Individual Reflection on Understanding of Change Management

Australia has gone through high levels of change due to a variety of issues and factors. Consequently, businesses have had to go through transformations and shifts in the way they operate and in compliance with new social and legal changes in policy. Change management on organizations has been a critical component of progress, requiring firms to adapt and adopt new ways of thinking or risk failure (Mento, Jones, & Dirndorfer, 2002). In this presentation, I reflect on how the last 6 months has been in terms of learning and adapting to new changes and management of change. I offer three things I have learnt that have led to an improvement of understanding of change management and 2 ways I think this new perspective has made me more capable of dealing with change.

The first major element I have learnt in relation to change is that management of change is a systematic approach that deals with transformations and transition of the goals, technologies, and process of an organization. Allen, Cruz, & Warburton (2017) terms change management as a systematic approach. By understanding that change management is a systematic approach, I realized that its purpose is to craft strategies to effect change, control it, and help stakeholders adapt to it. By seeing change as a systematic approach, strategies can be devised including structured procedures and mechanisms for response to different change requirements.

The second element I learnt that has led to a better understanding of change management is knowing how to determine successful implementation and measure its effects. To be more effective, Kang et al. (2020) uses Kotter’s change perspective to announce the management of change and all processes including a consideration of how a replacement or adjustment impacts stakeholders such as employees, the systems, and processes within an organization. As a result, every change management process is required to have a way to measure success as well as the effect on vital organizational organs such as the customers and the employees. The overall aim is to improve processes and systems through better strategies, and therefore, a way to measure effects and successful ventures is necessary in change management.

The final and most important element in change management is a process of communication. Rajan and Ganesan (2017) emphasizes that Kotter’s change management model is only effective where communication is possible. Communicating change is a critical element in the scheduling and implementation of all related strategies. Communication is a process that enables documentation of change and also facilitates evaluation avenues and all other related elements of change management. For example, without communication, a change management process is largely affected, including a probability to create resistance from employees and other negative outcomes.

The first way I think the new understanding has made me more capable in dealing with change is first knowing how to define change and understanding why it is needed. By knowing that all types of changes are systematic and that there is a need to measure success and effectiveness, I now understand that change is inevitable and it must be embraced as a strategy to improve the firm. Identifying a need for change and crafting ways to deal with it is also mentioned by Tamunomiebi and Akpan (2021) as an important element in mitigating resistance from employees and ensuring support from other stakeholders.

The second way that I think the new understanding has made me more capable in dealing with change is knowing how and why to communicate change. I have come to an understanding that without communication, planning and testing change cannot be achieved. Communication also facilitates documentation that helps in maintaining audits and ensures compliance to the original internal and external controls that define why change was required in the organization in the first place.

In summary, I have come to understand that change management exists in so many angles. It is one of the most important yet complex ways of improving the position of a firm. It highlights why a transformation is required and provides ways to adapt to the said changes. My understanding of change management now incorporates critical elements that have improved my perspective on change and its management.

References

Allen, W., Cruz, J., & Warburton, B. (2017). How decision support systems can benefit from a theory of change approach. Environmental management, 59(6), 956-965.

Kang, S. P., Chen, Y., Svihla, V., Gallup, A., Ferris, K., & Datye, A. K. (2020). Guiding change in higher education: an emergent, iterative application of Kotter’s change model. Studies in Higher Education, 1-20.

Mento, A., Jones, R., & Dirndorfer, W. (2002). A change management process: Grounded in both theory and practice. Journal of Change Management, 3(1), 45-59.

Rajan, R., & Ganesan, R. (2017). A critical analysis of John P. Kotter’s change management framework. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management, 7(7), 181-203.

Tamunomiebi, M., & Akpan, E. (2021). Organizational Change and the Imperatives of Managing Employee Resistance: A Conceptual Review. Journal of Strategic Management, 6(1), 18-32.