Types of organizational change
Organizational change is the total of changes that take place in the sectors of the organization. Changes are introduced to improve operational efficiency and may affect both internal and external factors. It is important to identify the company with the changing environment as soon as possible and this is crucial in staying ahead of the competition.Organizational change is every change taking place in our environment.However, it must be remembered that implementing the change alone is not enough. You have to check and fix it so that you do not constantly introduce new solutions[1].
Implementing changes
The evolutionary strategy consists in introducing changes in small steps to adapt changes to the qualifications and abilities of employees, but if the changes are too difficult for them, we can increase their qualifications during the process, which, however, increases the time of change but also increases productivity and innovation.
The revolutionary strategy is implemented suddenly and often unannounced by managers, often external consultants are asked for help in this strategy. The advantage is the focus on activities leading to achieving the goals we have set ourselves. Sometimes quick changes have a negative effect on the relationship and the atmosphere in the team.
Factors triggering changes
- The changing essence of labor resources - adaptation to the multicultural environment, demographic changes, immigration, outsourcing.
- Technology - transforms jobs and entire organizations.
New opportunities emerge in the organization as well as challenges when the organization adapts to the new technology.
- Economic shocks - a very good example may be very low interest loans which increase the value of houses. This situation is conducive to generating benefits, especially in sectors such as construction or banking. However, it must also be taken into account that in the event of failure, these sectors will suffer very much. An example could be the formation of very successful internet companies that created millionaires from their owners and soon after they fell, and new ones were created in their place.
- Competition - an enterprise that wants to succeed must have the ability to make changes when the competition starts.
The ability to react quickly, introduce a new product and innovative solutions, adapting to the new situation are the advantages of the elestic organization.
- Social trends - it is more and more common to do shopping on the internet, therefore it is necessary to adapt marketing activities to keep pace with changing trends.
- World politics - changes that take place in the governments of the largest economies, for example Germany and the US, cause that new enterprises and new challenges and tasks are faced by enterprises operating in these countries.
There are several types of organizational change
- Evolutionary changes based on baby steps implementation, with the participation of employees in preparation phase (plans, design, project preparation).
- Revolutionary change based on top-down, sudden, unexpected and irrevocable changes performed by the management of organization
- Change in method and process of performing the work
- Change in product or service
- Change in organizational structure
- Change in technology
- Change in management
- Transformation of organization
- Development of organization
- Restructuring - it is a system that aims to reconstruct the structure and concept of the company. This process has a wide range and is very important for the functioning of the company, because it focuses on the change and adoption of new action objectives, which should lead to the development of improvement of our company's results.
- Change in culture and shared values
- Change in IT systems and communication technology used
- Reengineering
- Outsourcing - consists in transferring tasks to be performed by other entities that were previously carried out in our company. We must provide all information about what effect we want to obtain, but we do not provide them with the way in which they should be solved, because we leave this initiative to the service provider[2].
- Downsizing - These are actions performed by the management team in order to improve the efficiency of the company and put it in the best position before the competition. Downsizing is most often associated and perceived as a reduction in employment because it is based on reducing the costs and scale of a given enterprise. Downsizing can include both decision making, employment, knowledge, skills and career of employees as well as the interdependence of our company with the environment.Downsizing leads to an increase in productivity and efficiency, however, due to redundancies, it may not inspire confidence in potential future employees.
| Types of organizational change — recommended articles |
| Change management — Innovation management — Business improvement — Management by innovation — Smart organization — Knowledge management system — Sources of innovation — Knowledge gap strategy — Organization life cycle |
References
- Turner, J. R., Kristoffer, V., & Thurloway, L. (2002). The project manager as change agent. Proceedings of the 2002 Australian Institute of Project Management
- Todnem By, R. (2005). Organisational change management: A critical review. Journal of Change Management, 5(4), 369-380.
- Quinn, James Brian; Hilmer, Frederick G., (1994). Strategic OutsourcingSloan Management Review.
- W. Warner Burke, (2018). Theory and Practice Organization Change, Fifty Edition.
Footnotes
Author: Karolina Tabak
