In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of

change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering,

or paradigm shifts?


One of the most challenging tasks of a business may be organizing the people who
perform its work. A business may begin with one person doing all the necessary tasks.
As the business becomes successful and grows, however, there is generally more work,
and more people are needed to perform various tasks. Through this division of work,
individuals can become specialists at a specific job. Because there are several people
often in different locationsworking toward a common objective, "there must be a plan
showing how the work will be organized. The plan for the systematic arrangement of
work is the organization structure. Organization structure is comprised of functions,
relationships, responsibilities, authorities, and communications of individuals within
eachdepartment"
Because there are several peoples there is increased in competition, difficulties retaining
talented workers, globalization, changing technologies and new business models are just
a subset of the drivers requiring companies to re-think how they do business. In the face
of such challenges, many companies embark upon ambitious organizational change
initiatives, often with goals such as paradigm shift or reengineering of people and
processes. These are complex, challenging change goals to manage and achieve the
desired benefits. In a tumultuous business environment, the ability to successfully
manage change is what enables companies to survive, even thrive. A comprehensive and
integrated approach to organizational change management encompasses three pillars:
people, process and technology. By successfully aligning these elements, organizations
can effectively manage and deliver change.

What is organizational change?

Organizational change is an ongoing process in order to bring the organizational
systems and processes in line with the factors prevailing in the external and internal
environment of the organization. The forces of organizational change include internal
and external forces. Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to
organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person,
modifying a program, etc. Examples of organization-wide change might include a
change in mission, restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams,
layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing", new
programs such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to
organizational transformation. Often this term designates a fundamental and radical
reorientation in the way the organization operates.

Importance of organizational change.

An organization operates in an environment of constant change. In order to survive, it is
imperative for the organization to anticipate any change in the environment and
proactively work towards eliminating the effect of the same .It is therefore important to
have a change in the organization. In addition, such change should be successful and
must contribute towards the success of the organization.

To really understand organizational change and begin guiding successful change efforts,
the change agent should have at least a broad understanding of the context of the
change effort. This includes understanding the basic systems and structures in
organizations, including their typical terms and roles. This requirement applies to the
understanding of leadership and management of the organizations, as well.
Organizational change should not be conducted for the sake of change. Organizational
change efforts should be geared to improve the performance of organizations and the
people in those organizations. Therefore, it's useful to have some understanding of what
is meant by "performance" and the various methods to manage performance in
organizations.

How organizational change occurs?

Significant organizational change occurs, for example, when an organization changes its
overall strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or practice, and/or wants
to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization
evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life
cycles. For organizations to develop, they often must undergo significant change at
various points in their development. That's why the topic of organizational change and
development has become widespread in communications about business, organizations,
leadership and management.

Causes of Organizational Structure.

In just a few months, the technology that an organization uses on an everyday basis may
be outdated and replaced. That means an organization needs to be responsive to
advances in the technological environment; its employees' work skills must evolve as
technology evolves. Organizations that refuse to adapt are likely to be the ones that
won't be around in a few short years. If an organization wants to survive and prosper, its
managers must continually innovate and adapt to new situations.

Every organization goes through periods of transformation that can cause stress and
uncertainty. To be successful, organizations must embrace many types of change.
Businesses must develop improved production technologies, create new products
desired in the marketplace, implement new administrative systems, and upgrade
employees' skills. Organizations that adapt successfully are both profitable and admired.

Managers must contend with all factors that affect their organizations. The following
lists internal and external environmental factors that can encourage organizational
changes:

Generally:

The external environment is affected by political, social, technological, and economic
stimuli outside of the organization that cause changes.
The internal environment is affected by the organization's management policies and
styles, systems, and procedures, as well as employee attitudes.

Specifically:

Change in Government: Employees that work for government departments can
find existing initiatives get discontinued when a change in government takes place. The
subsequent refocus of priorities that takes place as a result of the new governments
mandate can create redundancies or a radical change in the way the department
conducts its affairs.
Mergers and Acquisitions: When two competitors merge the existing business
operations of both companies get centralized and streamlined. This can result in the
merging of departments and processes, cost cutting and a redeployment of existing
resources. Mergers and acquisitions are one of the most frequent causes of
organizational change.
Strategic Refocus: When the company changes its business processes to adopt a
new paradigm organizational change ensues. Consider the plight of a company that
shifts its focus form a product centric to a customer centric platform. New
manufacturing specifications, new marketing and a change in logistical operations
create a change reaction for change throughout the organization.
Structural Change: When new administrative processes get introduced,
organizational change results. Consider the ramifications of centralizing an archiving
process using computer technology. Old redundant processes get replaced by new
software and hardware and staff members are required to retrain to operate the new
systems.
Process Oriented: When a company redefines its manufacturing operations by
changing its manufacturing process to a JIT operation, infrastructure, warehousing and
logistical operations are required to be redesigned and deployed. This structural shift in
the way a product is created has a domino effect on organizational change.
Typically, the concept of organizational change is used to describe organization-wide
change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a
program, and so on. Examples of organization-wide change might include a change in
mission, restructuring operations (for example, restructuring to self-managed teams or
due to layoffs), new technologies, mergers, or new programs such as Total Quality
Management, re-engineering, and so on.
Managers should note that all changes should be implemented as part of a strategy to
accomplish an overall goal; these transformations should not take place just for the sake
of change.
There are four ranges in organizational change, these are the following:

Automation

Automation is the least risky IT-change by which the organization purchases technology
in order to make the life of its employees easier and their job more effective. A relevant
example in the operations of a hotel might be the creation of the setting up of a
computer network and purchase of workstations.

Is the use of control systems (such as numerical control, programmable logic control,
and other industrial control systems), in concert with other applications of information
technology (such as computer-aided technologies [CAD, CAM, CAx]), to control
industrial machinery and processes, reducing the need for human intervention.[1] In the
scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas
mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the
muscular requirements of work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory
and mental requirements as well. Processes and systems can also be automated.

Automation plays an increasingly important role in the global economy and in daily
experience. Engineers strive to combine automated devices with mathematical and
organizational tools to create complex systems for a rapidly expanding range of
applications and human activities.Many roles for humans in industrial processes
presently lie beyond the scope of automation. Human-level pattern recognition,
language recognition, and language production ability are well beyond the capabilities of
modern mechanical and computer systems. Tasks requiring subjective assessment or
synthesis of complex sensory data, such as scents and sounds, as well as high-level tasks
such as strategic planning, currently require human expertise. In many cases, the use of
humans is more cost-effective than mechanical approaches even where automation of
industrial tasks is possible.
Specialized hardened computers, referred to as programmable logic controllers (PLCs),
are frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events
with the flow of outputs to actuators and events. This leads to precisely controlled
actions that permit a tight control of almost any industrial process. Human-machine
interfaces (HMI) or computer human interfaces (CHI), formerly known as man-
machine interfaces, are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other
computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures or pressures for further
automated control or emergency response. Service personnel who monitor and control
these interfaces are often referred to as stationary engineers.

Rationalization of Procedures

Rationalization is the second stage of organizational change where the organization uses
information technology to streamline a standard operating procedure. A database that
holds information of available rooms is an example of this stage.

Refers to streamlining of standard operating procedures, eliminating obvious
bottlenecks, so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient. improves
efficiency and effectiveness. This range of organizational structure causes the
organization to examine its standard operating procedures, eliminate those no longer
needed, and make the organization more efficient. Both types of change cause some
disruption, but it's usually manageable and relatively accepted by the people.

Business Reengineering

Business process reengineering is a more complicated and risky type of organizational
change. Using the information technology the organization redesigns whole business
processes in order to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

Radical redesign of processes to improve cost, quality, service; maximize benefits of
technology.
BR on the other hand, can cause radical disruption. The mere mention of the term
nowadays strikes fear in the hearts of workers and managers at all levels. Why? Because
many companies use it as a guise for downsizing the organization and laying off
workers. Business process reengineering causes planners to completely rethink the flow
of work, how the work will be accomplished, and how costs can be reduced by
eliminating unnecessary work and workers. In order to make BPR successful, you must
first redesign the process, then apply computing power to the new processes. If
problems existed in the process before the new system was installed and those problems
aren't resolved, the new system could actually make them worse. Very few processes in
business are as efficient as they can possibly be. It's a fact of life. The idea behind
successful BPR is to find improvements or even new opportunities. For instance,
Federal Express and UPS both have online package tracking systems. That simple
process was never economically feasible before the Internet. They had to reengineer
their business processes to incorporate this new paradigm shift.

1. Aims at
2. eliminating repetitive, paper-intensive, bureaucratic tasks
3. reducing costs significantly
4. improving product/service quality

Paradigm Shift

Paradigm shift is actually changing the very nature of the business and the structure of
the organization itself. We're talking whole new products or services that didn't even
exist before. We're talking major disruption and extreme change.
The success of any organizational change effort can be summed into an equation:

Success = Measurement X Method X Control X Focused Persistence X Consensus
Like any equation with multiplication, a high value of one variable can compensate for
lower levels on other variables. Also like any equation with multiplication, if one
variable equals 0, the result is zero.

Below is the graph showing the spectrum of organizational change:



As you can see in the graph above paradigm shift is the riskiest and most radical type of
organizational change. It involves rethinking and changing business models or even the
nature of the organization. Example: information system that combines information
about the suppliers, customers and employees of the hotel.

There are many approaches to guiding change -- some planned, structured and explicit,
while others are more organic, unfolding and implicit. Some approaches work from the
future to the present, for example, involving visioning and then action planning about
how to achieve that vision. Other approaches work from the present to the future, for
example, identifying current priorities (issues and/or goals) and then action planning
about to address those priorities (the action research approach is one example).
Different people often have very different -- and strong -- opinions about how change
should be conducted. Thus, it is likely that some will disagree with some of the content
in this topic. That's what makes this topic so diverse, robust and vital for us all.

Organizational Change Management Solutions include:

Change Implementations
o Change-related benefits rationalization
o Staffing assessments and role redesign
o Redesign roles to align with new processes and technology
o Cost analysis and staffing evaluations to support organizational redesign
o Change readiness and resistance management
Communications - Internal & External
Training - Strategy and Delivery
Policy and procedure creation
Process Excellence
o Process reengineering
o Process standardization and improvements in process capability
o Governance design and implementation
o Improve controls effectiveness
o Maximize adoption in operational state
Lean / Six Sigma Practices
Program / Project Management