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Tamarie Magaisa Institutional Strengthening Specialist ATTRIBUTES FOR ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Attributes required for organisational change

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Page 1: Attributes required for organisational change

Tamarie Magaisa

Institutional Strengthening Specialist

ATTRIBUTES FOR ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Page 2: Attributes required for organisational change

Attributes for Organisational Change: Tamarie Magaisa: Institutional Strengthening Specialist: 9 March 2016

Attributes for organisational change

In my previous article I spoke about “how to bring change in a complex organization, when you have

minimal authority”. Today I talk further on the attributes required for change management. In order

to achieve “Change Management” there should be a symbiotic relationship between the organization

and the Change agent. The key attributes for the organization to receive assistance in change

management are: vision, funding, receptive environment, leadership, systems and staffing. The

Change agent should have the following attributes: passion, funding, social intelligence, including

emotional intelligence, a good network of collaborators and professional experts, information about

the organization and expertise in the subject matter. The table below defines the six attributes

required for a successful change process.

Organisational attributes Change agent attributes

Staffing Expertise

Right skills to receive skills transfer and to undertake the tasks

Knowledge and expertise in the subject matter, ability to mentor, coach, facilitate, train

Systems Information

Policies & procedures, plans Understanding current systems and blockages to determine the to-be,

being innovative and creative solutions

Leadership Network

Leadership support

Ability to understand power relations, protocol and maintaining good relationship with leadership, building networks of influencers and

stakeholder management in order to gain authority. Ability to create Champions

Environment Social intelligence/emotional intelligence

Enabling environment, organisational culture The ability to effectively navigate and negotiate complex social

relationships and environments. Good interpersonal relationships, governance mobilisation and strengthening, focused support

Funding Funding

Financial resources to implement required changes Availability of funding to implement change processes

Vision Passion

Well known and accepted vision and values Visionary maker, passionate about the subject matter, shared vision with

the organisation, share the same values as the organisation leadership

Successful change

Most organizations make a mistake of choosing a Change agent only based on expertise in the subject

matter and expect everything to run smoothly. A Change agent requires a variety of attributes to

become effective. Effective Change agents should be passionate about what the organization does,

share the same values and vision with the organization’s leadership.

Organizations seek the assistance from a Change agent because they need it, but they should ensure

that the leadership has a clear vision and understand the organizational values in order to influence

the bulk of the organization below management level who may resist change. This means an

organization must select champions who will work with the change agent in order to influence the

rank and file. Resistance to change from the other employees is usually the cause of failed change.

Every organization or company runs into resistance that can slow down, or even rail change, whispers

Page 3: Attributes required for organisational change

Attributes for Organisational Change: Tamarie Magaisa: Institutional Strengthening Specialist: 9 March 2016

are heard among middle management and the rest of employees, the whispers often negative, result

in a failed change.

Blaming resistance as the cause of organizational change failure is pointless. Leadership should look

at whether there was a correct mix of attributes for change in the first place before embarking on a

change management process.

In order to utilize the six attributes, a weight is given on each of the six attributes using a spider web.

The spider web below ranks the attributes and it shows a low and a high weight of the symbiotic

relationship between the organization’s attributes and those of the Change agent.

The attributes are ranked between 1 and 6 with 1 having the highest score as indicated in the Table

below;

Ratings 1-6 with 1 having the highest

Organisational Attributes Score Change agent attributes Score

Staffing 6 Expertise 6

Systems 5 Information 5

Leadership 4 Network 4

Environment 3 Social intelligence 3

Funding 2 Funding 2

Vision 1 Passion 1

When the scores are analysed using the a spider web, which looks like a dart board it shows low

weights in the outer web threads and highest weights in the centre of the spider web.

The attributes in the centre have high weights. Therefore, shared vision, passion, funding, social

intelligence, conducive leadership environment and a strong network of professional experts are

indicated as important to any successful change. It shows these are the cornerstones to a successful

change management process. Just like a spider it sits in the centre of its web. It is quite interesting to

know that a spider sits in the middle of its web in order to monitor the radius threads vibrations. If an

0

1

2

3

4

5

6Staffing 6 Expertise

Systems 5 Information

Leadership 4 Network

Environment 3 Social intelligence

Funding 2 Funding

Vision 1 Passion

Attributes spider web for a successful change

Page 4: Attributes required for organisational change

Attributes for Organisational Change: Tamarie Magaisa: Institutional Strengthening Specialist: 9 March 2016

insect gets caught in any part of the web, the spider will feel the motion through the radius threads

and makes its way to the vibration source. Embarking on a change management process where the

Change agent and the organisation do not share the above six key attributes, the change management

process is bound to fail.