Readiness Changes Within an Organizational

Question: Discuss about the Readiness: Changes Within an Organizational. Answer: Introduction: Readiness for change in an organization can be defined as the psychological condition in which members of an organization feel completely committed to an implementation of a change and their combined abilities to perform the actions involved in the change. Organizational or corporate readiness for change is considered to be a critical step into a successful implementation of a comprehensive and a complex change within an organization. Change management experts have developed strategies that aid in readiness for change, and this aims at eliminating the rigidness in the mindsets of the people within the organization and promoting their desire to change and accommodate change (Brian, 2009). Organizational preparedness for change is a joint function of the extent to which the members of the organization value the change and how they appraise the three key factors of change implementation which include; task demands, the availability of resources and situational factors. When the organiza tional preparedness for change is high, the members of the organization are more likely to initiate the change, exhibit greater effort to ensure the success of the change process, show greater persistence and behave in a more cooperative manner. The combined efforts of the members of the organization will lead to a more effective and a successful change implementation. Organizational preparedness for change is a multilevel and multiunit undertaking. The measurement of the readiness for change can be done in terms of more present or less present in the individuals, department, group, unit or the whole organization at large. The measurement can differ across the various levels or groups. The analysis is undertaken by considering the psychological and behavioral preparedness of these units to take action. For successful implementation of a complex organizational change, there must be the involvement of the all the members of the organization. The overall commitment of the various members of the organization to drive the change is paramount and crucial in ensuring that the change is implemented and implemented successfully. Experts claim that members of an organization can commit themselves to a change for various reasons, one of the reason may be because they have to (the members have no choice), because they want to (the members value the change) or because they feel that they ought to (the members feel obliged to). The commitment that is based on want to has always bore most successful results in the drive to change. Organizational preparedness for change demands a shared and a combined sense of readiness which is a difficult thing to achieve. The difficulty in having a shared sense of preparedness or readiness is the explanation for the failure to generate sufficient organizational readiness for change which translates to problems or even the outright failure during the implementation of a complex organizational change. Among the several factors that motivational theory proposes as determinants that promote preparedness for change, one is, change valence which implies the value that the members of an organization place on the impending change. The more the value that the members place on the change, the more the desire they will feel to contribute to the actions involved in the implementation of the change (Finch, 2012). Change efficacy is another condition that promotes readiness for change. Change efficacy is a factor of how much the members of an organizational appraise the three determinants of the implementation of change which includes task to be done, availability of resources and situational factors during the change process. Implementation capability partly depends on knowing what courses of action are necessary, the kinds of resources needed and how the activities involved in the implementation should be sequenced. For a successful implementation of change, there should be a match between the task required and the available resources be it financial, human, material and informational resources. The organization and its members should consider the situational factors such as the available time and the internal political environment when implementing the change. Managers within the organization have a critical and a crucial role to play in the implementation of a comprehensive change within the organization. The managers or the management of the organization initiate the change idea and then communicate the idea and the parameters surrounding it to the other members of the organization. The managers should operate as the pioneers of the change and put much effort into showing the other members of the organization the importance of the change as well as promote the outcome benefits of the change process (Higgs Aitken, 2009). The role of the manager should be to motivate the rest of the members to initiate and engage themselves in the actions that are involved in the change process. During the change process, the managers should work towards reconciling the various motivations of the cross-cultural members with the aim of having a combined motivation to drive the change. It is the role of the managers to manage the resistance to change which is a standard issue when it comes to change implementation within any organizational setup. The managers should also operate as the change coaches to the rest of the employees (Burghall, Grant, Morgan, 2014). It is the role of the managers to explain the stages of the change process to rest of the members and answer their concerns at every stage. The managers should be the advocates of the change as well as liaison persons during the change process within the organization in that they will demonstrate and provide support to the rest of the members. In conclusion, preparedness for change is a shared or a combined psychological state of the members of an organization whereby the members of an organization feel committed and dedicated to the implementation of an organizational change and feel confident in their collective capabilities to accomplish the change. For a successful implementation of change within an organization and for producing the anticipated results, collective behavior change is necessary. The behavior change is based on the collective commitment to the change which contributes to the successful implementation of the change and the generation of the expected outcomes at the end ( Greener Hughes, 2006). This paper demonstrates the three determinants of the readiness for change which include the task demands, resource availability and the present situation at the time when the change process is in progress. The paper also describes the various conditions that promote the readiness for change and these conditions in clude change valence, contextual factors, and change efficacy. The managers according to this paper take up the roles of being the advocate for the change, liaison people, the communicator of the change and the change process, the coach and the resistance managers. For the successful implementation of the change, all the members of the organization must be unified and work together as a team. To effectively attain the match of the task requirements, resource availability and other situational factors as well as raising the change valence, the involvement of the end-user is necessary. References Weiner, J. 19 October 2009. A theory of organizational readiness for change. University of North Calorina, USA. Burghall, R., Grant, V., Morgan, J. (2014). Lean Six Sigma Business Transformation For Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley. Change management. (2007). Oxford. Finch, E. (2012). Facilities change management. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell. Greener, T. and Hughes, M. (2006). Managing change before change management. Strat. Change, 15(4), pp.205-212. Higgs, M. Aitken, P. (2009). Developing change leaders. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Leonard, H. (2013). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of the psychology of leadership, change and organizational development. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell. Pugh, D. Mayle, D. (2009). Change management. Los Angeles: SAGE. Readiness for Change. (2010). Journal of Change Management, 10(4), pp.445-447. Russell-Jones, N. Hailstone, P. (2011). Managing change pocketbook, 3rd edition. Alresford, Hants, U.K.: Management Pocketbooks Ltd.