Change Management Is Important Part Of Any Company

Understanding the difference and similarities between managers and leaders can be enlightening. Managers develop and manage plans that impact the strategic vision of an organization while leaders set strategic visions for the organization. Managers establish plans, support strategic plans, and organizational objectives. Managers also evaluate and track the achievement of tactical plans that have been assigned to specific staff. While on the other hand leaders motivate staff to achieve the object and task set forth. Managers serve as problem solvers. Managers are the people who assign resources to groups. On the hand leaders serve as persuasive change agents.

Managers direct and control. Leaders motivate and inspire. Stated another way, Managers get people to do what needs to be done. Leaders get people to want to do what needs to be done (read that again if you need to; the

Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.

Not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers. The biggest difference between management and leadership is people skills. In determining if a person is a leader or a manager, Bova (2008) lists some differences with which many a person would agree. One difference is that a manager directs people. Managers essentially tell employees to get the job done. Many people work on autopilot until their work shift ends. However, people will follow a leader. Leaders inspire others to want to strive for their best and to go beyond their normal duties.

What are the differences between managers and leaders? “The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do” (Changing Minds, 2008). Managers hire people to work underneath them to accomplish tasks for a common goal. These people are considered subordinates. Leaders have followers. These followers are considered employees. Leaders are passionate about something and bring this level of understanding and emotion to others around them. Managers deal with the physical aspect of the position, whereas leaders deal with the personal aspect of the position.

Managers are acknowledged based to their title within the organizations, whereas leaders are recognized by their characteristics. A good leader has the ability to influence people, while having integrity, and the ability to look outside of the box. A good leader is a person who is defined by the actions they take. Leaders have the ability to inspire those around them (Anderson, 2013). A good manager will do their job correctly according to expectations and job descriptions (Finkelman, 2012). Managers are usually more task oriented.

Managing change is important in seeking the final component of successfully managing strategy, process, people and culture in most modern organizations. More and more, staying competitive in the face of demographic trends, technological innovations, and globalization requires organizations to change at much higher rates than ever before. Few people will argue with this statement, but fewer still will say their organization does a good job at managing those changes. Managing change well is a continuous and ongoing combination of art and science that assures alignment of an organization¡¦s strategies, structures, and processes (Worley & Vick, 2005).

Change Management, if implemented well, has the ability to make transitions positive, possible and profitable. It goes without saying that change is a part of life. From the moment we are born until the moment we pass away, change is occurring in us and around us. That being the case, it needs to be clearly stated that organizations, companies and institutions are much like individuals. No organization is able to exist without the people that work within their walls or the clients that utilize their services or products. If change is inevitable and constant

These words are interconnected and interdependent. Effective change management involves aligning all enterprise resources — physical assets, know-how, technology and people — simultaneously, but with a different intensity at the organizational, work group and individual levels. Yes, it is a challenge. This is the challenge of the modern enterprise: to be relevant in the context of its dynamic marketplace and to maintain that relevance even in the

Organizational change management is the outline for managing the change management strategy. It also helps with the corporate processes for structural and cultural changes of Blue Cross Blue Shield. Change management helps our organization realize why the change was essential so that we can accept all changes and goals to move forward. Change in our organization is good for all of the employees since it will help them gain new skills and competencies and this in fact is an organizational goal of the company. The first step for our change management strategy is creating urgency. For this change to occur, the whole establishment needs to be on board and really wants it. Developing a sense of urgency around the need for change can trigger the initial motivation to get things moving. Without motivation, individuals will not help and the efforts for the change will not go anywhere (Kotter, 1995, p. 60). Managing change across the board if it is not done correctly can be damaging. The second step is to convince our employees that change is necessary. This frequently takes strong management and noticeable support from important people within our organization. Dealing with change is not enough one will have to lead everyone in this process. Once shaped our change partnership or coalition needs to work together as team and continue to build urgency round the need for change. Our goal is to be successful. It requires that our organization gets all of the knowledge it can so

Change is a common thing that happens all around us on a daily basis sometimes even without us noticing. It can range from family level to international levels, likewise in time frame it can happen on a daily basis, a monthly, yearly or even a decade. In the words of Senior & Fleming (6) Change can be simply defined as process of moving from one state to another. It is this transition that creates distress to the people due to fear of the unknown. We can not stop change but rather we can only manage it. So then what is change management?

Kurt Lewin developed the force field analysis model to describe this process using a metaphor of a force field. "Lewin's force field model emphasizes that effective change occurs by unfreezing the current situation , moving to a desired condition, and then refreezing the system so it remains in the desired state" (McShane 2010, pg 409). Lewin believes that a person's behavior is the result of two opposing forces: the driving forces that pushes for change; and the

Change management is a structured process of leading people utilizing tools and processes to implement change (Change management: the systems and tools for managing change , 2015) within an organization in response to internal or external factors. Change may be in response to new technology, governmental regulations, market trends, the need to increase capabilities, or the failure of an organization to meet Quarterly financial goals (Anderson & Ackerman, 2001). Katzenbach (1995) list three elements that change leaders master with bringing about change in an organization. These elements are organizational synergy, understanding that market environment, and projecting the competitor’s capacity and intentions

Increasing my organizational vocabulary is particularly useful for me given that my organization is in the process of a long-term transition due to environmental changes in moving from a print based business to a digital based business. The company has also embarked on transformational change starting in 2013 to reduce costs, and increase market share in emerging markets where the education aged demographics will be growing in the future. The first change to radically restructure the company from a series of holding companies to one operating company with centralization of back-office systems with shared products that are to be localized regionally was implemented by the consulting company Deliotte. The company is learning what does and does not work, and is not revising the organization in response to lessons learned with the Hay Consulting Group. I reviewed the main change management models to acquaint myself with the processes both consulting groups have employed, and chose key terms that I have heard during my experience, or have been introduced to me as part of the course readings.

The key to effective change is identifying how different people perceive and adapt to change at all levels. Change management can be described as the development of new methods to improve the way in which an organization does business. Change is the most important element in a successful business management today. Leading, following and resisting are three ways of dealing with change. From my experience, managers should always embrace a leadership role in managing change and understanding different approaches to change and understanding why some individuals seem more receptive than others. EI has aided me in managing change within the organization, team and department as I have more awareness around individuals’ emotions when they arise in response to an action or specific situations. One of the most important things that a manager can do is to alter/improve communications to leverage different approaches for greater buy-in and earlier adoption. This is accomplished by knowing your audience up front, and anticipating questions that may arise as well as knowing individual and how they deal with change, as everyone deals with change differently. From my experience, this is extremely important, as a manager has the ability to affect change with their communication, which can set the tone for the message being delivered and in how others perceive the communication.