Managing Change: The Role of an External Change Agent

MANAGING CHANGE

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Introduction
Organisation change is the process of changing an organisation strategies, processes,
procedure, technologies and culture. It is essential for the organisation to adopt the new
changes; otherwise, it will be left behind or swept away by the changes. It is the step of
alteration of structural of the organisation as per the objective. This process changes the
structure, people, and the other elements can be changed. The change in the behaviour of an
employee is also considered as the change in the organisation (Waddell, Creed, Cummings,
and Worley, 2016). It is require to managing the change by informing the employees,
supporting the individuals, teams and organisation during the process of organisation change.
In this report, the discussion is made on the topic of “managing change”. In the present
scenario of this report, the employer of a large organisation has appointed me as external
change agent for the purpose of consultancy and managing the change process within the
organisation.
The report contains the topic of organisational change and its consequences. At the beginning
of the report, the advantages of the external change agent will be discussed. After that, the
discussion is made on the activities of implementing the change. At the end of the report, the
role of feedback will be analysed in the process of organisation change.
Advantage of External Change
A change agent is an individual who promotes and supports a new way of doing something in
the business within the organisation such as changing the process and system. The company
requires implementing the change in order to inform or by develop the appropriate plan.
Manager and executives are offering the change agents in order to develop the appropriate
plan for change the process. There are two types of agents such as external and internal

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agents. The employee who has the high skills and ability to develop the plan is called internal
change agent and the person outside the organisation hired for the help with a change effort is
called the external change agent. The company holds the benefit to adopt the both types of
agents in the organisation in terms of putting efforts for changing the process. But there are
many advantages to work as an external change agent (Prosci, 2018).
External change agent gets the benefit of remuneration from the organisation. It has been
seen that the organisation appointed the external change agent on the remuneration basis.
External change agent introduces the new concepts and strategies in order to develop the plan
that is why; the demand of external change is high as compare to internal change agent.
External changes are appointed as the agent on the basis of remuneration in the exchange of
its services and efforts in implementing the changes. It is observed that there are many
companies which appoint the internal change agent as the consultant without any
remuneration or external salary. It is a disadvantage for internal change agent that they do not
get the remuneration on the basis of its extra efforts towards their organisation (Burke, 2017).
The external agent is safe with the criteria of suffering loss. It has been seen that internal
change agent suffering from loss as the company took the wrong in adopting the new changes
or taking the wrong decision regarding the changes. It has been seen that the external change
agent is not liable in the case of loss suffer by the company. Prevention from loss is an
advantage for the external change agent (Hayes, 2018).
Outsider are always are neutral and have no stake in the institutions. It has been seen that it is
beneficial for the external change agent that he cannot be appointed as the permanent
employees. External change agents are appointed as the temporary agent in the different
companies. The agent can change their organisation as per its requirement and remuneration.
The external change agent works with the company for few months or year as per the short

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term contract. After the beaching of contract, it is not compulsory for the agent to work with
the same company. The agent can sign the new contract or agreement with the company in
order to perform the services. But the internal change agent has to work with the same
company after the implementation of contract as it is appointed on monthly salary basis. It is
a disadvantage for the internal change agent that he does not perform the activities
(Techtarget, 2018).
The other benefit get the external change agent is exploration in different companies. As
discussed above, the external agent works with the company for short time. The agent has an
opportunity to work with different company after breaking the contract with the old company.
The agent can explore the new and different types of companies by signing the contract. The
personality of the agent will develop by learning the new things as it performs the
responsibility in the different areas (Effco, 2016).
Activities that external agent has to carry out
It has been seen that the external agent has to carry out the activities during the
implementation of plan of change in the organisation. The five activities that are essential to
carry out for the effective result are the investigation, advocate, encourage, facilitate,
mediate, and manage.
Investigate
The first activity is investigation that is necessary for the company to carry out the best result
of implementation of plan. Implementing changes is easy and straight forward as the
executing obvious activities. It is difficult of the external change agent to deal with the
different types of behaviour of people and attitude. Before implementing the plan, it is
essential to investigate the behaviour and attitude of the people towards the responsibility and