The value of managing organizational change


Pablo Duncan-Linch, Socio Director de CLC afiliada de Llorente & Cuenca

What are the benefits of managing the organizational change of a company or institution? At CLC Communications and Public Affairs we specialize in the diagnosis, design, implementation, and evaluation of programs and projects related to the organizational change of companies and institutions.

The organizational change  can be understood as a strategy or plan to modify the structure, processes, and actions of a company with the objective of improving the administrative, commercial, labor-productive or social impact of the company. Following Chiavenato (2000), the company or organization is understood as a system with parameters, such as the entry of information (input), processing or transformation (throughput), result or product (output), feedback, and environment. (p.775-776)

From these parameters it can be identified, through a diagnosis of the organization, in which part of the structure it is possible to optimize the flow of information and resources to generate a more efficient and effective performance intra company and / or collaborative relationships with others environmental stakeholders (extra company). In this diagnosis, other variables related to the development of the organizational system must also be taken into account, such as the age and size of the organization, stages of evolution (where there are slight adjustments in the management model), stages of revolution (where exhibits a serious disruption of administrative practices) and the growth rate of the organization, related to the model's environment (Grenier, 1998, pp. 70-72)

Identified the dysfunctions of the system, begins the design and implementation phase of organizational change. At CLC Communications and Public Affairs we adapt the change approach based on the company's short, medium and long-term objectives and the dimensions of the organization. One of these approaches is strategic planning, which can be used to establish the objectives with a long-term vision of the company based on its strategic position in a competitive sector (Jofré, 1999, p.306) and based on this, establish a plan based on goals, indicators and monitoring processes.

The strategic planning approach has the following basic activities as (Aguilar, 2011, p.261):

a. The clear and precise (re) definition of the desired objectives / goals / futures of an organization within a defined period of time (annual, medium, long).
b. The analysis of the situation or diagnosis of the internal reality and the external context of the company / organization (allows the SWOT technique ).
c. The selection of actions, agents, instruments, and resources considered necessary to achieve the objectives.
d. The precise definition of the times of the implementation process.
e. The establishment of follow-up and accompaniment schemes for the actors, as well as the establishment of a measurement system.
f. The continuous learning from the information on the behavior and the results of the processes, which leads to adjust objectives and / or processes.
g. The forecast of response actions to face contingencies and the interplay that arises spontaneously.

Following these steps and with the inputs provided, it is guaranteed that the organizational change is a verifiable process and where the risks and expenses related to a direction without defined objectives and goals, diffuse responsibilities, dysfunctions in the communication of the guidelines of the management, lack of employee motivation, paralysis derived from the organizational culture, among others.

Our experience and knowledge in CLC Communications and Public Affairs allows us to diagnose, design, implement, manage and evaluate the organizational change of a company located in a competitive sector. Dilating the required changes in the organizational structure leads to loss of competitiveness of the product or business service, inability to adapt to changes in the competitive sector and risks of perpetuating dysfunctional behavior patterns for the company.



References:

Aguilar, L. (2011). Gobernanza y Gestión Pública (4° ed.). México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Chiavenato, I. (2000). Introducción a la teoría general de la administración (5° ed.). Mc Graw-Hill Interamericana Editores, S. A.

Greiner, L. (1998). Evolución y revolución conforme crecen las organizaciones. En L. Braga, Seminario de Modernización Gerencial. Costa Rica: Centro de Investigación y Capacitación en Administración Pública (CICAP).

Jofré, A. (1999). Enfoques gerenciales modernos: Análisis actualizado de cada enfoque y factores críticos para su aplicación. (1° ed.). San José, Costa Rica.: Servicios Profesionales Delphi.
Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Recuperado de https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/resources/marketing/docs/95204f2.pdf.

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