There are many efforts that are aimed at creating change in the management of an organization. Most of these efforts use any of the three change strategies which are programmatic, continuous and emergent. Each of the aforementioned change strategies can employ the tools that are used in project management although the levels of specificity are different. Understanding the nature of the change that an organization wants to create is a very important step because it determines the appropriate strategy that can be employed (Dundon, 2002). Change takes an organization or a project to new territories and change strategies act as the route maps that guide the process of change. Failure to use these route maps puts the management at a disadvantage from the onset. Change occurs in three categories which are determined by its nature. There is organic change which is also called bottom up and the driven change which is also known as bottom down.
Change characteristics may either be developmental, transitional or transformational. Developmental change is either planned or emergent. One of its advantages is that it makes corrections to organizational aspect thus enhancing them. If focuses on the enhancement of skills and processes, however, it is a very risky strategy because it can change the organizational culture at a very fast rate. When change is deliberate, it is referred to as planned change. Planned change occurs after a period of conscious reasoning and decision making. Change also comes in unconscious and spontaneous manner. This type of change is called emergent change. Sometimes, managers make decisions that do not touch on the change that happens in an organization. This means that in most cases, change is not planned; it is emergent.
There are external factors that influence change. These include competition, the state of the economy and the political climate. This implies that even the most carefully planned change cannot run away from external influences and managers must address the emergent impacts of planned change (Wiseman, 1995). Another type of change that falls in the three main categories is the episodic change. This type of change is discontinuous and intentional (Moore, 2005). This type of change involves total overhaul of one strategy which is replaced with a completely new strategy. This change is very infrequent. On the other hand, there is continuous change which takes place throughout the life of an organization, creating cumulative effects. This is one of the change strategies that creates the most substantial and effective change. Continuous change is inevitable and it has very minimal risks. Episodic change on the other hard is effective in engendering flexibility but its experimental nature can have negative ramifications on the organizational or corporate culture.
In conclusion, plotting a proposed change pattern along the radical cum incremental and core-peripheral lines provides a roadmap that will help in dealing with the difficulties that are evident in the introduction phase. It is important that managers be aware of both the negative and positive consequences of change. Radical changes in an organization often generate a lot of disturbances that may affect activities of a project management cycle. The best way to implement change is by using an incremental scale where peripheral activities can be accommodated in the course of the management cycle. This will create continuous improvement and expose the organization or project managers to the least risks.
References
- Dundon, E. (2002). Seeds of Innovation – Cultivating The Synergy that Fosters New Ideas.New York: AMACM.
- Moore, G.A. (2005). Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Business. New York: Penguin.
- Wiseman, A. (1995). Turning Strategy into Decisive Action. London: Chapman & Hall