Change Management Change as a dynamic process

The adopted approaches in the development of change process

The elements of the change management models

The Measurement Constructs Tool

Components of the constructs tool

Guidelines for the Questions asked

This paper discusses the concept of change management using various parameters. It does this through a development of personal management theory. The change management model is used to provide change management agents with a model that is both structured and measurable for the process of managing as well as evaluating the process of change. The developed tools are to be used as measurement constructs to be used for evaluating the process of change. The main argument is that there are certain fundamental variables that contribute to a successful implementation of the process of change. The variables to be used do include important success factors of the process of change, issues of communication and change dynamics that do include acceptance and resistance of change. Also included are the variables that are related to process of managing the process of implementation and evaluating the various stages of the process of change.

Introduction

The various theories that exist to be used for explaining the nature of change do include the major components of process of change as well as the methods of introducing change itself as pointed out by Carnell (1995).In the current change management literature, there is a lot of debate on the main factors that do contribute to a successfully implemented change process. There are however different views on how the change itself can be achieved.

Change as a dynamic process

The contemporary business scenario is filled with situation s that demand change to various organizations. The process of change that is adopted as a result of the competition that takes place between the driving as well as the restraining forces is very present in most pieces of literature as pointed out by Lewin (1951) who also postulated that the change process comprises of both driving as well as restraining forces. It is therefore important for the change agent to ensure that they carefully identify and manage the change forces as well as manage them. That therefore makes it possible to for the forces driving change to fully take effect (Kanter,1995).

Dynamics of change

The change dynamics do include the process of acquiring the understanding of all the realities that surround change. However, the reality on the ground is that change is usually introduced without the regard of the different realities of the needs of individual practitioners, areas of expertise and change agents who may have a complete lack of attention of the most likely consequences of the process of change on other people's lives (Kotter & Schlesinger,1979)..

It is worth pointing out that change itself does not cause a problem. The problem is however caused by the transition from pre-change toward the achievement of the post-change status.

The process of transition involves the psychological process that individuals undergo so as to fully come in terms with the elements of a new process as indicated by Broome (1990). This outlook goes ahead to characterize the complex nature of change and to permit a perfect insight into the difficulties that are encountered in the management of change. Change is a must in all forms of organization. The process is however faster and more complicated than ever before as pointed out by Mannion (1994). It is therefore important to understand that we may never accept change always but just learn how to manage it. This has therefore made it completely mandatory for various managers to ensure that they become aware of the process of change management managers (Zukowski,1995 and Pryjmachuk,1996). It had been suggested by Poggenpoel (1992) that change can lead to certain beneficial changes such as innovation, provision of a lot of opportunities for the betterment of corporations. Several factors have been noted to cause a resistance to change. These could be anxiety, feeling of total loss of control and uncertainty (McPhail,1997). It is critical to note that the major reason for the resistance of change is self-interest as well as a total lack of understanding of the ongoing or proposed change. The opponents of change therefore want the status quo to reign (Cutcliffe,1997).

The application of the change management model

The change management models to be developed must have within them the basic make up of ideas, knowledge, beliefs as well as other tangible components. The model should be able to provide the basic direction of practice, activity and work. It should also be used...

In order for the model to be used a s a guide for the process of change, it must have consistency in terms of approach and should act as a direct guide for making sense of the process of change (Pearson et al.,1996).
The need of reflecting on practice while developing the model

Due to the general lack of clarity, in the pieces of work in relation to the various definitions of the process of reflection, there are differences in the primary interpretation as a result of reflections to the process of change. The need of reflection is pointed out by Schon (1983) that makes the distinction between the process of reflection that takes place in the process of practice as well as reflection.

The initial stage in the reflection process is described by Schon (1983) to include the process of thought exploration as well as the exploration of feelings that are related to that change scenario that took place recently. Reflecting can therefore be effectively be used to integrate both theory and practice as pointed out by Osterman (1990) and Jarvis (1992).

The adopted approaches in the development of change process

The critical incident approach

This is the focus group approach that is critical to the incident analysis is used in various scenarios. The work of Smith & Russell (1991) supports the process of group exercises in order to discuss and to solve the various organizational as well as procedural challenges.

The main assumption of change as pointed out by Fulan (1991) are

1. Never assume that your version of change is the one that must be implemented.

2. It should be assumed that any important innovation, if supposed to result in change does require the implementer to work out their own meanings.

3. It is worthwhile to assume that individuals do need pressure in order to change. This is true even if the change is for their own benefit.

4. It is important to note that effective change does take time

5.Never assume that the reason behind the rejection of change is the lack of interest in the embodied values. Always assume the existence of other reasons

6. Never expect all or most of the people and groups to change as a result of the complexity of change.

The elements of the change management models

The model of change management under development makes sense of five main building blocks which are identified as being critical of the process of successful change management. The main components of the model are:

Acceptance as well as resistance to the process of change.

The implementation of the change process

The communication process

The evaluation process

Each of these components is made up of a total of seven fundamental variables that can be described as being main ingredients of the change process. In order to develop the model, we make use of a special tool as for construct. This is for providing an objective measurement of the given model's components. There are certain key words and sentences which are to score on a scale running from 0 to 4. The score key is to be used in the evaluation of the effectiveness of a given model.

The components

The critical factors of success for the change process-component 1

The critical success of any change is effectively determined using a number of crucial success factors. These factors must be managed well in order to ensure that there is success. It is important to concentrate on the key factors of success. The key factors of success are put in place in order for success to be achieved. The success factors that must be adhered to by the management for change to take place successfully are: the levels of commitment among the management and staff who are directly and indirectly involved in the process of change; the level of motivation that is present; the use of judgment (professional) in the process of making decision; the level of understanding that exists for the need for organizational change as demonstrated by the staff; the communication skills that can be identified and the recognition of the reasons for having a high quality of outcome as a result of change.

The communication process

This is the second components of the change model. The main variables are education, importance of consultation, the participation model and the need of staff. The process of decision making should be democratic in order to aid in the management of change process.

The acceptance and resistance to the process of change

This is the third model of change and is made up of the following key variables: the…