The success of companies was defined in the previous century by the clear definition of functions, the specialization of tasks and control, among others. The current environment, characterized mainly by the speed of change, the high levels of uncertainty and the intensification of competition in the markets, imposes on companies an improvement in their change management. Due to the fact that different situations have to be faced than those that occurred up to now, companies will have to change the way of facing them. Therefore, creative and appropriate strategies are required, which contribute both to the benefit of the person and the organization. Traditional change management tools are not effective. The answer is to change our perception of change and its management.
Only companies that manage to adapt to the new environment in a flexible way will survive and be successful.
Change and management of organizational change
Change is a social phenomenon that occurs in different contexts, with different magnitudes, and with different types and manifestations. The change has been and is, inherent in society and man since the very beginning of its existence and although its occurrence is daily, people cannot assume its repercussions so fast as not to suffer disorders for it. The changes are caused by an interaction of forces that can be classified into:
Endogenous: they are those that come from within the organization.
Exogenous: they are those that arise outside the organization, generating the need for internal changes.
In this way we can identify four elements within an organization to take into account when faced with a change: structure, people, tasks and technologies. Changing one of those components will always affect the others.
Although these elements are apparently well defined in an organization, there are a number of external factors that can affect them. This influence of external factors is due to the fact that companies, as open systems that they are, are always "at the mercy" of changes in the environment.
Stoner (199? / P440) raises three main reasons why companies undertake change programs, these are:
- Changes in the environment threaten the survival of the organization. Changes in the environment offer new opportunities to prosper. The structure and way of functioning of the organization is delaying its adaptation to changes in the environment.
From the previous approaches, the importance of the environment for current companies can be deduced. It is necessary then, to consider what are the main changes that have affected the environment in recent years:
Technological environment:
- Speed in the generation and use of new technologies. New raw materials. (The development of new products has enabled the substitution of traditional materials, allowing the reduction of product costs, as well as the development of new products). Great advances in ICTs. (The use of electronic mail, the Internet, as well as the use of fiber optics in telephone cables has allowed information to be transmitted from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds)
Economic environment:
- Reduction of the life cycle of products. (As technologies age so rapidly today, companies are forced to continually change the products and services they offer to the market) Volatility in the stock and financial markets. (The severe crises that have occurred in the last decades and that have caused important and unexpected fluctuations in many of the main financial indexes) More demanding clients. Globalization of the markets. (caused in part by the speed of communications and the decrease in the cost of transport) Emergence of the euro. (With the emergence of the euro the monopoly of the dollar as an international exchange currency has been broken)
Social environment:
- Rapid obsolescence of knowledge. (New knowledge and technological changes in the coming years are very difficult to predict, this means that a professional will have to renew his knowledge several times during his working life) Increase in unemployment. (New technologies are low in labor density, which has produced increasingly high global unemployment rates) Aging population. (fewer and fewer people are actively working, this also creates a problem in how to adapt social security to a population with high rates of aging) Increasing the gap between rich and poor.
Political environment:
- Disappearance of the socialist camp. (This change has allowed the United States to become the hegemonic power on a world scale and with this the imposition of its interests on the rest of the world) Extension of the model of neoliberal globalization. Development of regional alliances. Increase in corruption. (The current crisis of values has led to the increase in crime in the upper echelons of leadership in many countries)
These are some examples of external forces that currently affect, to a greater or lesser extent, almost all organizations. However, it should be noted that each country and each company lives its own circumstances. In Cuba, for example, to the aforementioned changes can be added as a special peculiarity, the exacerbation that occurred in the 90s of the blockade. This situation brought with it: the prohibition of trade with Cuba to subsidiaries of North American companies based in third countries, the prohibition to North American companies to import products that have Cuban raw materials among their components, as well as to sell to Cuba products that contain North American raw materials, among other.
As a consequence of this changing current environment, a greater number of threats and opportunities can be found in it. To achieve management that mitigates threats and takes advantage of opportunities, taking into account that solutions currently have a shorter life span, change management should be considered as something permanent that requires flexibility, innovation, responsiveness and sensitivity to capture the signals that show the need for change, which forces organizations to make their structure and the elements that compose it more flexible.
While organizations operated in relatively stable environments, the art of managing change was little cultivated. Previously, the management of the organizations had focused mainly on negotiating their growth and maintaining their internal stability. There was no need, as today, to manage your own transformation.
Change approaches.
One of the most widely used and widely used models of the change process is Lewin's three-stage model that was later developed by Schein. According to Kurt Lewin, any behavior or situation is the result of a balance between the driving forces and the restrictive forces. Basically, his idea is to unfreeze old values, change and refreeze these new values.
- Defrost: When starting the change process, the organization is in balance. This first stage will therefore consist of making the need for change so evident that all members of the group accept it. This stage is necessary to overcome the resistance of people who make change difficult and this can be achieved in three ways: by reinforcing the forces that favor change, weakening those that make it difficult, or combining the two previous forms. At this stage, new values, attitudes and behaviors will be promoted, trying to make the members of the organization identify with them and internalize them. Among the activities that will have to be carried out to ensure that this stage is carried out in the most effective way are the following:draw a clear project for the implementation of the change; communicate it to all those affected; pose attractive challenges that encourage those affected to move; educate and train them in the new skills required and develop feedback mechanisms that allow for ongoing monitoring of the implementation process. Refreeze: Convert the new pattern of behavior into a general rule so that it can take root in individuals and the new situation stabilizes.Make the new pattern of behavior a general rule so that it can take root in individuals and the new situation stabilizes.Make the new pattern of behavior a general rule so that it can take root in individuals and the new situation stabilizes.
There are other approaches to change that are also in great use today. "The Ten Laws of Charles Fishman", "The Eight Steps of John P Kotter", "The Six Forces of Ichac Adizes", etc., All of these approaches are well known to current managers and they all analyze change as a sequential process that It has a beginning and an end, Lewin's model also takes this perspective.
For many authors this traditional approach has become obsolete and would only be valid for a predictable world without uncertainties. The changes in the organizations cannot be occasional because the environment evolves so quickly that the lack of fit with it would make the survival of the company impossible. In order to develop, an organization today has no choice but to be able to change continuously and without losing internal consistency, these types of organizations are currently known as: “learning organizations”.
Learning means forgetting what has been learned, changing and learning new things, so every change must be recognized as a source of learning. Constant learning is part of the process of life. In this same way a company must, frequently, be acquiring new knowledge.
Learning organizations start from the belief that they are part of a system, made up of many elements that need to be perfectly integrated. By taking this position these organizations express their commitment to change and continuous improvement, because by feeling part of a gear, as a result of which, every situation is cause and effect of another, they are assuming the repercussions that a change in the environment can have in them and the importance of being coordinated with the environment.
Few organizations have all the characteristics that are recognized for companies of this type, but creating an organization that learns is a goal to be achieved today.
Change of culture and culture of change
Culture has great implications in a process of change. If the culture is determined by the beliefs of the individuals, logically the attitude before the change will be largely determined by the beliefs about their capacity to control the environment. Issues such as participation in the implementation of change and resistance to it, will be greatly influenced by the importance that each society gives to democratic participation and tradition, among others.
Organizational culture is the set of values and beliefs that inspire the life of a company. They are the ways of thinking and exercising activities, regardless of whether or not they are formalized. It deals with those issues and facts that are important in the life of the institution. In terms of organizational analysis, culture is a shared frame of reference, since it deals with values accepted by the work group, which indicate what is the expected way of thinking and acting in the face of specific situations.
Because the current organizational culture arose from a world that was more stable than the one we currently know, this culture will presently and in most cases represent an obstacle to the development of organizations. The beliefs and values that underpin company structures must change if they are to succeed in their fight for survival. For this reason, organizations resent the effect of a business culture in total conflict with the new needs for change.
Changing the corporate culture is very difficult; It is therefore impossible to think that a cultural change can take place in weeks or months. Cultural change can happen, but it will never take place simply and quickly. On the contrary, it is a slow process, often necessary for the improvement and even for the survival of the organization.
It is not possible to decree beliefs or values, as both are the result of unconscious processes, which have been installed throughout a corporate history and which cannot be changed with superficial and rapid measures.
Defining the culture of an organization is an empirical task, which consists of locating where the stable social unit is, what culture has developed and how separately existing cultures are mixed in a total unit. This total culture can be very homogeneous or heterogeneous depending on the degree to which the cultures of the subgroups are similar or different.
Organizational culture changes as the group matures. When an organization is formed, its culture is established, which will provide an identity, a meaning and a communication system. Years later, the same company may realize that its culture has become so traditional that it only reflects the values of the group's oldest and most conservative elements.
The role of culture plays an important role in the process of change, since due to it, this process can be delayed, promoted or slowed depending on the congruence that exists or does not exist between the objects of change.
To speak of cultural change is also to speak of managing resistance to change. You cannot talk about the first without thinking about how to create the emotional conditions so that resistance to it is less strong.
Resistance to change
There can be no successful change in the organization if there is no change in the behavior of its members. That the process of change is always accompanied by resistance to it, is a reality that every manager must assume.
Any change represents a stress or an effort of adaptation and therefore people tend to react with defensive behaviors to situations that they perceive as threatening.
Managing resistance to change includes eliminating fear of the unknown, which is what primarily causes resistance. The manager will have to bring about the change in a way that causes as few problems and fears as possible.
Being prepared to neutralize resistance is one of the most fundamental tasks for a manager, since in order to promote the emergence of dimensions such as creativity and innovation, which are so much required by companies today, it is necessary for change to occur from voluntarily. To achieve this, Kotter proposes six strategies to minimize it, among which the importance of communication stands out:
Train and communicate: previously imparting a training about it, this could be very helpful if the resistance is given by ignorance of the subject or by mistaken beliefs, the transmission of ideas helps workers to understand the need for change.
Participate and involve: link the resistance groups in the implementation of change activities. This strategy can be very useful when those who introduce the change do not have all the knowledge to design it and put it into practice.
Facilitate and support: It is of great importance when the reasons for resistance are anxiety and fear. It can be achieved by facilitating or supporting, training people for new trades, listening to it or emotionally supporting it.
Negotiate and agree: it is appropriate when someone is going to lose something as a result of the change and has enough power to resist it. It consists of offering different types of stimulus in exchange for support.
Manipulation: trying to sneakily influence others. It generally involves the selective use of information and the deliberate structuring of certain facts.
Explicit or implicit coercion: when workers are forced to coercively assume changes either explicitly or implicitly.
Managers should be aware that the primary way to achieve voluntary change is communication. Only in this way will it be possible to influence people to achieve a positive disposition towards transformation.
Resistance to change has traditionally been conceived as a negative force that must be eliminated, but it has been shown that you are never a more creative worker than when you try to oppose something that you consider harmful. Then the current managers must convert, through the correct management of the resistance, this force into a positive element that allows the strengthening and growth of the workers and that helps to achieve the objectives of the organization.
Facing change
All organizations have at some point faced the dilemma of changing or dying. Although each company's experiences of change are particular, they all reflect a similar reality: the struggle to survive in a changing environment.
Assuming change as an indissoluble part of business life is the first step that all organizations must take to properly manage it. When companies take this perspective, they will be to some extent eliminating the fear of uncertainty, because they will begin to value change as a natural process that offers new opportunities for the organization.
Changes must arise internally and be focused on solving, not the existing problem, but the cause of it. By consciously evaluating the errors that have led to problems affecting the organization and looking for possible ways to solve them, we can be prepared for a profound change, which is the only really effective way to change.
Tackling business change from a new perspective often means changing the way you approach it on a personal level. If the incidence of culture in the processes of change is so important, then the personal perception of what the change implies will be just as important; because changes in culture are coupled with changes in people. To change then the current way of facing business change, it is necessary to transform the individual criteria of what the change means.
In recent years, the subject of change has become increasingly important and recognized in all publications on management issues. The important current changes are the cause of many of the main trends in existing management, since these in many cases have been aimed at creating the tooling that allows organizations to respond to them. But the changes that have taken place do not only affect the sphere of management, that is why it is necessary to study the main features of the changes that are taking place these days and the possible implications of these changes in the life of entities.
The Cuban business sector must wake up to the reality that current changes impose and adapt its own characteristics to the scenarios that exist in the world. The objective should not be under any circumstances, the copying of patterns that have nothing to do with our reality. That is why it is very important to study the main trends of change and its management, in order to define the best ideas of current approaches and adapt them to our reality.
Bibliography:
- Codina, Alexis. Why the change? November 2001. Havana City. Codina, Alexis. Change management. March 1999. Mar del Plata. Codina, Alexis. Tools to manage change and its resistance. December 2001. Havana City. Aguero Torres, María Teresa. The process of strategic change at IDICT. Leadership and its organizational culture. Master's Thesis. July 1996. Havana City. Garcia, Salvador. Management by values. Mc. Graw-Hill. 1997.Stoner, James and Wankel, Charles. Administration. 5. Ed./sl/:/sn/,/199?/781p.
