“Change”, in the corporate world, generally refers to an overall restructuring or remodeling, or on a broader basis, any alteration on a large scale. The definition of “change management,” can be classified into four parts:

1. The task of managing change.
2. An professional practice area.
3. A body of knowledge.
4. A control mechanism.

 
“Change management” has been successfully implemented in the corporate world. The effect of “change management” in industrial plants certainly deserves a closer look.

Change Management in Industrial and Professional Practice

Some experts in change management claim that they can help clients in managing changes that are faced by them – while there are others who claim that the clients can do it themselves with their help. Then there are those who can help a client in managing the essential changes. However in almost all cases, the actual change process is treated separately from the exact situation. Those who are change management professionals are able to bring in this change that is essential for proper business management.

Industrial plants are highly expert systems and they need to be classified into broad groups: Some are in the manufacturing business, while others are in retail, and then there are those who are into distribution. Some businesses are into profit making while there are those that are not into this. Some of them are private, and others are public sector enterprises. Some businesses are into automobiles wherein they are referred to as the makers of original equipment or OEM or are after-market suppliers. There are even a few in the health care sector either as the insurer or as the insured. While most of them are regulated, but some of them are not. Similarly, for many businesses the competition is stiff, while in others it is not the case. Some of these companies are internationally owned and some of them are located outside the country. The organization structure too differs from corporations to proprietorships to partnerships. Some of these businesses are quite old and some of them are new. In some cases, some of them have taken years to reach where they are now, while others came through by means of acquisitions and mergers.

There is content and a process dimension in the change problems that most of the companies face. It has much to do with the nature and the organization structure of the company. For example, a change in the way the claims processing department works in a health insurer that is organized and a similar change in another insurer who is product-line wise market segment organized will be different. No two people are the same, and so, no two companies can also adapt to the same change solution. But even then, the actual change process may still be the same. This basic similarity across all types of organization in various industries is what makes change management a process and a task and a professional practice.

Where the person is placed in an organization and his designation becomes important in the scale and the type of change he becomes involved with and the kind of change he has to be responsible for. Because of this, the concerns also change. Those who are in systems are concerned about technological developments and technology, those in marketing worry about the needs of the customer and the competition, and those in charge of legal affairs concern themselves with the various legalities. More senior people often have to deal with a range of issues concerning the change.

Adaptation problems are often the most common change related problems as the change is going to affect the circumstances with which people were accustomed for long. In companies such as IBM and AT&T the changes that were administered were far-reaching and deep and so these companies must have gone through these problems.

Change management basically focuses on means rather than on ends. The companies in which the change is successful normally deals with all these issues quite early including the people and the functional coordination’s. Since what is to be achieved has already been decided, the people have to adapt to the changes. But this is difficult at times and this is when we come across people who try to stop the changes from taking place.

Even small changes can be sensitive particularly when the processes are complicated. That is why the change in the industry needs to be managed properly. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA has regulated how changes are to be documented and made in the US. The change needs to be properly reviewed by a team comprising of various sources and in the review process, all the viewpoints needs to be considered – this will ensure that the chance of a hazard is minimized. This is where change management is also referred to as MOC or “Management of Change”.