Change

management has been defined as ‘the

process of continually renewing an organization’s
direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the
ever-changing needs of external and internal
customers (clients)’ (Moran and Brightman, 2001:
111).


The definition of change is the transformation
from a state to a new and state as desired
outcome. The planned approach to organizational
change attempts to explain the process that bring
about change (Burnes, 1996; Eldrod II and
Tippett, 2002) for the organization. Organization
change is the strategies, tools and procedures to
effectuate change in the organization.



Change management can be seen as the process
applied to achieve organizational outcomes by the
management of the individuals in the organization
to bring about change.

Managing change can be construed as planned and
managed of making these changes. Managing
change thus can also be referred to as the assessed
and intended application of methodological
approach to bring about change in a systematic
fashion and accounting for the process of change
applied. The necessity to apply these changes
comes from external influences of the
organization while the organization has little or no
control over and as response administers the
changes.

The acknowledgement of these external influences
and the necessity to change and the adaption to
the external influences sets the organization to the
concept of “learning organization”. The definition
of a “learning organization” is its ability to
continuously transform; Peter Senge the fifth
discipline coined this notion. In the research of
Peter Senge (fifth discipline, 1990) accounts
“organizations as where people continually
expand their capacity to create the results they
truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of
thinking are nurtured …” to sum up “change
management refers to an area of professional
practice and the related body of knowledge that
has grown up within and around this subject,
mainly as a result of experience (… )”




According to Burnes (2004) accounting for change
in an organization is vital to both the operational
and strategic level. The importance of the
organization to its adaptability and necessity to
implement change ensures the future and having
the desired outcome. Structuring the change and
creating a framework is necessary to measure the
change initiatives. To account for this method of
measurements should be also at place.

There are three forms of change management of
interest (1) Top-down change management, (2)
Transformational change management and (3)
Strategic change management.

Top-down change management is a form of
change management when the change is
implemented from the executive body down
towards the managers and followed up by the
organizations staff. The change implemented is
devised at the highest level and the validation of
the change reform process is addressed and the
managers execute the coordination and
administration and the staff embodies the changes
without taking part in the decision-making
process.

While transformation of change management is at
the behavioral level of change implemented in the
organization. The organization’s staff is stimulated
to be innovative and a conducive environment is
created accept out of the box creativity.
Transformational changes according to Jick and
Peiperl (2003:218) the organizational
reorientation with transformational change is the
alteration of the environment within the
organization that is caused by environmental
factors and in turn changing the behaviors of the
organization. Cummings and Worley (2001:498)
and Grobler (in Verwey & Du Plooy-Cilliers,
2003:192), viewed transformational change as
paradigm modifications both at the individual and
organizational levels.

Strategic change management is based on
empirical evidence that in turn lead to change in
the workings of the organization. Strategic change
management is structured to achieve
organizations objectives, operational processes
and eventual goals. The organizations staff verifies
the benefits of changes adapted and internalize
the change and adapt the new behavior. Strategic
change management focuses on a certain
approach and process that is predefined.