Virtually every organization will, at some point, undergo a transition or change in order to remain viable and scale. Whether onboarding new employees, growing a department, or merging with another company, these changes can have a significant impact on the trajectory of your business.
Unfortunately, organizational change isn’t always easy to adapt to and can be intimidating for all team members who find themselves impacted by it.
As a manager tasked with overseeing organizational change or guiding your employees through it, it’s important to know what the process looks like and what to expect. Change, although challenging, can be a major opportunity for growth and career advancement, so long as you know how to approach it.
Here’s a look at what organizational change management is and some tips for navigating it.
What is Organizational Change Management?
Organizational change refers to the actions in which a company or business alters a major component of its organization, such as its culture, the underlying technologies or infrastructure it uses to operate, or its internal processes. Organizational change management is the method of leveraging change to bring about a successful resolution, and it typically includes three major phases: Preparation, implementation, and follow-through.
What Causes Organizational Change?
Many factors make organizational change necessary. Some of the most common faced by managers include:
- New leadership at the helm of the company or within its departments
- Shifts in the organizational team structure
- The implementation of new technology
- The adoption of new business models
Types of Organizational Change
Organizational change is a broad term. Some change is sweeping: A substantial evolution in the direction of a company. Other shifts are less dramatic, focusing instead on a small aspect of a firm.
It can be helpful to think of change as a spectrum. On one end, you’ll find adaptive change, which speaks to those modest iterations. On the other, there’s transformational change, in which vast change is pursued.
Adaptive changes are small, incremental changes organizations adopt to address needs that evolve over time. Typically, these changes are minor modifications and adjustments that managers fine-tune and implement to execute upon business strategies. Throughout the process, leadership may add, subtract, or refine processes.
One example of an adaptive change is an organization that upgrades their computer operating systems from Windows 8 to Windows 10.
Transformational changes have a larger scale and scope than adaptive changes. They can often involve a simultaneous shift in mission and strategy, company or team structure, people and organizational performance, or business processes. Because of their scale, these changes often take a substantial amount of time and energy to enact. Though it's not always the case, transformational changes are often pursued in response to external forces, such as the emergence of a disruptive new competitor or issues impacting a company’s supply chain.
An example of a transformational change is the adoption of a customer relationship management software (CRM), which all departments are expected to learn and employ.
Many changes will fall somewhere between adaptive and transformational on the spectrum. For this reason, managers need to understand that the change process must be tailored to the unique challenges and demands of each situation.
Why Is Organizational Change Management Important?
Organizational change is necessary for companies to succeed and grow. Change management drives the successful adoption and usage of change within the business. It allows employees to understand and commit to the shift and work effectively during it.
Without effective organizational change management, company transitions can be rocky and expensive in terms of both time and resources. They can also result in lower employee morale and competent skill development. Ultimately, a lack of effective change management can lead the organization to fail.
A Manager’s Role in Organizational Change
Within an organization, every employee has a different role in assisting with change. While many staff members may complete heavily detailed work, senior-level executives with longer tenure might have different goals. Even within management, leaders and managers perform different tasks.
Leaders, for example, have to be courageous by taking on risks. They need to look at the big picture and articulate high-level change to the company, explain why it’s occurring, and motivate people to support the transition. To be successful as a leader, you must be insightful and know who to put in charge of carrying out change processes.
Managers are more concentrated on making business transitions successful. They focus on implementing change by determining the discrete steps that need to happen and their sequence. Managers are also typically responsible for allocating resources, such as personnel, and determining how success is measured. Ideally, leaders will also be managers, but it’s the primary responsibility of a manager to know how to design, direct, and shape change processes.
To achieve this, managers must have a wide array of skills, such as:
Preparing for Organizational Change
To prepare for organizational change, it’s essential to first define the organizational change, understand why it’s critical, and garner support from your colleagues.
Then, create a roadmap that clearly articulates and measures success, and explains how the business—and its employees, customers, and constituencies—will be affected.
Ensure the process plan aligns with business goals and outlines the implementation and sustainability of the organizational change. Note what challenges may arise and be flexible enough to adjust accordingly. Be sure to celebrate small victories along the way.
Change management doesn’t stop once you’ve successfully executed the transition. Both throughout and following the process, you need to continuously assess outcomes, measure data, train employees on new methodologies and business practices, and readjust goals as necessary.
Developing the Skills You Need to Manage Organizational Change
Many managers experience organizational change throughout their careers. By learning how to preempt and address the challenges associated with change, you can ensure you’re equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to manage it.
If you’re looking for opportunities to improve your organizational change management abilities, enrolling in an online management course, like Management Essentials, is one option that can provide you with real-world skills, teach you common business strategies, and prepare you to handle any transitional challenge that comes your way.
Do you want to become a more effective leader and manager? Download our free leadership and management e-book to find out how. Also, explore our online courses Leadership Principles and Management Essentials to learn how you can take charge of your professional development and accelerate your career.
Cards Return to Set Details
Term The assumption underlying the use of survey feedback in OD is | | Definition surveys can provide feedback to the organization and be used to initiate change | |
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Term All OD practitioners fully prescribe to traditional OD values, and have extensive training and experience in the social and political aspects of interventions | | Definition |
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Term As the QWL movement evolved, it fostered a new phase of activities known as | | Definition |
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Term With the development of new and varied intervention approaches, the role of the OD professional needs to be seen as being along the entire continuum from client-centered to consultant-centered. | | Definition |
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Term Which of the following is not a "core" skill of an OD practitioner? | | Definition financial management skills | |
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Term The research about the skills/knowledge of an effective OD practitioner is increasing. | | Definition |
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Term Organization development distinguishes itself from organization change and change management by which of the following characteristics? | | Definition focusing on the transfer of knowledge and skills to help the system manage future change | |
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Term OD was developed for use primarily in business and industrial organizations. | | Definition |
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Term One of the original strategic change interventions was Open Systems Planning developed by Richard Beckhard. | | Definition |
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Term By nature of the "open systems" model, organizations are largely unaffected by external forces. | | Definition |
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Term Which of the following is not a step in the contracting process | | Definition determining the change project | |
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Term The burden of responsibility for selecting an OD consultant lies entirely with | | Definition both the client organization and the consultant | |
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Term The task environment consists of individuals and organizations that interact directly with the organization. | | Definition |
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Term An individual job is constructed to perform functions that will indirectly impact group functioning. | | Definition |
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Term Quality of work life at the group level is an | | Definition |
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Term Work groups are prevalent in all sizes and types of organizations. | | Definition |
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Term Job design should be congruent with the larger organization. | | Definition |
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Term A correlation coefficient clearly establishes cause and effect between two variables. | | Definition |
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Term Quantitative measures of one group's behavior can be useful even without a comparison group. | | Definition |
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Term Questionnaires allow the consultant flexibility in data gathering since they typically do not have fixed response categories. | | Definition |
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Term A key objective of the feedback process is to be sure the client has | | Definition |
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Term Which of the following is a "strategic" issue that might affect an intervention? | | Definition |
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Term Which of the following best describes technostructural interventions? | | Definition changing job design and division of labor | |
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Term "Human Resources Issues" refers to | | Definition the personnel practices of the organization | |
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Term Which of the following is not a type of OD intervention outlined in this text? | | Definition |
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Term Interventions combined with survey feedback is a trend in OD. | | Definition |
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Term The need to tailor interventions suggests that applications of the same intervention are often identical. | | Definition |
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Term Which is not an intervention characteristic that affects institutionalization? | | Definition |
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Term Evaluation in OD provides information to | | Definition assess the long-term results of OD interventions | |
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Term Socialization is the most important institutionalization process. | | Definition |
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Term A vision is driven by people's values and preferences. | | Definition |
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Term Testing the internal consistency of the questions in a survey is a measure of its | | Definition |
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Term In assessing the internal validity of an intervention, we | | Definition try to determine if certain changes cause certain outcomes | |
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Term Politics has no place in a change process. | | Definition |
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Term he science of reducing organization risk and managing an actual incident is well established. | | Definition |
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Term In recent decades, new factors have | | Definition highlighted the importance of effective crisis management | |
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Term In times of organizational crisis, stakeholders expect managers to | | Definition remain calm and make credible judgments in a timely manner | |
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Term Who should be involved in crisis management strategies? | | Definition All departments that touch the public | |
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Term Many successful, major corporations have survived both small and large corporate crises because their senior management team was geographically dispersed. | | Definition |
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Term The growth of the Internet and cable TV means that stakeholders | | Definition may have more information about an ongoing crisis than the company itself | |
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Term Crisis management is impacted by the rapid pace of today's business environment and the scrutiny of the media. | | Definition |
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Term Which of the following is NOT a building block question of effective communication for managers? | | Definition How can our organization provide occasional updates? | |
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Term A press kit is one of the most commonly used tools of public relations. | | Definition |
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