The Change Agents in the Change Management Process - Paper Example

Introduction

Change is a continuous process that takes place in an organization. For a change to occur, the change agents introduce a plan for conversion. A change agent is a person that initiates change and makes it happen within an organization. A person in charge of change has many responsibilities and accountability of ensuring change happens successfully. The change agents that are effective display extraordinary skills that influence the transformation process.

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The Roles of a Change Agent

First, a change agent is an investigator. He/ she scrutinize people's behaviors and attitudes within an organization. Investigations help the change agent to understand the dynamics of the organization. They observe and analyze clues of any barrier towards amendment. Change representatives determine the measures and strategies that will remove the obstacles to change and bring success (Carnall, 2018).

A change agent advocates for transformation. For a change initiative to be successful in any organization, there must be a person to popularize the change plan. Therefore, the role of a change agent is to campaign for change even when everyone else is busy with other activities. For proper advocating, the change manager ought to be vocal and persistent.(Krogh & Simon, 2018).

An additional role for a change agent is to encourage others to embrace change. Any transformation in an organization occurs when individuals compromise their own attitudes, behaviors, and activities to ensure smooth transitions. A change agent has a role to understand people's involvement in the amendment process.

Mediation is also a role that change agents play. In any organization, there is a combination of different people and groups. In case of any amendmentproposal, there are individuals that support and others oppose the change process hence creating a conflict. The change agent is required to solve the conflict by helping individuals and groups to focus on the same common goal so as to execute the change plan (Krogh & Simon, 2018).

How Change Agents can Influence the Generation, Direction, Success or Failure of a Change Initiative

The change agent influences the generation of change by identifying the reason for conversion that exists in every organization. If an organization does not respond to the necessity for change, it will fail. The agent responsible forthe company's transformation innovates change by discerning the market and demand needs.

An agent of change influences transformation through motivation.Finding time to deal with the alteration initiative is a big challenge for a change agent. Therefore, the leaders in the charge of change process must ensure that there are right support and incentives to reward the extra effort by the employees that accept change and penalties to those opposing the process (Krogh & Simon, 2018).

The change agent can also influence the transformationinitiative by engaging the stakeholders. Any change initiative is affected by the stakeholders. Thus, it is important that the change agent involves the organization'sstakeholders in the change plan so that they can provide support. It is also essential to help stakeholders to see the general vision of the variation initiative and involve them in every step. Change agents cannot make the change to happen bythemselves without help from other people (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

Additionally, the change agent prepares people to sustain the innovation. For a transformation to take place successfully, individuals within the organization should be ready, willing, and able to participate in the whole process of variation. The change leaders are the ones that make resolutions that will help people with knowledge that the change is in their best interest (Carnal, 2018).

Providing desirable leadership also influences the success or failure of an initiative. A change agent with good leadership qualities increases the chances of a successful adjustment edge. The leads must win the trust of the people he/she leads. The best way a change leader can build trust is to show the employees that he/she has their interest at heart. Lack of leadership in organizational change leads to failure of change implementation (Anderson, 2016)

The Challenges a Change Agent May Face in the Change Process

A change agent may face employees' resistance tomodification. The reason for opposition is that with time, the employeesbecome comfortable with the way the organization is operating. If a change agent introduces change, the employees might feel disrupted and hence become upset. They become unwilling to do their work differently in the company hence the resistance (Pieterse, Caniels & Homan, 2012).

Failing communication is achallenge that a change agent may encounter. If there are no proper channels of conveying information between the managers and the staffs in the organization, then the issue of uncertainty arises. The feeling of doubtdisrupts work as the workers now will depend on rumors. Lack of communication leads to fear of the unknown by the employees (Spector, 2010).

In addition, the lackof resources can also be a barrier to change. If a change does not have resources or personnel then there will be difficulties in implementing a change initiative. For instance, there might be a need for anew equipment to help in a change process. Supposing there is no provision of the new equipment, then a change agent may face a challenge in the implementation of a change plan (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

A change plan will automatically fail with poor planning. Effective planning entails delegation so as to increase the potential of workers thus increasing efficiency. For example, if a change agent introduces a new system, he/ she should check if it is compatible with the old system to ensure a swift transition. Failure to check the compatibility of the two systems might create an unsuccessful timelinefor the revolution which has consequences (Tang, Jie, Mo, Li, Liu & Wen, 2018).

Failed embrace is another challenge that a change agent can encounter. A change leader can initiate a plan and the employees fail to commit to his/her plans. The change agent might have a problem of bringing every person on the board within the organization to embrace change. The attitude of staff towards the proposed change can discourage the change agent to carry on with the adjustment plans (Tang et al. 2018).

How to Address the Challenges

For resistance, let the employees know that if they become too comfortable in the organization, then there will be no room for future growth. The change agent should address resistance ona psychological level by getting rid of behavioral obstacles that restrict transformations (Pieterse, Caniels, & Homan, 2012)

The change agents should create knowledge and awareness of what needs to change and the reasons for the change. There should be channels of communication between the managers and staff. This will get rid of fear and uncertainty by workers hence creating a conducive environment for workers. A person in charge of change should let the employees know why the adjustment is necessary (Carnal, 2018).

Change manager should involve the employees in decision making. Each individual in an organization needs to be on board to prevent change leaders from facing dissent. Though it may be difficult to bring everyone on the board from the start, by practically showing how the change will positively impact the organization's success, even the resisting members will convert to embrace the change initiative (Spector, 2010).

Conclusion

To conclude, for an organization to continue operating, it must adhere to the changing trends, customer preferences, technologies, and future concerns. Therefore, it is important for any organization to have a person who will be responsible for the change process. The change agent can be from within the organization (internal) or outside the organization (external). A successful change manager should be well-respected by people affected by the change in the organization.

References

Anderson, D. L. (2016). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Carnall, C. (2018). Managing change. Routledge.

Jos H. Pieterse, Marjolein C.J. Caniels, Thijs Homan, (2012),"Professional discourses and resistance to change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 25 Iss: 6 pp. 798 - 818

Krogh, Simon. (2018). The anticipation of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 10.1108/JOCM-03-2017-0085.

Spector, B. (2010). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Tang, Jie & Mo, Li & Liu, Wen-Bin. (2018). The attributes of organizational change: How person-organization value congruence influences employees' coping. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 10.1108/JOCM-04-2017-0122.