Organizational development is often associated with incremental and planned organizational and personal changes by using behavioural and social knowledge which increases the effectiveness of an organization. Change has become a challenge for top management in organizations to cope with (Anderson, 2012). In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing my observations about organizational change and development. in addition, changes within organizational change and its development, how to manage these organizational changes, future implications of the study, the improvement required in learning this concept, ways and means to overcome difficulties in developing knowledge and skills with respect to organizational change and development. Finally, how this can help my current or future employers.
After going through the whole unit in the class, I made an observation that financial crisis in recent times, globalization, desire for new trends in management and environmental challenges has encouraged employees working in organizations to become actively involved in organizational change and development. There are different level and types of changes involved in organizational change and development. These involve personal to strategic level changes within the organizations (Ijaz and Vitalis, 2011). After going through the historical background of this term ‘organizational development’, I have come to know about the issues and confusion related with the development of this term. The historical background have put some light on how this term began from laboratory training to formation of training groups. Many research have been conducted by scientists to apply those on change management, debate about the staff involvement in change management through participative management, alignment with work life’s quality and recent practice of organizational transformation (Waddel, Cummings and Worley, 2011).
During the course, we have learned few theories on planned change. From these, I have found Lewin’s change model of unfreeze, change and refreeze to be hypothetical footing upon which theory of change can be built firmly. Lewin presented three-step change model. According to him, behaviour act as a vibrant balance of forces working in opposite directions. The process begins with the recognition of change required and overcoming the opposition that can be faced. In the second stage, organization’s structure, technology, people are transformed according to the required change. In the last stage, results are assessed, and required modifications are carried out to stabilize a change in the system (Kritsonis, 2005). The leadership style of the management is an important factor that can impact the life of people working in an organization. Transformational leadership style is equally inspiring and attractive association between the leaders and their followers. Employees tend to be happier working in management which possess transformational leadership traits (Krishnan, 2012).
We are living in the information age where organizations are challenged with a need to change quite often. Organizations must adjust according to the changes in which they want to be successful. Organizations are taking different actions like downsizing, structural changes, using latest technology and going global under pressure from need to change. Before studying this unit, I did not have a clear view about organizational change and development. For me, organizational change meant change in strategy by the management due to external forces. However after going through the whole course, my ideas about organizational change and development have changed. I think, businesses are required to formulate management style and culture which can enable them to handle challenges. The most important part is to be played by the top leadership of the organizations because it is up to them to decide the nature of changes required in the organizations. The willingness of organizations to change is a complex paradigm. In an organization, willingness to change depends upon members of organizations’ determination and collective beliefs to change the implementation. Organizational eagerness to change differ with respect to how many members of the organization value change. When willingness to change is high in the organizations, management personnel are more motivated to initiate change, cooperate with each other and display great diligence and effort (Weiner, 2009). I also had a view that organizational change development in purely an internal matter of the company and no external parties are involved in this process. But after study of this unit, I have come to know that organizations do take help of organizational change development contractors if they lack expertise in house.
We have discussed few models of managing organizational changes. I have discussed Lewin’s model in the preceding paragraph. The other models which we have discussed in the class include actions research model, a general model and a positive model. In all these models, the process of managing change in the organization has been discussed. The capability to cope with change is regarded as an essential organizational competency. Every model suggests itself to be the best way of managing change. Organization has to choose between different choices. Either left behind from its competition by rejecting change or accept change as a natural procedure of conducting business. Changes occur in the external environment at a greater pace than organizational changes. It remains difficult for organizations to make sure that they remain in line with environment external effects. We have discussed different tools like PESTEL framework, Gap analysis, McKinsey 7-s framework, etc. which can help organizations to study and diagnose changes in the environment. However, what I have learnt after analysis of this course is that there is no one best of managing a change in an organization. It all depends upon the choices and obstacles which the organizations face to bring about a change. The organizations at first should look to focus on intrusions like culture, strategy, human resource or technological issues that can hinder change. After that, set of choices can enable organizations to select one best way or mixture of different models to manage change within its boundaries (Burnes, 1996).
This unit of organizational change development has its implication for me in the near future. Organizational change development is the need of time. This course would help me a lot in my future studies as well as in practical life while on the job or doing a business. It has opened new ways to pursue my careers in the near future like as a change consultant for an organization or as a teacher. The study of this course has helped me to be mentally prepared for abrupt changes in life ahead. On the job, I can contribute in a much better manner for my organization to manage change. In this way, I can fulfil both organizational and personal accomplishments at the same time.
The field of organizational change and development needs more research to be conducted in key issue areas. There has not been much studies conducted on issues like investigation of various contexts and stages of analysis in organizational change studies, presence of actions, history, time and processes, the connection between process of change and outcomes of organizational performances, exploration of cross cultured and international relationships in research of organizational change, the relationship between researchers and practitioners of organizational change and analysis of continuous process of change against receptive, customize, episodic processes. I would like to be involved in studying these underline issues in the field of organizational change development in order to further polish my skills. For that reason, I will get in touch with my course instructor and other well-known researchers to help me out in this regard (Pettigrew, Woodman and Cameron, 2001).
In order to become an expert in the field of organizational change development, I would be opting for action learning process of learning. Action learning process is the best one to pursue when focus is on serious problems whose resolution is very important for an organization or an individual. Outcomes of an organizational change development process cannot be predicted before implementing change (Freedman, 2011). Therefore, I would be pursuing it in order to develop my knowledge and skills. Apart from that, I will be opting for different types of training and development short courses available in order become more proficient in this field. I believe that all these steps would actually benefit me to carry change implementation process while working for an organization in the near future. Development of knowledge and skills would benefit my organization in monetary term too because it would save the cost of hiring an external contractor.
References:
Anderson, D. L. (2012). Organizational Development: The Process of Leading Organizational Change. London: SAGE Publications.
Burnes, B. (1996). No such thing as a “one best way” to manage organizational change. Management Decision, p.11-18.
Freedman, A. M. (2011). Using Action Learning for Organization Development and Change. OD Practitioner, p.7-13.
Ijaz, S., & Vitalis, A. (2011). Resistance to Organizational Change: Putting the Jigsaw Together. International Review of Business Research Papers, p. 112-121.
Krishnan, V. R. (2012). Transformational leadership and personal outcomes: empowerment as mediator. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, p. 550-563.
Kritsonis, A. (2005). Comparison of Change Theories. International Journal of Management , Business and Administration , p.1-7.
Pettigrew, A. M., Woodman, R. W., & Cameron, K. S. (2001). Studying Organizational Change and Development: Challenges and Future Research. Academy of Management Journal, p. 697-713.
Waddel, D. M., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2011). Organizational Change, Development and Transformation. Melbourne: CENGAGE Learning.
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A Theory of Organizational Readiness for Change. Implementation Science, p. 1-9.
