THE IMPACT OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT & BUSINESS EFFICACY IN RAJASTHAN
Dr. Anita Sukhwal, Harshita Paliwal
(Professor, Kota University, Kota, Rajasthan)
(Research Scholar, Pacific Academy of Higher Education & Research, Udaipur, Rajasthan)
Abstract
Strategy concerns the nature, direction and focus of tomorrow’s business.
The management process of establishing, reviewing and updating a Company’s
Strategy should be one of the most stimulating and purposeful activities in which
Senior Managers are involved. This research deals with the conceptual framework of strategic change management which includes strategic intent, environmental analysis, various types of strategies and their implementation. The foundation of building strategies depend on environmental analysis. In the proposed study certain strategic parameters have been identified viz. Demographic variables, personality traits, intuition and innovation. These factors provide us a framework for building strategies. The strategies although follow a sequential layer namely corporate level strategies, business level strategies, and operational level strategies, however the major thrust areas include finance, marketing, human resource, information & technology and research & development. Due to liberalization, globalization and privatization, the international business environment has become fiercely competitive. In order to survive and prosper the top management teams must provide Change Management Strategies in all spheres of business activities. The present study explores the Efficacy of Business Strategy.
Key words: Organizational Culture and Change, Change and HR, Change Management, Strategy, Business Strategic Efficacy.
INTRODUCTION
Organization Culture and Dealing with Change:
The existing corporate culture may even be a liability in implementing a new business strategy successfully. Ex. Lake of openness and trust, and interdepartmental rivalries might inhibit a department from rectifying certain problems because of consequent changes in the work process/schedule that might affect related departments. The company culture may make it unattractive to inconvenience others while rectifying one’s own problem. Where units/subsystems are characterized by different subcultures, initiating change in one subsystem could aggravate problems of coordination. Any intended change has to be a natural corollary of the existing corporate culture. For ex. companies like Sony, Motorola Xerox etc have supported strong quality cultures that speak of the quality of their products. Similarly, a change strategy should be wound around or built in to the existing value and belief system of the organization and translated in to visible and measurable goals to be effective. Changing the corporate culture can improve the organization’s ability to implement new business strategies and to perform better. It is to be remembered that cultural change is an extremely difficult and long-term process. Firms with adaptive cultures can initiate incremental changes in their strategies and practices in the context of environmental changed. The computer business gave rise to a new subculture that emphasized strategic planning rather than entrepreneurism. Employees were laid-off on 3 different occasions, by-the-seat-of-one’s-pant management became rare, and management was professionalized with the retirement of the founders. The new culture was a logical response to a new set of conditions (Kotter & Heskett, 1992).
Change and the Human Resources:
Organizations over the past decade have been moving towards flatter, learner and more responsive structures. This has made many of them more efficient in terms of their resource utilization and more effective in terms of their responsiveness to the market demands. Technology has played a major role in ensuring that a coherent business approach and managerial performance can be mentioned from a reduced resource base. The key to success in such move has been the mobilization of human resources (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Kenter, 1983; 1989; Pettigrew & Whipp, 1993). The revolution in the organization design has been achieved by creating responsive work environments which emphasis the need to cooperate across and within functions; focus on service and quality; and search for holistic and integrated responses to trigger events, while encouraging participation, ownership and shared accountability (Spector, 1989; Handy, 1990). IBM, Compaq, Motorola and Steel Case have amongst many others, adopted team based solution to the management of their manufacturing facilities. Responsibilities increase as the team matures and gains confidence. Teams are being asked to participate in the process of innovation and change; employees are seeking, and ensuring they get enhanced performance through greater involvement and empowerment (Piczak & Hauser 1996; Anderson & West, 1996). Many organisations have dropped the term ‘foreman’ and ‘supervisor’ in favor of title such as ‘team leader’, which is visible manifestation of workforce empowerment. For the managers, this had led to an increasing emphasis being placed on project and teamwork, communications, customer awareness, auditing and quality procedures. Managers are being asked to facilitate events rather than lead; share responsibility and accountability rather than shoulder the burden; develop and administer participative planning and control system. The manager of the 21st century is busy; they face challenging operating environments; multiple tasks and cross-functional responsibilities. They are increasingly encouraged to empower others and facilitate success.
Change Management:
By John Kotter, Daryl Conner, Linda Ackerman Anderson, and Jeff Hiatt “Change Management is a set of principles, techniques and prescriptions applied to the human aspects of executing major change initiatives in organizational settings.”Change Management provides a competitive advantage, allowing organizations to quickly and effective implement change to meet market needs.
By Prosci’s “Change Management is the application of a structured process and set of tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome.” Change Management emphasizes the “people side” of change and targets leadership within all levels of an organization including executives, senior leaders, middle managers, and line supervisors. When Change Management is done well, people feel engaged in the change process and work collectively towards a common objective, realizing benefits and delivering results. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to Change Management. All organizations, however share the need to address the complexity of how change impacts people.
Strategy:
In Management concept of the strategy in1962 “Strategy is the determination of the basic long term goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of the course of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals”.
By Professors of Harvard Business School (Andrews, one of them) has defined strategy as “Strategy is the pattern of objectives, purpose or goals and major policies and plans for achieving these goals, stated in such a way, so as to define what business the company is in or is to be and the kind of company it is or is to be”. Formulating strategy is becoming a much more pragmatic affair that it was in the heady days of ivory tower corporate planning departments. As one cynic says: “Whatever you hit you call your strategy”. The responsibility for strategic change is becoming more and more diffused through the organization, ‘bottom-up’ as well as ‘top-down’. To be competitive, companies need to be world class. However no organisation can be world class in all its activities. This is where a company has to identify the activities it can perform to world class standards in terms of its core capabilities. Those that do not underlie its core capabilities, have to be outsourced. A company’s activities can be classified into 4 categories:
§ Unit of Competitive Advantage (UCA) works that creates distinctiveness for the business in the market place.
§ Value-added support work that facilitates UCA work.
§ Essential support work that has to be done.
§ Non-essential support work that can be outsourced though it is still performed in-house due to tradition.
Change Management Policies: Policies that support change management include:
ü Creating a culture of change management across the IT organization
ü Aligning the service change management process with business, project and business/organization change management process
ü Prioritisation of changes
ü Establishing accountability/responsibilities for changes through the service lifecycle
ü Establishing a single focal point for changes to minimize conflicting changes and potential disruption
ü Preventing anyone who is not authorized to make changes from having access to the production environment
ü Establishing change windows
ü Performance and risk evaluation of all changes
ü Performance measures for the process
Research Methodology: For perusing any research there should be a proper research methodology. A detailed plan of the research methodology is provided below:-
A Research Problem: The research Problem of the study is: “The Impact of Change Management Strategies in Organizational Commitment & Business Efficacy in Rajasthan”.
B Objectives of the study:
The main objectives of the study are to measure the value of Change Management Strategic Practices In the corporate culture. However the specific objectives are as follows:
1. To study the value of change management strategies on different parameters of organization.
2. To find out relation between these parameters and their impact on change management.
3. To determine the change management efficiency quotient.
Sample: A sample of 15 units operating within the industrial areas of Rajasthan namely was considered as target population.
Limitations of the study: Every research conducted has certain limitations. The limitations of this study are as follows:
1. Although 15 companies are being taken in to consideration, still data collected is about the present number of employees working in organization. There is no information of past employees.
2. The study being corporate sector or company specific cannot be generalized.
Measurement of Strategic Change Management Practices: Organizational Change is a complex process; it is much more complex than human behaviour. Therefore, there can not be one specified solution to managing change. A change technique that works in one organization may not work and even fail in another organization within the same culture/country, not to speak of across diverse cultures and countries. Organizations differ in many ways-in their work culture, management and leadership styles, structure and design, resources, technology, work processes and techniques, employees and their expectations, the customers that they serve (and their own expectations of them), and the complexity of the business environment, in which they operate. Any intended change, to be implemented effectively, should be congruent with this dynamism, complexity and uniqueness of an organization.
Table no.1 Strategic Change management: In this section the following topics have been covered:
Serial No. / Statement / Agreement with the StatementsLow / Moderate / High
1 / The change management concept as the most important for overall organization’s objectives, mission and strategies. / 0 / 10 / 90
2 / Strategic CM is engaging employee to drive business results. / 3.33 / 20 / 77
3 / You believe that companies work with best skilled HR & market leaders / 3.33 / 13.3 / 83
4 / SCM includes demographic variables, personality traits, intuitive abilities and innovative abilities to development performance and rewards align with companies’ business strategies and objectives. / 0 / 3.33 / 97
5 / SCM practice can result in a competitive advantage for the company in market place. / 0 / 36.7 / 63
6 / CM is a systematic tool to improve jobs and abilities. / 3.33 / 6.67 / 90
Source: Data compiled from questionnaire
Comments:
1) 90% respondents were highly agreed that change management concept as the most important for overall organization’s objectives, mission and strategies.
2) 76.67% respondents were accepted highly that strategic change management is engaging employee to drive business results positively. While as 20% respondents were moderately agreed and 3.33% respondents were low agreed.
3) 83.33% respondents were favored that companies work with best skilled HR and market leaders. While as 13.33% respondents were moderately agreed and 3.33% were low agreed with the statement.
4) 96.67% respondents were agreed that strategic change management includes demographic variables, personality traits, intuitive abilities and innovative abilities to development of performance and rewards, align with company’s business strategies and objectives.
5) 63.33% respondents were highly agreed that strategic change management practice can result in a competitive advantage for the company in the market place. And 36.67% respondents were moderately agreed with this statement.
6) 90% respondents were highly favored with the statement that change management is a systematic tool to improve jobs and abilities. And 6.67% respondents were moderately agreed with the statement while 3.33% respondents were low agreed that only change management is a systematic tool to improve jobs and abilities.
Table no.2 Change Management Tool and Techniques: In this section the following topics have been covered:
Serial No. / Statement / Agreement with the statementLow / Moderate / High
1 / Employee’s demographic variables are important as it has impact on OD and work culture. / 0.00 / 3.33 / 96.67
2 / Gender constitutes a major issue to the survival and development of the organizations. / 36.67 / 20.00 / 43.33
3 / Openness to diversity is an important dimension of the corporate culture to knowledge sharing and cooperation within the firm. / 3.33 / 6.67 / 90.00
4 / Age and occupation also influences employee attitudes and behaviour towards affirmative action policies. / 6.67 / 0.00 / 93.33
5 / Employee experience and employment sectors impact on productivity and quality of output / 0.00 / 3.33 / 96.67
6 / Employee’s personality traits are important as it has impact on OD and work culture. / 36.67 / 20.00 / 43.33
Source: Data compiled from questionnaire
Comments:
1) 96.67% respondents were highly favored with the statement that employee’s demographic variables are important as it has impact on organizational development and work culture.
2) 43.33% respondents were highly agreed, 20% were moderately agreed and 36.67% were low agreed that Gender constitutes a major issue to the survival and development of the organizations.
3) 90% respondents were highly favored with the statement that Openness to diversity is an important dimension of the corporate culture to knowledge sharing and cooperation within the firm.