellence in one area — quality, reliability or cost. But this is not the case today. The current environment demands excellence in all areas.

Why is organisational change so important? From outside and inside the organisation, a variety of forces press for change. "We live in the midst of constant change" has become a well-worn but relevant cliché. Pressures for change are created both  inside and outside the organisation. Organisations must forge ahead on these forces to survive. Some of these are external, arising from outside the company,  whereas others are internal arising from sources within the organisation.

Change has become the norm in most organisations. Adaptiveness, flexibility and responsiveness are terms used to describe the organisations that will succeed in two basic forms of change in organisations that will succeed in meeting the  competitive challenges that businesses face.

Organisational Change

There is nothing permanent except change. It has become an inescapable fact of life; a fundamental aspect of historical evolution. Change is inevitable in a progressive culture. Change in fact, is accelerating in our society. Revolutions are taking place  in political, scientific, technological and institutional areas. Organisations cannot  completely insulate themselves from this environmental instability. Change is induced by the internal and external forces. Meeting this challenge of change is the  primary responsibility of management. An organisation lacking

adaptability to change has no future. Adaptability to change is a necessary  quality of good management. Modern managers have the responsibility to devise management practices that best meet the new challenges and make use of the opportunities for the growth of the organisation.

Managing change is an issue that comes closest to describing the totality of a manager's job. Practically everything a manager does is in some way concerned with implementing change.

1.       Hiring a new employee—Changing the work group

2.       Purchasing a new piece of—Changing work methods equipment

3.       Rearranging work station—Changing work  flows

All require knowledge of how to manage change effectively.

Organisational change refers to a modification or transformation of the organisation's structure, processes or goods. Flexibility requires that organisations be open to change in all areas, including the structure of the organisation itself. In a flexible organisation, employees can't think of their roles in terms of a job description. They often have to change the tasks they perform and learn new skills. The most flexible organisations have a culture that (a) values change, and (b) managers who know how to implement changes effectively.

More and more organisations today face a dynamic and changing environment  that, in turn requires these organisations to adapt. Change has become the norm  in most organisations. Plant closing, business failures, mergers and acquisitions, and downsizing have become common experiences for most organisations. Adaptiveness, flexibility and responsiveness are terms used to describe organisations that will succeed in meeting the competitive challenges that businesses face. In the past,  organisations could succeed by claiming excellence in one area — quality, reliability or cost. But this is not the case today. The current environment demands excellence in all areas.

Why is organisational change so important? From outside and inside the organisation, a variety of forces press for change. "We live in the midst of constant change" has become a well-worn but relevant cliché. Pressures for change are created both  inside and outside the organisation. Organisations must forge ahead on these forces to survive. Some of these are external, arising from outside the company,  whereas others are internal arising from sources within the organisation.

Change has become the norm in most organisations. Adaptiveness, flexibility and responsiveness are terms used to describe the organisations that will succeed in two basic forms of change in organisations that will succeed in meeting the  competitive challenges that businesses face.

Future of Career Planning and Development

             

There exist no empirical studies worth the name on career planning and development. New challenges like, competition, market globalization, deregulation and total quality management have now  made  it imperative for organisations to

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restructure their career planning and development programmes to retain  best  talents. Below are possible changes you can effect in your firm.

1.       Consider your employees as your most important assets. The concept of total quality management considers every employees as  customers (internal) to the organisation. Making employees entrepreneurs for the organisation and empowering them, is now  compelling the organisations to re-design career progression tracks  to attract and retain the best employees. Making people psychologically prepared for ownership, some organisations are also experimenting with flatter organisation structure with adequate decentralization.

2.       For manning senior executive positions, give more importance to knowledge than functional skills. This perhaps is the only reason for selecting people even in their early thirties for senior managerial posts.

3.       You may be keen to getting rid of those employees who are now redundant due to changing requirements, by offering golden handshake, rather than developing these persons for better redeployment.

4.       Merit is now getting overriding priority than seniority. This, therefore,  renders career progression paths less important. Many, however, feel that even with greater priority of merit over seniority, career progression paths do not become completely meaningless, since for even promotion by merit, the lines of progression paths are relevant. For any succession planning or promotion planning this is still important.

In addition, organisational restructuring programmes are now rendering many employees surplus and it has become a major problem for the organisations to redeploy employees in restructured jobs. Career panic has now become a global issue. Most of the organisations, fearing employee turnover, are now working on designing jobs which can offer employees recognition, creativity (by lateral transfers etc.), challenges and empowerment.