Types of Change Management

Change management is an important process of controlling the organization’s interaction with the external environment. Types of change management depend on the breadth of change and strategic planning. In strategic management, managers employ their perspectives of change and different methods of analysis. Management is a continuous systematic process that requires regular adjustments. New public management organizations today, utilize fine tuning, incremental adjustments, modular transformations, and corporate transformation to drive the type of change necessary. What are the types of change management in an organization?

Change Management Process

Scholar Kurt Lewin developed this model to help understand the change process and how it occurs. According to Kurt Lewin’s model of the change process. Propositions made in the year 1940, suggested change management process has 3 phases, namely Unfreezing, Change and Refreezing stage. Each process of this Kurt Lewin model of change is critical to an organization’s change strategy. Therefore, managers need to understand what to do at each stage, clearly outline objectives, and effectively communicate across the organization with employees and stakeholders.

• Unfreezing
• Every organization has a cultural process and system which needs unfreezing. This is the known way of doing things, culture, mission, and vision. Through this process, managers shift the cognitive thinking of people from the normal ways to see a need for change. Interpersonal relationships that exist within the organization are broken and diluted. Employees are forced to see other ways of running the organization and the need for changes in strategies, processes, policies, and systems. Process for change management can be incremental or transformation change.
• Change
• Initiating change at this stage new model gets introduced. It’s now not about how things have been done in an organization, but how to do them through newly introduced culture, system, process, and rules. Managers, ensure people learn new methods, processes, and organizational culture. Slowly shifting the thinking of employees from the original ways to new formulated strategic methods of change that have an important role to play. Changing the performance of the organization to deliver expected goals and archive objectives of the organization.
• Refreezing
• Refreezing stage of change is a critical process of reinforcing the new culture People learn and accept the change introduced, encouraged to adopt practices from old methods and processes. Culture changes and processes and systems change to a modernized version within the organization.

Causes of Resistance to Change

Organizations often avoid change. People hold different perceptions, and resisted change caused due to low self-esteem, lack of hope in management, and fear of new technology. Other factors people resist change include being afraid of losing jobs, uncertainty, reasons for change not being clear, poor communication, etc. These among other reasons have been noted as to why employees/people avoid the need for change in organizations.

Getting People to Accept Change

To ensure change is seen not as a fighting factor towards people but as something necessary. Managers should enhance employees in the process. Build and establish trust, because no one wants to contribute to something they don’t understand. Another way is through education, persuasion, coercion, and force field analysis. Once people learn the need for change and clearly see the good in allowing change, no one will continue to resist change.

Force field analysis tool makes a comparison by showing factors that are for change and those not for change. If the supporting forces for change outweigh forces not for change, then through Force field, managers learn change is necessary. Else managers learn change is not needed if reasons for change are less than reasons against change.

4 Major Types of Change Management

1. Fine Tuning

Fine-tuning involves implementing change in small inputs which have zero to no impact on the performance of the organization. Fine-tuning can be through incremental transformational change within the organization.

2. Incremental adjustments

These Incremental adjustments involve employing necessary change to the organization that only impacts a certain part of the organization. Incremental adjustments are initiated to boost sales, improve marketing strategies or increase work attitudes among staff.

3. Modular transformation

A Modular transformation is a form of change that is employed to change the normal operations of the organization on a large scale. Modular, most works when managers are working with transformational change.

4. Corporate change

Corporate change / Organization change involves a shift from the old methods of business to new proposed strategies. Changes from old policies, structure, culture and the organizational system are transformed. In origination development and strategic planning, It’s an overall process of change for the organization to something modern.