Change Management and Change Mgmt
Organisational change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organisation. Typically the objective is to maximise the collective benefits for all people involved in the change and minimise the risk of failure of implementing the change, such as implementing an MRP system etc. The discipline of change management deals primarily with the human aspect of change, and is therefore is essentially psychological in nature.
Many technical disciplines (for example Information technology) have developed similar approaches to formally control the process of making changes to environments. Change management can be either 'reactive', in which case management is responding to changes in the macroenvironment (that is, the source of the change is external), or proactive, in which case management is initiating the change in order to achieve a desired goal (that is, the source of the change is internal). Change management can be conducted on a continuous basis, on a regular schedule (such as an annual review), or when deemed necessary on a program-by-program basis.
Change management can be approached from a number of angles and applied to numerous organisational processes. Its most common uses are in information technology management, strategic management, and process management. To be effective, change management should be multi-disciplinary, touching all aspects of the organisation. However, at its core, implementing new procedures, technologies, and overcoming resistance to change are fundamentally human resource management issues. Change management is rarely easy!
