Change Essay, Research Paper
Change is an essential requirement for organizational health. Without adequate
adaptation to potential future situations, no organization can optimize its future performance and achieve success. Changes are necessary in all systems, processes,
methods and individuals, especially in top management and middle management.
All employees play significant roles in transformations and other enabling
activities. Each change process is unique to an organization and its
special circumstances. Although there are many general frameworks for any
development activity, these most likely have to be modified and tailored to
meet specific situational requirements. This is to ensure both the optimal
development effort with desired return on their “change investment” and
adequate assurances to maximize gains from any future opportunities. If
special future business, technological, management and operational
requirements are identified and used, while designing reward and punishment
systems for optimal transitions, the successful completion of any future
business endeavors may be more easily achieved.
Environmental changes are affecting all levels of an organization.
Depending on an event and variables involved, the nature of required system
modifications often varies. Methods, instructions, forms and some
procedures may change very frequently, while some structural elements, main
processes such as a design and development process, management review
systems and other main sub-systems remain constant for longer time periods
due to significant capital investments in these processes. Changes can be
initiated through various information channels: quality audits, design
reviews, employee initiatives, management reviews, corrective and
preventive action processes and any other process where specific
improvement can be obtained. Quality system designers have to pay special
attention to the development of proper and effective escalation processes
for ineffective activity items. Occasionally some specific actions may not
result in immediate and perceivable improvements, but in the long run they
may influence other activities and initiatives positively. No change is
ever a failure. Your quality system and its key resources have to be ready
to maneuver in a flexible manner at any time, when your market observation
system with its weak signal mechanisms sends a signal for either corrective
and preventive actions.
How can an organization be changed? There are many different ways to
evaluate, design, initiate, implement, verify, follow-up and maintain a
required transition. Quality in your change processes is highly important
to prevent the loss of resources including human and information assets and
to maximize an overall effectiveness of changed processes to achieve
desired results. It is recommended to maintain a listing of all change
activities with assigned priorities. Each item should be perceived as a
project with specific allocated resources (information, human, finances,
material), timelines and objectives. In addition, often it is very
beneficial to identify any interrelations between change projects and use
project-mapping techniques to analyze a big picture of the whole
organizational transition. This can also be very helpful, when designing
and initiating any new projects. Training is an effective tool during all
phases of the process and organizational development. However, it should be
integrated into an overall strategic and tactical communication plan as one
tool of many communication tools and techniques to lead, facilitate and
manage change processes. One of the first things that you should train
within your system is the understanding and acceptance of “an on-going
and continuous change”. Every person affecting quality in products should
expect changes in the future and be willing to support these projects with
his or her actions.
To move you and your management systems from a position A to a position B,
a complete management commitment is needed. This should be expressed in
management policies and supported with actions, clear communications and
necessary reward / punishment systems. Resource allocations to change
processes is essential, which is one of the best measures also to
understand the level of the management commitment in an organizational
change. A company and its management is the key and should understand their
significant role. If you have a problem in this area, there are some
options how you can improve your system capabilities. Often this issue may
be caused by the lack of the system knowledge, but sometimes also by
individuals’ pure ignorance. When the executive management commits
resources to develop a system, resources are also automatically committed
to change the system. No system – yours, mine, your suppliers, customers or
competitors – is ever perfect and one should never assume this attitude.
The attitude of continuous changes should be adopted and accepted as a part
of our daily organizational life.