Reason of Organizational Changes Fail essay

The Single Biggest Reason Organizational Changes Fail Is That Very Little Thought Is Given Managing the Impact on People

Introduction

Changes are traditionally associated with progress for the process of evolution implies gradual changes. Sometimes it is necessary to implement changes immediately and in such a situation the changes carry revolutionary character. In both cases the changes are essentially inevitable but the ways of their implementation differ slightly. In fact this statement may be applied to different spheres of life but currently it is particularly important for organizations where changes often fail to be implemented successfully causing a lot of troubles and affecting a big number of people. This is one of the main reasons why people consciously or unconsciously resist to the changes that are attempted to be applied within the organization. But the main reason why the organizational changes eventually fail is the lack of proper managing of their implementation and their impact on people that leads to the troubles and obstacle that have been just mentioned.

In such a way many organizations face a paradoxical dilemma: on the one hand, the changes are essential, on the other hand, they clash a strong resistance from the part of the employees. Obviously the problem needs to be solved and each organization may find its own, particular solution but the main recommendation that may be made is to start the changes with working out an efficient strategic management plan which could provide better implementation of the changes.
Commitment to changes

Speaking about the necessity of changes within organizations, it is necessary to underline that they are caused by different reasons which are quite objective and natural, especially for open market economies where the retardation in the development may be crucial. As a result, it is possible to estimate that the company, which fail to change in order to remain in the current of the recent trends and to improve its position, is committed to decline and probably collapse.

In fact the current situation forces company to undertake certain steps aiming at organizational changes by several factors. Among them the growing competition may be named. At this respect it is necessary to take into consideration the recent trend in the world economy in the direction of globalisation. It is obvious that in the conditions of global competitions international companies and corporations would play the dominant role, at the same time the competition is growing dramatically because the policy of international free trade and elimination of financial barriers lead to the faster growth of new markets and number of competitors. In such a situation companies has to undergo organizational changes in order to remain competitive. For instance, it is not a secret that many developing countries support their national market and local companies provide state stimulation of the business development.

Moreover, even such developed countries as the countries of the EU tend to help national companies and the European support of the local farming is very noticeable. In fact Europeans, on subsidizing local farming and limiting the access of foreign agricultural products to European market, create artificial conditions where competitiveness is deprived. As a result, it is possible to forecast that if the European agricultural were really open, it would be overwhelmed by foreign products since local producers would turn to be unable to resist real international competitiveness and only complex structural organizational changes could potentially prevent European agriculture from a complete ruin if it was deprived of state support.

However, competition and globalisation are not the only factors that stimulate the organizational changes. The current reshaping of business is also of a paramount importance. It is obvious that new technologies widely applied in the contemporary world and recent scientific achievement have to be implemented for companies could not ignore the technological progress and remain unchangeable. Also new technologies open new opportunities for business. For instance, the development of IT, computing and Internet leads to the elimination of geographical borders and now economic globalisation becomes physically real, in other words even an average company, having access to the modern technologies, can operate worldwide without any problems and, what is even more important it can really improve the efficiency of the company work. On the other hand, the implementation of new technologies also imply the organizational changes since, along with permanent improvement of technologies, they also need the company adaptation to the innovation that is impossible without changes.

Naturally, in the current situation, organizations have to realize that the organizational changes are inevitable and the sooner they realize it the more perspectives they will have in the future. On taking into consideration the recent trends and the necessity of the organizational changes, it is quite noteworthy to refer to Robbins, who estimates that “technological developments, financial constraints, expanding markets, restructuring and merges, new philosophies and government legislation are all putting pressure on organizations to change and stay dynamic” and, what is probably more important, he concludes: “Yet the process of change is far from easy, and implementing it successfully makes considerable demands on the managers involved” (2003:245-46). It means that the role of managers and efficient management is crucial for successful implementation of the organizational changes. Otherwise the consequences will be hardly predictable and obviously negative.

In general, the changes involve all spheres of life and economy is not an exception. At this respect it is worthy to note that the necessity of organizational changes are particularly important now because the progress made in recent years is astonishing. For instance, speaking about the US Pritchett and Pound remark that “changes that happened in this country along during the decade of the 80s were astonishing: half of all US companies were restructured, over 80,000 firms were acquired or merged, several hundred thousand companies were downsized, at least 700,000 organizations sought bankruptcy protection in order to continue operating, and over 45,000 organizations failed” (1990:2). Obviously the situation was really dramatic and it is natural to wonder about the possible solutions of the problem and the authors indicate that in order to overcome such problems “some organizations will ride the winds of change, seizing the opportunity to go far, very fast, and sail past the competition. Others that are unprepared for the wind’s force, and that mistakenly think their safety comes in bracing themselves against it, will rigidity a fatal stance” (Pritchett and Pound 1990:2).

Thus, the necessity and commitment to the organizational changes are obvious and inevitable and it is necessary to recognise if a company wants to remain competitive in the market. But at the same time it is necessary to realize that the organizational changes influence not only employees but the organization at large and naturally face resistance of the employees that may be overcome only with the help of proper managing. Anyway, companies do not have a choice for, as Robbins says, “more and more organizations today face a dynamic and changing environment. This, in turn, requires these organizations to adapt. ‘Change or die!’ is the rallying cry among today’s managers worldwide” (2003:556).

Factors of resistance leading to failure of organizational changes