Discuss about the Organisations undergoing change employ internal and external change agents. What factors must be considered before making a choice? Justify your answer with examples.
Organisational change is one of the most significant issue faced by many organisations for which they consider making critical choice between appropriate change agents for bringing effective change in work systems. Organisational change can be defined as process in which organisations optimises work performance for fulfilling organisational goals and objectives. It is the action that occurs due to ever changing demands of people as well as environment where making response to critical situations becomes difficult for managers. Success in organisation’s change is realised not only because of adjustments made but by making changes with capable managing teams. There can be many reasons behind making changes in organisation but the goal behind it is always providing organisation with effective management team.
Why does an organisation require making changes? From passive viewpoint, organisational change is an event where organisations transfer it executive power to change agents who provides organisations with solutions for bringing effectiveness in it. There may be many factors that need to be considered before making changes in work place like goal setting, evaluation, execution and opposing factors. However, culture, structure, vision, mission and leadership style are also necessary to be considered for which organisations needs to make choice in making best suited change agents for their company (Gill, 2003). Regardless of the type of issue present in the organisation, revolutionary changes are adopted by managers during critical conditions where they need to follow a specific change model. However capable a leader is, they may fail to understand the value of present change management models and factors associated with change theories. For this, they hire special people or a group from within or outside the firm, also known as change agents, to carry the change management process more efficiently. An effective change agent will always carry the change process in a manner where minimum side effects of changes are realised by the firm (Baesu & Bejinaru, 2013).
Organisational change is a complex procedure that involves all levels of organisation in a linear way. Different departments and individuals react to the change out of which few even get resisted due to it. Therefore, it becomes important to analyse past experiences to make future predictions more highlighted towards positivity. It is apparent that change in organisation is made due to significant cause that can either be external or internal force. External changes are associated mainly with technological change, market place changes, competitor activities, change in governmental policies or change in consumer preferences. Depending upon the nature of change required, organisations considers the changes and appoints suitable change agents who are aware of current business practices from external view point. Whereas internal change factors relate to changes in management philosophy, power of control and outdated organisational structure. Under these situations, normally companies hire those agents who are more knowledgeable in organisations objectives so that change implemented does not make changes to the mainstay behind establishment of the company (Aladwan, 2001).
There are many methods that are applied by organisations for implementing change process and over the years many change models and theories have been formulated by researchers that are immensely used by change agents. Kurt Lewins theory, Kotters 8 step model and Maslow’s theory are some of the organisational change theories applied by change agents according to the situations present in organisation (Muchira & Kiambati, 2015). Counselling programs along with training and motivation are few elements implemented by change agents which focuses on entire groups of organisations so that all its members participate in change program efficiently. Whether a group or any individual leader who are responsible for entailing change within organisation are made thorough with firm’s motive so that the changes made does not impacts negatively in organisational work force. Many organisations focus to collaborate with outside sources to implement training and development programs where expert professional are invited to solve organisation’s issues while giving proper training to the employees. Therefore, more people become concerned about firm’s step towards development and gets involved in organisational change naively. Change within firms becomes easier if the employees participate in change process or becomes supportive and organisational change ultimately results in effective communication within organisations (Elving, 2006).
Change agents play a significant role in organisational change process where ‘change agents’ are those people that can be presented from inside or outside of firm. They provide assistant and technical support to the people of management along with taking decisions regarding change process. Change agents that do not belong permanently to the organisations and are appointed specially for change process and are called external change agents. They usually belong to professional fields that specialises in change management systems and processes. Whereas internal change agents are the ones who belong to the organisations and performs change process along with performing other ordinary duties of the firm. These agents provide effective changes as compared to external agents since they are aware of organisations principle and people present there. In other words, internal change agents can be referred to those people who change the norms of the company by involving themselves with other employees and initiates change process with gaining support from others. For example, organisations undertaking changes in global management usually belongs to top-level management where other subordinates may deal with other changes required subsequently. In this situation, change agent is the leader of the company who defines job changes in the form of authority (Gerwing, 2016).
The speed of change varies from company to company and restricts using same model each time. In the present era, where technology has become an integral part of organisations, it has been used immensely by organisations during change process even. Identification of change requirements and demonstration of work principle has become easier than before. However, identifying and implementing change processes still requires individual effort so that change process decisions can be made after considering other organisational factors also. A change agent therefore becomes necessary part in change process so that effective change management is implemented in firms for getting best possible results (Baddah, 2017). Change agents whether internal or external, require possessing special qualities and competencies to support change process effectively. Other reasons behind appointing change agent in organisation are to facilitate, implement and direct change principles. Leadership, motivating and understanding qualities are some of the factors looked upon by organisations before appointing their change agents. Real change leader is the one who initiate and influences all others to perform their job differently and more properly by applying multiple change leadership approaches. Change experts chosen by organisations shall execute and initiate change for making organisation achieve longer period competitive advantage with the engagement of change initiation. Change experts acquire significant competencies within themselves to master change and shift people and firm in forward direction though change (Lunenburg, 2010).
While making research for this essay, one fine example of internal change in a Swedish food and beverage industry was investigated that unfolds firms change process through internal change agents while expanding its business in international market. With the help of managerial capabilities and theories, the conceptual framework was made by the company. The company internal change agents possessed dynamic capabilities that made their internationalisation process easier. The case study shows that firm discovered internal and external environmental needs while taking actions against impacts regarding other external changes. As the managements of the firms developed proactive behaviour, their dynamic capabilities underwent an internal change process critically without effecting regular work process of the firm (Dahlin & Dannevig, 2015).
Once organisations become aware about the requirements of changes, they decide to resolve it and face next decision regarding change process. This is the time they face questions like ‘Whom to assign change process duty?’ As discussed above, they either chose internal or external agents but making such choice further depends on numerous factors. While organisations realise that change process needs to be made on immediate basis, they choose internal change agents because they know organisational systems and norms and thus time required for explaining those norms is saved. Since they are aware about the facts behind changes, they provide with quick solutions along with securing employees relationship with the firm (Qureshi & Sayyad, 2016). However, there are few drawbacks also. Internal change agents may lack necessary qualities or skills and thus may result in ineffective change. Even due to their relationship with present employees may avoid in making severe changes for avoiding emotional stress and impacts on relationship with them. Due to these reasons, organisations may opt for external change agents to assist projects while ignoring relationships among people and focussing more on organisational objectives (Long, 2013). As compared to internal change agents, external change agents possess more professionalism and expertise since their core job is to facilitate changes in organisations. But again, drawbacks can be seen here also as they prove to consume more time as compared to internal change agents. Since external agents are not sure of company’s norms and qualification of employees present, they take considerable time in getting all the desired information’s. Therefore, external change agents are selected only due to their expert solutions and abilities while organisations internal change agents are appointed by them where long term changes are made in regular basis.
One fine example that shows how external change agents provides effective change is a case study of small and medium sized organisations present in Singapore. During the Asian crisis, these SME’s faced severe loses and entrepreneurs of firms decided to undergo change process within their firms to overcome impacts from crisis. Since they had small firms and lacked change experts, they decided taking help from external agents for making necessary changes in their work culture. They appointed external agencies and professional agents who specialised in change management process. With strategic change management and sound change process, more than 45% of SME’s survived where other who remains rigid in making changes had to suffer firm’s closure (Menkhoff & Loh, 2003). This example shows the importance of external change agents during intense situations and when the issues are observed in larger scale.
External change agents act more professionally acting more as a consultant than an entity which provides force within organisation to get involved in change procedure for realising objective behind change process. On the other hand, changes made by internal agents proves to be more effective since change agents already possess respect from employees whereas external change agents need time to get familiar with people and forming relationship to understand their problems (Brown, 2012). However, under both situations, organisations choices largely depend on various other factors as mentioned in the essay like internal and external force, environmental force, global changes, customers preferences changes and changes required to align with present business standards. Organisational change largely depends on the change agents as skills and qualities of change agents are reflected in the change process implemented by them. Therefore, organisations make a critical thought out before making a choice between internal and external change agents. By giving authority to change agents, organisations become depended on them for making firms’ new regulations and hence require making appropriate choices so that core objective behind organisations existence is not violated (Barclay, 2009).
Change agents possess superior quality as mentioned in the essay that is also one of the factors considered by organisations before making choices. For these organisations consults professional agents or experts for getting effective solutions who may be present within or outside the firm. While making a choice, organisations also considers factors behind making changes so that change agents can be selected accordingly. Hence, it can be said that change in organisations is a crucial process where making a choice between internal and external change agents requires critical consideration by organisations. Not every change agent possesses wide range of qualities and competencies and therefore making selection between them becomes difficult for the companies. The above essay has identified various qualities and skills required in change agents that are mostly considered by organisations before making choice. Where the situations are intense and complicated, organisations appoint external agents whereas during long term and regular process, internal agents become preferable. The factors that influences changes within organisations has been examined in the essay that shows fundamentals considered for making change to ensure organisational success. The awareness behind change models and choice between change agents shows existing relationship between them which influences entire change management process of organisations.
References
Aladwan, A.M., 2001. Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation. Business Process Management Journal, 07(03), pp.266-75.
Baddah, A., 2017. The influencing factors of Organisational Change Management: A Literature Review. Politics, Economics and Administrative SciencesJournal of Ahi Evran University, 01(01), pp.42-58.
Baesu, C. & Bejinaru, R., 2013. Leadership Approaches Regarding the Organisational Change. The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration , 13(2(18)), pp.146-52.
Barclay, A., 2009. Employee Change Agents: The Foundation for Effective Organizational Change. International Business Research, 02(04), pp.1-7.
Brown, B.C., 2012. Leading complex change with post-conventional consciousness. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(04), pp.560-75.
Dahlin, G. & Dannevig, W., 2015. The Internal Change Process –Exploring the Inside of Firms as They Grow to International Markets. Master’s Thesis 30 credits.
Elving, W.J.L., 2006. The role of communication in organisational change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 10(02), pp.129-38.
Gerwing, C., 2016. Meaning of Change Agents within Organizational Change. Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, 04, pp.21-40.
Gill, R., 2003. Change Management – or Change Leadership. Journal of Change Management, 03(04), pp.307-18.
Long, C.S., 2013. Transformation of HR Professionals to be a Change Agent: Realistic Goal or Just a Dream. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 01, pp.50-53.
Lunenburg, F.C., 2010. Managing Change: The Role of the Change Agent. International Journal of Management, Business and Administration, 13(01), pp.1-6.
Menkhoff, T. & Loh, B., 2003. Issues and Challenges of Corporate Change Initiatives In Singapore’s Small Business Sectors. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 08(01), pp.49-64.
Muchira, T.N. & Kiambati, K., 2015. The Role of Human Resource Development as a Change Agent. Education Journal, 04(05), pp.214-21.
Qureshi, E.A. & Sayyad, A.U., 2016. Role of Managers as Change Agents in Managing Resistance to Change. International Journal of Management (IJM), 07(01), pp.42-49.
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