Change is Environmental - Leaders/Managers can only react

Roger defines change management as the process of monitoring changes in an organized model or
framework to effectively achieve desired outcomes (Roger, 2015). This means leaders and managers
will be required to observe any changes in the market factors such as increased competition, research
and development and economic opportunities. Change management is important because today,
organizations have to deal with faster, more complex and more sophisticated change than ever before
(Prosci, 2017). According to Accentures 2010 High-Performance Workforce Study, not many
organizations are well-prepared for transformative change (Roger, 2015). This may mean that some
leaders and managers feel that they could only react to the changing environment.

However, the purpose of change management is to adapt to change at the organization and the
individuals own pace (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015). The adaptive move is not restricted to reacting to
environment. Indeed, change can be proactive if leaders and managers can foresee and influence
change. Such change management can involve (Roger, 2015)

1) Developing a new organizational system to increase efficiency

2) New technology & innovation
3) New products or services
4) New markets or geographic locations

Proactive management can occur even when the organization is not experiencing any serious problems,
because leaders and managers anticipate that in order to put the organization in a better position, there
is a need for change (Olajide, 2014). This is beneficial in comparison to reactive management in
following aspects:

1) The impact of change will be lessened

2) The organization will be ahead of other competitors who did not take any proactive measures
3) The reliability of the organizations performance will be enhanced

It is entirely possible that unwanted change may occur from proactive change management. This may
create unintended side-effects that could have been avoided if leaders and managers did not take any
initiatives. However, if leaders and managers see that there is a need for change before environment
changes, and can accurately implement change that would be beneficial to the organization, then they
should do so. Therefore, change should not be limited to being reactive.

Hao M. J. & Yazdanifard R. (2015), How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizationz
through Improvement and Innovation, 15(9), 1-7
Olajide O. T (2014) International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education: Change
Management and its Effect on Organizational Performance of Nigerian Telecoms Industries: Empirical
Insight from Airtel Nigeria, 1(11), 170-179

Prosci (2017) WHY CHANGE MANAGEMENT? Retrieved from https://www.prosci.com/change-

management/why-change-management

Roger, S,S. (2015). Change Management Mastery: 53 updated tips and Tactics for change Management
Fundamentals Kindle edition