Organizational Change : Barriers to Change, Research Paper Example

Introduction

It is first necessary to conduct what is termed a “Functional Specification of Requirements”, essentially the specifications that shows the requirements from the existing system to the new one.  In this case from a manual record system to an electronic one.   An incremental part of this will be the Change Management component.  This will examine the existing system or Current State Analysis. This will be contrasted to the new system requirement or Future State Analysis.  The resulting difference in specifications is termed the Gap Analysis.  It is the Gap Analysis that determines the level of system, people and organizational change required.  This paper examines the Change Management components for moving from a manual to an electronic recording system.

Organizational need for proposed change

The organization suffered from having to process a large number of complex medical records on a daily basis.  This imposition was placed upon Doctors, Nursing and Administrative Staff.  The records also involved a number of complex calculations and prescriptions had to be matched and recorded to the pharmacy drugs inventory.  All of these activities are accomplished by a manual records system and as such the processing time was distracting from the more important clinician and medical time.  This was compounded by having a number of administrative staff sorting, filing and archiving the manual records.  It was clear that change was inevitable and as such the need to exploit technological advances in order to resolve these problems.  The root of the problem resided in the method of recording ( manual records) with a need to streamline the business processes. In addition, to reduce the human time effort from administrative functions to that of the core business or medical duties.

The barriers to change

A good idea is not always supported by the Organizations Executive. They may put up barriers to a proposed change strategy, consider:-

• We do not have either the resources or the funding to support this idea;
• The concept involves a lot of subject matter experts and external support, apart from the cost we do not want to rely on external support for the development of these systems;
• The concept will involve a lot of staff training to support the technology. We feel the organization lacks the maturity to make these changes right now;

Similarly the individuals or staff involved in the change may have equal objections, consider:-

• We do not feel equipped to learn the new skills required for the job;
• Increased use of technology and computers may cause us to be replaced by concepts of automation i.e. threat of job loss;
• We simply don’t have time to deal with all of the change steps involved;

” Issuing a new company mandate may not be fully embraced unless sufficient justification and education is undertaken to convince and realign individuals with the new company direction. Entrenched attitudes and beliefs and fear of failure create barriers that organizations need to examine.”  (Anon, 2007)

Factors that influence a change request

This may be examined from two perspectives: (1) Organizational Change and (2) Individual Change.  Organizational Change is normally dictated by a change in business direction, a change in business philosophy, mergers and acquisitions, the need to streamline business processes for improved operational efficiencies, cost reduction measures to maintain lines of profitability.  Individual Change may result from such factors as a change in job description, increased or planned increase in concepts of automation, re-alignment of the job to a change in the organizational structure.  Despite whatever triggers the change it will require acceptance by all parties and a willingness to accommodate the changes.  Equally, a considerable degree of flexibility in order to adapt to the revisions resulting from the change process.

Organizational readiness

Experts in Change Management techniques have recognized that it is important for organizations to achieve a state of readiness before going ahead and implementing a change program. Consider.. ” Organizational readiness for change varies as a function of how much organizational members value the change and how favourably they appraise three key determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors ”  (Weiner, 2009).  In essence the Organization needs to enter into a shared values state where it feels committed to the change program and supports the necessary behavioural changes in order to make the change state happen.  There is no one successful formula for the  readiness state but rather the need to bring together a number of collective ideas embracing flexibility, consensus, commitment and good leadership.

Theoretical model supporting change

There are different approaches to supporting a change management process. For the purpose of a technology change i.e. shifting from manual based systems to concepts of automation I have selected EDGAR SCHEINS MODEL. In this context Schein’s views change having three transformation stages:

1. Unfreezing : Creation of the motivation to Change
2. Learning : Taking on new concepts and the meanings from old ones
3. Internalizing : New concepts and meanings

Stage 1 is really a psychological one. It examines the rationale for change. What are the drivers and constrainers  ( See Lewins Force field Analysis ).  Further it looks at the motivating factors for change. In this case a poor manual administration system preventing the medical staff from optimizing the performance of their duties.  The need to improve both process and performance by increased concepts of automation.  Stage 2 considers what are the lessons to be learnt from our current state and how might these prove useful moving forward. How to ensure that mistakes are not repeated in the transformational changes and that processes are optimized for maximum efficiencies.  Aligns Business Process Analysis with human intervention and change in aspects of automation.  Stage 3 Refreezes or Reconsolidates the position in to the future state or embraces the change concepts into the new regime or future state analysis.

Works Cited

Anon. (2007). Organizational Change : Barriers to change. Retrieved 11 5, 2009, from Organizational Change : Barriers to change: http://www.organizational-change-management.com/barriers-to-organizational-change.php

Green, E. C. (2004). Making Sense of Change Management. In E. C. Green, Making Sense of Change Management (pp. 48-49). London: Kogan Page.

Weiner, B. J. (2009, 10 9). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Retrieved 11 5, 2009, from Implementation Science: http://www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/67