What is the Nature of Organizational Change?

Management will never be able to anticipate the future with total accuracy but proactive Planning can bring dynamics to the organization. Organizational Change is an important characteristic of most organizations nothing is permanent except change.

It is the duty of Management to manage change properly.

An organization must develop adaptability to change otherwise it will either be left behind or be swept away by the forces of change.

There are many forces that are acting on organizations that make the change not only desirable but also invertible.

These forces include technology, market forces, and the general socio-economic environment.

These are the external forces that necessitate the change in internal organizational variables like machinery, equipment, processes, policies and procedures, structural relationships

Characteristics of Organizational Change

The term change refers to any alteration which occurs in the overall work environment of an organization.

It implies alternations of structural relationships and the role of people in an organization.

Organizational change in management has the following features:

1. The whole organization tends to be affected by a change in any part of it. For example, the introduction of new technology in the production department would have an effect on the purchase, finance, marketing, and other departments.
2. Organizational change takes place in all parts of the organization. But at varying rates of speed and decrease of significance.
3. The change may be Reactive or Proactive. When change is bought about due to the pressure of external forces. It is called reactive change but proactive change is inserted by the management on its own to increase organizational effectiveness.
4. Organizational change may affect people, structure, technology, and other elements of the organization.
5. Organizational changes resulting from the pressure of forces. Which are both outside and inside the organization disturbing the exciting equilibrium in the organization.

Nature of Organizational Change

An organization is an open system which implies that it is in a constant interactional relationship with its external environment.

Any change in its external environment. Such as changes in customer tastes and preferences, competition economic policies of the government, and others. Make it imperative for the organizer to make changes in its internal system.

Further, the organization is composed of a number of subsystems that are also in the dynamic relationship of interaction and interdependence with each other. Any organizational change in a subsystem creates a chain of changes throughout the entire system.

For instance, if the purchasing manager of a company leaves the organization and the purchasing department fails to get timely supplies of raw materials, it would affect the working of production, marketing, finance, and other departments.

Organizational Change may be proactive and reactive for example when management introduces a new labor welfare scheme to improve employee motivation.

It is a proactive change if such a scheme is introduced due to pressure from the trade union it is a reactive change.

Proactive change is initiated by an organization because it is identified as desirable whereas reactive change is implemented by an organization under pressure from environmental factors. It is to be effective in the future.

Nature of Organization

Organizational change management disturbs the exciting equilibrium of the enterprise.

In other words, the relationship of organizational members with the internal and external environment is disturbed. Change compares people to adjust to the requirements of the situation.

Thus, change brings about a new equilibrium in the organization.

Sometimes, organizational changes in one subsystem trigger a sequence of changes in other subsystems. This is not a Domino effect, for instance, the creation of the Human Resources Development Department [HRDD] in a company may lead to the creation of new managerial posts and the reallocation of duties in several departments.