Approaches to Managing Change

Management of change Opens in new window involves the process of developing approaches to implementing changes in organizations.

Approaches to managing change must address a number of organizational factors such as leadership, communication, employee motivation, training and development, etc. that are ongoing throughout the change process (Hayes, 2002) because a proper understanding of how employees are likely to respond to change is central to managing the process (Porter, 2004).

Although there are a number of approaches to organizational change Opens in new window, researchers agree that the two dominant ones are planned and emergent approaches (Burnes, 2004).

While the planned approach Opens in new window views change as an intentional and rational process, the emergent approach Opens in new window treats it as the outcome of a complex cultural and political process (Hayes, 2002).

In spite of the differences between these two approaches, there is ‘reasonable consensus in the literature regarding the critical ingredients needed to implement a successful change management program’ (Angehrn and Atherton, 1999, p.2).