Why is successful change management difficult to achieve What factors Essay

Why is successful change management difficult to achieve What factors would be most likely to lead to success - Essay Example Organizational personnel oppose the introduction of any sort of change for different reasons; change can alter the hierarchy of positions and induce fundamental shifts in the distribution of power, thus raising concerns among the already powerful workers. Change brings changes in the way work is done while the workers are accustomed to doing things in the traditional way. Changing the way they work seems odd because they are not used to it. Change can require the workers to display new set of skills that they might not already have. Every worker is educated, trained, and skilled to a certain extent and displaying skills beyond that requires further education and training. This becomes even more daunting for the workers when they have to afford the expenses of improving their skills themselves and the organization does not provide for them financially to upgrade their skills. Besides, motivating the workers is one of the most important challenges in front of the management. Within the context of an already existing system, it might be possible to keep the workers motivated. However, when change is implemented, workers come up with new concerns and develop different kinds of needs, thus making it difficult for the management to address those needs and keep a highly motivated workforce. Factors that play an important role in making change management successful in an organization include but are not limited to demonstration of the need for change to the workers, communication between management and workers, training of the workers, and the anticipated positive outcomes of change both for the workers and the organization as a whole. Management assumes the main role in making change management successful since most of these factors are under the control of management. The management should start the process of change management by briefing the workers about the need for change. This can be achieved by calling the workers upon a meeting and telling them what issues an d challenges that organization faces under the current circumstances, and what possible measures can be taken in order to help the organization deal with those challenges successfully. Many a times, management tends to assume that workers understand the organization’s challenges whereas in reality, that is not the case. Workers do need to be shown the true picture as the management sees it, so that they consent with the management that a change needs to be made. After demonstrating the need for change, management should tell the workers what changes in the hierarchy of the power distribution would be made, what technological components would be added to the present system, what skills would the workers need to display, and how they can get those skills. The management should arrange training sessions for the workers either in-house or by rendering the services of an internal trainer. It is imperative that the management upgrades the skills of the workers according to the need s of the changed system to motivate the workers to cooperate with the management in implementing the change. Finally, management needs to closely supervise the workers and resolve any interpersonal issues that are encountered because of the implementation of the change. A potential example of successful change management is British Airways. It all started with the recruitment of a new chairperson in 1981 who noticed the inefficiency of the company and the wastage of valuable resources. So he decided to restructure British Airways to make its business more profitable. The best way realized by him to achieve this was with the help of a change methodology management plan (Faucheux and Scheid,