Critical Evaluation: Qualities & Skills for Effective Change Agents

This essay provides a critical evaluation of the qualities and skills required for change agents to effectively solve company problems and adapt to the dynamic business environment. It explores essential attributes such as a positive attitude, diversified knowledge, effective listening, accountability, strong communication, and technical expertise. The essay also examines the consulting process, emphasizing the importance of understanding the need for change, communicating effectively, developing and implementing change plans, and evaluating progress. Furthermore, it includes a reflection on personal experiences with change programs in both academic and professional settings, highlighting the challenges and impacts of these changes. Finally, the essay discusses the competencies required for the change agent role and how these competencies can be developed through targeted training programs, focusing on technical, human, and conceptual skills to enhance their effectiveness in driving organizational change.

QUALITIES OF THE
CHANGE AGENT
CRITICAL
EVALUATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.....................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Change agent are those people who are the part of a organisation and provides the
support to the company and provides them the help as to how they have to operate the work
during the time of emergency. They are the one who promotes the organisation and on the same
time provides the support as to how the work has to be done but in a new way which will help in
providing success to the company(Naidu and et. al., 2019). The change agents can be from
within the organisation and those can be either the managers or the executives but they are not
limited to high ranking employees only it can be low tier people also which has different skills
and capabilities to provide help to the company. Although, the change agents can be from the
external also who have been hired as an consultant to provide the advice as to how the company
needs to work but they will be those people who are informed about each and every changes that
can be taken and how the company needs to cope up with that(Wu, Pu and Sun, 2019). This
essay will cover the evaluation of the qualities and skills which change agents required to help
the company solve in problems, the consulting process, reflection on the experience of change
programmes, qualities which can be developed with the training.
ESSAY
Qualities and skills which change agents need to develop for solving the company problems
and adapt to the business environment
Change agents work is difficult because they must be having the information about all the things
which happens in the organisation and with that they must be having the skill to manage and
undertake all the activities. Their are some of the skills which must be present in a change agent
and those are discussed below-
 The right attitude- Change agent must have the right and flexible attitude to manage all
the things which the company wants them to undertake (Almeida and et. al., 2018).
Changes are the complex procedure which can at time makes the situation of conflict in
the workplace and with that the company would not be in a position to work on the
objectives(Xu, Wang and Li, 2019). Thus, the change agent must look at all the
challenges which the organisation is facing and how they can make things out from the
organisation in order to bring more opportunity and broadening the understanding in the
mind of the employees.
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 Diversified knowledge- The successful change agents are those who are having the
diversified version of their knowledge because with that they can achieve all the things
which the organisation requires(He and et. al., 2019). Each organisation brings some or
the other changes or they might get stucked into such difficulty which they might not be
having the solution so in this case change agents are the helpful ones who have tackled
many of the things under different situation. But for developing this diversified learning
they must be curious enough to develop the knowledge and on that basis only they would
be able to develop such thing.
 Effective listening skills- The change agent must be having the skill of listening and this
is required because at times not having such type of skill can create problem to the
company as well as to the change agent(Lai and et. al., 2018). It happens that whenever
the organisation provides the information about the problem which they are facing then in
this case without listening to the whole conversation they start giving their advice. For
the change agent listening to the problems and providing the accurate answers as to what
can work the best, effective listening skill is considered to be the most important thing
(Jafarzadeh and et. al., 2020).
 Accountability and responsibility- The change agent are given with some of the
responsibility for which they are accountable and they must show the responsible
behaviour about it because they have been given with the important work. They must be
having the quality of being responsible with the thing which will change the working of
an organisation. Accountability and responsibility is the most important skill which the
change agent must be having so that they can be able to develop the confidence in the
minds of other people that they have the capability of managing the things on their own
and in a very productive manner (Li and Cook, 2018). Strong communication- Change agent have the effective skill of good communication in
order to talk to other people because if they will not be having such thing then they would
not be able to communicate the solution to the people. It is required during the time of
making influence to other people so that they can understand what they want to speak and
what they have to deliver.
Qualities and skills required for consulting process
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The change agent must be having some of the skills so that they can carry on the operations
which are required to be undertaken by them. It has been seen that the change agent have the
major responsibility of functioning in the most proper way because with the solution which they
will be providing to the company will affect on the whole outcome and the activities which will
be followed by them. But during the time of providing the advice the change agents have to work
according to the process so that they can function their work in a productive way. The qualities
and skills which is required during this process has been discussed below-
 Acknowledge and understand the need for change- The change agent first have to
develop the understanding that why the organisation requires any change and if this
change is required or not(Noori, Zeynali and Almasi, 2018). This stage requires the skills
of good decision making because in it the change agent has to use this skill to actually
identify the requirement of the change. With the help of such skill the change agent
would be in a position to work on the other steps because if the change is not required in
the organisation then following the other steps would be a waste(Fiyadh, and et. al.,
2019).
 Communicate and involve people in change- This stage will require the skill of having
good communication and interpersonal skill so that the change agent can make the
effective communication in it (Moss and Brookhart, 2019). It is important that the
change agent consultant is having the communication with the top management as how
the change has to be made inherited in the organisation so that they can involve those
people in this activity who are actually being required. Communication skill will be the
most important one in this stage which is required by the agent.
 Developing change plans- When the change agent will make the effective
communication and and will provide the vision about how the change needs to be made
then at this stage the change agent will have to make the plans which needs to be
implemented within the organisation(Musacchi and Serra, 2018). Change plans will
require the quality of making the effective management of time as at what time they have
to implement the change so that the employees will also be able to work effectively.
 Implement change plans- The change plans will now be implemented in which it is
important that the agent have planned the activities and now knows that how they have to
function out their thing so that it can bring the best results. Implementing any of the plan
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will require a proper timing and to check that it will not make any impact on the
accomplishment of the business objectives(Ganguly, Talukdar and Chatterjee 2019). It is
important that the change agent will be focusing on the routine and days which will be
essential to find out that how much time it will take for the successful implementation of
plan. Evaluate progress- The change agent in a last stage will identify that if the plan which
they have made is working or not which will require the ability to check all the things
including the strengths and weakness (Shah, Steyerberg and Kent, 2018). It is because if
the weakness will be seen in this then the agent will try to make some of the changes
which will be important in achieving the success.
Reflection on the experience of change programmes both in the University and at the work
The change programmes which is being seen during that time when I was taking my
degree and in it some additional changes were made in the course fro which I am studying. The
change programmes which created the impact was huge it is because the additional topics which
has been made were very difficult which created a problem to me(Bowen ed., 2018). Those
subjects were really very difficult and not just me the other students were also facing the similar
type of issues in handing such changes which has been made on a very sudden basis. At the work
also, the other change for which I have to handle was the merger of a company with the another
company whose work culture and the policies were all different (El-Naggar and et. al., 2019).
The changes which has to be made were very difficult and it was the most difficult for me as
well to work on such changes and to being the change on the side of influencing people of the
both the company(Krolczyk and et. al., 2019).
The University change which was been made during that time when I was studying was
quite difficult for me and I can understand that the changes for which I have to work on during
my academics was not being cope up by me and also by other students who were studying with
me(Duffy, 2018). So the changes which is being made either in the educational institute or in
any of the other thing it is difficult might be for some of the time or it can create a huge impact
which might change everything. In the organisation also where the merger took place many of
the people find it bit difficult of the changes(Robbins, and Davidhizar, 2020). At times the
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changes which are made are important because the subjects which were added in my academics
has helped me a lot in the present time of mine for which I am thankful for that these changes
have been made.
The changes which were being made in the organisation was of merger which is a very
difficult change and it is not a surety that people including me would be able to work with such
changes. Then these programmes might be helpful to the organisation but at times these are not
worth to the employees and they find it very difficult to work under such condition(Chen and et.
al., 2019).
Competencies required by the change agent role and how it can be developed with training
Their are some of the competencies which must be developed by the change agent so that they
can be able to work according to the changes which the organisation will be requiring. The role
of change agent is not that easy because they have to work under different situation and have to
provide them effective communication in order to bring the changes in the company
(Dalbhagat,Mahato and Mishra, 2019). So for this it is important that the change agent is having
the competencies so that they work on it without any issue. However, to bring the competencies
it is important that the change agent is provided with the training. Some of the competencies
which is required by change agent and the way by which it can be developed with training has
been discussed below-
 Technical skills- It is not compulsory that the change agent is having the knowledge of
technical skills because they can come from any background. The change agent has to
develop the understanding about the dynamics which takes place in the organisation and
at some point of time these dynamics have to handled with the methodologies and some
approaches which will be helpful to solve them(Hockenberry and Wilson, 2018). So, if
any of the change agent found it difficult to understand such methodologies then they can
be given with the training to solve all the issues which they have to tackle.
 Interpersonal skills- Interpersonal skill is the another competency which is required to
be developed by the change agent. This skill also plays an important role for the
development and achieving success for the role of change agent. This skill can make a lot
of changes in the working of a agent because for making any of the plan they first have to
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develop the communication with the people who are working their and have to make
them influence about why it is important to bring the changes (Ahles and Root, 2018).
 Team building- They must be having the competencies of developing a team which
works with great cooperation and coordination. Change agent are required to make the
development of such type of skills which will be helpful in the making of any changes
within the organisation. This can be developed when effective training will be provided
to people so that they can work in a team when the changes will be introduced in the
organisation (Oyenihi and Smith, 2019). This team building skill is very important
because when the strategy of making and implementing such type of skill will be made
by the change agent then on this condition it will be prove to be very effective.
 Flexible- This is the most important thing which need to be developed by the change
agent because the changes which are undertaken in the organisation are not always
implemented like the way it is being planned(Coorey and et. al., 2018). This is the reason
why the change agent is required to make those developments with which they can adopt
the flexible attitude in them. Flexibility is the key important thing which the change agent
must be having so that the implementation of things can take place without any issue.
 Business acumen- The change agent must be in a position that they are develop the
understanding about the business and the strategies which they have to follow. It is
because of this only the change agent would be able to make the changes if they will be
having the information about the businesses and the conducts which they have to do. For
this they must be provided with the training in order to achieve success(Dawson, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it can be concluded that in the companies changes are the part of it
in which the management and also the employees have to work on it. But there are several
problems which is faced by the employees and also the management to work on the changes
which is being taking place. However at some point of time there are some things which are not
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managed by the people working their and for it the change agent have to be taken into
consideration so that they can provide the advice about how the things needs to be managed and
what complications can be faced by the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahles, T.A. and Root, J.C., 2018. Cognitive effects of cancer and cancer treatments. Annual
review of clinical psychology, 14, pp.425-451.
Almeida, M.I.G. and et. al., 2018. Developments of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices
(μPADs) for water analysis: A review. Talanta, 177, pp.176-190.
Bowen, H. ed., 2018. Investment in learning: The individual and social value of American higher
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Chen, X. and et. al., 2019. Recent developments in lignocellulosic biomass catalytic fast
pyrolysis: Strategies for the optimization of bio-oil quality and yield. Fuel Processing
Technology, 196, p.106180.
Coorey, G.M. and et. al., 2018. Effectiveness, acceptability and usefulness of mobile
applications for cardiovascular disease self-management: Systematic review with meta-
synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data. European journal of preventive
cardiology, 25(5), pp.505-521.
Dalbhagat, C.G., Mahato, D.K. and Mishra, H.N., 2019. Effect of extrusion processing on
physicochemical, functional and nutritional characteristics of rice and rice-based
products: A review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 85, pp.226-240.
Dawson, P., 2019. Reshaping change: A processual perspective. Routledge.
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El-Naggar, A. and et. al., 2019. Biochar application to low fertility soils: A review of current
status, and future prospects. Geoderma, 337, pp.536-554.
Fiyadh, S.S. and et. al., 2019. Review on heavy metal adsorption processes by carbon
nanotubes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 230, pp.783-793.
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Musacchi, S. and Serra, S., 2018. Apple fruit quality: Overview on pre-harvest factors. Scientia
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nanoemulsion-based edible coating containing ginger (Zingiber officinale) essential oil
and its effect on safety and quality attributes of chicken breast fillets. Food control, 84,
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Oyenihi, A.B. and Smith, C., 2019. Are polyphenol antioxidants at the root of medicinal plant
anti-cancer success?. Journal of ethnopharmacology, 229, pp.54-72.
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Shah, N.D., Steyerberg, E.W. and Kent, D.M., 2018. Big data and predictive analytics:
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Wu, L., Pu, H. and Sun, D.W., 2019. Novel techniques for evaluating freshness quality attributes
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ONLINE
FIVE STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CHANGE, 2019 [online] Available
through:<https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/your-team/people-management-skills/change/
basics-on-managing-change/fivesteps
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