Organizational change is often met with resistance, even when carefully planned. Despite thorough preparation, unexpected challenges like employee pushback and communication breakdowns can disrupt productivity and delay projects. Change comes in many forms—planned or unplanned, incremental or transformational, large or small—and each requires a tailored approach to mitigate its impact. Understanding the nature of change and its byproducts, such as resistance or poor communication, is critical to successful implementation. Proactive change management, along with support from experienced professionals, can turn these disruptions into opportunities for long-term growth and efficiency.
“The HR department, in collaboration with company leaders, meticulously planned the restructuring of a key business unit, involving extensive research and preparation. Despite the plan appearing perfect on paper, the implementation faced unexpected resistance, with employees reluctant to accept new roles and mocking the changes. Even after updates to job titles and processes, employees continued their usual routines, leaving the team puzzled by the pushback against seemingly efficient practices. But why was there such resistance when everything was seemingly aligned with modern, efficient practices?”
-Quote from head of the business unit of a multi-national telecommunication organization.
There are times when, despite careful consideration of budget, timing, and implementation plans for a new system, acquisition, or organizational structure, you might still face significant decreases in productivity, project delays, missed milestones, breakdowns in relationships, team conflicts, and ineffective communication from managers. These disruptions can critically affect the overall timeline and profitability of the projects, indicating that something is impeding your objectives.
What can be the root cause of all these events?
The answer is change. Change is an event itself and can range from altering daily processes to introducing a new organizational structure. It's important to recognize that these scenarios are not merely symptoms; they are complex situations resulting from deeper issues within the change process.
So, how should you manage the impacts of these changes?
As Albert Einstein famously said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions." This approach underscores the importance of deeply understanding the nature of the changes and challenges before attempting to solve them. Therefore, it is crucial to precisely identify what constitutes the change, what are its different types and the byproducts. This understanding will enable you to develop targeted strategies to mitigate its effects and ensure successful implementation.
In this post we will delve into the definition and types of change in organizations and will briefly describe the risks and costs of unmanaged changes.
Understanding organizational change and its drivers
Organizational change refers to modifications made in the various layers of a company's operations and role structures.
These changes can include structural adjustments, like altering the organizational hierarchy; procedural changes, such as revising workflows; technological updates, from adopting new software to overhauling IT systems; and cultural shifts, which involve changing the corporate ethos or behaviours.
But why do changes take place and can you prevent it?
Long story short, there is no way around them!
Changes are often driven by a combination of external and internal factors. Externally, shifts in market conditions, growing competition, and technological advancements demand an agile response from businesses to remain competitive. Internally, changes may stem from the need to enhance operational efficiency, improve employee engagement and retention, or adapt to leadership transitions and new strategic visions. These drivers underscore the necessity and inevitability for businesses to adapt and evolve continuously.
Change is inevitable.
Tips to recognize organizational changes: anticipation, nature, and scale
Understanding these distinctions helps you prepare and apply the appropriate strategies and resources, ensuring that all changes, whether large, small, planned, or unplanned, are managed effectively to minimize disruption and maximize benefits.
To gain a clearer understanding of the various types of organizational changes and how to identify them, consider using the following tips for categorization. Focus on these three key factors based on their unique characteristics: Anticipation, Nature, and Scale.
Anticipation of Change
- Planned Change: This type of change is strategic and intentional, aimed at enhancing performance or achieving specific strategic objectives. It is characterized by a structured process, which may involve detailed change management strategies and is executed in either incremental or radical steps.
- Unplanned Change: Represents a reactive response to unforeseen circumstances, such as natural disasters or economic crises. This type of change is typically chaotic and can have adverse effects if not managed properly, requiring swift and effective intervention to minimize negative impacts.
Nature of Change
- Incremental Change: Entails gradual and ongoing modifications aimed at continuously improving and optimizing existing systems and processes. These changes are typically less disruptive and integrate smoothly into daily operations.
- Transformational Change: Involves profound, often rapid changes that fundamentally redefine the organization’s core operations, strategic direction, or structure. These changes are significant and can be highly disruptive if not managed carefully.
Scale of Change
- Larger-Scale Changes: These involve complex transitions that impact multiple groups within (and/or outside) the organization and require considerable time, effort, and resources to implement successfully. Examples include:
- Organizational restructuring with significant alterations in roles and responsibilities
- Introduction of new systems or methods that modify existing work processes
- Changing how clients experience or interact with the organization
- Bringing in a new CEO
- Implementing a new strategic plan that shifts the operation or market of the organization
- Smaller-Scale Changes: Often subtler and may initially appear minor but still require careful planning and intentional leadership to manage effectively.
Examples include:
- Appointing a new or acting leader for an established team
- Changes in reporting relationships
- Moving a team to a new group or portfolio
- Introducing new operational methods
- Adjusted expectations for an established role
- Tweaking existing processes
- Rolling out new processes, plans, or strategies
Byproducts of change
Changes in an organization can lead to several common problems and issues, some of the important ones are listed below:
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- Employee resistance is a significant hurdle, often manifesting as discomfort with disruptions to routines, concerns over job security or role changes, difficulty in seeing the benefits of the change, and struggling to adapt to new workflows or technologies.
- Poor communication during change initiatives can result in limited or insufficient information being shared, underutilization of communication channels, failure in keeping all people informed and involved, and a lack of clarity about timelines, expectations, and impacts of the change.
- Organizational disruption during change often results from employee resistance, learning curves associated with new systems, increased operational complexity, communication gaps, and cultural misalignments, all of which can lead to conflicts, decreased productivity, and delays.
- Other challenges include implementation difficulties, such as insufficient training, compatibility issues between old and new systems, and underestimating the resources required for effective implementation. Inadequate planning and project management can lead to incorrect or incomplete rollout, difficulties in tracking project progress, challenges in evaluating change acceptance, and lack of buy-in from key engaged individuals.
So, what should we do with these dire consequences of change?
To effectively mitigate the challenges associated with organizational change, it is crucial for organizations to proactively develop comprehensive change management plans. Effective change management can reduce the time it takes to implement organizational changes by up to 33%. This indicates that well-managed change initiatives can be executed more efficiently.
You don’t need to navigate these waters alone, you can partner with experienced change management practitioners or advisors to efficiently navigate these transitions, transforming organizational challenges into opportunities for sustained growth and improved performance. Having experienced internal or external change support is key to ensuring you proactively mitigate or even avoid the unwanted change byproducts. Acceptance for change needs to be planned and well managed…. Don’t leave it up to chance.
If you're looking for seasoned change management experts to guide you through your organizational transformation, reach out to Stratford Group today.
About the Author:
Mohadeseh (Mohi) Shahdehi is a second-year master's student at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management, specializing in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior and currently People and Culture CO-OP student at Stratford. With her analytical capabilities paired with hands-on HR experience from international roles—including an HR Internship at Nestle and as an Organization Development Specialist in telecommunication industry—Mohi adeptly bridges theory with practice. Her expertise spans job analysis, competency modeling, workforce planning, and organizational redesign. As a co-op student at Stratford, she is currently enhancing her professional consulting skills, committed to supporting organizational and individual growth through strategic HR initiatives.