The Concept and Types of Planned Change-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Significance of Planned Change for the Organizations. Answer: Change is the only constant thing that is essential for improvement for the organizations. With time, it is necessary for the organizations to identify and incorporate the changes for improvement. If the organizations fail to incorporate the changes according to the market requirement, it will be difficult for them to sustain in the competitive market. It is essential for the organizations to identify the changes on a regular basis and judge the need for the change. Upon identification, the organization needs to plan the change, planning mitigates the risk of failure. This essay highlights the concept and types of planned change along with the challenges and significance of planned change for the organizations. The essay also discusses the implementation of theories and models of planned change. The responsibility of the managers is to bring and incorporate change with a vision of improvement for the organization (Mitchell, 2013). Planned change is important for the organizations to cope up with the continuous changes in different business sectors due to politics, demand of customers and the economy of the country. The concept of planned change is allowing the entire organization to be accustomed with the significant changes for the benefit of the organizational goals. As mentioned by Cummings Worley (2014), planned change is defined as the application of a structural innovation and deliberate design along with a new goal or policy or changing the existing operating philosophy, climate and style. The aforementioned changes are brought within the working principles of the organization to conduct business according to the present market scenario and demand. The planned change includes all the aspects of the organizations that are closely related such as technology, structure, people, and responsibility. Implementation of organizational planned change is a difficult and complex process. Therefore, considerable planning is required for implementing major organizational change. As mentioned by Lozano (2013), the success of the planned change depends upon the sequential way the process proceeds. The process of planned change includes recognizing the change requirement, features that requires change, planning the change, accessing the forces of change and action for implementing the change. Identifying the need for change is essential, as bringing in change without any reason will hinder the usefulness and necessity of the change (McGarry, Cashin Fowler, 2012). As identifying the requirement of change provides a clue, this step helps in analyzing further by identifying the issues due to which change is required. Planning the change allows the managers to plan how to execute the planned change (Blomme, 2012). The managers consider features such as who will bring the change, when to bring the change and how to bring the change. Assessing the change forces allow the managers to identify the driving and restraining forces and plan accordingly. After successful completion of the steps, actions need to be undertaken to implement the change. As mentioned by Waddell et al., (2013), unfreezing, changing and refreezing are the steps that need to be considered during planning the actions for change. According to Boohene Williams (2012), planned change within organizations can be brought in the field such as technology, task, structure, and people. Previously, the use of technologies was not highly used and implemented by the organizations. The majority of the tasks were performed and maintained manually. Due to this, the organizations encountered drawbacks such as mistakes and delay in proceeding with work due to manual labor. With time, the organizations have understood the benefits and requirements of technology for their business. Therefore, recently, all the organizations use technology along with manual labor for conducting their business. Technology related changes include designing, distributing and producing. For example, the technology related change allowed the organizations to introduce automated data processing devices. Based on the requirement, the organizations implement changes in terms of task that emphasize internal work motivation and high quality work perform ance. This allows the managers to motivate the employees by considering their needs and requirements that eventually enhance their performance and productivity. Structural changes are brought within the organizations to redefine the nature of relationships and positions. This includes changes in the hierarchical levels, in line staffs and functional authorities. Kurt Lewins Change model is an important theory used as a guide by the organizations to plan and implement change. As mentioned by Shirey (2013), the model consists of three stages namely, unfreezing, change and refreezing. According to the first step, an individual or an organizational issue need to cast away the old behavior that might be inappropriate, irrelevant and inadequate according to the present scenario. For example, the use of only manual labor by the industries needed to be changed, as it made the entire process time consuming and less productive. The next step, changing is the process in which the individual or the procedure used the organizations is changed. In order to do so, the individuals or the organizations need to learn the new behavior methods such as working, new thinking and perception of new roles. The final stage is refreezing that allows the individuals or the organizations to internalize the new beliefs, feelings and behavior learned during the changing p hase. At the end of the final stage, the aforementioned elements are adopted permanently. ADKAR change model can also be used by the organizations to implement the change. Managing change on the organizational and personal level requires thinking for implementing the change. As mentioned by Worley Mohrman (2014), ADKAR change model can be used to understand the significance of change at an individual level. Therefore, in order to influence change at an organizational level, the individual effect needs to be considered. The steps of ADKAR change model include awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. Awareness signifies the reasons of change for the business. Desire signifies engaging the various stakeholders of the organization to be a part of the change. The various stakeholders need have adequate knowledge of making the change happen and with the ability to realize and implementing the change. Reinforcement ensures that the planned change lasts long. The process and transition of the existing operational function of an organization are complex and time-consuming. Therefore, an organization encounters several challenges to implement planned change. As mentioned by Davoudi et al., (2012), lack of detailed and visionary planning results in failure of planned change. It is often seen that the management emphasize so much in implementing the change that they fail to conduct a detailed plan. As a result, while progressing to implement the planned, they encounter several new challenges that were not considered initially. As a result, the planned change fails miserably. According to Cameron Green (2015), lack of communication also results in failure of a planned change. For example, not all the individuals might support the change planned in the operational procedure of an organization. They might have different preferences to make the change happen. Therefore, excessive decisions and lack of communication results in the failure of the planned change. At certain instances, the employees might resist the change. This is because they become comfortable with the way the business works. As a result, it I difficult for them to adapt the change though it is beneficial for the business. Therefore, the management needs to discuss in detail with the employees and convince them for the planned change. A planned change is essential for the business and the organizations to sustain in the competitive market and conduct business according to the present scenario. It might be the not essential factor for business might be completely unimportant according to todays business scenario. As mentioned by Alvesson Sveningsson (2015), planned change helps in increasing the productivity of the employees and the organization. This is because the change is required by the organization according to the present business scenario. Moreover, planned change also helps in enhancing the quality of service provided within and by the organization. For example, use of technology in the supply chain management has increased productivity and quality for the business. This has made the entire process of supply chain management less time consuming and more efficient. Incorporating planned change on a timely basis increases the customer satisfaction of the business. This is because the demands and needs of th e customers keep on changing. Therefore, if the organizations fail to change according to the ever-changing demand of the customers, they might lose customers and business. In this essay, it can be concluded that planned change is essential for the organization to sustain in the competitive market. It is defined as the systematic process of planning the change in various aspects of the organizations such as technology, task, people, and structure. In order to implement the change successfully, it is important to identify the change, elements that need to be changed, planning the change, assessing the change forces and actions undertaken to implement the change. Kurt Lewin's theory of planned change can be used as a guide for the organizations to implement the change. The steps include unfreeze, change and refreeze. Lack of communication and detailed planning of the change is the common reason of the failure of planned change. However, increasing customer satisfaction, productivity and enhancing the quality of service are the significance of considering and implementing planned change. References Alvesson, M., Sveningsson, S. (2015). 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