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Change Management

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What is Change Management? Organizational change can be described as the process of moving away from a current condition to realize some future state. Change management involves managing the process of achieving this future state. 1 (Nickols, 2004) Change can be viewed from two vantage points, that of the people making the changes and that of the people experiencing the changes. 2 In the top-down, or strategic viewpoint associated with management, the focus is on technical issues such as the investment required, the processes for implementing the change, how soon the change can be realized, and the outcome. In the bottom-up viewpoint of the employee, the focus is on what the change means to the individual, how they can …show more content…

The model finds that management generally deals effectively with the business needs such as developing the scope and objectives for the change, designing the organizational structure and processes of change, implementing the new systems and processes, and analyzing the results of the implementation. But in order to be successful, management must also be able to address the apprehensions that employees have to change. They need to communicate the business need that the change addresses, elicit a desire in the employees to support the changes either through positive or negative incentives, determine if the employees have the knowledge and skills to support the changes, and finally determine what they need to do in order to make the changes stick. 7

Under what situations is each model effective?

There are a number of factors that affect the strategies used for change management, and ultimately whether the change is effective. One set of factors is how resistant people are to change. People may resist change because they are unsure of how it affects them, misunderstand the changes, have a different assessment of the current and future environment, or simply have a low tolerance for change. A second factor is the urgency of the change. How important is it, and how critical it is to the business needs of the organization? This also affects the

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