Organizational change

Success or failure of change management

In today's world, where the external environment surrounding an organization continues to change significantly, the internal environment of an organization is also under pressure to undergo more and more drastic changes in order to adapt to these changes.

These changes vary from company to company, from those that focus on organizational structural changes to those that focus on people's behavioral changes.

Now, when considering the success or failure of this organizational change, what can be said to have succeeded in that change?

In the first place, there are various ways of thinking and methods of organizational change depending on the company, and the goals and objectives are not uniform, so it cannot be said that the change was successful without first defining what the outcome is. In addition to change, whether or not a goal has been achieved depends on how to determine the time axis of what to achieve and when.

Who is responsible for change management?

By the way, in order to actually bring about change in the organization, there are various issues such as reform of organizational culture, structural change, and change in human behavior, but the foundation of change is vision, management strategy and organizational strategy in any organization.

In that sense, it is best suited as a flag-bearer of change management, and it is the managers and executives who have the greatest impact on the organization. Of course, it goes without saying that the entire organization, which consists of all members such as senior managers, intermediate managers, general employees, and non-employees, is an important player in change in each position.

However, the strong collective nature of the organization, which has been said to be a characteristic of Japanese-style management, has increased employee loyalty on the positive side and has greatly contributed to human resource development from a long-term perspective. In such a critical situation , strong groupism can delay decision-making. Therefore, it can be said that it is effective to start by demonstrating top-down leadership.

Nevertheless, it is important to spread the seeds of change throughout the organization by bridging not only top-down but also bottom-up and middle managers in order to produce substantial results.

Transformation management process

When it comes to the process of change, many companies may refer to the "eight-step process of achieving change" advocated by John Cotter.

1. Raise awareness of crisis within the organization

2. Build a solidarity team to drive change

3. Create a vision and strategy

4. Disseminate the vision for change within the organization

5. Encourage employees to take the initiative

6. Achieve short-term results

7. Utilize the results to promote further transformation

8. Establishing ways of change in corporate culture

These are important processes for change. However, even though the above eight steps are implemented in the same way, the organizational reform of Japanese companies will not necessarily be successful. This theory is wisdom that was created based on the failure cases of various organizational reforms implemented by many US companies since the 1980s, but in order to succeed in reforms and achieve organizational goals, Japanese-style management It will be necessary to find a reform method that suits the background, Japanese values and ethnicity, the characteristics of each company, and the current situation.

Steps for Successful Transformation Management

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