Change Brings Opportunities

HR has multiple roles to play from being an influencer and consultant to being a peoples' advocate and ensure that interests and concerns of the employees are duly addressed.

- Rituparna Chakraborty

Change is the only constant in today's world, and, organisations need to change in response to opportunities and threats in their business environment. But the reality is making any change is never easy for any organisation. Envisaging change is easier than executing a change strategy, and, that is where the quote by Belasco and Stayer gains prominence. Leaders cannot drive any organisational change agenda or transformation initiative without getting their employees to embrace the same, we all know from our individual experiences as leaders that it is never easy. Managing change of any magnitude, especially in today's connected world, where organisations have a diverse employee profile becomes even more challenging and complex. Employees and leaders or owners of businesses or organisations usually have goal conflicts and this contributes to employees' resistance to change. So, it is essential to harmonize or reduce the intensity of goal conflict between these two parties when envisaging or embarking on a change programme or agenda.

Now, when we talk about change, it becomes important to think about business transformation; and, here we are reminded of Kurt Lewin's change model involving three steps: unfreezing, changing and refreezing. For Lewin, the process entailed creating the perception that a change is needed, then moving toward the new, desired level of behaviour, and, finally, solidifying that new behaviour as the norm. This is where the Human Resources function comes in - they have a critical role to play in the whole process of business transformation.