Problems of carrying out strategic changes in the organization. Basic Organizational Change Strategies

Implementation of the strategy involves carrying out the necessary changes without which even the most well-designed strategy can fail. Therefore, with full confidence it can be argued that strategic changes are the key to the implementation of the strategy.

Holding strategic changes in an organization is a very difficult task. Difficulties in solving this problem are primarily due to the fact that any change meets resistance, which can sometimes be so strong that those who make changes cannot overcome it. Therefore, in order to make changes, it is necessary, at a minimum, to do the following:

Uncover, analyze and predict what resistance a planned change may meet;

Reduce this resistance (potential and real) to the minimum possible;

Set the status quo to a new state.

The bearers of resistance, as well as the bearers of change, are people. In principle, people are not afraid of change, they are afraid of being changed. People are afraid that changes in the organization will affect their work, their position in the organization, i.e. established status quo. Therefore, they seek to prevent changes in order not to get into a new situation that is not entirely clear to them, in which they will have to do something different from what they are already used to doing, and do something different from what they did before.

Attitude towards change can be viewed as a combination of the states of two factors: 1) acceptance or non-acceptance of change; 2) open or hidden demonstration of attitude to change (Fig. 5.3).

Figure 5 3 Change-resistance matrix

Based on conversations, interviews, questionnaires and other forms of information gathering, the management of the organization should try to find out what type of reaction to changes will be observed in the organization, which of the employees of the organization will take the position of supporters of changes, and who will be in one of the three remaining positions. Such forecasts are of particular relevance in large organizations and in organizations that have existed without changes for a rather long period of time, since in these organizations resistance to change can be quite strong and widespread.

Reducing resistance to change is key to bringing about change. An analysis of the potential forces of resistance allows you to reveal those individual members of the organization or those groups in the organization that will resist change, and to understand the motives for not accepting the change. In order to reduce potential resistance, it is useful to organize people into creative groups that will contribute to the implementation of change, to involve a wide range of employees in developing a change program, to conduct extensive explanatory work among employees of the organization aimed at convincing them of the need for change. changes to meet the challenges facing the organization.

The success of the change depends on how management will implement it. Managers should keep in mind that when making changes, they should demonstrate high level confidence in its rightness and necessity and try to be, as far as possible, successive in the implementation of the program of change. At the same time, they should always keep in mind that as change is made, people's attitudes may change. Therefore, they should not pay attention to a little resistance to change and be okay with people who initially resisted change, and then this resistance ceased.

The extent to which management manages to eliminate resistance to change is greatly influenced by style carrying out the change. A leader can be tough and relentless in eliminating resistance, or they can be flexible. It is believed that the autocratic style can only be useful in very specific situations that require the immediate elimination of resistance when making very important changes. In most cases, it is considered more acceptable a style in which management reduces resistance to change by bringing to its side those who were initially opposed to change. Very successful in this regard is the participatory style of leadership, in which many members of the organization are involved in solving problems.

With permission conflicts, that may arise in an organization during change, managers may use a variety of leadership styles. The most pronounced styles are the following:

competitive style, emphasizing force, based on perseverance, the assertion of one's rights, proceeding from the fact that the resolution of the conflict presupposes the existence of a winner and a loser;

self-eliminating style, manifested in the fact that the leadership demonstrates low perseverance and at the same time does not seek to find ways to cooperate with dissenting members of the organization;

compromise style, assuming a moderate insistence of the leadership on the implementation of its approaches to resolving the conflict and, at the same time, a moderate desire of the leadership to cooperate with those who resist;

fixture style, expressed in the desire of the leadership to establish cooperation in resolving the conflict while weakly insisting on the adoption of the solutions proposed by it;

collaborative style, characterized by the fact that management seeks both to implement their approaches to change, and to establish a relationship of cooperation with dissenting members of the organization.

It is impossible to unequivocally state that any of the five styles named is more acceptable for conflict resolution, and some less. It all depends on the situation, on what kind of change is being carried out, what tasks are being solved and what forces are resisting. It is also important to consider the nature of the conflict. It is completely wrong to believe that conflicts are always only negative, destructive. Any conflict contains both negative and positive beginnings. If the negative principle prevails, then the conflict is destructive, and in this case, any style is applicable that is able to effectively prevent the destructive consequences of the conflict. If the conflict leads to positive results, such as, for example, removing people from an indifferent state, creating new communication channels, or raising the level of awareness of the organization's members about the processes taking place in it, then it is important to use this style of resolving conflicts that arise in connection with changes, which would contribute to the emergence of as much as possible a wide range positive results carrying out the change.

The change must end establishing new status quo in the organization. It is very important not only to eliminate resistance to change, but also to ensure that the new state of affairs in the organization is not just formally established, but is accepted by the members of the organization and becomes a reality. Therefore, management should not be delusional and confuse reality with formally established new structures or norms of relations. If the actions to carry out the change did not lead to the emergence of a new stable status quo, then the change cannot be considered completed and work on its implementation should be continued until the organization really replaces the old situation with the new one.

Changes in the organization- these are the decisions of its leadership to change something in internal factors (goals, structure, tasks, technology, personnel). The reason for change is the need to respond to changes occurring in external environment(for example, competition, changes in legislation, etc.) or internal problems (increase in productivity, etc.).

Changes in the organization- this is:

innovation - the introduction of progressive tangible and intangible innovations;

changes in production and organizational structures dictated by strategic plans;

internal events of a local nature (modernization or replacement of equipment, reconstruction of buildings, etc.

The most important goal of change management is to get agreement on their implementation.

The usual practice of developing and implementing large, systemic innovations is that they are initiated either by the 1st person or by the entire senior management staff of the company. At the same time, the usual algorithm involves first developing a transformation strategy, then introducing new ones. system solutions and at the end - training of personnel to work in the new conditions. Often the last stage is not implemented, and workers are forced to adapt to new conditions through trial and error.

L. Greiner's Model of Successful Organizational Change Management consists of six stages:

1. Pressure and urge: analysis of the problem together with the team and thereby encouraging it to change.

2. Mediation and redirection of attention : awareness true reasons and the need for change, Development of a common idea (orientation), how to organize the process of achieving goals, and manage it.

3. Diagnosis and awareness: identification of problems whose solution should change the status quo, gathering information, and from lower levels, encouraging coherence in the development of a new vision, competence in implementing it and cohesion.

4. New decision and new commitments : finding new solutions and getting support from those who will implement them.

5. Embodiment of the renewal process in formally implemented policies, systems and structures.

6. Making changes in full scale. Controlling the update process and adapting the strategy to the problems that arise during its implementation.

Proven methods of reducing (eliminating) resistance to change: open discussion of ideas and measures for change, persuading employees of their need; Involving subordinates in decision-making, creating an environment of openness; assistant support; stimulating the consent of those who resist; maneuvering; compulsion.

The problems of carrying out strategic changes in organizations are associated with the presence of resistance on the part of employees, therefore, to overcome them, the following measures should be taken:

- reduce to a minimum real and potential resistance by explaining to employees the benefits that they will be able to receive after the implementation of the plans;

– establish the status quo of a new state;

- make a forecast of possible resistance of employees to the planned changes.

Attitudes towards change can be viewed as a combination of the states of two factors:

– acceptance or rejection of the change;

- open or hidden demonstration of attitude to change.

Based on conversations, interviews, questionnaires and other forms of information gathering, the management of the organization should try to find out what type of reaction to changes will be observed in the organization, which of the employees of the organization will take the position of supporters of changes, and who will be in one of the other positions. Such forecasts are of particular relevance in large organizations and in organizations that have existed without changes for a rather long period of time, since in these organizations resistance to change can be quite strong and widespread.

The success of the change depends on how management will implement it. Managers must keep in mind that when implementing a change, they must demonstrate confidence in its correctness and necessity, and try to be as consistent as possible in the implementation of the change program. At the same time, they should always keep in mind that as change is made, people's attitudes may change. Therefore, they should ignore the slight resistance to change and be calm about people who initially resisted change, and then this resistance was stopped.

Big influence The extent to which management manages to eliminate resistance to change is influenced by the style of change. A leader can be tough and relentless in eliminating resistance, or they can be flexible. In most cases, a more acceptable style is one in which leadership reduces resistance to change by bringing to its side those who initially resisted it. Very successful in this regard is the participatory style of leadership, in which many members of the organization are involved in solving issues of change.

Along with strategic changes and creating the necessary climate in the organization important task one that management has to decide at the stage of implementing the strategy is the formation and mobilization of the resources of the organization, in particular its human potential for the implementation of the strategy.

The process of formation and mobilization of resources begins with the fact that the mechanism for using the resource potential of the organization is brought into line with the strategy being implemented. To do this, top management must bring the nature and focus of the activities of functional units in line with the objectives of the strategy. New tasks should be brought to the functional units that manage the movement of resources within the organization.

The process of mobilizing resources at the stage of implementation of the strategy involves, along with the effective allocation of resources, also the assessment and retention of sources of capital receipts. Management should not only be aware of the sources that it can use to raise money, the possibilities and restrictions on their use, the cost of capital, but also do everything possible to preserve these sources and acquire new ones, if necessary, for implementation. strategies.

The main tool used to allocate resources is the preparation and execution of the budget, which may concern not only Money but also inventory, sales, etc.

As a rule, changes include the introduction of new methods of work and the appearance of new people, which directly affects the organization's staff. For successful change management, the main thing is to understand the consequences of implementing changes for all participants in the process. Arising in connection with this Problems can manifest themselves in different ways, but basically they are found in several aspects, presented in Table. one.
Table 1
Classification of problems arising in the process of managing organizational changes


Each of these problems is both independent and at the same time closely related to others.
Considering change management in a narrow sense, i.e. as the management of factors influencing the deviation of the system from a given course, the main attention should be paid to the phenomenon of resistance to change, which is considered by many researchers as the main one in a number of problems that arise in the process of managing organizational changes.
After the implementation of the planned measures to implement the changes, there is an inevitable gap in the performance of the company, the changes do not immediately lead to the desired results; in the organization there is a movement to return to the previous position.
It should be noted that the conflict-free implementation of changes in the conditions of cooperation of the entire team is the exception rather than the rule. This is due to the fact that changes are evaluated differently by both the top management of the enterprise and employees. Resistance to change can have different strength and intensity.
The bearers of resistance, as well as the bearers of change, are people. In principle, people are not afraid of change, they are afraid of being changed. People are afraid that changes in the organization will affect their work, their position in the organization, i.e. established status quo. Therefore, they seek to prevent changes in order not to get into a new situation that is not entirely clear to them, in which they will have to do a lot differently than they are already used to doing, and do things that are not what they were doing before.
Attitudes towards change can be viewed as a combination of the states of two factors:
1) acceptance or non-acceptance of the change;
2) open or hidden demonstration of attitude to change (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Matrix "change - resistance"
Based on conversations, interviews, questionnaires and other forms of information collection, the management of the organization should find out what type of reaction to changes will be observed in the organization, which of the employees will take the position of supporters of changes, and who will be in one of the three remaining positions. Such forecasts are of particular relevance in large organizations and in those that have existed without changes for a rather long period of time, since in these organizations resistance to change can be quite strong and widespread.
The above issues can be summarized in the following guidance for planning and implementing change management strategies1:
1. Achieving sustainable change requires high degree commitment of employees and leadership based on the vision from the management.
2. It is necessary to understand the culture of the organization and those levers of change that will be effective in this culture. Managers at all levels must have the right temperament and leadership qualities to suit the circumstances of the organization and its change strategies.
3. It is important to create a working environment that leads to change - this means developing the company as a learning organization.
4. The degree of commitment to change is enhanced if the people involved in the changes have the opportunity to fully participate in the planning and implementation of plans.
5. The reward system should stimulate innovation and record success in achieving change.
6. Change strategies must be adaptive, as the ability to quickly respond to new situations and demands that will inevitably arise is vital.
7. Along with success, change will inevitably come with setbacks. It is necessary to expect possible failures and learn from mistakes.
8. Clear evidence and data about the need for change is a powerful tool to start the process, but it is still easier to identify the need for change than to make decisions to meet this need.
9. The focus should be on changing behavior, not trying to impose corporate values.
10. It is easier to change behavior by changing processes, structures and systems than attitudes.
11. It is necessary to anticipate the problems of the implementation process.
12. Resistance to change is unavoidable if employees feel that the changes will make them explicitly or implicitly worse off. Poor change management can provoke a similar reaction. The implementation of the change must end with the establishment of a new status quo in the organization. It is important not only to eliminate resistance to change, but also to ensure that the new state of affairs in the organization is not just formally established, but is accepted by the members of the organization and becomes a reality. Therefore, management should not be delusional and confuse reality with formally established new structures or norms of relations. If the actions to implement the change have not led to the emergence of a new sustainable status quo, then the change cannot be considered completed and work on its implementation should be continued until the organization really replaces the old situation with the new one.
Summary
Traditionally, strategic change has been presented as an infrequent, sometimes one-time, large-scale change. However, in recent times The strategic development of an organization is viewed more as a continuous evolutionary process in which one strategic change creates the need for other changes.
In a complex dynamic world that is changing faster and faster, in order to have time to react to changes, it is necessary to “run even faster”. In order to adapt to new market conditions better than your competitors, you should constantly modify. An organization's ability to change determines how successful it is. Therefore, we can say that strategic changes lay the foundation for future success.
Strategic change, if done correctly, is systemic, affecting all aspects of the organization. However, two sections of the organization can be distinguished, which are the main ones when carrying out strategic changes. The first slice is the organizational structure, the second slice is the organizational culture.

Depending on the state of the basic characteristics of the organization, goods and markets that determine the need and degree of change, five are distinguished that are quite stable and differ in a certain completeness. types of changes:

1. Organization restructuring which involves a fundamental change in the organization, affects its mission and organizational structure. This type of change is carried out when the organization changes the strategic area of ​​management and, accordingly, the product and the market change.

2. radical transformation organization is carried out at the stage of implementing the strategy in the event that the organization does not change the scope of its activities, however, it undergoes radical changes caused, for example, by its merger with a similar organization.

3. moderate conversion is carried out in the case when an organization enters the market with a new product and tries to attract the attention of consumers to it.

4. Regular changes mainly related to the implementation of reforms in the field marketing activities, in order to maintain interest in the goods produced by the organization.

5. Permanent functioning organization occurs when it purposefully implements the same strategy.

Difficulties in the task of making changes in the organization are due to the fact that any change meets resistance, sometimes so strong that it is not possible to overcome it by those who carry out the change.

To make a change, do the following:

1. uncover, analyze and predict what resistance a planned change may meet;

2. reduce resistance (potential and real) to the minimum possible;

3. set the status quo of the new state.

Attitudes towards change can be viewed as a combination of the states of two factors:

1. accepting or not accepting the change;

2. open or covert demonstration of attitude towards change.

Among the participants in the changes, four categories of persons can be distinguished, the number of which fits into the normal distribution. Active supporters of change are people who are dissatisfied existing order are aware of the need for change and are willing to make significant efforts to implement it. Not only do they agree with change, but they are convinced of the need for change and are energetically working to make change happen.

Passive supporters of change- these are people who, although they understand that changes are needed, are not ready for active action, they have much less will to implement changes.

Passive opponents of change These are the people who don't want change to happen. They may verbally agree with the need for change, but in reality they cannot be counted on.

Active opponents of change are people who know well why they are against change and actively oppose it.

Active supporters and opponents, as a rule, are leaders, followed by a passive part of people.

Based on conversations, interviews, questionnaires and other forms of information gathering, management should find out what type of reaction to change will be observed in the organization.

Managers should remember that when implementing change, they should demonstrate a high level of confidence in its rightness and necessity and try to be as consistent as possible in implementing the change program. In this case, it is of great importance full information constantly communicated to the employees of the organization.

The style of change implementation has a big influence on resistance management.

The autocratic style can only be effective in very specific situations that require the immediate elimination of resistance in making very important changes. In most cases, the more acceptable style is one in which leadership reduces resistance by bringing to its side those who initially resisted resistance.

There are four methods of carrying out transformations in the enterprise: forced, adaptive, crisis, resistance management.

forced method Organizational change involves the use of force to overcome resistance. This is a costly and undesirable process. socially, but giving advantages in strategic response time. It is used in conditions of acute shortage of time.

The biggest difficulties in using this method are as follows:

• Absence before the start of the process of change of a base that would ensure its implementation.
• Failure to foresee the sources and strength of resistance.
• Failure to address the root cause of resistance.
• premature structural changes.

To increase the effectiveness of forced change, it is necessary to analyze the mood of the staff and identify potential sources of resistance or, conversely, support.

Method of adaptive changes lies in the fact that strategic changes occur through gradual, minor changes over a long period. Conflicts are resolved through compromise, and personnel changes in the guide.

This method makes it possible to implement changes in conditions where the supporters of change do not have administrative power, but there is a strong motivation to introduce innovations, and an appropriate way of thinking has been formed. It is used in conditions of predictability of changes in the external environment. This method ineffective in case of emergency events in the external environment.

crisis method is implemented when the organization is in a crisis situation, or changes in the external environment threaten its existence. When a crisis hits, resistance usually gives way to support. AT similar situation The initial task of senior management is not to fight resistance, but to prevent panic. The renewal of resistance testifies to the first signs of a way out of the crisis.

When a crisis is imminent, leaders who realize it before others can take action the following actions:

1. Try to convince of the inevitability of the crisis and take preventive measures.

2. Before the present crisis, create an artificial one by inventing an “external enemy” that threatens the existence of the organization: the behavior of the initiator of an artificial crisis is risky and can have serious ethical consequences, because an artificially created crisis does not have to turn into a real one. The advantages of this technique are that it significantly reduces resistance, support for decisions is formed, and this increases the chances of a successful exit from a real crisis situation.

If coercive and adaptive methods are extreme measures to bring about change, then resistance control method(the “accordion” method) is intermediate and can be implemented within the timeframe dictated by the development of events in the external environment. With an increase in urgency, this method approaches a forced method, with a decrease in urgency, an adaptive method of implementing changes.

This property is acquired through the use of a phased approach: the planning process is divided into stages; at the end of each stage, a specific implementation program is implemented.

The method is effective in conditions when spontaneous phenomena in the external environment are not single, but recurring, and the administration needs to create a permanent management capacity of a strategic nature to respond to changes. The disadvantages of the method are that it is more complicated than others, requires constant attention from top management, managers involved in the implementation of this method must be able to plan their actions in situations that are difficult to predict.

In itself, the inappropriate and untimely use of methods to overcome the "resistance phenomenon", thus, can cause the failure of strategically important organizational innovations. Therefore, the management of the organization needs to have a tool for adequately assessing the situation and choosing the best options for implementing organizational innovations in the management system. In this case, two main parameters should be taken into account:

1) time horizon (the degree of urgency of organizational innovations, the available time resource for their successful implementation);

2) professional, psychological, technical readiness of personnel for strategic important changes in this organization.

To assess the time horizon, qualified forecasts of the development of the situation in the organization and around it are necessary.

When assessing the level of readiness of the organization to master new management technologies, it is necessary to diagnose the characteristics of the organizational culture, the socio-psychological status of the personnel, and its technical equipment.

To accept changes. As practice shows, changes are met with resistance from employees if the atmosphere of psychological comfort changes or hidden threats to the position of a person in the organization are felt. As a rule, employees have a negative attitude towards possible changes for several reasons, such as

What are the main problems that arise in an organization when making strategic changes?

When tasks and technologies are taken into account in the course of change, methods of work design, sociotechnical system, quality circles, business process reengineering, total quality management are usually used. With a focus on changing the structure, their adaptive types are used - parallel, metric and network. Strategic changes require, for example, an open planning system. Comprehensive organizational change programs, no matter what they prioritize, often involve changing several aspects of the organization at the same time. Managers and employees should be informed and aware of the potential ethical issues that accompany the process of organizational change.

Thus, when creating, it is necessary to make changes in the company that can (and usually do) cause resistance. This problem concerns the introduction of a strategic management system to a greater extent than other changes, since the transition to strategic behavior requires a rethinking of the company's activities by everyone who works in it. Therefore, insufficient awareness of the need for organizational changes by the management and employees of the company and the lack of appropriate measures for this can ruin any intentions to improve management.

After the mission of the company has been formulated and regulatory documents have been developed (or adjusted) for diagnosing and implementing changes, it is necessary to form a team of creative workers who are able to reorient the organizational culture of the enterprise to new values, the essence of which is determined by consumer problems. And this is the third stage of change. Obviously, the team should consist of creatively thinking employees who are not afraid of change, boldly apply new concepts, can argue their positions in public discussions and, of course, are respected in the team. One of the most important requirements for a team is the presence of a unifying goal (not to be confused with the goal of a marketing plan). This goal is to change the organizational culture and therefore is strategic for the enterprise. This goal should be shared by all team members. We list the essential requirements (except for a single goal) to the team

The strategic importance of employees has become apparent when the shortage of skilled workers, especially in technical fields, intensifies competition for human resources. In addition, this shortage is expected to increase. These trends make strategic planning pay much more attention to the problem of human resources than in the recent past. The prospects for strategic success are largely determined by the ability to manage the human resources of the corporation. Employees and how they are managed can be important. Because of their importance to competitiveness, employees are gaining more and more attention in organizational planning. large organizations. Research has shown that more sophisticated and thorough human resource planning, recruitment, and selection strategies are associated with increased productivity, especially in capital-intensive organizations. Also, a large-scale study of almost a thousand firms conducted in the United States showed that the practice of good work is associated with less turnover, higher productivity and more efficient short-term and long-term financial performance, which allowed the famous management theorist J. Pfeffer to state that achieving success in competition through people involves a significant change in how we think about labor and employment relationships. This means that success must be achieved by working with people, and not by replacing them or limiting their ability to act. This entails looking at labor as a source of strategic advantage rather than as a source of income to be minimized or avoided altogether. A firm that embraces this perspective is often able to outmaneuver and outperform its competitors.