Hrm 552 - Change Management Report

Change Management Report

Michelle Bennett

HRM/552

April 3, 2017

Frederick Marsh

                 Change Management

Change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. (Tamilarasu, V. 2012).  In an organization, change management should begin with a diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine what is needed for the change.  There are three different aspects of change management.  They include adapting to change, controlling change and effecting change.

Aligning Training with Strategy

Change can bring both challenges as well as opportunities.  In order to be a successful organization, change needs to occur to meet the new needs within the industry.  As the organization changes so should the training functions.  One of the trends in training is aligning training with business strategy.

The top priority for managers, training and HR, and the business executives is aligning training with the business strategy.  With the organization shifting its direction, training will need to be conducted for all staff to align the skills with those changes.  In order to make sure that the change is successful, training will need to be adapted so that it aligns with the overall goal.  Having effective training is the tool for getting better job performance, better bottom-line results and creating organization-wide adaptability.  (Blanchard, N., & Thacker, J.  2013).

Process to Align Training with Strategy

Strategic planning is a process used to determine how best to pursue the organization’s mission while meeting the demands of the environment in the near or long term. (Blanchard, N., & Thacker, J.  2013). That is handled by a proactive strategy which focuses on the longer term and a reactive strategy and focuses on the immediate future.  The organization needs to develop its own strategies to achieve the organizational strategy.  Once the needs are developed, the training is the key to implementing the strategy.

Competitive strategy has the focus on positioning the organizations products or services within the marketplace.  This strategy uses both the internal and external choices to improve or retain their competitive position.  External choices can be the economy, environment, suppliers and others.  Internal choices can be technology, the organizational structure and labor.  All these factors play a role in the overall strategy for the organization and need to be considered with the changes to be made.

Organizational Development (OD)

Long-term, systematic, and prescriptive approach to planned organizational change. Each organization is similar to a social or biological unit, which responds in rational ways to external stimuli. Organizational development tries to modify these responses to maximize output. (Kurian, 2013).  Organizational Development and strategic planning need to go hand in hand.  

Steps Involved in Change Management

The first step in the change management process is to establish a need for the change.  Next the organization needs to develop the goals that the change will need to achieve.  There needs to be a determination as to what is causing the need for the change.  Next the organization needs to identify and evaluate any alternative approaches to addressing the need for the change.  The organization will also need to select an approach for addressing the need for the change.

After the change has been addressed, the approach will actually need to be implemented.  After the approach is implemented the results will need to be evaluated.   The results will need to be provided to the organization as feedback, if the results work then the change becomes part of the routine.  If the results did not work then the process starts again.  There is always the possibility, like in this case where the change is met with resistance.  Having a good plan in place to implement the change can help overcome the resistance.