Concept and Need for Change
Concept of Change and Change Management
Change is defined as the process of making or becoming different, often arising from a dissatisfaction with the old and a belief in the new. It is considered the "law of life" because it is a constant and consistent force. Within an organization, change is a strategy to achieve an overall goal and represents a move from a current state to a desired future state.
Change management is the systematic approach to dealing with change from both an organizational and an individual perspective. It involves planning, initiating, realizing, controlling, and stabilizing change processes in a controlled manner by following a predefined framework. The main objectives are to reduce the probability of failure, minimize resistance, and maximize the benefits of the change. Change management can be viewed from two perspectives:
- Organizational change management, which is a top-down approach focusing on strategies, plans, and communication for the organization as a whole.
- Individual change management, which is a bottom-up approach focused on helping individual employees navigate the transition with the right tools and techniques.
The Need for Change
The need for change in modern society, and particularly in libraries, is driven by a combination of powerful external and internal forces.
Societal and Technological Drivers: Modern society is in an era of deep transformation, evolving from an industrial to a post-industrial or information society. This transition is characterized by spectacular advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the increasing importance of information and knowledge as the central instruments of change. This "informatisation" of society means that organizations, including libraries, must adapt to stay relevant.
The Need for Change in Libraries: Libraries are experiencing significant paradigm shifts to meet the changing needs of society. Key shifts include moving from:
- Custodian of books to a service-oriented information provider.
- A single medium (print) to multiple media.
- Owning collections to providing access, creating a "library without walls".
- A physical location to a service that "comes to you".
These shifts are necessary because the traditional library model is challenged by an "explosion" of documents, rising publication prices, and the changing demands of IT-savvy users who require just-in-time information. To stay relevant and play a central role in the country's socio-economic development, librarians must re-engineer the library to serve these changing needs and offer more personalized and customized services.
Forces of Change: The sources identify specific forces that compel organizations to change:
- External Forces: These originate outside the organization and are largely beyond management's control. They include demographic shifts in the workforce, technological advancements, economic factors, changes in the market (e.g., new competitor products or changing customer tastes), and social and political pressures.
- Internal Forces: These forces originate from within the organization. They include human resource problems like high turnover or interpersonal conflict, and managerial decisions regarding behavior and motivation. Alert managers must constantly assess these forces to plan and implement necessary changes.
Problems and Techniques in Managing Change
Problems in Managing Change: Resistance
Resistance is described as an inevitable response to any major change. It often arises when employees perceive the change as a threat to something they value, whether the threat is real or imagined.
The primary reasons for resistance include:
- Lack of Understanding: Employees may not have sufficient knowledge about why the change is necessary.
- Fear of the Unknown and Failure: Change requires learning new things, which carries a risk of failure and creates fear.
- Lack of Competency: Employees may feel they do not have the skills required to adapt to the new environment.
- Feeling Overloaded: Employees may not feel they have the time to manage the change alongside their current duties.
- Genuine Objections: Employees may genuinely believe the change is wrong for the organization.
These reasons can be grouped into broader categories of resistance, such as psychological factors (e.g., fear, mistrust), materialistic concerns (e.g., loss of pay, threat to job security), social factors, and concerns for the firm's well-being.
Techniques for Managing Change
Effective change management requires a structured process, clear strategies, and specific techniques for overcoming resistance.
The Change Management Process: The process of managing change involves several distinct steps:
- Assess the need for change: Recognize the problem and assess organizational needs.
- Decide on the change to make: Identify the ideal future state, potential obstacles, and build a team led by a "change agent".
- Plan for change: Prepare a formal, flexible plan for managing the change.
- Implement the change: Make the actual changes, which may involve meetings and training, while gathering feedback to make corrections.
- Sustain the change: Ensure commitment to the new state and integrate the results into the organization's culture.
Strategies for Change Management: There are several strategies a manager can employ, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:
- Directive Strategy: The manager uses authority to impose change quickly. This can cause resentment as it involves minimal employee participation.
- Expert Strategy: An expert is brought in to solve the problem and implement the change. This is effective but also lacks broad involvement.
- Negotiative Strategy: Management negotiates and bargains with those affected by the change. This fosters support but can be slow and may lead to compromises.
- Educative Strategy: This approach aims to change people's norms and values through education and training to build positive commitment. It is effective but time-consuming.
- Participative Strategy: This strategy focuses on the full involvement of everyone affected. It builds strong support and skills but is the most time-consuming and complex to manage. An effective manager may use a combination of these strategies depending on the situation.
Techniques for Overcoming Resistance: Kotter and Schlesinger suggest six approaches for dealing with resistance:
- Education and Communication: Used when resistance stems from a lack of information.
- Participation and Involvement: Involving employees in the process can lower resistance.
- Facilitation and Support: Providing training, counseling, and emotional support can help employees overcome fear and anxiety.
- Negotiation and Agreement: Offering incentives to employees who stand to lose something from the change.
- Manipulation and Co-option: Giving a key resistor a symbolic role in the process to gain their support.
- Explicit and Implicit Coercion: Forcing employees to accept change by threatening job loss or transfer. This is a risky approach used when speed is essential.