Best Practices for Organizational Change Management

[marilyn_pratt]

Hooray! Finally an opportunity to take this forum back to its proper direction of Organizational Change Management topics as we begin to engage with some subject matter experts in OCM.

Those interested in having OCM conversations here are also welcome to begin interaction with this <a href="https://https://www.benchmarking.sap.com/cgi-bin/qwebcorporate.dll?idx=945JDN&SHSP1Q2A=asugEMAIL061907">OCM best practices survey</a>. It would give community a chance to engage with ASUGers around the topic of organizational change and give ASUGers a chance to broaden the Americas centric perspective. So welcome all.

Looks like

<a href="/people/kerry.brown/blog/2007/07/10/organizational-change-management-best-practices-survey Brown</a> will be helping put this topic back on course. Looking at her blog profile, I, for one, am most eager for her engagement with us here.

[Former Member]

The law of nature:

Nothing but change is constant.

Humans are always resistant to change.

This states that the human aspect of nature defies this very law.

The question arises why we are not resilient to change?

Let me summarize the possible reasons for this:-

1) Change poses threat to status quo

2) Change brings in new things which challenges the existing state

3) Change talks about future; the envisaged state that has to be attained.

4) Change reflects badly upon the existing state which may have no perils in the present.

5) Change may talk about abandoning the existing principles and values.

Now let me explore the human element with respect to change.

Management theorists and so called Gurus have discovered that People do not want to work.

An existing state can be considered as a state of monotony and comfort where people are up the learning curve and the state is as easy as the state where none of us are working.

Now let's discuss about the process of change.

Let me exemplify this with the act of adding color to ice.

If you directly add color to ice only the upper layer will be colored.

Metaphorically an unplanned change may go in vain.

However if you melt the ice and then add color to it and then refreeze it, color will delve to the lowest layer.

My point is if change is carried out in these three steps ie

First the proponents of change should be endowed with enough vision and wisdom to make others realize the shortcomings of the present state

The next step is to convince them that the envisaged state is for the betterment of all.

Then the changes should be swept across without any further resistance.

The best way is to design the plan of change in such a way whereby change passes by continuously at each stage without being experienced much by the stakeholders of change.

If the objective of change is attained unnoticed at the lower levels in an organization

The outcome of this drive can be phenomenal.

The general psychology of human is actually driven by the ease by which any objective can be fulfilled. One in a million would like to give up the comfort and ease of status quo which has given nothing but a mental comfort and physical discomfort over a period of time.

The devilish acceptance and persistence of status quo in human mind is the absence of zeal and the insecurity of the envisaged future.

Stockholm syndrome is yet another example that is evident of the challenges the human mind can face in the acceptance of Change.

Human mind is nourished by a host of factors before it comes to a stage of maturity where some values and principles take a formal precedence in any future action.

Hereditary factors that are dominant at the time of birth, start taking backstage when an individual starts meeting people in different institutions at different stages of life. Most of these changes graduate slowly in the human and inadvertently he becomes a victim to this gradual metamorphosis.

These small changes in human development slowly perpetuate in the creation of a solid framework of mind and the individual cannot transgress this limit until and unless there is a vigorous quiver that disturbs the placidness of his thought process."Man cannot outgrow his skin".

Change is a natural, continuous, gradual and irresistible process.

Individuals keep changing mentally as well as physically from birth till death.

A retrospective analysis of Change can show us that every existing state is always a result of change that may be either a natural phenomenon or a man made phenomenon.

Why Human mind is so resistant to change when he himself is a result of continuous change?

Now, we are at ease to segregate change in two broad categories.

1) Forcible Change

2) Inadvertent Change

Forcible Change:

Changes brought about by nature:-

u2022 A Volcanic eruption

u2022 An Earthquake

u2022 A sudden storm in the sea

u2022 The 'Big Bang' , that resulted in the formation of the seven Continents and the formation of the Great Himalayas in place of Tethys.

..................................To be continued

[Former Member]

Marilyn,

I tried participating in the OCM Best Practice Survey. Got an error 'page not displayed'. Is it still active?

Ashur

[Former Member]

There is error in the URL.

Try this [link|https://www.benchmarking.sap.com/cgi-bin/qwebcorporate.dll?idx=945JDN&SHSP1Q2A=asugEMAIL061907]

[Former Member]

Hai,

Organizational Structure

Use

In order for the workflow system to establish the relationship between the requester and their superior, you must create an organizational plan in the system.

For this tutorial, of course, this organizational plan does not have to be complete and valid across the enterprise. To keep the test as simple as possible initially, define an organizational plan that only contains one administrator and one head of department.

Assign both items to yourself. As a result, all work items will appear in your own Business Workplace. Later you will modify the organizational plan such that you will have to work through the scenario with two users.

Procedure

The organizational plan required for this tutorial consists, when complete, of one organizational unit (= "department"), which contains two positions: a head of department and an administrator.

Each position is described by one job and each position is assigned one user as holder. The head of department position is also designated as chief position of the organizational unit.

Of course, a "real" organizational plan is created by arranging several organizational units with their positions in a hierarchy. Usually several positions are described by one job.

For further information, refer to the documentation Organizational Plan.

The procedure in this unit is divided into four parts:

1. You create an organizational unit.

2. Enter necessary jobs as required.

3. You create a position for the head of department in the new organizational unit.

You define a position in three steps:

i. You create a position that is assigned your organizational unit.

ii. You assign a holder to the position.

iii. You assign a job to the position.

3. You create a position for the administrator in the organizational unit.

Creating an organizational unit

1. Choose Tools &#61614; SAP Business Workflow &#61614; Development &#61614;&#61472;Definition tools &#61614; Organizational Management &#61614; Organizational plan &#61614; Create.

2. Confirm the validity period proposed in the dialog box Creating a Root Organizational Unit.

This takes you to the Create Organization and Staffing (Workflow) screen. This user interface is divided into four screen areas:

3. On the Basic Data tab in the details area, enter an abbreviation and a name in the Organizational unit input fields.

Abbreviation: <ini_sales>

Name: <OrgUnit: Sales (ini)>

4. Choose .

You can now create the position for a head of department and one administrator.

Create jobs

When enhancing an organizational unit, the necessary jobs are usually already available. For this tutorial however, you create the necessary jobs for head of department and administrator yourself.

1. Choose Edit &#61614; Create jobs.

You go to the dialog box Create jobs. The lower area contains a list of existing jobs and the upper area contains an input table in which you can create new jobs by entering abbreviations and names.

2. In the input table, enter an abbreviation and a name for each of the new jobs.

Job - head of department:

Object abbreviation: < ini_dhead_C >

Name: < job: head of department (ini) >

Job administrator:

Object abbreviation: < ini_admi_C >

Name: < job: administrator (ini) >

3. Choose .

Creating Position for Head of Department

1. Change to the overview area in the staff assignments of the organizational unit, in order to assign positions, jobs and holders. Choose the arrow on the right next to the and then the staff assignments (list).

2. Choose .

A new position is then created in the staff assignments and is displayed in a new line in the table. The position is vacant and no job is assigned to it.

3. Open the details view for the new position in the details area by double-clicking on the entry in the table.

4. On the Basic Data tab, enter a code and a description in the Position input fields. Overwrite the previous contents.

Abbreviation: < ini_dhead_S >

Description: < position: head of department ( ini ) >

Assigning a holder to the position

You now assign R/3 users to the positions. The staff assignments for your organizational unit are displayed and you see the vacant position in the table.

5. Select User in the search area and enter the search criteria in order to find your user names.

All of the user names that match your search criterion are listed in the selection screen.

6. Select your user name in the selection area and drag it to the Person/User column of the position in the overview area.

Confirm the message that the relationship period of the validity has been changed.

7. Set the Head of own organizational unit indicator in the details area.

Assigning a job to the position

Assign the job of the head of department you created earlier to the position.

8. Select Job in the search area and enter the search criteria in order to find the job of the head of department.

All jobs that match your search criterion are listed in the selection screen.

9. Select job: head of department ( ini) in the selection area and drag it to the Job column of the position in the overview area.

10. Choose .

The job is assigned the position. Check this by switching to the staff assignments of the organizational unit. Select the organizational unit in the overview area, choose the arrow on the right next to the and then the staff assignments (list). The newly created job is displayed in the job column.

Create position for administrator and assign holder and job

You are now in the staff assignments of the organizational unit.

1. Choose .

A new position is then created in the staff assignments and is displayed in a new line in the table. The position is vacant and no job is assigned to it.

2. On the Basic Data tab in the details area, enter an abbreviation and a name in the Position input fields. Overwrite the previous contents.

ID: <ini admiS >

Description: < position: administrator ( ini ) >

3. Choose .

4. Select User in the search area and enter the search criteria in order to find your user names.

5. Select your user name in the selection area and drag it to the Person/User column of the position in the overview area.

Confirm the message that the relationship period of the validity has been changed.

6. Select Job in the search area and enter the search criteria in order to find the job of the administrator.

7. Select job: administrator ( ini) in the selection area and drag it to the Job column of the position in the overview area.

8. Choose .

Result

Display your entire staffing schedule again and make sure that all the information listed is correct.

You can display a detailed view of jobs, users, and positions. Choose the relevant cell in the table by double-clicking it.

In the details view of a position or job, all of the assigned tasks are displayed on the Tasks tab.

You have now completed the first unit (defining the organizational plan). You can now start on the next unit. To exit processing of the organizational structure, choose Back.

[former_member206215]

To,

Dear Colleagues,

The organization change management, should have an algorithmic procedure, and which is supported by excellent up to date documentation, like blue prints, and an extensive analysis must be performed, like wise the organizational understanding on AS IS scenario, and TO BE scenario. so the excellent change experimentation on prototype and the outcomes can be documented for future reference. while doing or handling organizational change management, the records or examples of parallel industries should be taken in to consideration.

The three time zone PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE have to considered during doing organizational change management.

The change is the only thing which is permanent in life. so what was before change and what will happen after change has to be dealt with.

The change is the state in between STATE & EVENT.

The state is present and when we apply changes it turns in to an event and when event is stoped another transormed state is been observed.

The factors affecting organization change management are as follows:

1) Type of Organization

2) Nature of business

3) Geographical location

4) The present organizational structure

5) The present business process

6) The business process/organization structure need to be changed.

7) What need initiated the need for Change

😎 Where the change will take place

9) why the changes are needed

10) who will do it

11) How it can be done

12) what prototype and parameters will be used

13) How the results will be evaluated.

14) The time frame is another important aspect.

15) Organize around the task and not on outcomes

16) Treat geographically dispered resources as at one place

17) Place controll where actual work is performed and define a process for it.

18) Create responsibility centres build a system, and place all criteria of organization, interaction, integration, central objective, and input output processes control and feedback

18) The changes should be in the direction of an integrated system, with visibility at all level.

19) Effectively trainning men, proper use of machineary, material and valuable resources in a changed way and developeing a change organizational character is more important.

Dear friends,

The organizational character is a reflection of people working in the organization, and people are responsible for all the activities, and making organization thrive ahead in competition, so if changes are made for better future, we have to not only accept the changes, but to embrace all changes gleefully and incorporate them in a practice.

to be contd..................................

[Former Member]

How to change a person from one department to another in OM

[Former Member]

Is the OCM Best practice Survey still available? I clicked the link but got a "page not found" error.

[Former Member]

Very anxious to expand participation here and across the other Organizational Change forum dialogues.

Wondering what the plans are for communicating the results of the best practices survey?

Interested in Kerry's comment specific to broadening the America's centric perspective. If you were to summarize from your experience, how might you differentiate approaches globally?

[former_member186026]

Hooray indeed - not to be confused with Change Controls, Organizational Change Management is something we all have to deal with on all projects and learning what other companies are doing, want and see as critical will be great information to have.

We extended the date for the survey submissions to August 8th in order to allow for some greater participation in other regions around the globe - so...there's still time to participate in the OCM Best Practices Survey and receive a free copy of the summary results. We have ~100 respondents to date and looking forward to more!