Paper Example on Managers as Primary Change Agents

Introduction

Managers have much power in an organization, especially at the top-level. They define strategy and core business for an organization. Thus, if things are not going well, they have to notice first and take relevant remedial actions. One of such actions is overhauling organizational culture. However, such transformation cannot happen through coercion, but rather making people within the organization to identify with the proposed change. Therefore, whether it is the CEO or a frontline manager in an organization, bringing change requires more than giving orders: it is more about acting as a change agent, rational decision maker, and role-modeling desired behavior that a manager can change organizational culture.

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Organizational Change

Organization change refers to the transformation of the organization with the intention to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. The change can occur at structural, people, or strategy level. Due to organization change occurring at different levels of the organization, it can be of different types. For example, an organization may change its whole structure or some parts of its structure, which results in organization-wide or subsystem change. On the other hand, if a company alters its strategy to align to developments in its external environment, such as technological, social, cultural, and legal trends, it experiences transformational change. At the personal level, organizations may initiate remedial change, for example, overhauling the company culture to align with the overall change or layoffs to improve a company's financial position (McNamara 2006). Thus, organization change is multifaceted, which means a single definition cannot explain it comprehensively.

Management Levels and Types

Managerial levels emanate out of the vertical management structure employed by most organizations. Top-level management sits at the top of the management structure. The level comprises managers who define the strategic direction of an organization, such as the chief executive officer (CEO) and other chief officers. Depending on the bureaucracy of an organization, middle-level management may have senior managers and middle managers. Seniors managers could be in charge of divisions or business units, while middle managers could be leading departments, branches, and departments. Middle-level managers are subordinate to top-level managers and supervise the lowest level of management-frontline management. These managers operate at the functional level. They are functional specialists and supervise junior employees. Some examples include line managers, supervisors, project managers, and team leaders (Lumen Learning n.d.). Thus, management levels yield types of managers, and whether top-level or frontline, they all have the potential to influence organizational change.

Primary Change Agents

Change agents act as a catalyst for change in their organizations. According to Lunenburg (2010), a change agent is an individual within an organization who initiates and manages change. Saka (2003) offers an alternative definition by indicating that a change agent is a manager who undertakes to reconfigure an organization's roles and responsibilities, structures, processes, systems, outputs, technology, and other resources to improve organizational effectiveness. Change agents do not undertake organizational transformation by relying on their insights, abilities, and actions alone. Instead, they get things done through others. As Lunenburg (2010) puts it, change agents succeed by first obtaining the support of people to be affected by the change. After that, they rely on good communication, collaboration, energy, and synergy to drive their change initiatives. Thus, change agents achieve their dreams by motivating people within their organization to support their idea.

Managerial Decision-Making

The approach that a manager follows when making a decision determines the type of decision made. Managers follow three approaches when making decisions, namely, rational approach, bounded rationality, and intuitive approach. Rational model denotes that managers' decisions are based on reason, that is, their choices are based on logic, consistent decisions, and aim to maximize value (Pearson Education 2015). Thus, managers who follow the rational model produce rational decisions. Bounded rationality approach assumes that managers make decisions that are "good enough" due to their limited ability to process the existing information to inform the decision-making. Besides, information is not always enough when making decisions. Thus, managers will settle for acceptable solutions based on the prevailing information (Pearson Education 2015). Under an intuitive approach, managers make decisions based on their experience, judgment, and feelings. The approach can produce irrational decision if employed alone since the method is subjective. Finally, management decisions can be planned or unplanned. Planned decisions are premeditated, while unplanned decisions are as a result of significant negative event facing an organization, for example, the financial crisis (McNamara 2006). Thus, various outcomes are possible based on the decision-making approach employed by managers.

Role Modelling Behavior

Managers depict role-modeling behavior through playing figurehead, leadership, and liaison role. These three roles fall under what Henry Mintzberg refers to as the interpersonal role of a manager (1990). The duty is all about networking and building a relationship with staff and peers in the organization. The figurehead role entails a manager performing ceremonial duties, such as taking employees out on lunch, attending a junior employee's wedding, and such other activities (Mintzberg 1990). Undertaking figured roles is critical in inspiring employees to depict some desirable behaviors. Leadership role entails directing activities, such as recruitment and training or using influence to get things done, for example, through motivation and encouragement. Lastly, a manager acts as a liaison by making contacts with people outside their area of command (Mintzberg 1990). Such contacts are important in ensuring staff under his or her command can get help from other staffs in the organization besides those falling under the same line of command. If a manager sets an excellent example as a liaison officer, he or she will encourage collaboration throughout the organization. Besides modeling behavior through interpersonal relations, a manager can also influence the conduct of employees through playing the information roles and decision roles.

Role of Management in Shaping Organization Culture

Managers, whether top-level or frontline, can change the culture of their organizations by exhibiting characters of a change agent, through the decisions they make, and by role-modeling behavior. In this section, the focus will be on how Ford former President and Chief Executive Officer, Allan Mulally, managed to transform the organization's culture. According to Kotler's "8-step process for leading change," change in organizations takes place in eight steps. The first one is creating a sense of urgency. If the change has to happen, managers need to make the need to change look immediate. Otherwise, the initiative will fail. For example, when Mulally arrived at Ford, competition among staff was cutthroat (RBSGROUP 2013). Upon joining, Mulally started holding weekly meetings to encourage managers to work together, which underscored how fat he wanted the culture change to happen (Boudette, Rogers & Lublin 2014). Coming up with a group of people with the capacity to move change (guiding coalition), developing a clear change vision, communicating the vision with clarity, and removing obstacles to change initiatives are the next four steps. For instance, Mulally set the changing pace at Ford with weekly meetings with management. In a way, he was creating a guiding collation. Next, he made it clear that the need for change was to revert from focusing on staff weaknesses and self-preservation to a more collaborative culture (Boudette, Rogers & Lublin 2014). Thus, Mulally's vision was clear. The last three steps involve creating short-term wins, consolidating the culture though allowing the process to take time, and anchoring the new culture in the corporate culture, which Mulally attained since he managed to create a "One Ford."

There are various aspects of change agents, managerial decision-making, and role-modeling behavior that Mulally exhibited in his journey to transform Ford's corporate culture. For example, he had a clear vision of attaining "One Ford," which he communicated to his managers and everyone else in the organization, thus exhibiting characters of a change agent. Secondly, Mulally made rational and planned decision to change Ford. He shut down divisions and sold businesses that were not aligned with Ford's core business (Boudette, Rogers & Lublin 2014). These managerial decisions were planned and rational, and they all helped to develop a streamlined (One) Ford. Mulally also showed several role-modeling behaviors. For instance, rather than sitting in the office and ordering managers to collaborate, Mulally set an example. He was present in the weekly collaboration meetings where managers could discuss the status of projects, identify problems, and propose solutions rather than rumormongering on whose project is failing (Boudette, Rogers & Lublin 2014). Thus, Mulally was able to provide figurehead image, leadership, and liaison person in those meetings, which eventually helped Ford to build a culture of collaboration.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is apparent that change occurs when an organization decides to change its status quo. Besides, change cannot occur spontaneously, but there is a need for a change agent to catalyze the process. The change agents could be managers, and to succeed in their endeavor, they must acquire support within the organization and use influence through rational decision-making and role-modeling to get things done.

Reference List

Boudette, NE, Rogers, C & Lublin, JS 2014, "Mulally's legacy: Setting Ford on a stronger course," WSJ. Available from https://www.wsj.com/articles/fords-operating-chief-to-become-ceo-this-year-sources-1398104995 [02 November 2018].

Lumen Learning n.d., Management levels and types. Available from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/management-levels-and-types/ [ 29 November 2018].

Lunenburg, FC 2010, 'Managing change: The role of the change agent, International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, vol. 12 no.1, pp. 1-6. Available from https://naaee.org/sites/default/files/lunenburg_fred_c._managing_change_the_role_of_change_agent_ijmba_v13_n1_2010.pdf [30 November 2018].

McNamara, C 2006, Field guide to consulting and organizational development: A collaborative and systems approach to performance, change and learning, Authenticity Consulting, Minneapolis.

Mintzberg, H 1990, 'The manager's job: Folklore and fact,' Harvard Business Review. Available from https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-managers-job-folklore-and-fact [01 November 2018].

Pearson Education, 2015, 'Foundations of decision making,' available from https://www.kau.edu.sa/Files/0009972/Subjects/chapter3%20decision%20making.ppt [01 November 2018].

RBSGROUP, 2013, The 8-step process for leading change. Available from http://www.ncurproceedings.org/ojs/index.php/NCUR2017/article/viewFile/2155/1263 [01 November 2015]

Saka, A 2003, 'Internal change agents' view of the management of change problem,' Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 480-496.