Change Management Strategy

Change agentry – the next information frontier

Presented by Paras Chheda

Summary

• How to make Information Systems (IS) specialists’ to become more effective and more credible agents of organizational change.

Introduction

• IS specialists need to become better agents of organizational change– New Information Technology is an organizational

intervention• IS specialist cannot achieve IT implementation success alone

– Change agentry will become the largest and and most important in an organization• Outsourcing• Development in-house

– To improve IS specialists credibility• Effective change management behavior builds credibility

Two Basic Issues

• 1. Substantial disagreement in theory and practice about what is means to be “an agent of organizational change”– A. Reflects the views and practices of IS

Specialists– B. Identified in various Organizational

Development texts (academic)– C. Innovation, management and change politics

literatures

Two Basic Issues (cont’d)

• 2. Change agent roles grow out of, and are maintained by, various structural conditions– Structural conditions are social and economic

arrangements that influence the processes of IS work• In-house specialists• Vendors• Organizational policy

Ideal Change Agentry Model

• Traditional IS Change-Agent Model

• The Facilitator Model

• The Advocate Model

Traditional IS Change-Agent Model

• IS specialists referred to themselves as change agents

• View information technology as the real cause of change

• IS specialists identify psychologically with the technology they create

• Organizational managers set specific goal of technical change

IS Specialist Occupational Role Orientation (Traditional Model)

Design and build the systems that enable and constrain people and organization

Design and build systems are used by people and organization that will produce desirable organization change

Do not determine what is a desirable organizational outcome

Acted as an agent for the managers of the organization by building a system that could achieve their objectives

Not responsible for setting

objectives or goals Responsible only for providing

technological means Expert in technological matters Not a business subject area expert

Consequences (Traditional Model)

• Many IT failures– Attributable primarily to implementation problems– Many IS units consider training is relatively minor

importance– Many IS departments outsource responsibility for

systems training to human resources specialists and external vendors

Consequences (cont’d)• IS inhibiting change– IS specialists are stereotyped as being in love with

technical change– Clients complaint is technical environment is changing

too fast for them to keep up or not as fast as clients wants in adopting new technologies

– IS specialists have personal/group interests in addition to organizational ones• Believed what is in their interests is in the organizations’

interests– Differences in interests between clients and IS on

technical change

Consequences (cont’d)

• Reduced IS credibility– Poor technical performance from outsourcing. – Poor interpersonal relationships between IS

specialists and their clients.

Structural Conditions (Traditional Model)

• Work of IS specialists was shaped by– Policies that established internal IS specialists as

sole providers of computer services– Technologies and structures that limited the

number of options available to users– Lack of external competition, which protected IS

departments from budget cuts• Measured and rewarded for functional unit

goals, such as delivering systems on time and on budget

Traditional Model Summary

• IS view of change agentry assumes that technology does all the work of organizational change

• Change agents only need to change the technology slowly

• Narrow focus on building technology, rather than a broader focus on achieving business results

The facilitator model

Believe that it is people (clients) who create change, not themselves as change agents or their change in technology

Not accepting personal responsibility for change that causes ineffective behavior or consequences

View themselves as experts in process, not content

Explicit awareness of their power and the dangers to the client of their using it

IS Specialist Occupational Role Orientation (Facilitator Model)

Help people create the condition of informed choice

Expertise in various subject matters

Avoid acting as a content expert Would not express views about

the specific technical or business issues at hand

Primary role is facilitating the group and organizational processes by which people work on content

Act as a process facilitator Always serve the interests of the

total client system

Consequences (Facilitator Model)IS specialists would focus on providing full and valid

information about the alternativesIS specialists would disclose their own group interests

while encouraging open discussion of differencesLegitimizes IS responsibility for IT education and

training for clientsPlaces a value on making clients self-sufficientMany new information technologies provide greater

opportunities to IS specialists who act as facilitators, ie. voicemail, www, videoconferencing

Structural Conditions (Facilitator Model)

• Cannot be members of the groups they facilitate

• Avoidance of expertise displays• Avoidance of authority for organizational

control and technical outcomes• Places a high value on increasing client self-

sufficiency, reducing client dependence which promotes downsizing of IS department

The advoate model• Induce change targets by positive influence• Holds people, not technology, are the factors in

change• Thinks people more as targets of the advocate’s

interventions• Is much more flexible than the facilitator about the

acceptable means of change• Summarized as “whatever works”• Does not insist that the targets make an informed

choice based on valid information

IS Specialist Occupational Role Orientation (Advocate Model)

Change is made through the actions of many people

See what needs to be done differently

Try to find a way to change people’s minds about the need for change

Often try to change client minds by creating an desirable target or shock them with outrageous actions

Remain steadfast in support of vision of change over long periods of time

Stabilize and reinforce the change by replacing certain individuals who retard change or rewarding those whose behavior embodies the desired values

Consequences (Advocate Model)

• Effectively understand what users want and what they need

• Emphasis on communication– Induce improvement on credibility– Enhances interoperability between departments

Structural Conditions (Advocate Model)

• Structural conditions assumptions

– Lacks formal managerial authority over targets

• OR

– Advocate is a line manager with direct authority over the change targets

Q&A