CHANGES IN NATURE

Changes Related to People

            Personnel Change

Sometimes people changes are a direct result of other organizational changes.  At other times, companies simply seek to change worker’s attitudes and behaviors in order to increase their effectiveness.  Bateman and Zeithaml suggest that attempting a strategic change, introducing a new technology, and other changes in the work environment may affect people’s attitudes (sometimes in a negative way).  Frequently, management initiates programs with a conscious goal of directly and positively changing the people themselves.  The science of organization development deals with changing people.  This may be through on the job through techniques such as education and training, team building, and career planning.
           
                Culture Change

Culture change within an organization aims at changing the behavior patterns of the organization’s employees.  Some examples of culture change include reward-and-recognition programs, employee empowerment, and training.  These programs attempt to improve motivation, improve decision-making skills, and increase sensitivity to diversity issues.

        People-centered Change

People-centered process changes attempt to alter the attitudes, behaviors, skills, or performance of employees within an organization.  Communication, employee motivation, leadership, and group interaction are some primary focuses of people-centered change.  This type of change may affect the employees and their behaviors in many areas.  Some examples are improved problem-solving skills, the way employees learn new skills, and how employees perceive themselves, their jobs, and the organization.

            Social Change

“Social change refers to the modification of established relationships in the organization.  Social change encompasses the large set of goals that organizations establish around people.  This includes an empowered workforce, collaborative work arrangements, and matching personal fulfillment to organizational needs.”

   

 Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management intends to create processes that will build customer loyalty to the organization, which increases profits.  Customer relationships can be increased through marketing, employee professional development, or and improved customer service.

 Changes Related to Organizations

            Leadership Change

Leadership transitions are critical moments.  Transitions in leadership offer an opportunity to make changes in many areas of the organization.  The situation is fluid or, in Lewin’s framework of organizational change, ‘unfrozen.’  “The transition is an occasion to rethink the commitment to the present agenda, to reflect on roads not taken in the past, and to review        

Structural Change

Changes within an organization’s structure can occur due to external influences.  Structural changes may involve structural characteristics, administrative procedures, or management systems.  They may involve simple policy changes or be as complex as a complete restructuring of the management hierarchy.

future choices.  Many significant changes – in policy, people, organizational structure, procedures – are more easily introduced simultaneously with a leadership change

Reengineering

Change centered on reengineering focuses on making major structural change to the organization.  Implementations of these changes typically focus on everyday tasks or procedures.  The goal is to substantially improve productivity, efficiency, quality, or customer satisfaction.

            Incremental Organizational Change

“Incremental change is a step-by-step approach to re-designing an organization.”  Each small increment that is changed produces changes in other parts of the organization.  By changing specific processes or details in portions, the entire organization changes over time.

             Fundamental Organizational Change

When major organizational changes are necessary and time constraints are a significant factor, a more radical transformation becomes essential.  Fundamental organizational change focuses on changing major characteristics of the entire organization rather than specific parts.

   

        Divestiture

Business divestiture means that a firm disposes a significant part of its assets.  This may result in the sell-off or dissolution of whole business units, or divisions.  ‘Tactical’ divestors and ‘distress’ divestors appear to focus directly on the short-term.  In contrast, the ‘strategic’ divestors appear to take a broader view triggering a reevaluation of the organizational strategy.

            Rules Change

“We live in a world of ever-increasing change.  Instant communications, global web connectivity, email, cell phones, and other tools have increased the pace of our lives dramatically.  Despite these changes, we typically adjust to new circumstances without changing the basic way we conduct our business.  We assume that the rules of our business have not fundamentally changed - we just have to "work smarter" to keep up.

That may not always be the case.  Sometimes the basic rules of the game shift.  No one announces the shift.  Some people and companies simply start to work with it and begin to achieve new levels of success.  This phenomenon is known as a "paradigm shift.”  Many people use the term loosely - but very few actually understand it until it becomes the brick wall that stands in the way of progress.

Not all rule changes are based on technology.  A current economic paradigm shift is the movement of production to off-shore providers.”