Why Change Management is important in the job market

I was very excited at the moment when I became a part of the semester. The reason for my excitement was a fact that I was getting an opportunity to know about the “Change Management”, which is one of the demandable skills in job market. Larger organizations in particular assess applicants on several skills, which also include a thorough acquaintance with a change management concept. However, before appearing for the semester, I had a very little or perhaps no idea regarding a change management. Now, I can say that I learnt a lot from the semester and find these learning as handful resources for my future. This is a reflective study of my experience of being in the semester. The paper mainly covers my past, present and future perspectives of the change management. Moreover, it also covers my reflection on change management consultants.  

I started my career as a sales executive and spent a fair amount of time in doing sales jobs. I was comfortably spending my days in sales work and had thought of making career in the same field. However, the mounting pressures of targets with every month forced me to think twice about the field. Gradually, I developed a thought that I should move to an industry, which is relatively less target oriented. Since, I belong to the sales field and hence, possess a good communication skills, I could figure out that the role of a human resource manager should be an easier job for me compared to the sales. At that point in time, I had no greater idea of challenges, which HR managers are explored to on a daily basis. I just knew that the job is just about communicating decisions made behind the closed doors. It all changed after I applied and got selected for a Bachelor in Human Resource Management. The learning that I received during the semester proved a game changer for me as I identified a huge gap between my understanding of a HR manager and the actual picture surrounding it. My surprises regarding the challenges of working as a HR manager got bigger when I joined a reputed company as a HR executive. Things, which I studied during the semester were like repeated on the practical ground.

Before being a part of the semester, I had no idea of what a change management is. At that point in time, I just knew that HR managers are responsible for communicating decisions to concerned groups of people. However, the semester did completely change my perspective of a change management. Now, being into the position of a HR executive and have faced a change management in my employer, I could say that HR jobs are challenging. HR professionals are not just responsible for taking care of an information exchange between the management and employees but also to make policies and design implementation strategies (Armenakis & Harris 2009).

The writer’s journey to learn about Change Management

The semester helped me to learn about the change management from various resources such as from pieces of theory on the change management, successful case examples of change management and a conceptual coverage on the topic. The semester helped me to learn about a widely popular Kurt Lewin’s change theory. The theory identifies a change management as being broadly classified into three stages namely unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Kurt Lewin did also highlight a few related concepts like driving forces, restraining forces and equilibrium, which influence a change management execution (Beer & Nohria 2000).

Driving forces as according to Lewin are those that support the change. These can be anything ranging from a population of employees to the management. On contrary to this, restraining forces are the opposing forces, which negatively impact a transformation process. Equilibrium according to Lewin is a state, which must be broken to flourish a change process (Cutcher 2009). I got to learn that these were the same forces that helped Lewin to come up with a change management theory popularly known as Lewin’s change theory.  

At the unfreezing stage of Lewin’s theory, preparatory stages are developed to encourage majority of people towards the change. This can be attained by boosting the driving forces and thereby, breaking the equilibrium state. This stage is followed by ‘changing’ where everything from feeling, thoughts and behavior are all put into the place. The last stage in Lewin’s theory is ‘refreezing’, which means becoming adaptive with the changes to attain the ultimate goal of the change process and enjoy a lasting impact on the operational output (Gilley, Godek & Gilley 2009). I never knew of a fact that a change process can also be governed by a theory. The teaching of the semester helped me to identify a different world I never imagined off. The Lewin’s theory did not just help me to understand how a change process happen but also helped to realize the importance of an effective communication. An effective communication is indeed an essential part of responsibilities of a HR manager. Since, I have decided to pursue my career as a HR manager, I need to work on my communication skills in order to be able to effectively handle the distinguished circumstances.

The theory helped me to understand that a change process can be internally challenged from stakeholders especially from the employees. There can be many reasons for why a change receives a resistance from within the company. A change can cause employees to lose their jobs such as it happened to Telstra’s employees. Telstra announced to cut 8,000 jobs for a major restructuring. The company wants to wholly own its entire business units to restructure in the form of a new business unit that will be called as Telstra InfraCo (the Guardian 2018).

Learning from the semester

The restructuring can be a brighter prospect for the company; not so for employees who will lose their jobs. I could understand a bit about why change processes especially those that are major receive resistance from within the firms. It gives me a sense that the role of HR managers is very challenging. HR managers will need to maintain an effective communication throughout the entire change process to take care of distinguished tasks. At the earlier stage, HR managers will be responsible for designing a negotiation strategy to create a win-lose situation in favor of the company. It means that strategies will be used to add more driving forces to the proposed change. Once, this stage is effectively attained, the next step would be to communicate new plans and policies with the management and employees to support a gradual shifting towards the ultimate goal of the change. The job of HR manager is still not over and will be required to contribute until the changes are well adapted by employees, the management and other stakeholders (Waisbord 2015).

A few pieces of case studies was also very knowledge imparting as I could observe what big organizations do to bring in the changes. One of those case studies had talked about a successful implementation of change in Toyota. The Japanese auto market had an impact of World War II and was inching towards a destruction. It faced serious competition from Western companies such as Ford and General Motors. Toyota responded to the urgency as one of its engineers has convinced his manager to integrate a just-in-time approach with the manufacturing. Just-in-time approach is a strategy dedicated especially to the inventory management. It says that materials should be ordered and received only when it is required. The main goal of this method was to improve the efficiency of production and speed-up the market delivery and reduce the operational costs by affecting the excessive inventory expenses (Coetzee, Van der Merwe & Van Dyk 2016). The change did not just impact ‘Toyota’ but the entire auto market of Japan.

The case study did help me to learn about what wonder can an effectively managed change process can do the operations. I learnt so many useful things from the Toyota’s change management.  I got to know that changes do not just happen in few moments but rather goes through a process consisting of several factors such as those listed below:

• Strategy making
• Accumulation of required resources
• Driving the change through effectively communicating with the concerned stakeholder
• Implementation of strategies

Reflections on Change Management consultants

I did also learn that an effective communication between employees and the management can do wonder for the company. Such a big change was introduced to the Toyota; however, it had no solid evidence to go for enacting the change. It just happened when the senior managers in company had shown interest to the suggestion recommended by one of its engineers. Toyota could have also ignored it. It just indicates how good an understanding and trust was between Toyota and its engineers. As opined by Burke (2017), an effective communication plays a critical role in introducing development to any business. The case study on Toyota’s change management will prove to be a quintessential guide for me for my future as a HR manager.

The semester had also provided me with an opportunity to attain the presentation made from the guest lecturers. These consultants did share their experience of the change process. These consultants have found a very limited or perhaps no such evident involvements of HR personnel in major change processes. They agree on a fact that HR personnel play a significant role in a change process but still, they are not made a part of key discussions.

This is a fact that the human capital consume a huge investment, they are also the valuable asset for a company. At the time of recruitment and at most times during operations, management gives value to employees’ participation. However, even when the management intend for a smaller change, this readily impacts the workforce. Human resource managers in fact represent the management and the people. Despite this HR managers are rarely invited to be a part of a discussion table (Tummers et al. 2015). Why HR managers typically do not have a significant impact on the workforce? My views of a HR manager was further justified when I got an opportunity to hear of the guest lecturer about the change management. The guest lecturers had shared their experiences of being a change management consultant. The guest speaker was unable to figure out the involvement of HR personnel throughout the entire change process. HR personnel as according to the guest lecturer were by and large missing from a large scale change.

I have found that the organization where I am working right now lacks an appropriate management of change. I can hope to contribute best in the interest of my company. I know that being a HR executive, I have still a long miles to travel to become the HR manager. The job will still not be over considering a limited scope for a HR manager in a change management process. However, I need to show my commercial skills and try to be a part of the change process by means of communicating with the management and the people.

Conclusion

In summary, this can be said that I am into a different platform than those who are a part of the human resource in Toyota and Telstra. However, I still believe to make an impact with my skills. The knowledge, which I gained from the semester would assist me in making strategies and designing an appropriate framework to help my company effectively see through the change process. My role as a HR manager would be to establish an effective communication between the management and the people though I will be operating with relatively limited resources. Moreover, the modules covered during the semester helped me to understand the importance of being reflective while considering a plan for the change. Furthermore, I will also take care of the evaluation part as the areas of improvement will always be there.

References 

Armenakis, A.A. & Harris, S.G., 2009. Reflections: Our journey in organizational change research and practice. Journal of Change Management, 9(2), pp.127-142.

Beer, M. & Nohria, N., 2000. Cracking the code of change. HBR’s 10 must reads on change, 78(3), pp.133-141.

Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

Coetzee, R., Van der Merwe, K. & Van Dyk, L., 2016. Lean implementation strategies: how are the Toyota Way principles addressed?. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 27(3), pp.79-91.

Cutcher, L., 2009. Resisting change from within and without the organization. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22(3), pp.275-289.

Gilley, A., Godek, M. & Gilley, J.W., 2009. Change, resistance, and the organizational immune system. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 74(4), p.4.

the Guardian 2018. Telstra to cut 8,000 jobs in major restructure. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/20/telstra-to-cut-8000-jobs-in-major-restructure [Accessed 21 Oct. 2018].

Tummers, L., Kruyen, P.M., Vijverberg, D.M. & Voesenek, T.J., 2015. Connecting HRM and change management: the importance of proactivity and vitality. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(4), pp.627-640.

Waisbord, S., 2015. Three challenges for communication and global social change. Communication Theory, 25(2), pp.144-165.