Change Management - the One Right Way

The need to quickly implement far-reaching and often complex strategic change has led many managers and change agents to search for simple solutions and the one right way.... The appealing aspect of the promise held out for these types of change technologies is that they can absolve the manager from the onerous task of critically reviewing the full range of other competing approaches or devising a custom-made change program. They cut through complexity. However the offer is often illusory, for particular change approaches usually apply to particular situations, and simple solutions sometimes ignore the complexities of real life. (Stace and Dunphy, 2001, p 5)

To utilise a single change approach is to assume that all organisations, all situations and all internal and external variables and influences remain constant. It applies the same logic to all changes without consideration of the many and varied influencing factors.

I generally agree with the statement presented by Stace and Dunphy but am interested in the reasons underlying the requirement for simple, easy and fast change interventions. Are managers and change agents lazy and only looking for simple solutions? Does management consider change unimportant? Do management really believe that a single solution is going to work in every case? What is behind this trend?

Bold (2011) suggests that change itself is becoming the only constant or ‘business as usual’ in the modern business environment. With technological advancements over the past 10 years, organisation now have the ability to access, collect and process enormous amounts of business data very quickly. This has provided management with the ability to understand the current health of their organisational processes and track against set goals and targets quickly and accurately. Previously, managers may have waited for end of month or end of quarter reporting from all business units to be collated and presented to gain an

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