As a lecturer in a Course on "Managing Change" at our local Polytechnic I
have been following the recent discussion around this topic with
considerable interest . I am just a little concerned however with what
sometimes appears to be an underlying assumption in various comments made.
This assumption is that "change management " is some form of special
management task, requires specialised training , and apparently is not the
normal role of managers (and I believe all employees are managers to some
degree ).
My view is that in all organisations there is continual change , whether
it be caused by factors internal to the organisation or external , and the
role of managers is to adapt the organisation to that continual change .
In other words management is about managing continual changing situations
and this is the main management function and is not a specialized role .
The magnitude of change will vary from time to time ( the well known
evolutionary and revolutionary modes )but virtually every management task
involves something that has changed in the organisation.
There may be a role for managers who have had more experience with major
change in organisations to assist in introducing major change in
organisation which need this level of change .However I am just a little
concerned with the theme which appears from time to time which suggests
that "change managers " are specialized managers with a different role
from "normal" managers .Likewise there seems to be a theme that manageing
change is different from normal management .
I do not think my view of the managers role is in any way original and
many well known managers and academics have expressed this view over
recent years.Yet management education generally does not seem to reflect
the approach that managing changing situations is the principal function
of managers .
I may be mistaken with my reading into some of the discussion the
"underlying assumption " that change management is different from normal
management in which case I apologise in advance to anyone who may feel
misinterpreted .
Then again I may be just another academic and company director with the
view that my area of expertise is obviously the most important ?
I am also aware that the mere fact that I teach a specialist Course in
managing change questions the view I have put forward ,but then we do not
live in a perfect world .
Are there other views ?
Ian Kearney phone 0064 03 5445556
104 Champion Road Fax 0064 03 5440374
Richmond
New Zealand email iank@nelson.planet.org.nz
--Ian Kearney <iank@Nelson.plaNet.org.NZ>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>