Business Management: Open to Learning

Solution Preview

Please refer to the attached file for the response.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Do you think that being open to learning is critical to the ultimate goal of change management?
ANSWER:
Yes. Being open to learning is very critical in change management.
Change means alteration, modification, or transformation; but all for the better or for the improvement. Hence managing change means managing alteration/modification/transformation processes for the improvement of an organization. Basically, an organization must have to change because the environmental, both internal and external are changing. The external environment is composed of buyers, suppliers of raw materials, suppliers of funds, the economy, the government, and a lot of other factors outside the organization. The internal environment is composed of owners, employees, products and services, processes, policies, and others.
To cope with the changes in both external and internal environments, top management, managers, and all those involved in the implementation of change must be open to learning along the following:
1. The nature of the changes.
• Specifically, what should be changed?
• What are its elements?
• How complex is the change to be implemented?
2. Causes/need for the change
• Employee turnover
• Decrease in sales/market share
• Decrease in profitability
• Customer complaints
• Investors withdrawing their investments
3. Effects of the change
• Resistance/acceptance of both employees and buyers/clients
• Costs
• Image in the community
• Priorities
• Financial performance
4. How to handle the change.
• Strategies
• Policy changes
• Re-statement of company mission, goals, and objectives
Without learning the above, change may not be effectively implemented.

Change is of three (3) types - changing structure, changing technology, and changing people. Structural changes include changes in organizational design, span of management, authority, and others. Changing technology has something to do with changes in processes, methods, machineries, equipment and other technologically-related factors. Changing people include changing their attitudes, improving their performance, developing their knowledge and skills.
Implementing these types of changes require adequate learning for all those involved to ensure that the objectives of the change management will be ...