Organizational Change Management Competitors Or Allies

Question: Discuss about the Report for Organizational Change Management of Competitors or Allies. Answer: Introduction In the current business environment, organizations have realized the importance of agility and flexibility. The organizations have to operate in an era of uncertainty. Therefore, it is important that the organizations should be able to embrace the change. There are various theories and studies that leaders and managers to use and to manage the change within the organizations. In recent times, the organizations have started to use the complexity theory to manage the change within the organization. Complexity theory can be considered as an extension to the system theory. The complexity theory emerged from the systems theory in 1960s (Burnes, 2004). This theory is based on the research in the field of organizational behavior and natural sciences. This theory is focused on the uncertainty and non-lineraity that surrounds organizations. The change agents or the advocates of complexity theory believe that the change can be better managed with the use of complexity theory. The objective of this paper is to discuss how and why can change agents to understand emergent change use complexity theory. Analysis Typically, in an organizational setting, the change is top-down in nature. It means that the change is initiated from top management and the same is communicated to mid-level management and low-level employees. Gobble (2015) suggest the organizational change management would depend on organizational design and organizational design most often than not begins and ends at the organization chart illustrating the who reports to whom and so on. Designing an organization to survive and support change will take moving around the formal lines on the organization chart for an organization to become flatter and collaborative (Gobble, 2015). Lorinkova, Pearsall and Sims Jr. (2013) suggest that although empirical researchers advocate empowerment leadership over directive leadership to enhance team performances, the empirical data is not clear that it supports enhancing team performances. Gobble (2015) suggest empowered leadership will use behavior that emphasizes collaborative decision making th e focus more on the development of knowledge and experiencing positive interpersonal relationships. Complexity theory and organizations, also called complexity strategy or complex adaptive organizations, is the use of the study of complexity systems in the field of strategic management and organizational change. From the experiences, the formal lines are not to be crossed within the organizational structure. Large corporations tend to live and breathe from the formal lines of distinction but fail to take the lessons learned from the failures and often get repeated and threatens its existence. Directive leadership relies on the accomplishment of a task whereas, Lorinkova, Pearsall, and Sims Jr. (2013) suggest empowering leadership involves sharing the power and raising above the level of authority manifests itself through the specific behaviors such as the encouraging the sharing of information, promoting collaborative decision making and teamwork. Moreover, Lorinkova et al., (2013) suggest the empowerment of lower level subordinates had better change management. The change advocates or the change agents should use the complexity theory of change management because this theory enables the change agents to realize and understand the external and the environmental factors. This theory also helps the organizations to understand the weakness in their organizational structure. The complexity theory is best used with the support of different stakeholders in the organizations. The best way for a profit organization to manage conflicting needs of stakeholders is to build relationships and correct their attitude about to overall issues of the organization. The link between ones attitudes and behavior is well accepted in the fields of organizational change (Steers, 1988). An attitude is an individuals overall positive or negative evaluations of a target, based on the persons feeling or emotions about the target (Steers, 1988). It is the responsibility of the change agent to help diffuse the conflict between the organization stakeholders and better mana ge the change within the organization. Working with stakeholders should be an important factor guaranteeing the success for an organization. Conclusion With the above discussion it can be said that the complexity theory is an important theory that change agents use to manage the change within the organization. Theoretically, the complexity theory of change management is an extension of system theory (MacLean, 2005). This theory deals with the change management in an uncertain external environment. The learning from this theory is a powerful tool in the hands of change agents. It is recommended that the change agents must take the inputs from different stakeholders to implement the principles of this theory within the organization. References Burnes, B. (2004) "Emergent change and planned change competitors or allies?: The case of XYZ construction", International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 24(9): 886 902. Churchill, G.F., ( 1987 ) , Marketing Research, 4th ed. Dryden Press. Chicago. Daft, R. L. (2015). Organization theory and design (12th ed.) Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning. Gobble, M. M. (2015). Designing for change. Research Technology Management, 58(3), 64-66. doi:10.5437/08956308X5803005 Houchin, K. and MacLean, D. 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