Importance of Change Management
The modern business highly globalized and digitalized environment drives change at extraordinary levels. Information technology change and advancement pace are increasing, requiring organizations to oversee transitions to new procedures and processes regularly. Organizations get required to implement change management when changes need to get adjusted at the structural level rather than a project level. Change management can get defined as the processes that help ease a company’s transitions (Horstein 2015, p. 293). More specifically, change management helps on the people’s side of initiatives. Change management usually helps employees to comprehend, commit to it, embrace, and accept changes within their environment. Change can be discontinuous or incremental.
Discontinuous change is a revolutionary type that is usually driven externally and unplanned. At the same time, incremental changes are more evolutionary and get driven internally. Change management gets designed to minimize the risk of negative fallout of any structural and general change within an organization. Majorly, change management within an organization usually focuses on both the macro and micro levels. Change management processes usually involve a top-down approach, whether investing in new information systems, relocating priorities and responsibilities. Within an organization, change usually impacts on all human resources including teams and people working on various projects (Kuipers et al. 2014, p. 9). Although, organizational change usually gets felts at a deeper level and is long term. Change management comprises project level change.
Therefore it is vital for an organization to manage any change initiatives very effectively. Managing successful change within a company has several advantages. Successful change can enhance employees’ morale while powering positive job enrichment and team building. These factors can positively and directly affect employees’ work quality and their productivity alike. Further, these factors can also help in reducing costs whole shortening production cycles (Horstein 2015, p. 291). Effective organizational change management allows facilitate general business change periods, maintain constant evolution state, and allow employees to remain productive and motivated during new procedures and technologies introduction.
Lessons Learned
The covid19 pandemic has brought with it various unprecedented changes and lessons for organizations across industries. For survivors of this pandemic, it brought changes that were deemed impossible there before. Sate imposed lockdowns and the virus brought various changes which some are permanent within the business environment. These changes have impacted on the world we have known all our lives. Organizations need to learn from lessons arising for shutdowns and the virus while adopting changes that bring out the best of a pandemic (Gudi et al. 2020, p. 108). COViD19 revealed the need for organizations to devote resources for future pandemic risks while formulating cost benefit models to assess various types and timing of lockdowns.
Agility has in recent years roved a vital components for organizations across industries. Agility during pandemics such as COVID19 has established itself as the greatest equalizer. Agility has unbridled authority over which organization both large and small survive another day or wave. Although organization agility is a major benchmark and river of successful operations, during a pandemic organizations get required to accurately and rapidly assess situations while pivoting quickly (Goniewicz et al. 2020, p. 3838). To survive during a pandemic such as COvid19 organizations usually need this agility ability on multiple if not all operation levels otherwise organizations usually face various uncertainties as market conditions get shifted quickly and without enough time for organization to prepare and respond.
As learned from the COVID19 situation, there is need for early warning systems for future pandemics. Further, digital access must now also get taken as a business utility similar to plumbing and electricity. Another lessons learned from COVID19 is that the digital economy and creative partnerships can be advantageous and lead to a better world. Trust and speed proved very important when responding to COVID19. There is an apparent need for early warning systems for future crisis whether pandemics or climate change related (Gudi et al. 2020, p. 108). Future worldwide pandemics may come from a variety of sources not just diseases. Warning systems similar to Epi-Brain proposed by world health organization provides comprehensive models.
There is need for warning systems that are accurate and can get trusted. Only with trust can people corporate to self-isolate as witnesses. There is also need for broadband access to the internet and other online services. Organizations at the start of the COVID19 beginning got required to respond to rapidly changing business environment and government lockdowns. This lead to most companies across industries turning to remote access and working. Digital access is now a vital part of our lives and should get as a utility (Goniewicz et al. 2020, p. 3838). Most individuals during this pandemic adapted to working from home and learning from home. Digital access proliferation allows for organization to provide employees and their stakeholders with remote access to organizational data and resources.
Content and Analysis
Effects of Environmental Factors
The modern academic institutions’ business environment is saturated with several and varying risk factors. Environmental factors usually affect a large group sharing common working or living spaces. An academic institution’s physical environment comprises school premises and all its contents. These content include physical infrastructure, structures, as well as the presence and use of biological and chemical agents. This environment also comprises of site where institution is located as well as surrounding environment including water, air, and other materials surrounding students and teachers (White et al. 2013, p. 65). These environmental factors also include roadways, use of nearby land, among other hazards.
Environmental factors can vary greatly in schools around the globe, within communities, and across countries. Similarly, the resources at a school’s disposal to manage these environmental factors vary greatly as the risks themselves. This resource differences leads to difficult unchallenging management challenges. There is need for strategies and plans that enhance the health, development, and education of children, community members, as well as families while aiming at helping communities recognize, avoid, and manage threats that can exist within an academic institution’s environment. A healthy academic institution environment is one that protect the staff and students against immediate dangers while promoting preventing attitudes and activities against identified risk factors (Woolner et al. 2018, p. 223). The basic necessities of a schools physical environment include providing of sufficient and safe water as well as shelter form various elements. Protection against chemical, physical and biological risks threaten the health and safety of students and staff s also equally important.
There are various examples of risks that schools personnel and students usually face within schools around the world. The physical environment of an academic institution usually influences a student’s health for various reasons. The environment of a schools is a major determinant in of a child’s health. For instance air pollution usually worsens acute respiratory infection while triggering asthma attacks and contaminated water can result in diarrhea. For instance, pandemics have various effects on schools. The COVID 19 pandemic for example affected school normal operations within a few weeks, requiring them to pivot towards remote learning in a global emergency context (White et al. 2013, p. 60). There was a sudden change in well structure syllabus and curriculum years to online as schools got closed and lectures and discussion tuned to collaborative tools and assessments got digital.
Change Plans and Strategies
Change management has in recent years proves a critical success factor for all organizations including schools within the highly dynamic modern world. The business environment changes quickly with organization getting required to adopt to unprecedented worldwide crises, changing customer trends, dynamic technology techniques, as well as new market regulations and requirements. COVID19 brought some uncertainty level initially and academic institutions within had to change to online teaching by March the year 2020 (Shalini Shah et al. 2020, p. 367). However this decision got highly debated as most institutions were not ready to take implement and manage online teaching and assessment effectively and fully. Although technology enables online learning smooth running. The closure of academic institutions during a pandemic usually has various consequences.
There are various emergencies academic institutions must get prepared to handle. These emergences include the risk of community wide and local infectious disease outbreaks. However, it is usually difficult to predict whether a disease will grow into a pandemic or epidemic level. There are several changes that schools can implement prepare for operations and learning processes during pandemics and other disease outbreaks in case they occur. There are various opportunities for long term innovation which will ensure that the school will survive through future pandemic events (Teräs et al. 2020, p. 3). These opportunities and implementations aim at protecting the students as well as teachers while enhancing the institution’s ability to respond successfully and quickly to changing business environment.
A school need to provide a safe learning and working environment for its stunts and staff even during pandemics. There are various strategies that can get implemented including investing in digital technologies hiring and retention, implementing health protocols, adjusting academic calendar, as well as student support. There is need to invest in online learning programs which can help the institution in reaching new student population while diversifying revenue. High quality Massive Open Online Courses will get developed and technology adoption accelerated to maintain students learning outcomes through refined assessment. Enhanced use of information technology in instruction will also help the academic institution during a pandemic (Shalini Shah et al. 2020, p. 370). Students will get offered various instruction modes where they can choose between remote, hybrids, or in person instruction such that a curriculum fitting their needs best gets built.
Digital technology increased implementation and utilization will help in supporting social distancing. Digital technology that should get implemented include feedback tools, videoconferencing tools, as well as online assessment tools. There is also need to offer educational technology training to both staff and students. Training will enhance students and staff understanding and use of the digital technologies implemented. Additionally, enhanced access to internet connectivity and hardware is vital to maintain equity while enabling all students and staff to access course materials and resources remotely. Remote learning is advantageous as it will allow academic achievers to deliver knowledge without needing relocation while creating opportunities for incorporating guest speakers (Teräs et al. 2020, p. 9). There is also need to gather student support. Student feedback similar to employees’ feedback is vital for the success of digital technology implementation and use. Student feedback will get collected and technologies and course redesigned appropriately in a student centered method.
Kurt Lewin’s Change Model
Change is a common aspects within all organizations regardless of their age industry, as well as size. This organization need to implement various changes to mitigate and prevent negative impacts form infectious diseases pandemics. The business environment keeps changing very quickly requiring for academic institutions to adapt to these changes quickly and effectively. Academic institutions that handle change well usually get successful even during a pandemic. How an organization manage change and their success usually varies base on a business’s nature, the people involved, and the initiatives (Roşca 2020, p. 620). There two types of change including intentional and unexpected changes. Unexpected changes usually arise form environmental impacts, mark influences, pandemics such as COVID19, and resource constraints.
Academic institutions usually have not direct influence on unexpected changes. However, the institution can get adapted internally to responds to these conditions effectively and quickly. A 1940s model developed by Lewin Kurt is a basis for understanding organizational change. Kurt Lewin developed a model known as the Unfreeze-change-refreeze. This model refers to a change process comprising three stages. This social scientist and physicist explained change in an institution using change ice block shape analogy (Terziev et al. 2020). The nature and how business get conducted within the modern world is very different form when the model got first introduced. However, this three stages model is still very relevant and therefore very efficient and useful for handling changes envisioned in this strategy. Most modern change models usually get based on the model developed by Kurt Lewin.
The first stage, unfreezing, is among the most vital phases to comprehend in the dynamic world the institution operates within. The first stage gets concerned with getting the circumstances within the institution ready for change. This step involves understanding why the change is necessary and vital. It is vital organization stakeholders including management, staff, and students to comprehend why it is vital to adapt to a changing environment. This comprehension will motivate and enable the students and staff to accept and embrace change when its gets proposed (Roşca 2020, p. 617). Employees and students should get informed of the current situation and why there is need for organizational change. Further, they should also get informed of what option are available for the organization and how it will it in its normal processes and operations. This communication will get the staff and students a mindset of accepting and embracing changes while adopting to the new environment.
There is need for the institution to set realistic expectations for the students and staff within the unfreezing stage. Hiding and down playing obvious inevitabilities form students and staff usually worsens the situation when a crisis or pandemic occurs. This kind of practice on brings trust issues between management and other organization stakeholders which makes them more cynical and resistant to change. There is need to ensure that staff and students understand how the external factors impact the institution. This type of sensitive information should get grounded in facts and reality since overstating need to change can cause employees and students to resist change (Terziev et al. 2020). After informing major stakeholders on the situation, the management can initiate changes within the organization to hander the Covid19 externality. There is need to emphasize why these changes getting implemented are necessary and how they will impact on the students and staff positively. Force field analysis can get used to understand the need for the changed and their positive effects within the organization.
Role of Leaders
Change management is vital for advancement. However, academic leaders usually experience huge pressure to trace and implement changes within the organization while also getting limited by cultural and local norms and regulations. Academic leaders have a major role to play in implementing and making these changes successful. These leaders are responsible for motivating employees to integrate and embrace the proposed changes within an organization (Mahdinezhad et al. 2013, p. 33). Change management and integration is vital for improvement in quality of education and organizational success during global pandemics such as COVID19. Academic have the responsibility of playing their role in change management.
An academic leader is an individual with broader vision of the field and has power to bring change within the field. Sustainable change initiatives usually come from within the academic institution and get driven by the leadership’s commitment and vision. Academic leaders are responsible for initiating these changes that are needed within the institution. Academic leaders usually get expected to implement various changes that provide direction ensuring that interruptions to learning and teaching get minimized (Fernandez et al. 2020, p. 43). Undoubtedly academic leader have a vital role to play in implementing and designing the proposed changes within the institution. Leaders’ commitment and vision for the institution is vital as it is a major success determinant for the proposed changes.
A global pandemic such as COVID19 leads to disruption and various unexpected changes in normal institution operations and processes. Academic leaders usually get needed to take on various emerging roles while making unusual, quick and vital decisions during a pandemic. COVID19 brought huge uncertainty in various aspects of academic institutions and its lone term impacts of this event are not entirely understood. School leaders including directors, principals, and headmasters have a vital coordinating and motivating role in response to such a crisis event (Mahdinezhad et al. 2013, p. 29). Academic leaders during a pandemic get more concerned on finances, online teaching, as well as the health of students and staff. The commitment, vision, and resilience of academic leaders will impact chances of an institution surviving s pandemic such as COVID19 heavily.
Communication Process
Implementing change can prove rather tasking and difficult. Several authors have discussed the importance of communication during the change process. Communication offers a major way of countering and overcoming change resistance through informing them about the changes early during proposal. Communication has proven vital for successful change program implementation. Communication is complex parameter which involves exchanging feelings and ideas with people within an institution through various channels. Communication offers a major challenge to organizations during change implementation. Effective communication usually involves five major components including the message get passed, the receipt, the delivery method, as well as the content of the message sent (Husain 2013, p. 43). During change, people within the institution will get impacted fundamentally and it is their support and cooperation that ensure the success of changes. Change usually results in effective results when it get implemented in an open and consultative way.
Without effective communication, the change initiatives can result in failure. There are various risks that students and staff can counter which hinder effective communication. Too much and effective communication during the change process is difficult and challenging. For the proposed changes to get effective within the institution, good communication is required. There are several barriers to effective communication during the change and can occur within any phase of the communication process (Christensen 2014, p. 359 85). These challenges can lead to the message sent getting distorted risking wasting both resources and time trough bringing misunderstanding and confusion. Major risks to effective communication include barrier to nonverbal communication, different perceptions, and irrelevance to recipient.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion, global pandemics such as COVID19 have various unprecedented effects on organizations across industries including education institutions. There is need for various changes within academic institution to protect students and their staff while ensuring minimal interruptions on learning and teaching. An education institution gets negatively impacted by lockdowns and other restrictions such as social distancing imposed by government to their citizens during a pandemic such as COVID19 (Donthu et al. 2020, p. 284). There is need for this institution to protect its students and staff members while ensuring it is able to respond to unprecedented environmental changes quickly and effectively. There are various changes that an organizations can implement to counter these negative impacts including implementing digital technology in teaching and learning.
Academic institutions need to implement changes that support social distancing enforce by the government during a pandemic such as COVID19. One recommendation for academic institutions is investing in digital technologies, the institution should invest in Massive Open Online Courses to ensure the continuation of learning and teaching even during a pandemic. Further, online assessments can also get implemented to ensure quality education even n remote learning platforms. Another recommendations is implementing health protocols for both students and employees (Donthu et al. 2020, p. 284). This can require reconfiguring classroom and residential halls sizes aiming at minimizing health risks. Additionally, an academic institution can also adjust it academic calendar. This adjustments include changing terms to complete school terms before holidays to avoid peak pandemic season. Another recommendation for organization is utilizing unconventional spaces such as outdoor tents for teaching.
References
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