3SCO Supporting Change in Organisations

Introduction

The unit 3SCO Supporting Change in Organisations is at the fundamental level in CIPD, explaining the significance of a change in organisations. Learners pursuing this unit are expected to understand why change is necessary to organisations, the challenge they might face during the change management process, and the best way to handle them. As HR professionals, they are expected to use the knowledge and skills they will acquire to support employees through the change process.

Aim of the unit

This unit aims to cover all the main factors essential in change, allowing people to understand the need for change in organisations about internal and external factors. The change factors should be practices that will increase the chances of success when the change is implemented. It is not guaranteed that they will initiate success, but their absence guarantees failure. These essential factors for a change are:

• Planned vision, mission and a valid reason for the change process. This plan must be SMART and showing a clear result that you can visualise. It must also have both long term and short-term goals indicating where the organisation is headed.
• Change always comes with different challenges in different stages. Ensure you have evaluated the challenges in every stage and have a solid solution best suitable for each stage.
• You must have strong leaders during the change process to make a success.
• Communication with every team member, shareholder and consumer is a crucial factor. When communicating, do it in the simplest way possible, keep it open and prompt to avoid rumours and information leakage from unreliable sources. Learners should monitor the quality vs quantity of the information passed on and ensure to have open communication channels where everyone can ask questions, views and concerns.
• Support from all the team members. Involve the shareholders and the staff, open up your plans to share their views considering they have the direct experience and offer valuable information to the proposed change.
• You should be prepared for deficiencies and delays as employees learn. After changes have been introduced on how to operate, it increases workload hence less efficient than before.
• When significant changes occur in your organisation, there is a shift in the way the employees work and contribute to the business. They need to be motivated as they adapt to the change. Show them that you are confident about the change and avoid reverting to the old ways to make it easier and more comfortable to adapt. Lead by example.

The importance of change and the different ways of introducing and managing change will be discussed in this unit. Change contributes to organisational growth, expansion and venture in a new market. Effective change is best manifested in HR functions because they are responsible for ensuring organisational development, re-design process, and communication are met. Some of the factors that contribute to organisation change include:

• New growth opportunities
• Challenges
• Development with a technological upgrade
• Market competition pressure
• Change of strategic objectives.
• Pressure with the consumers or suppliers
• Government measures
• Learning new skills hence need to advance.

Different people have different ways of responding to change, bringing about various concepts, which will also be discussed in length. Some people are resistant to change content, and others are resistant to the change process depending on how it is introduced. People may be resistant to change due to:

• fear of the unknown outcome after the change
• being unable to be in control
• being unprepared causing inconveniences
• fear of becoming incompetent.
• the threat of loss of status
• the shock of an upgrade

People will have a comprehensive understanding of change and its importance, significantly impacting the organisations when addressed professionally.  Even though change is complex, different techniques can introduce change, and people get to understand easier. These include:

• Having conversations that are more of storytelling or narration.
• The deliberate presentation of ambiguous statements that trigger ambitious questions.
• Team building activities and workshops that are designed to introduce change.
• Involving employees in democratic dialogue and voice to raise concerns about the change.
• Involving members in relational negotiations and social interactions
• encourages leaders to demonstrate their competence in handling business needs, building trust among themselves as they intelligently design change.

This unit is best suitable for:

• those people who are practising HR /L&D as a career
• are already working as HR/L&D specialists and are willing to advance their knowledge and skills.
• those who are assigned to play the role of HR/L&D in organisations
• are directly involved in the change process either as consultants or as the change management team.

Learning Outcomes 

After carefully studying this unit, a person will have a comprehensive understanding of:

• reasons for the change in organisations
• importance of change in organisations
• actors considered and involved in the change process
• ways of managing and maintaining change
• impact of change to the employees, management and HR department

Summary and assessment

After completing the 3SCO supporting change in the organisations unit, learners will be expected to complete an assessment to help them find out whether they have understood all the learning concepts in this unit and whether they are in a position to put into practice all the skills and knowledge they have acquired. The assessment covers all the identified learning objectives.