Introduction
“Change management is a critical aspect of business growth and development” (Hayes, 2007). Organizations that seek success must embrace changes within their culture and operational models to achieve success. “Organizational change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization.” Hayes (2007) further illustrates, that “typically the objective is to maximize the collective benefits for all people involved in the change and minimize the risk of failure of implementing the change.”
The purpose of this research paper is to succinctly present the drivers of change within Diamond Plast Ltd where I served as an intern for two years. Towards this, various change drivers that necessitated the change within Diamond Plast Ltd will be presented and conclusions on the positive or negative impacts of the changes will be dissected concerning the research paper.
Industry evolution
Evolution normally comes up with a new way of doing things. In this regard, Diamond Plast Ltd adopted internal changes that were in line with the evolution within the banking industry. The adoption of the new technologies within the banking industries necessitated the downsizing of the staff.
Business Cycle
According to Mullineux (1984) “economic growth and development is an integral part of healthy economy. The analysis of economy’s health requires the use of economic indicators.” Economic indicators are classified into different categories. This classification helps in the analysis of the economy in terms of the business cycle. The business cycle called for a change in the operation of Diamond Plast Ltd In this case, the business cycle will compel Diamond Plast Ltd to adopt the change to cope with the prevailing economic condition in the market. For instance, recession in an economy in the latter part of this decade compelled the company to cut the allowances of its executives and other privileges in reforms aimed at surviving in the tough economic situation.
Competitive Structure
Competition is a great incentive to change in an organization. In this case, competition in the banking industry has reached a point referred to as the cutthroat level. The need and demand for sweeping organizational change to remain competitive in the market is part of a larger change process within the company. In the analysis of this level of competition, Diamond Plast Ltd has no option but to embrace internal changes in its customer relations to stay competitive. Such changes I had a chance to witness included the identification of its clients by name to enhance a personal relationship with the bank. Rules and procedures
Rules and procedure not only govern the operation of companies and organization in the industry but also defines what is required for a given company to be registered. These rules and procedures are changed often and it is therefore prudent for an organization to be ready to embrace change to conform to rules and regulations.
Global Economic Situation
The economic situation is always a change driver (Burnes, 2009). For instance, a global credit crunch may drive an organization to adopt change which not only makes effective but also cuts on expenses to ensure that it makes a profit. These strategies may include downsizing.
Market Needs
Market demand is one of the change drivers in an organization. Companies and organizations normally respond to the requirement of the market. Towards this, change is inevitable to ensure that the company remains viable in the market.
Change restrainers
Employee bad attitude towards change
A bad attitude towards change is a restrainer to the change process in an organization (Deszca & Cawsey, 2007). This calls for education among the employees to equip them with a good attitude towards change in an organization.
The Force-Field Diagram indicates the change strategy within Diamond Plast Ltd.
Change Typology within Diamond Plast Ltd
This refers to the kind of change and people in an organization. In this company, both incremental and transformational change typologies were adopted.
Incremental and Transformation change
Change process and type of change being adopted in an organization is very important and towards this, an organization may choose the either incremental or transformational type of change based on the desired objective of the organization.
Incremental change
This is where the change process is introduced in bits and incorporated into the origination. It is a very viable way of introducing change in an organization since it attracts less rejection. Diamond Plast Ltd adopted an incremental type f change in its change process in the bank. This was precipitated by the need to allow every employee to adapt to the change process within the operational models and culture of the Bank.
Transformational
This type of change normally overhauls the whole operation in an organization. It is good when an organization is adopting a completely different operational procedure in the company. In this regard, Diamond Plast Ltd opted to incorporate both incremental and transformational types of change in the banking system of their operation.
The Professional – According to Hayes (2007),
“Built a career on being good at what he does, can’t throw it all away, difficult to convince, especially if close to retirement and enjoying running the show subset – professional executive.” These people should be convinced patiently to embrace the changes process.
The Old School
The old school of organizational change in the context of Hayes explicitly describes a change process that takes with it the adoption of technological processes and innovative drivers for a change process that aims at complete success. “Had his moment of innovation in the past, introduced technology or associated with some other success, this process can sometimes spot the same pattern in new changes and be a solid ally.” Hayes (2007).
The Visionary
“Older visionary verges on obsession with the one idea that they have been pondering elaborating for years and seemingly best ally but often lets down on execution predictably but also surprisingly on flexibility and curiosity” (Bridges, 1991)
These kinds of people are quite easy to work within the adoption of change.
The Maverick – According to Cameron and Green (2004),
Holed up somewhere where he can do things his way, created a bubble where his ways are accepted or tolerated. Depending on the power available to him can be either a grouchy skeptic watching from the sidelines with little or no power or a true ally doing what he can executive position. The latter is a rare breed as not many companies have true mavericks in executive positions.
Employees of this type are fairly easy to work within the adoption of the change in an organization.
Appreciating change
Change is a vital process in an organization (Nilakant and Ramnarayan, 2006). In this everyone must be made aware not only of the change process but also of the benefits of the change. In this case, the employees will appreciate and find it easy to embrace change. In Diamond Plast Ltd, the management has put all the relevant strategies to ensure that all the employees of the bank appreciate change. These strategies include; education of everyone on the need and benefit of change in the bank and the use of change agents in the change implementation process.
Support for change / mobilizing
Change implementation requires a lot of support from everyone in the bank. To ensure that the change process is adequately mobilized and supported, the management of Diamond Plast Ltd came out aggressively in educating all the employees in their department on the need to embrace change in the operation of the bank.
Role and contribution of Management
Managing Director
The managing director is one of the chief change agents in Diamond Plast Ltd he organized leadership speeches that not only mobilize the employees towards change but also motivated the employee towards growth and development.
Senior executives
A senior executive of Diamond Plast Ltd was actively involved in the mobilization of all employees towards the need to embrace change in the bank.
Managers
Managers are important to change agents in Diamond Plast Ltd. This is because they make sure that all the employees in their department are well educated not only on the need for change in the bank but also the need to appreciate and embrace change in the bank.
Conclusion
Precipitating factors and drivers towards the change adoption within Diamond Plast Ltd have ensured that the company remained one of the largest banking service providers in the market. Changes aimed at enhancing more mutual and beneficial customer relations enabled the bank to not only retain but also attract a good fraction of new customers thereby increasing its customer base by more than 3%. While these changes brought the conflict of interest amongst employees and the management, the overall benefits overweigh the demerits.
References
Bridges, W. (1991). Managing the transition: machine, organism, flux and transformation, New York: ASME Press.
Burnes, B. (2009). Managing Change. MyStratLab Series, New York: Pearson Education.
Cameron, E. & Green, M. (2004). Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of organizational change. New York: Kogan Page.
Deszca, G. & Cawsey, T.F. (2007). Toolkit for organizational change, New York: Sage Publications.
Hayes, J. (2007). The Theory and Practice of Change Management, 2nd Ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mullineux, A.W. (1984). The business cycle after Keynes: a contemporary analysis. Rowman & Littlefield.
Nilakant, V. & Ramnarayan, S. (2006). Change Management: Altering Mindsets In A Global Context, New Delhi: Sage Publications.