Change Management is very important in the present time as the only consistent thing in the world is the 'CHANGE'. To manage change in a systematic way to eliminate the chances of failure in the expected result as much as possible is the contemporary management mantra for the successful and sustainable change management teams.

Change Management is a structured approach to switch the individuals, teams and organizations from an existing state to a desired future state. The Change Management includes both organizational change management process and individual change management models, which together are used to manage the people side of change.

'Change management (or change control)' is the process during which the changes of a system are implemented in a controlled manner by following a pre-defined framework/model with, to some extent, reasonable modifications (From Wikipedia, the web based encyclopedia).

Management's responsibility is to detect trends in the macro environment as well as in the microenvironments so as to be able to identify changes and initiate programs. It is also important to estimate what impact a change will likely to have on behavior patterns, works processes, technological requirements and motivation. Management must assess what employees reaction will be and craft a change program that will provide support as employees go through the process of accepting change. The program must then be implemented, disseminated throughout the organization, monitored for effectiveness, and adjusted where necessary. Organizations exist within a dynamic environment that is subject to change due to the impact of various change "triggers". To continue to operate effectively within this environment turbulence, organizations must be able to change themselves in response to internally and externally initiated change. However, change management requires an understanding of the possible effects of change upon people, and how to mange potential sources of resistance to that change.

There are a multitude of concepts on Change Management and it is very complicated to distil a common denominator from all the sources that are applying the expression to their mental maps of organizational development. But obviously there is a tight link with the concept of learning organizations. Only if organizations and individuals within organizations learn, they will be able to master a constructive change. In other words, change is the result from an organizational learning process that centers around the questions: 'In order to sustain and develop as an organization and as individuals within; what are the procedures, what is the know-how we need to retain and where do we require to change?', and, 'How can we manage a change, that is in accord with the values we hold as individuals and as organizations?'

Change Management has also to be seen in the light of the discussion on Knowledge Management, which took several turns during the nineties. When the establishment of an intranet was suddenly viable to any large organization, IT and management scientists declared the commencement of the "knowledge society". The juvenile anticipation of knowledge management was that every member of an organization would be highly motivated to share information through a general platform and a quality enhancement process would be enabled more or less by itself. It took only a couple of years to understand that this assumption was false. Up to now, there are no examples of a company in which transformational learning is facilitated by an IT system only, because the early protagonists forgot that information does not equal knowledge and that human knowledge is in the muscles of the persons who create the parts of a larger system.

In essence, change takes place on three levels: the self, the team or the (small) organization and the wider system that surrounds the team or the small organization or the organizational unit - depending how you describe the system borders. In a process, learning needs to be facilitated on all three levels to become sustainable. Sustainable learning is the only way for an appropriate and systematic growth for long term and extensive organizational change.

Another important aspect is handling efficiently the aspect of behavioral and attitudinal change in regard to individualistic perception, team aspect and organization purview. These three aspects have to go through a broader and much inclusive change process towards the desired goal with systematic monitoring process in every step of the progress for a self sustainable consequence.

About Author / Additional Info:
A short article on broader perspective of change management from organizational point of view.