How People Change Management Is Related to Business Process Management - Assignment Example

HOW PEOPLE CHANGE MANAGEMENT IS RELATED TO BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT How people change management is related to Business Process Management Introduction Business process management and people change management are usually married to each other. Every initiative to improve any business process usually requires some change. Organisational change management, which entails changing the perception of individuals within an organisation, is indispensable in a bid to improve business processes. In order to ensure efficient and effective business processes, people change management is essential determinant of success because it is people who are directly involved in improving business processes. In business every process management, irrespective of how small the project may be, culture change is always an inevitable step. This paper explores the relationship that exists between people change management and Business Process Management. The Role of People Change Management in Business Process Management Organisational change management or people change management plays a very vital part in ensuring successful business process management. It involves changing the beheviour of people making up the organisation and equipping them with the necessary skills required to take the organisation into the desired direction. People change management helps organisational change managers as well as business process managers to create change awareness, reduce employee resistance, manage change impact and implement desired business process change effectively (Brocke & Rosemann 2010; Jeston & Nelis 2014). Business process management is a field usually focused on bringing efficiency in business process and increase the effectiveness and agility with which the organisation strives towards its set objectives. In many cases, organisations pursue efficiency in order to cut down production costs and contain employee lay-offs through cost control. Effectiveness in every business process is the sure means through which companies can attain their goals such as establishing high customer experience and hence satisfaction through excellent customer service. In the modern market, consumer dynamics are fast changing and organisations have to be in better positions to respond to changes in the markets (Brocke & Rosemann 2010). Agility enables companies to swiftly respond to the changes in the market and turn existing challenges into business opportunities. Change management is basically one of the most daunting tasks for managers. This is because it involves changing people. Organisational change demands the transformation of the culture of the organisation, which stills comes down to changing people within the organization (Brocke & Rosemann 2010). Every change initiative in a company touches on employees, thus the need to device effective approaches to managing people change. Business process management entails active pursuit of new ways of improving the way an organisation does its business. This calls for changing the approach used by people within the company in executing their duties. Consequently, effective business process management can only be realised when an organisation establishes effective people change management approach (Jeston & Nelis 2014). New business approaches require employees to be acquainted with new skills. Without effective people change management, it would be impossible to establish effective business process management. Like business process management focuses, organisational change management (people change management) focuses on achieving organisational efficiency aimed at improving the overall performance of the organization (Jeston & Nelis 2014). Market conditions are constantly changing, which calls for organisational change. In order to fit the new market conditions and be at par or ahead of competitors, organisations must effectively manage their employees in the process of change. Improving business processes calls for changing people in terms of their perceptions and expertise so that they can effectively understand and handle the new business requirements. People change management remains crucial for any organisation to successfully establishing a working business process management. People change management requires the implementation of training and education programmes aimed at instilling employees with new skills and knowledge. Employees need to posses desirable and good skills in their work. Training employees does not only increase their job satisfaction, but also help change managers to have their change initiatives sail through with minimal opposition (Jeston & Nelis 2014). Training people on new skills related with the desired organisational change will enable them to perform new tasks with a lot of ease. If a company fails to train its employees on new skills, they will most certainly fail to match to the demands of organisational change, they will retain their old approach of performing tasks, and thus the company will not realise real change in the end. Changing people is usually the core of organisational change aimed at improving efficiency of the firm. Business process management demands are not always clear to every employee. As such, there is dire need to offer robust training to employees so that they can perfectly comprehend the ideas behind business process management and apply all their efforts in improving business process. Business management process concepts are usually vague in that different organisations will define it in different ways. As such, there is need to train employees to be familiar with fundamental business management process concepts and methodologies. This will ensure that employees understand the requirements of change programmes by setting a common language in the organisation. Effective communication is usually vital for successfully driving change process (Jeston & Nelis 2014). Training people on basic concepts of business process management will enable them to understand the desired change process and what is expected of them in the journey of pursuing organisational efficiency. The introduction of a new technology would demand training employees on how to effectively use the new technology and drop their old ways of doing things (Jeston & Nelis 2014). Clearly, there is no business process management without effective people change management. The two process go hand-in-hand with each other and are strongly bonded. In most cases, employees usually perform best when rewarded for their efforts. As such, it is imperative to constantly update the reward system of the company to motivate people when performing their assigned tasks. It is also important to reward people only for those tasks, which are perfectly performed and contribute to the journey towards the desired organisational goals (Pyke et al 2011). Indeed, taking the initiative to change the reward system before embarking on the desired change is usually important for motivating employees to work with the company to achieve the desired change. Changing the reward scheme will evoke enthusiasm among people and motivate them to change their perceptions and way of doing their work so as to achieve excellent performance and get into the reward system. Employees will be more ready to try new things if they are assured of being rewarded for their efforts (Pyke et al 2011). Rewarding employees on their change efforts will help to establish a positive change culture where every employee yearns for change and embrace change ideas. The culture of the organisation is a very crucial determinant of the extent of success of change within an organisation. Culture determines the degree of responsiveness of employees to change. As such, the efficiency with which a company performs its tasks and attempt to meet the needs of the market heavily relies on its culture (Pyke et al 2011). Culture will determine the level of flexibility of an organisation in performing its tasks and thus the overall efficiency. The more responsive and flexible employees are to change process; the high will be the level of efficiency of the firm in meeting the needs of the customers. People change management will determine the speed with which the desire organisation processes will improve through adoption of new tactics of task performance by employees. All this require effective people change management. Conclusion People change management and business process management is often too close to separate. Successful business process management requires effective management of change in employees. Business process management is often concerned with improving business processes such as improving customer service among others. Business process management focuses on reducing production cost of the organisation through establishing efficient and effective business processes. It may entail adoption of new technology to improve business process efficiency. However, the goal of business management process cannot be attained in isolation. It demands effective people change management. Adopting new approaches to performing organisational task demands new skills and expertise. As such, organisations need to train their employees on how to perform their task using the desired approaches. This means changing people, which is basically organisational change. In order to improve business processes, there is need to change the perception of employees. Employees must be trained on new ideas and be motivated to drop their old task performance approaches through effective reward system. Clearly, business process management cannot be separated from people change management because the latter is the man driver of business process management. Bibliography Brocke, JV & Rosemann, M 2010, “Handbook on business process management 2: strategic alignment, governance, people and culture,” Springer, London. Jeston, J & Nelis, J 2014, “Business Process Management,” Routledge, New York. Pyke, J, Chow, L, Palmer, N, Swenson, K & Fischer, L 2011, “Delivering BPM Excellence; Business Process Management in Practice,” Future Strategies, North Federal Highway. Read More