Common Mistakes in Change Management: A Comprehensive Analysis

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

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Leading Change
Over the year many firms have made changes in them as per the requirement of the business
environment and the demand of the company position in the industry (Foster, Richard, and
Kaplan). Researches have showed that there are many things that need to be done while any
change process is going on. The transformation over the years has failed because of some
small mistakes. It is the role of the leader to lead through the changes and hence they must
take care of each and every aspect of the change process. There are series of steps that needs
to be addressed while making transformation within the organisation. If anyone of them is
missed, it may lead to huge amount of loses to the company. From Ford’s change of work
mechanism to modern day changes related to technology. All the organisations have made
different kinds of changes related to various departments, process, culture, performance
management and activities etc. All these changes have different demands and if not taken
care of may lead to huge change failures for the firm (Cameron, Kim and Robert).
The first and very common mistake that companies do is that its planning is not according to
the demand of the change process. It is seen that their planning are different from the demand
of business environment. Such kind of changes has often led to positional loss to the
company. This also includes distributing roles among various persons within the organisation
(Kotter). One of the most thing that company misses is to give the major responsibilities to
the experienced personnel so that they can easily make the change process smoother. It also
reduces job dissatisfaction especially among young employees. This may in the form of
confusions which is very dangerous for the companies. Experienced personnel play a very
crucial role in reducing such confusions in new employee’s minds. Basic thing that company
misses is that it fails to recognise the importance of playing important personnel at crucial
positions in the organisational structures (Alvesson and Sveningsson).
Changes are often resisted by the employees as it often brings them out of their comfort zone
hence they need an external motivation to become the part of the process. In this regards
leaders plays a much greater role as they have to motivate their employees through various
means. Direct question and answers between leaders and employees are often neglected by
the companies but it is an excellent means by which a company can understand demands of
the workers (Meyer 60-91). It also helps in resolving the point of conflict that may arise
between leaders and employees as leaders can communicate every essential aspects of the
change management to the employees. On the other hand employees can also put their

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requirements regarding the changes. Rewards and benefits are often neglected in any change
process which generally is a good motivator for the employees.
Whenever a company is making any cultural shift throughout the organisation, they must take
care of the fact that it should respect the culture of the nation in which the company is
operational in. The study on the cultural shift suggested that the firm who have put the culture
of their parent nation above the host country’s culture as well as the culture of their
employees have resulted in poor outcomes.
On the other hand the companies which have made the long term goals have also failed in
their change process. One of their major reasons to fail that they were unable to understand
the things that are affecting the change. This is because they have not made short term goals.
When company achieves any short term goals, it boosts the morale of the stakeholders related
to the company (Booth). But often companies rely on the end goals which are a time taking
process and hence many employees do not contribute at their full potential.
Other major error that companies do is that they predict the outcomes very early and declares
the results to be positive which is not the correct picture. It is required that change process
and its outcomes must be evaluated and analysed over the long period of time. Initial results
must not be understood as the end results as many parameters starts affecting the outcomes
after a considerable time of change process (Burnes and Jackson 133-162). Along with this it
is to be understood that there are many companies which did not understood the sense of
urgency while making the changes. It is always said that changes do not result in expected
outcomes if not planned at the required or at the necessary time. This is very clear with the
example of Morgan Car Company which was once one of the biggest Car producers of the
Britain. In the late 90’s when the automation and IT technologies was started to make their
presence in different activities of the firm. Morgan still believed on their man-made activities
for the production purpose. There was another reason for Morgan’s case. It was that its
leadership was incapable of making changes work. They were not willing to take the risk.
Since every change process may result in both ways due to its uncertain nature hence risks
needs to be taken. Researches shows that changes usually fails to make positive outcomes
when there is inappropriate support from the leaders. There are many types of confusions that
are present in the minds of staffs which need to be removed by fulfilling the requirements of
the employees. If not fulfilled appropriately then it may create lower productivity of the
workers (Hayes). Lower worker’s productivity does not add value to the outcomes of the