The present era is of intense competition, increasing complexity, high uncertainty, and marginal profits. Meeting the challenges posed by such an environment is only possible through team work, concerted effort, innovation and adaptability, which traits are non-existent in the organizations having conventional multi-layered hierarchical structures. The answer lies in bringing about change to remain competitive. Accordingly, leading and managing change has become a key responsibility and one of the success factors for leaders and managers in most of the progressive organizations world-wide. Organizational change, however, is a complex process involving multiple interrelated aspects of an organization; changes in one part of the organization often have profound effects on other parts.
In any organization in general, and in those with conservative management environment in particular, any change effort invites resistance from various directions, most importantly from within, because the managers feel threatened to lose power, whereas most of the work force have the fear of losing the job or some of the benefits in a changed, efficiency-based, result-oriented work environment. Therefore, for successful transformation efforts, a holistic, people-focused approach encompassing formal aspects such as structure and systems, as well as informal aspects, such as culture, communications, employee welfare, etc. is needed.
Over time it has transpired that traditional hierarchical “command and control” organizations have been unsuccessfully struggling to gain an edge over their competitors, whereas comparatively progressive organizations with flatter structures, which involved their employees during the conceptualization, planning and implementation stages of change, succeeded in achieving far better results to meet the growing demands for quality and flexibility through popular change brought about through empowerment of its employees. The desired results form change can not be achieved without the involvement and ownership of the change by its employees. Therefore, it is imperative that before thinking of bringing about any change for betterment, efforts are made to create a sense of ownership amongst the employees of the organization. Such sense of ownership can be created through a number of measures, such as (a) creating a spirited, innovative, learning environment where people are continuously looking for new ways to satisfy customers, and have the liberty to experiment their innovative ideas; (b) affording small personal favours to employees, and caring about their well being; and (c) decentralization and delegation of various functions to grossroots level, which essentially means that the employees should be given more autonomy to take initiative and calculated risks when needed, without getting the permission of their seniors and without any fear of reprimand. (continue reading…)
Ever since the inception of organization there has been an undeniable interplay of the human functions and “The Organization”. History bears evidence to organizational activity indicating knowledge of many ideas later expressed as “scientific management”. Archaeology has unearthed extensive accumulations of relics from past civilizations that reflect elaborate organizational achievements. The mammoth walls of ancient Babylon, the Pyramids of the Pharons , Temples of Aztecs , and most Mughal Architecture rival the accomplishments of the modern industrial technology. Hannibal’s Crossing of the Alps in 218 B.C with troops and equipment was a remarkable organizational feat.
