Change Agent in Process of Change Management

Change Agent

One of the key underpinnings of change management process is the role of the consultant acting as a facilitator of change.

More often than not, an outsider is needed to move the part of the organization contemplating change to its new position. However, this outsider may well come from another part of the organization and thus be an internal figure. To this end, we prefer the term change agent. Whether internal or external, the change agent facilitates change in the particular area in which it is needed.

Reasons for using CHANGE AGENT!

Schein (1988) cites seven reasons for using a change agent:

1. Clients/managers often do not know what is wrong and need special help in diagnosing what their problems actually are.
2. Clients/managers often do not know what kinds of help consultants can give to them; they need to be helped to know what kind of help to seek.
3. Most clients/managers have a constructive intent to improve things, but they need help in identifying what to improve, and how to improve it.
4. Most organizations can be more effective than they are if they learn to diagnose and manage their own strengths and weaknesses.
5. A consultant probably cannot, without exhaustive and time-consuming study or actual participation in the client organization, learn enough about the culture of the organization to suggest reliable new courses of action. Therefore, unless remedies are worked out jointly with members of the organization who do know what will and will not work in their culture, such remedies are likely either to be wrong or be resisted because they come from an outsider.
6. Unless the client/manager learns to see the problem for himself and thinks through the remedy, he will not be able to implement the solution and, more importantly, will not learn to fix such problems should they recur.
7. The essential function of process consultation is to pass on the skills of how to diagnose and remedy organizational problems so that the client is more able to continue on his own to improve the organization.

Why to invest for CHANGE AGENT!

Many organizations have invested resources to establish their own internal organization development consultants as a means of instigating change.

Why would a company wish to become so heavily resourced in the area of organization development? One reason is that it is an investment in getting ahead and being able to manage change.

Similarly, the costs involved in external change agents getting up to speed with the culture and values of an organization is expensive in time and money. There are several organizations willing to invest heavily in this field as a means of forgoing external costs via change consultants.

Internal Change Agent (Pros and Cons)

The benefits of using an internal change agent are linked directly to two key issues

• Cost factors
• Access to information.

By comparison, the costs associated with training an employee in the techniques and practices of OD are minimal when the alternative is the use of an outside consultancy firm over a lengthy period of time.

External consultants charge by the day and more often than not, the cost of one change project can run into a very big amount. The external consultancy firm has to build in overhead costs, which run up the bill.

The internal change agent may also have the benefit of having access to information that the external agent cannot hope to get, no matter how long the project runs.

To be effective, the internal consultant is required to maintain a marginal status between being internal and being objective. The value of the internal change agent rests with being inside the organization and able to have information at hand whilst remaining objective with regard to the problem and the client organization. This is a particularly difficult situation for an employee of an organization to be in.

There are a number of factors which may hinder the internal change agent’s objectivity:

• being too close to see what the problem is;
• being part of the problem;
• being willing to confront issues when promotion and pay issues are forthcoming;
• being part of the power system being examined;
• being aware of the needs and demands of superiors.

The use of internal change agents, who have been effectively trained in the techniques of managing change, will obviously benefit the organization. However, there are a number of issues that the change agent should be aware of that may inhibit their ability to influence change within the organization. Two of these relate to the method of entry into projects and, the nature of the voluntary relationship.

In terms of entry into a change management process as a facilitator, the internal change agent has to convince management and employees within a particular part of the organization of their expertise in this area. There is also a need to display the willingness to help. These issues are no different from those experienced by the external change agent and confidence and trust will come from successful change management projects within the organization over time. However, the internal change agent needs to use these successful interventions as an open education process for the organization far more than the external ever has to.

The internal change agent may not be given the opportunity to pick and choose clients from within the organization. Nor can they always expect to be free in their choice of the manner and mode of facilitation employed.

The internal change agent must not and cannot become involved in change within his/her own area. For most internal change agents this rules out the development of projects for change in the personnel area, but leaves them free to deal with issues related to sales and marketing, manufacturing, etc.

Ideally, any organization training internal change agents would select a number of them from different departments to be able to deal with this difficulty.

Reference:

McCalman, J., Paton, R., & Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: a guide to effective implementation. (4 ed.) SAGE Publications Inc.