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Change Management: Critical Review

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Introduction

Change is a common thing that happens all around us on a daily basis sometimes even without us noticing. It can range from family level to international levels, likewise in time frame it can happen on a daily basis, a monthly, yearly or even a decade. In the words of Senior & Fleming (6) Change can be simply defined as process of moving from one state to another. It is this transition that creates distress to the people due to fear of the unknown. We can not stop change but rather we can only manage it. So then what is change management?

Change management has been defined in several ways, but according to Hayes (2005) change management is the systematic approach and application of knowledge, tools, and …show more content…

Technology can range form simple office machines, ICT equipments, to heavy production machinery.

Government policy – business units exist in environments which have their own developed regulatory and legislation systems. This means sometimes government policies may change at any time affecting the organisation either positively or negatively. For example government enactment of new law on new wage guidelines may prompt the Human Resources department of an organisation to revise their pay scales.

Economics – organisations operate in environments that have dynamic economic cycles. This necessitates change so as to keep a breast with prevailing economic trends. Good examples include economic cycles, unemployment rates, inflation and even foreign exchange rates. For instance high inflation rates reduce disposable incomes of households thus lowering their purchasing powers. This may signal the production department to come up with new product that meets the demand of consumers (British Journal of Management, 67).

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Context of Change: Courtesy of Osborne and Brown (105) Organizational change management

Resistance to change is one of the biggest barriers that organizations face in their efforts to implement organizational change. This greatly hampers the uptake of new technologies, new ways of doing work and even progress of organizations. Reviewing on this, the British Journal of

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