Change Management Essay Sample

 

 

            This paper deals on change management for the current operation within the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), wherein Aviel Systems is focusing on. Since the majority of the services of Aviel Systems center around Information Technology and its many components, change is always around the company, from new hardware, software, communications equipment and its software, system software, applications and all documentation and procedures associated with running a mission critical operation. Technology in itself is the reason why change is greater now than it was in the past.

            The senior management is largely responsible for whatever change programs the company is undertaking. There are times when change is slow and is not taking in areas where it is needed. This could be considered as a human resource function (Lawler, et al, 2003), but senior management also plays a role. The senior management must therefore look into such situations and take appropriate action. For Aviel Systems, change management is an important aspect of the organization and their mission is to ensure that changes made to the production environment are tracked, reviewed, tested, communicated, implemented and validated; reducing/eliminating negative impacts to the business.

            The forces of global competition have sent shock waves that have left very few organizations untouched (Lawler, Mohrman, and Benson, 2001). Survival in today's world demands that organizations develop the capabilities to compete on many fronts: speed, cost, quality, service, technology, innovation, knowledge management, and new products, to name a few. Increasingly, the only sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to organize effectively, respond to change, and manage well (Lawler, et al, 2003).

            The element of change is inescapable, and it is most unwise for any business to ignore it. The pervasive nature of change affecting so many aspects of the business scene has suggested the observation that the only permanent element in the environment of business is change. Of particular importance are perhaps the changes related to the following factors: automation, science, electronic data processing, simulation and models, and many other factors related to production, distribution and economy.

            The simplest idea of change is probably the incremental model (Randall, 2004), and should be what Aviel Systems must follow. Here, the shift is a change in process, perhaps associated with implementing changes. Devolving a plan of action for such change underpins many different planned change schemas. They often involve steps which are offered to the prospective manager of change and relate quite well to problem solving schemas, too.

            A typical example of such a schematic change model would be as follows: (1) develop a strategy, (2) confirm top level support, (3) use project management support, and (4) communicate results (Randall, 2004). It might seem so simple, but in reality it isn't. Each step requires other sub-steps which have to be efficiently dealt in order for the change to be successful.

            Sometimes individuals may be unaware that they are making any assumptions about the nature of change, the nature of the organization, or the implication of the intervention being made in terms of the theory of motivation. It will require the involved individuals to identify such assumptions and consider how far that may affect the conclusions drawn about the outcome of the change program. Change programs must therefore be planned carefully by managers in an organization, most importantly by the senior management.

            The content of the change process is identified by large by the senior management. If such a change process developed by senior management has a good chance of proving itself well-founded, it is still not enough on its own to build the strategy of change (Dupuy, 2002). Analysis of change programs and plans must therefore be pushed to its conclusion. This is done partly in order to find and identify other priorities that may exist, but also and above all in order to draw up the reasoning on the levers to be used in order to change the strategy of the actors, including that of the most powerful of these.

            Different organizations would benefit from different change strategies. Whatever the change strategy the organization chose to undertake, there are important elements for success of such change that are uniform throughout any organization. This would include the readiness of a company, leadership and management, support of the employees, clear communications, and careful planning.

 

 

References

 

Dupuy, F. 2002, The Chemistry of Change: Problems, Phases, and Strategy.

Palgrave.

Lawler, E.E., Mark, A.Y., Mohrman, S.A., Neilson, B. & Osganian, N. 2003,

Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization: An Assessment of Trends and New Directions. Stanford University Press.

Randall, J. 2004, Managing Change, Managing Managers. Routledge.

Ruefli, T.W. 1990, Ordinal Time Series Analysis: Methodology and Applications

in Management Strategy and Policy. Quorum Books.