Managing Risk in Organizational Change Everyone has had the opportunity to exper

Question

Managing Risk in Organizational Change

Everyone has had the opportunity to experience or closely observe significant change—in the organization you work for, in your church/synagogue or mosque, in a community organization or school. Identify the site of this change and specify the particular management risk that you experienced or observed. Analyze the issues that were present within that situation and relate that to one or several of the readings in this Unit or to others you have found. Cite your sources. What was the outcome of that change endeavor? Could it have been improved? If so, in what way(s)?

Explanation / Answer

One of the incident which I remember of, was computerisation of all functional units of the educational institute I work for. This was the time where computers started replacing the traditional methods of working which comprised of time consuming and error prone processes, often dependent on the whims and fancies of old hands who set themselves in a comfort zones they never wanted to come out of. Some of them started protesting and wrote several letters to the senior officers regarding their inability to learn this new technique towards the end of their careers. The Government however was committed to the replace most of the manual work with computer systems. within three months. I was given the task of training these seniors of clerical department. First they doubted my capabilities, some tested my understanding of work, while some were strightaway adament, not to learn anything. Few of them were interested in learning the computers because they saw the people working on internet and wanted to " see the images of their movie icons". They started learning, and to my surprise, four of them became experts in basic computer functions within a week. Their success prompted others also, and within four weeks, my team was ready with the newly acquired skills and raring to go. Two of the team members, who was bitterly reluctant to learn anything new chose to opt for different department within the same organisation.

The changeover was completed within two months against the deadline of three months. Besides minor glitches in the initial stages the change brought higher efficiency and productivity in the workforce. The computers not only enabled them to work faster, but also prompted them to learn many other things they never heared of before.

Many believed that there was ample risk in the process because of the timings chosen for the change. The annual examinations were scheduled barely two weeks from the due date of change. Any delays in adoptation could have resulted in absolute chaos during exams and could also have delayed the next academic session. However, I believe that the risks were properly addressed and managed.

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