Faced with a process of organizational change or reconversion of attitudes, the role of the manager must be to lead the change itself, becoming a visionary, a strategist and an excellent communicator and inspirer of all those aspects that involve the organization and guide it. towards success.
The term change management constitutes one of the most relevant aspects of the globalization process of business management, since both the manager and the organization begin to face complex change situations in their environment that must not be addressed in a dispersed manner. They require a minimal platform that successfully ensures change in the organization.
However, undertaking a change management process is not as easy as one might think at first due to the large number of elements involved, in addition to which we must be completely sure that the organization can absorb the changes and, very particularly, that its human resources understand its importance and commit themselves in fact to its performance, bearing in mind that it is a continuous process that must be treated as such and not as transitory.
On the other hand, it is necessary to carry out a previous diagnosis of the organization to appreciate its true situation and define both its real mission and the strategic guidelines that should guide it, at the same time that it facilitates the identification of those environmental variables that may have a negative impact. or positively, on its main areas of management, with which potential obstacles, weaknesses and threats could be anticipated, in addition to the potentialities themselves.
This diagnosis must be based on the formulation of some key questions about the organization's management, which would allow us to reflect on the aspects that affect its operation: are we doing things well, can we do it better? Is our response capacity better than the competition? Are we really prepared to face and take on the changes in the environment?
The manager's role as leader of the organizational change process
Faced with a process of organizational change or reconversion of attitudes, the role of the manager must be to lead the change itself, becoming a visionary, a strategist and an excellent communicator and inspirer of all those aspects that involve the organization, every time This process, due to its magnitude, can only be achieved with the commitment of the management team and the entire organization as a whole, and it is increasingly important to think about reconverting the manager first, since if he or she has a willing team to change and do not feel committed to it, such change will not take place as a result of passive resistance (the one in which word changes are supported, but do not participate in them).
For all this, the new realities of the environment are leaving aside the idea of traditional, rigid organizations, requiring today a more participatory, flatter management and with fewer hierarchical levels, where there is a greater approach of all those who They comprise it, with a much more active participation of the entire management team in decision-making and with a very particular emphasis on decision-making teams based on functional structures by business area.
On the other hand, the development of new technologies and the increasing boom of the so-called "information revolution" has led to accelerated changes in organizational structures, while conditioning a new global profile for the manager, where his The main personal characteristics must include a greater ability to adapt to new circumstances, an international mindset and excellent conditions for learning and communication, in addition to having elementary principles such as ethics, honesty and justice, the valuation of which is universal.
The manager and communication in the process of organizational change
Every manager of an organization that undertakes change management processes or reconversion of attitudes, must bear in mind that bottom-up communication is much more difficult and less efficient for achieving objectives than top-down communication, so it is necessary improve the internal channels of the organization, remembering that there can be no true one-way communication.
Although the ability to understand and direct all the processes of the organization is vital to develop effective leadership, the modern manager must not only dominate the technical, logistical, strategic and financial aspects as a whole, but must give it a very special importance to the company's human resources. The lead manager must communicate effectively with his employees, while projecting the image of the company and objectively evaluating what his staff needs to make it even easier for them to absorb their own corporate identity.
The modern manager must be aware that his performance as a leader is closely observed by everyone in the organization and outside it, and it is precisely through his behavior, attitudes and personality that it begins to permeate the corporate image of the company.
On the other hand, the manager must always keep in mind that not only must he know the organization through the information previously filtered by his team of managers (the so-called “staff” of the organization), but he must become more involved and interested in all of them. the internal aspects, behaviors and levels of the organization, without necessarily implying that you should not delegate responsibilities to said team to analyze problems and situations, manage resources and support the needs of the personnel in your charge.
