With the market economy conquering the world culminating in the shrinking of the world into a global village, organisations have to change their stance, with a strategy focused at the global market and acquire agility to respond quickly to the customer expectations. Such organisational change can be brought about by building high performing synergistic work systems comprising of many inter-related parts, that must function as a whole to reach the goals of meeting customer needs. Such synergistic work systems involve tailored configurations of work structures, practices and processes. Organisations have to restructure so as to organise work flow around key business processes webbed around customer needs and then create teams to carry out those processes. Human resource systems; management practices; work practices and processes and organisational structures tuned to customer requirement culminate in organisations strategic alignment towards responsiveness and customer orientation. The critical steps involved in such organisational change process are as follows:

i) Building the case for change.
ii) Define vision, mission and strategy.
iii) Develop communications and involvement strategy for the organisation as a whole.
iv) Design/Re-design the organisation structure
v) Plan for implementation.
vi) Implement the system
vii) Monitor and evaluate progress
viii) Review the organisation.

In all the above activities the macro focus of the organisation as a whole is to be kept in view. All the steps are important, but their sequence can vary depending upon existing organisation culture. Typically they overlap, and earlier steps need to be revisited as the change progresses. The relative emphasis on particular step depends on the history of an organisation and its current work culture.

While building the case for change, involve the customer and key stake-holders, send honest and consistent messages. When defining, vision, mission and strategy create steering and design committees consisting of creative visionary thinkers representing a cross section of the organisation.

For developing a communications and involvement strategy, develop a plan to deal with rumours and use opinion leaders and managers. Bombard the organisation with senior management speeches, round table conferences, news letters, testimonials and internal public relation technology.

Organisation design/re-design consists of moving from pyramidal-heirachical to matrix-bound structures giving clear role boundaries and guidelines to design teams while involving people who are going to be influenced by organisational restructuring process.

When planning for implementation, communicate plans with enthusiasm, competence and commitment. Identify projects that will lead to early wins.

In implementation, have senior leaders drive the implementation, develop support systems before launching teams and build management teams before employee teams. Implement top down for monitoring and evaluating progress. Open up the managers to ask the right questions, argue and positively criticise in formally organised round tables with employees as internal customers. During the transition, allow optimum time for change, prevent backsliding and celebrate success.

Learning organisations have come alive with responsiveness and customer orientation. Such organisations have enhanced capacity to learn, adopt and change. It is an organisation in which learning processes are developed, analysed, monitored, managed and aligned with improved and innovated goals. Its vision, strategy, leadership, values, structures, systems knowledge and practical experience, all constantly change based on the need of the hour. Sharing best practices, an open culture, calculated risk taking is encouraged. Systems for performance based rewards are promoted. Instead of a single prescription for success, learning organisations use many.

Following are the requirements for the managerial change.
i) The managers must have adequate knowledge of human behaviour.
ii) The managers must be clear exactly of that behaviour, they have to manage.
iii) They must have the skills to manage the consequences for designed behaviour in work situation.

These three have to be linked scientifically. Managerial behaviour is controlled by the consequences which accrue. People do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it.They never do simply because they are told to do so. The cmx of managerial behavioural change is in engineering consequences rather than talking Utopia.

Behavioural change of groups is engineered so as to convert coalitions into synergistic teams and is brought about by imparting a sense of common purpose. Open, mutually agreed upon and challenging goals must clearly relate to the team’s vision which has been aligned with organisational strategy. Group strategies for achieving goals are made clear along with the norms and the values that will guide them. Group empowerment is brought about by a sense of personal as well as collective power where group members have opportunities to grow and learn new skills. Open communication and empathic relationships are inculcated by optimisation of group cohesion, clarification of group boundaries and inter-group relationships. Flexibility for tasks and functions as also group maintenance enhance group’s effectiveness. Recognition and appreciation for high performing groups is the key to success. Weeding out the non performers is equally important. Such differential is essential. Morale imparts energy and inculcates enthusiasm in the teams and is brought about by realistic optimism being kept alive during group processes in progress. Specific group behaviour reinforces for group productivity. Sincere specific praise given promptly for total group’s performance; listening and facilitating group members, interaction enhances group performance.