“To embed the change and ensure that it sticks, you should acknowledge the lessons learned. You also should investigate how to engage and involve employees over the long term and how to institutionalize best practices to capture the full benefit of this change and any future changes(Harshak, Aguirre, & Brown, 2010).” If the initial change initiative was a success but the change implementation isn’t held up long-term, the organizational will inevitable encounter the same problems again eventually. Long-term, I would consider that change initiative unsuccessful if that occurs.
“Sustainability depends not just on what happens after implementation, but also on the cumulative effects of decisions and actions during the change process. In other words, it is more effective to plan for sustainability from the beginning than to regard this as an issue that can be left until a later stage(Palmer, Dunford, & Buchanan, 2002)." Redesigning roles, reforming the reward systems, having leaders walk the talk, measuring organization progress, and fine-tuning the little things are all ways to sustain organizational change(Palmer, Dunford, & Buchanan, 2002).
The organizational change I have experienced was during the pandemic when my role went from being an outside salesman to full time working from home. This created a new division within the company. The main sustainability strategy that was used was fine-tuning. Since we were all trained to work with clients face to face, we were unfamiliar with the different tools and resources that made life easier when working from home. We were also just unfamiliar of how to sell over the phone/WebEx as compared to in-person. The fine-tuning the organization provided was training. We had weekly educational meetings that were meant to improve our sales skills, improve our competency with software applications that were in use, as well as educate us on the relevant COVID-19 information that we could use as leverage.
References
Harshak, A., Aguirre, D., & Brown, A. (2010, December).Making Change Happen, and Making It Stick.Retrieved from Strategy+Business: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00057
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Buchanan, D. A. (2002).MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: A MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES APPROACH (4th ed.).Retrieved from RedShelf: https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/1777295/sp/223442492/mi/666674726?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents
Change within an organization ought to be a simple and quick process. The changes should be implemented and maintained by the employer, who should be adaptable. Because of a routine procedure that has become ingrained in the organization, work cultures are difficult to alter. The implementation of a new work culture is essential to the long-term success of an organization. Palmer et al. point out that ( According to Lawson and Price (2003), change must become ingrained in the culture of the organization—also known as the members' "mindset"—by the year 2017. To put it another way, prior to implementing changes, provide employees with the advantages of a prepared and planned goal. Palmer et al. claim that ( According to Kotter (2007, p. 103): "For changes to stick," they must "seep into the bloodstream," become "the new norm," or be accepted as "the way we do things around here" (Ch.11, p. 357). This means that new procedures, structures, and work ethics are no longer viewed as a change with the emotional, political, and operational connotations that go along with it. Unless this happens, change may turn out to be a brief diversion or disruption that lasts only a short time.
Let's take a look at marriage, which is regarded as an organizational shift from living alone to possibly sharing a space with a significant other for more than forty years. Palmer et al. assert that
According to (2017), "with this in mind, introducing change and transformation must be done carefully, sensitively, and collaboratively" To put it another way, in order to ensure that this organization change of life is beneficial, one must take the essential steps of counseling to transition from a unique lifestyle to a commitment.
According to Lawson and Price (2003), "that is, it must become an integral part of the organizational culture, or what has also been described as the "mindset" of the organization's members." In conclusion, change occurs on a daily basis, whether it's in daily life or in an organization. A willingness to accept change is necessary for a process to be successful and for organizational change to be sustainable over the long term.
Reference
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Buchanan, D. (2017) Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (3rd Ed.). Retrieved from https://redshelf.com/