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In the modern, rapidly changing markets, organisational change can be crucial to long-term business success. It is the conscious change of structures, strategies, processes, or cultures to change and stay in the competition. Organisational change can be due to technological innovation, challenges in shifting consumer demands, or internal performance gaps, which can transform how a business is run and its value delivery.
Adopting new leadership methods and advanced tools through change initiatives enhances efficiency and strengthens an organisation’s overall market position. However, organisational changes are often complex, making it essential to manage the process with a structured and well-defined approach. Research by McKinsey indicates that 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals, often due to employee resistance and poor planning, underlining the need for strategic change management.
The organisational change is quite important because it renders businesses future-proof. The opportunity is that organisational change can be recognised as something that can be embraced in challenging environments since the nature of this organisational change is known. In this article, the causes of organisational change are discussed along with appropriate ways to facilitate organisational change management.
Organisational change refers to the process through which a company makes adjustments to its structures, strategies, policies, technology, or culture. These changes are implemented to improve performance, adapt to market change, and address challenges that arise at the organisational level.
The dynamism of organisational change is that it is non-ending. It may be responsive to exogenous forces impelling organisational change, such as industry recession, or proactive in foreseeing where the industry might go. The change can be in the form of a slight change or a change that shakes the ground and has considerable impacts across other sections.
The concept of organisational change is to change in order to grow and survive. It is not just a shift of structure, but also a shift of culture, development of leadership, and innovation. As an example, the introduction of AI-based analytics is possible and can change the rate and quality of the decisions.
Organisational changes cannot be successful without communication and participation on all levels. Employees should be provided with clarity as to why these changes are underway and what ramifications this change has for their jobs. Employee resistance when enabled to feel knowledgeable and not left out will minimize resistance, and the transformation work is more feasible to produce lasting outcomes.
Organisational change is a mechanism that makes companies change with the changing market demands, changing rules and regulations, as well as changes brought about by new technologies. Welcoming change helps an organisation stay ahead of the disruption and helps it plan the future challenges ahead, hence staying in the game in the long run.
The alignment between the culture of a given organisation and its strategic vision is fuelled by change. The transformation becomes meaningful and sustainable when values, behaviours, and processes are aligned with the new objectives, and translates to more motivated and committed employees.
Structured change is not only about flexibility, but it can also produce quantifiable outcomes. According to McKinsey , organisations where performance management prioritises people are 4.2 times more likely to outperform their peers, achieving approximately 30% higher revenue growth.
Innovation positively thrives where change is welcome. This will promote a culture of improving instead of maintaining the status quo, and this, in turn, will promote idea sharing, leading to the development, services and competitiveness.
Various change drivers in organisations impact the strategy, structure, and culture of different organisations. This realisation of the causes of organisational change can facilitate successful adaptation in businesses that seek to become competitive and achieve efficiency with the changing internal demands and external conditions.
Strategic change aims to reposition an organisation's long-term orientations, positioning, and competitive advantages. It can be launching into new markets, updating business models, or even undertaking revolutionary growth strategies to cope with the changing industry trends and maintain profitability.
It should be possible to reorganise how the company is set up, assign new roles to teams, and improve the work of departments with each other. This gives a possibility to avoid duplication of efforts, knowing in advance that the output is needed, making faster decisions, and carefully running daily tasks.
Technological change means adopting the newest tools and platforms to boost efficiency, sharpen accuracy, and stay competitive. It can consist of automation, digitalisation, or AI-powered solutions to enhance productivity and customer experiences and keep up with industry innovation.
Cultural changes refer to reshaping the values, behaviours, and mindset within an organisation to align with new goals and external demands. It often involves breaking away from outdated practices, encouraging openness to new ideas, and fostering adaptability. By influencing how employees think and act collectively, cultural change ensures that transformation efforts are embraced and sustained over time.
People-centric change highlights the importance of developing the workforce by training, skill building, and management. It makes employees more empowered, increases their job satisfaction levels, and matches the overall company goals to the individual capabilities, which leads to increased engagement and productivity of the entire company.
Take a close look at the issues driving change, e.g., declining performance, developing changes in the market, or emerging stakeholder requirements. The assessment can be used to identify problem areas, opportunities, and explain why there is a need to change a business to grow it.
A clear and realistic vision should explain the change, motivate people, show them the direction, and set measurable goals that match the organisation’s long-term values.
Develop a formal roadmap of objectives, milestones, and resources that the process of organisational change needs. This plan must look out for the possibilities of any obstacles and plan to take care of them before they disrupt progress.
Share the change plan openly with the employees to build understanding and support. Describe the purpose behind the organisational change, the expected outcomes, and each individual's contributions towards attaining organisational transformation.
Implement the change strategy by imposing new systems or processes, or structures. Give time to training, equipment, and material so employees can feel comfortable and adjust to the change.
Monitor progress constantly with the use of indicators of performance and feedback. Be swift to respond to arising problems, make any corrections where they are required, and make sure the change initiative meets targets and the emerging conditions.
Incorporate new practices in the organisational culture by complementing and rewarding them and conducting frequent assessments. Maintaining the change ensures it becomes permanent and does not revert to previous behaviour, which continues to result in innovation.
Change needs to be managed using strategies that have been well planned and are flexible. The following are some of the ways of handling change in organisations:
Lewin’s model is one of the most structured approaches to managing organisational change, built around three key stages.
Kotter’s framework is a widely adopted approach to managing organisational change, emphasising leadership, communication, and long-term integration.
The ADKAR framework is a people-focused approach to managing organisational change, ensuring individual transformation aligns with organisational goals.
This is a flexible and evolving approach for organisational change that prioritises employee engagement and adaptability.
Among the most renowned examples of organisational changes is the example of the cultural change at Microsoft that Satya Nadella ran. In 2014, when Nadella was appointed to the position of the company CEO, he transformed this internal rivalry culture to one based on collaboration, with the new projects focusing on cloud and AI innovations.
Cultural change, technological change, and this strategic change boosted Microsoft's market capitalisation to above 200 $ billion in 10 years, compared to 300$ billion before the change happened. It proves that fitting organisational change nature in business objectives can bring unnaturally good results.
