Change Agent
In the current world of business, change is inevitable due to the rapid change in technology and ways of doing business. Organizations are prone to adjust to new working environments to have a relative competition for market in with other competitors. Technology is one of the key factors leading to coherent changes in operations as managers and employers seek to increase output and quality while reducing costs and expenditures.
Change management nowadays is not regarded as a specialty but rather it is considered as a quality attribute that every manager should possess. Change management is embraced in companies across the globe to assist in departmental changes in operations and shifts in marketplaces and targets. One of the requirements of most organizations is to ensure that in every department there must be a manager or a senior employee who has the attributes of a change agent.
In many companies, change management is seen to focus on operational changes and/ or process changes where the intentions are solely on how the organization can engage in its daily activities while maintaining cost. This notion has since changed and now companies view change is a skill that can managers use to ensure that things are done regardless of institutional hierarchy. Companies are utilizing the skills of change agents to execute new processes and ideas and assist other staffs to adjust to the new mode of operations.
A change agent can be a manager, an employee, or an external consultant hired to offer assistance in the change process. Therefore, a change agent can be an internal or external entity. An internal agent has the advantage of knowing the internal environment of the organization including the people, customs, and culture of the company hence can be able to shape changes easily. An external agent, on the other hand, can introduce new ideas for implementing a change without the influence of any internal person or environment.
Change, therefore, has a huge influence on the success of a company. To accept change, the change agent must have the qualities needed to facilitate change in the entire institution. The consequences of neglecting change in accompany can cost an organization extra cash thus retarding the organizational growth and dominance in the markets. The following section highlights the basic quality attributes that every change agent should have.
Change Agent Qualities
Diversified Knowledge
To be an effective change agent, one should have a deep understanding of the organization and the operations involved in the company. A change agent must have the ability to evaluate patterns in the industry to avoid getting stuck in the process. The change agent should not get confined in the jurisdiction of one industry but try to check what is applied in other sectors and translate the feasible concepts in the industry.
Flexibility
A change agent must emulate the zeal of an entrepreneur by taking the risk for huge rewards. Leaders must have the ability to break the traditional ways of growing a business and creating opportunities by embracing newer methods and techniques. For instance, a leader can mingle with people across all generations and backgrounds to have a deeper understanding of personalities, experiences, and perspectives.
Ownership and Responsibility
People always embrace leaders who are courageous and accountable for the team’s actions. Change agents are sort of team leaders and should possess the leadership attribute of accepting the outcome of the team performance.
Priority and Result Focused
A change agent should at all-time prioritize options that are in conjunction with the company’s overall goal. The business goals of a company and the desire to change are two battles that must be won at all costs. By doing so, the company will achieve the intended business goals without straining the organization’s budget.
Effective Listening Skills
Change agents require listening skills to gain more perspectives of change for them to execute any solutions.
Roles of a Change Agent
An individual required to implement change in an organization must wear different hats. This means that a change agent should have more than one role in an organization change. Some of the major roles of a change agent are listed in the section below.
Investigate
Unlike all the other activities, implementing change is not straight forward as thus requiring the change agent to play the role of investigating the steps to follow to accommodate a change. The individual spearheading change in an organization must learn the obstacles inhibiting change in an organization and then come up with steps for achieving the changes in the organization.0
Advocate
Change agents play a vital role in speaking the change initiative in the organization when other employees engage in main business activities. An organizing change agent speaks on behalf of the management and ensures that the changing welfare is enhanced in the organization.
Facilitate
As a facilitator, the change agent must help the employees in the process of change. This role is among the major activities of a change agent whereby the agent designs tools, systems, forms, etc., that will help the employees pass through the change process (Dawson, 2010).
Encourage
As change happens, the employees are seen to change their attitude, behaviors, and activities do to change in the environment and working procedures. The role of a change agent is to fully understand the conditions of every employee and assist them to overcome the phobia of changing.
Manage
Change is a gradual process that has budget and time limits. A change agent should manage the change process by observing the timeline of change and ensure the goals are met within the stipulated time. The change manager should be held accountable throughout the change process (Carnall, 2008).
A change process is not a smooth journey as any other endeavor of a company. A change process will always have the opposing or the dissenting side who must be approached in a professional way to attract them to accommodate the change. this is a managerial role that an agent of change should play in the organization.
Influences of Change Agent in an Organization’s Change Process
As mentioned earlier in this paper, a change agent is very influential in the change process in an organization. The change agent can be a manager, an employee, or an external person hired for consultation purposes. The influence of a change advocate can cause an organization to achieve its business objectives or fail to achieve the intended target depending on the character portrait of the change agent.
The change agent is considered to be the center of concern in the change process thus becoming a crucial entity in the process. Mediation is one of the major factors that can lead to the success of a change process. The role of a change agent is ensuring that proper communication is available in the organization for proper dissemination of knowledge necessary to facilitate a change.
The change agent is supposed to manage the entire change process to ensure that every aspect is catered for and that the time constraint is met. As such, the change agent can influence the change process by rewarding the employees or punishing others. To avoid incidences of rejection by employees, proper training should be introduced to the employees as a way of building confidence in the new model.
Challenges Faced by Change Agents in the Change Process
Organization change is a sensitive process that is challenging and hectic for the change agent. An organization’s change agent may be faced with some of the challenges during the change process that can lead to failure or delay in implementing a change. The section below highlights some of the common challenges faced by change agents and the basic ways of addressing these challenges.
Rejection by the Opposing Side
A change is always opposed by some of the employees who are more of conservatives and fear to change. Ideally, the opposing side fears change due to the consequences involved while embracing change. The best way to avoid this challenge is to have employee training and awareness of change and have mediation strategies to solve any emerging issues (Monnot, 2017).
Organization Goals and Priorities
It becomes difficult for a change agent to focus on both the business goals and the priorities in a change process. This challenge can be mitigated by incorporating all the stakeholders in the organization in the decision-making process.
Lack of Organization Support
Lack of organization support kills any change process at the initial or the end of the process. The change agent should act as a mediator in linking the change process to the management to gain managerial support.
Conclusion
Organization change is a process that requires an agent with the utmost managerial skills to facilitate the achievement of any change. A change agent should embrace top-notch skills such as good listening skills, knowledge diversity, and mediation. The challenges of achieving the intended change objectives which include rejection and lack of managerial support can be suppressed by involving workers in a training program and educating the managers on the benefits of accepting the change.
References
Carnall, C. (2008). Managing change in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Dawson, P. M. B. (2010). Managing change, creativity, and innovation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Fred C. Lunenburg (2010). Managing Change: The Role of the Change Agent. International journal of management, business, and administration, 13(1)
Monnot, M. J. (2017). Organizational change agent influence: A conditional process model of key individual psychological resources. Journal of Change Management, 17(3), 268-295
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