Change Management

Change Management in Business

Author: Ian Burns
Lead Teacher Warehousing & Logistics
Wodonga Institute of TAFE

Change management is a challenging human resource issue for any manager. It is imperative for managers and those with leadership responsibilities to understand basic human psychology. Our attitudes, reactions, biases and our beliefs are all set during our formative years and are further enhanced by the socio-economic circumstances of our childhood and youth; by what psychologists commonly refer to as social conditioning. This means, as children we learn and adopt behaviours from our peers and our leaders, and this is where we develop our attitudes, about respect for others, dealing with authority, loyalty and commitment issues, personal confidence and our attitudes towards team work.

Modifying behaviours in the workforce requires the recognition of conditioning, and setting appropriate benchmarks within our business; including our leadership style, communication, monitoring and reinforcement techniques. If we leave it to chance or do not support our own standards, the results will be confusion, mixed messages and non-compliance. The old saying from Benjamin Franklin comes to mind: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. Planning is a critical action, but it is not enough on its own. It is the execution and reinforcement of the plan that will make the difference. Real change is only brought about by people becoming aware of the circumstances and consequences of their actions.

The starting point for developing the right attitudes in the workplace begins with the recruitment process, in hiring the right fit for the company culture. If you choose the right person at the beginning and train and support them well; the end result should be the production of a motivated, focussed worker that demonstrates the desired behaviours on a constant basis. Maslow shows us the Hierarchy of human needs, Blanchard tells us about Situational Leadership and Goleman introduces theories about Emotional Intelligences that include a large number of competencies that drive or influence our leadership performance. Our own Self awareness, Self regulation, Social Skills, Empathy and Motivation, heavily influence our ability to lead and influence others. A reasonable understanding of these theories and their practical application will enhance management’s abilities to drive success in their business.

Change management is the methodical execution of a well designed plan to move a company or business towards a desired state or level of production. As a general rule of thumb, change is not accepted well by people, so if we are to participate in change management, we need to understand the human psychic: both our own and those of who we are dealing, and execute our plans, whilst engaging with the various stakeholders that will be influenced by the change. It is wise to remember that we need our people (internal customers) to support change, and we need our external customers to accept the change as well, because if we lose one or the other, our business will fail.

Members: Comment