Organizations with a proactive vision have the ability to perceive and understand the changes and the effect they have on the behavior of those involved.
Processes that must occur in each of the phases to achieve change in a human system
Defrosting (Invalidation): during this stage the forces for change are generated and consolidated.
This is the stage where dissatisfaction with the existing situation reaches a sufficient level for it to be decided to change it. Anxiety, worry, and motivation must be high enough to justify the costs of a change.
This stage also offers the greatest number of opportunities to reduce resistance to change, through the dissemination of information that allows us to understand the insufficiencies of the existing situation, the prevailing need to change it and the features of the future situation that we want to achieve..
Participation is usually the best antidote to organizational resistance.
Change Through Cognitive Restructuring: Planned modifications are introduced, starting with the easiest for the organization to accept, then gradually moving on to changes of greater complexity and scope.
During this period, which is usually the longest and most costly, the problems and dangers that require the most dedication and talent from senior management appear.
New Freeze (Consolidation Of Change): this phase helps management to incorporate their new point of view, that is, the necessary conditions and guarantees are created to ensure that the changes achieved do not disappear.
The push from senior management continues to be of vital importance at this stage and the lack of such support can lead to a setback in the process of change and could even lead to the ultimate failure of the process.
Establishing lasting changes means starting by opening the locks or unfreezing the current social system, which could mean, perhaps, a kind of confrontation, or a process of re-education.
Furthermore, behavioral advancement becomes a kind of desired change, as in a reorganization.
Finally, they have to be alert and take appropriate measures to ensure that the new state of behavior is relatively permanent.
Any change involves, at least for a time, the additional effort of having to learn to cope adequately in the new situation, which is an additional source of work and concern.
Organization's reaction to the incorporation of change
The effects of the change are not automatic, nor necessarily equivalent to what was expected. It operates through change in people; they are the ones who control your results. The feelings and evaluations of those involved, regarding the change, largely decide their reaction.
Consequently, organizational man is conceived as a being who seeks his integral development from the encounter of his three dimensions: intellectual, affective and social; organizations are spoken of as the vital space that should enable man to develop; and for this development to take place, it must be an organization in need of change.
Organizations must become spaces for communication and reflection, a product of the joint construction of the people who make it up.
Furthermore, consider the change of culture as a continuous learning process, framing man as the center of the development of an organization.
The educational process can be conceived as the process of sharing a culture and / or knowledge, with which the maintenance of the organization's existing culture is achieved.
No change can be successful without prior planning; Furthermore, determine whether these should be initiated by those who really feel the need for change.
Leadership influence may have its limits, particularly in large companies, where senior management is far removed from management functions at the operational level.
Whatever the case, when the company is in the process of change, cultural norms must be reoriented by changing the management system, that is, the multiple management processes, the organizational structure and the management style that drives the company.
This situation has created new challenges for senior management; but in turn, it has allowed the release of sufficient energy and initiatives that will lead organizations to become competent in the business world.
Competitiveness is a strategy that results from combining entrepreneurship with the ability to continually learn.
In a general sense it can be said that it is an attitude and an aptitude. It is an attitude oriented towards the visualization of opportunities and the control of threats.
It is also a skill that allows customers to maintain and increase their preference for the goods or services offered.
In another order of ideas, an interdependence between management and change is perceived: once again it can be argued that managing is synonymous with change. Conventional organizations proposed change projects to achieve a condition of stability and balance.
Currently, change does not seek calm and tranquility; on the contrary, it is changed to have a greater capacity for change. Now change is interpreted as the natural way through which organizations develop.
The changes have been as instruments of adaptation.
Almost all driven by a crisis of mission and strategy of the organizations and, by the need to adapt, more than by any intention to change the internal organization itself.
This perspective reflects that change in organizations is sometimes described as a process of converting a leader or leadership that is then transmitted throughout the company.
The previous premises allow the proposition of the thesis that entrepreneurship and knowledge are the two most important factors that determine the success of organizations.
Organizational change for greater competitiveness
The new scenario to which organizations are subject are hasty changes that demand high flexibility and adaptability to the demands of their environment.
In this sense, changes must be understood as permanent challenges capable of ensuring the failure or success of an organization.
Consequently, it is of great importance for companies to know the degree of maturity and willingness to face the changes. A positive experience is given when reflecting the acceptance by employees of new policies, a positive attitude towards innovation and the success achieved in previous processes.
A key element for the acceptance of the culture change is communication. The transmission of values, beliefs through effective communication processes.
The clarity of expectations is related to communicational openness in relation to the topic, at all levels of the organization, and pertinent and timely information on the change process to be implemented.
For many organizations, organizational change management also means moving from a traditional culture in which bureaucratic, motivational styles and values of power and affiliation prevail, and a climate of conformity; to a performance culture, where it is possible to contribute new ideas; People can take calculated risks and are encouraged to set challenging goals, through recognition of merit and excellent results.
If the human side of the change process is analyzed to adapt to a more competitive environment, it can be thought that the organizational disposition, the human team and the process of implementing the change, will require personal characteristics fundamentally oriented to do an increasingly better job, with standards of excellence that allow increasing productivity and organizational effectiveness.
In other words, it is essential that people possess a series of competencies directly associated with excellence in their respective areas of responsibilities, in order to guarantee greater competitiveness.
Advancement of communication technology as a process of change
“Change is the phenomenon through which the future invades our lives, and it should be observed carefully from the advantageous point of view of the individuals who live, breathe and experience.
Globalization within the processes of change
Globalization is considered as a process of change to lower costs and develop products, generating greater competitiveness in foreign and domestic markets. Globalization requires a dramatic change in the national approach to employment, development and the principle of management.
Globalization is characterized by strategic unions between industrial conglomerates and consists of managers being alert when recruiting, selecting prepared people, which is the force that drives the organization to achieve its objectives, in addition, that brings the initiative, determination and commitment that produce success to the organization.
Today more than ever, organizations must be generators of learning in order to train and develop capacities that allow them to capitalize on knowledge. This premise has recently become a competitive advantage coupled with the survival of the organization in a highly changing environment.
The globalization of markets, increased competitiveness, rapid and growing technological development, and demographic trends and demands of the workforce, force organizations to rethink and reconsider, under new perspectives, human development.
In order to undergo the processes of change in human beings from the individual to the institutional levels, leadership is necessary that takes into account the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects that lead the organization to a true transformation.
Finally, the image and thought of the leader are essential to give direction to the change process, to achieve coherence in the human team and consistency in decisions, which will make an organization more competitive in a market economy, where everyone should have the same opportunities and the same risks.
How to manage organizational change
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 of the entire organization as a whole, and it is increasingly important to think about reconverting the manager first, since if the manager has a willing team to change and do not feel committed to it, such change will not take place as a result of a 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 upward communication is much more difficult and less efficient for achieving objectives than downward 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 company's image 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.
conclusion
Current conditions have determined that beyond a simple causal relationship between organizational culture, change, and the impact of technology on human resource management, there is a reciprocal link between all the elements, which generate implicit permanent challenges. in the challenges that every organization must face.
The previous premise allows us to highlight that business management makes sense to the extent that the challenges are satisfactorily overcome, for which a large dose of creativity is required for the management and control of the changing environment.
Investment in the training and updating of personnel is another aspect of special significance, in order to make it the axis and motor of the transformation processes.
The complexity of the current environment, on the other hand, saturated with competition, social problems, demanding customers, rigid environmental laws, and immersed in a growing process of globalization, makes working insufficient today.
It is necessary more than ever to think and rethink organizations, give them a sense of direction, redesign or optimize core processes, develop suitable organizational structures so that these processes work in a timely manner, aggressively use the latest technology to help materialize the vision outlined for the organization.
Working for work is today a sign of unproductivity. What is required to be more competitive is dynamism, that is, energy oriented towards the achievement of objectives.
The failure of change efforts in many organizations has been due to
not taking into account, beyond rhetoric, personnel as the center of the transformation and not achieving an adequate balance between their adaptation and changes in processes.
It is imperative that senior management fully understand the necessary cultural values in their organization so that they can promote and reinforce them through an action plan. Once this distinction has been made, it is necessary to define what needs to be changed, to determine the favorable or unfavorable aspects of the organizational culture.
The human resources manager must be able to support change, considering it as a strategic tool for achieving organizational success.
This means being strongly business-oriented, being a facilitator of processes, being customer-oriented, and being able to anticipate and act proactively. That is, maintain a vision of the future to anticipate the changes and the skills to plan, manage and evaluate the consequences of them.
Organizations must maintain managers with a vision of efficiency and effectiveness, based on an assertive philosophy of change, which allows them the possibility of creating new paradigms based on personal development to achieve continuous improvement.
