An organizational change requires strategic planning.
An organizational change is a process that is carried out in a company to modify its structure or operation . It is a set of procedures that represent innovation for the entity and allow it to improve its business efficiency and competitiveness .
It should be noted that a change implies a modification, an alteration or a conversion. In the case of an organizational transformation , it is usually constituted as a strategic change that can include everything from process reengineering to the digitalization and automation of tasks, to mention a few possibilities.
Objective of an organizational change
An organizational change aims to achieve optimization of internal management and the activities carried out by a company . The notion can cover various issues that are associated with business strategy : that is why it is common to also resort to the aforementioned name of strategic change.
It is important to keep in mind that, before moving towards organizational change, managers must first conduct a thorough analysis to detect the organization's shortcomings and defects. In this way, by identifying what needs to be corrected, corrected or improved, the reasons for the change in question are established.
Organizational change may be due to the need to ensure business sustainability.
The stages
Organizational change is executed in a series of successive stages. The number of phases and their characteristics depend on each firm, but general steps can be identified that, beyond the variations and nuances, are always present.
- The general evaluation : Technology, competition , workers and clients are the factors that are mentioned as the main stimuli of organizational change, which must be studied to establish a diagnosis of the situation.
- Performance analysis : Experts allude to the importance of determining the distance between what the company is doing currently and what it aspires to do in the future.
- Diagnosing the problems : In this instance, what works as a barrier to progress towards the goals is identified.
- The design of a plan : At this point the plan to be applied to carry out the organizational change can be designed, taking into account what was previously examined.
- The application of the measures : Once the plan is implemented, it is key to monitor the effects and face eventual resistance to organizational change so as not to stop progress .
Employee participation in organizational change is very important.
Types of organizational change
Organizational change can be classified in different ways depending on its origin. The usual thing is that the concept is associated with planning , as we mentioned above. In this context, this is a planned organizational change .
Another possibility is that the organizational change is unexpected . These types of transformations arise due to an emergency or an abrupt crisis, which forces the organization to modify its course in an unforeseen manner. If the owner or president of a company who exercised sole leadership dies, organizational change must be carried out forcefully.
In 2020 , almost all companies in the world had to execute an unexpected organizational change due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Each entity had to adapt to the limitations imposed by health authorities to reduce the risks of contagion, which led to modifying the ways of working and marketing.
Organizational change can also be qualified according to its magnitude. There are structural, comprehensive and large-scale changes that generate important changes in the corporation. In these cases, a new model of organizational development is chosen with different criteria regarding corporate management, work teams, production mechanisms, etc.
On the other hand, there are organizational changes that are adaptive and have a more limited internal impact. These renovations are small adjustments that generally respond to a need to adapt to the environment or that aim to solve a specific problem.
Some examples
An organizational change can include multiple modifications. Among the most frequent is the incorporation of technological resources : machines that replace manual tasks, more advanced computer tools, etc.
Associated with technological change, but directly focused on human resources, is the implementation of remote work . This type of measure, which allows workers to work from home, usually increases job satisfaction. According to different studies, employee motivation tends to grow when they achieve a good work-life balance.
Organizational change, on the other hand, can be linked to a renewal of managers . This reality requires adaptation from employees and has direct consequences on the company's operations.
A new internal and external communication policy and the adoption of a different leadership style are also part of the most common organizational changes.
It cannot be omitted to mention that the merger of companies, in all cases, always leads to an organizational restructuring . On the other hand, there are companies that develop a culture of innovation that enables recurring transformations to achieve continuous improvement.