Change management
The modern business environment is characterized by rapid development, high dynamism, and constant changes. An organization can’t become successful without streamlining its workflow processes in agreement with the recent trends, external and internal conditions. Today organizations like no time before being forced to change their strategies, management systems, and overall structure. Otherwise, their performance in an increasingly competitive environment can aggravate significantly.
Change management becomes the inalienable part of the company’s management strategy that helps it to achieve the desired results. Changes are now perceived not as something unexpected and threatening. Every change even initially a negative becomes a fount of possibilities. Sometimes it is quite uneasy to accept this fact but there is no other choice if one wants to survive in this diverse and agile business realm.
Looking at Mike Parton, a prominent CEO in the sphere of telecommunications, one may be amazed by his ability to save control over the situation even in the case of the worst failures. Parton was mainly known as the CEO of Marconi Communications, once a successful telecommunication subdivision of General Electric. The company experienced a range of mergers and acquisitions and Parton was its chief in 2001-2006, which was the time of dramatic changes. Understanding that the company came up to a deadlock, Mark Parton made a historic decision to sell the company to Ericson.
Mike Parton perceived this seemingly negative change as impossible to prevent. The change was accepted and personally for Parton ended up in the position of the chairman and non-executive director of Tele2. While one company ceased to exist, Mike’s experience was then used to prevent negative tendencies in Tele2.
Working With Teams Towards Change
It is common knowledge in any sphere of human life that the greatest results can be reached only when united efforts are applied. Nowadays the most successful companies consist not of the strictly subordinated hierarchical departments, but of the elaborate teams that often enjoy a significant level of self-government. The organization needs to ensure maximum participation of all its members in the decision-making process through teams.
Among the key factors that contribute to the development of effective teamwork are the reevaluation of human resources as the primary asset of the organization, technological progress, and the dynamic approach towards the formation of teams. Teams often become highly independent structures within the company; they may take initiatives and more successfully gain extra benefits for the workers. Modern technologies allow people from across the globe to form teams and work on specific projects and tasks. Teams within the organization become mobile, flexible, and self-directed.
They are not groups of random people gathered to achieve solely numeric indicators of the organization’s performance. Teams are elaborate mechanisms that prove the professional and personal value of any person engaged in teamwork. Moreover, new teams are less concentrated solely on their internal development, but also actively interact with other teams and change their environment.
The establishment and maintenance of good teams become possible only if there are good leaders in the company. The governors with sweeping powers may not be good leaders if they fail to encourage and motivate their team. Good leaders should not only give instructions and demand results but also to inspire people to reach the best outcome. Company leaders and team leaders know how to balance the individual aspirations of team members to create synergy.
Reference List
Ancona, D, Bresman, H, Caldwell, & D 2009, ‘The x-factor: six steps to leading high-performing x-teams’, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 217-224.
Brisson-Banks, C 2010, ‘Managing change and transitions: a comparison of different models and their commonalities’, Library Management, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 241-252.
Vallas, S 2003, ‘Why teamwork fails: obstacles to workplace change in four manufacturing plants’, American Sociological Review, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 223-250.
Wageman, R, Gardner, H, & Mortensen, M 2012, ‘Teams have changed: catching up to the future’, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 48-52.
