Question

In a 1,000-word written assignment, describe planned, unplanned, one-time, and continuous organizational change. Explain the importance of understanding these changes while leading organizations.

Answer 1

Planned change refers to the process of preparing the organization and its members for new goals, direction, strategy or processes. This direction indicates culture, processes, metrics, internal structures, rewards and other aspects. Planned change helps in increasing productivity of the organization, enhances the quality of products, services or processes, enables completion of the change process, undertakes technological change, meets customers' expectations, expands to markets, satisfies the shareholders and complies with laws. There exist three types of planned change models, namely, Kurt-Lewin’s three-step model, action research model and positive model. Lewin’s change model takes place in three steps of unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Action research model consists of eight steps of identifying the problem, consultation, data collection, feedback, joint diagnosis, joint action planning, action and data gathering after the action. In addition, the positive model change takes place in five steps of inquiry initiation, examining existing practices, telling innovative stories, discovering themes and undertaking action. Unplanned change occurs due to a major and unexpected shock to the organization, which causes the members to respond in a reactive and disorganized way. This change occurs within an organization, not in a planned or strategic manner but is introduced as a response to a sudden change in external or internal forces. The internal forces are changes in the demographic composition or performance gaps. The demographic compositions of the workforce constantly undergo changes in the present scenario due to the increasing number of women or diverse employees because of increased globalization. This compels the organization to undergo unplanned change. Besides, performance gaps such as decreasing profit margins or underperformance of product lines due to unexpected reasons also cause the company to change. External factors include government regulations and global economic competition. Changes in government regulations like currency conversion, delicensing and others influence the nature of business and force companies to change. In addition, global economic conditions creating competitive pressures on the companies also cause change. One-time change in an organization refers to the change in process, service or products in response to external factors like increasing demand, customer requirements, competitors’ products, technological up-gradation and others. This change occurs once with the rising factor and after responding to such a factor, the process of change terminates. Thus, it occurs as a response to any specific event. Continuous organizational change refers to incremental changes that take place in small steps or stages. This change makes it easier for the staff to understand the decisions more easily, fewer resources are required, the efficiency of the members and processes enhances, goals and objectives become more achievable, resistance to change can be handled, major projects can be undertaken and lower risks are involved.

Understanding these change processes help in acting as motivators and assessors or progress in the companies. It enables the companies to respond to customer expectations faster and align existing resources accordingly. Furthermore, the overall impact of the change can be evaluated and it can be implemented without hampering the daily operations of the business. Besides, understanding the change process helps in undertaking a suitable type of change about the situation, which in turn, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the company. Furthermore, the time required for implementing the change is reduced and the risk of unsuccessful change can be mitigated. In addition, it helps in anticipating challenges and respond to them timely and effectively.

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