It has been successful in creating a ripple effect as many other national organizations have announced merit-based recruitment as opposed to political appointments. This has given a ray of hope to the qualified but politically-neutral citizens that they would get equal job opportunities.
It is now the turn of those fortunate who got the opportunity to be appointed in a leadership position through merit-based recruitment to prove themselves and to substantiate that a qualified person can make a difference in the entire organizational culture. Building a team of committed executives who are accountable and can initiate organizational transformation where needed is the immediate next step.
Success of change primarily depends on two major factors: Defined change process and a committed leadership for managing the change. Building common understanding on the desired changed stage, framing detailed guidelines for its realization and reinforcing each other during the process to persevere along the tedious and daunting path of reform are some of the essential elements.
People are resistant to change due to uncertainty associated with it. Asking people to change the way they operate in an organization is equivalent to asking them to change their lifestyle, which is rather uncomfortable and painful. Thus, it is imperative to start with the basics, in the meantime creating awareness and readiness among the employees for the changed stage.
The technocratic approach of the experts has proved to be a complete debacle in bringing about transformation and outcomes so far. Though technical aspects are equally crucial, the social and behavioral aspects in the local context should not be overlooked. To sustain the gains of organizational change, it needs to be grounded with local leadership and ownership.
Working hand in hand with the people, orienting them on the process and outcomes, understanding and appreciating their capabilities and also building their competence in the process, setting milestones together along with frequent reviews are some of the strategies that must be adhered to for sustainable reform.
It is always a good idea to start from those initiatives that are beneficial for everybody in the organization from employees to the mangers. Management of personnel information system or even the provision of ID cards would be a safe entry step rather than putting in place controlling efforts such as installation of tapping machine for attendance or introducing complex financial system at the first place.
The mistake of changing the organization structure in the first place should not be made as long as the existing structure does not interfere with the planned change. Once the other organizational elements are in place, the structure should be re-aligned to support what an organization is trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, most of the organizational reform initiatives have started and ended in the changes in organizational structure alone.
Performance-based management system should be introduced to combat the non-working culture and reinforce the motivation of those few percentage of employees who are the real backbone of the entire corporation.
In the current messy situation, most of the corporations of our country need refocusing and reengineering of their activities with proper human resource management and development plan in place. Organizational analysis followed by designing the change process, implementing it and monitoring the progress are essential components of change process without which change will be sporadic and unstable.
The gains in the process should be documented, reinforced and replicated as every little success has enormous connotation toward the big task of organizational reform. Mistakes and setbacks are normal and inevitable part of the process. The big challenge is to seize upon mistakes as learning opportunities, rather than using them as excuses for squashing reform.
Reforming the large public service, however, is enormously challenging and complex as it requires multidimensional efforts geared toward transformation of entire organizational culture. It needs to be planned and carried out scrupulously following process-based approach. The main goal of reform, though, should be to provide more effective and efficient public services following customer-centric approach.
Simple, bold and agile organization that can provide swift and impeccable services is the present day’s demand. Organizational system and workflows should have one purpose, that is the realization of its vision through improved services to customers.
One of the pillars and probably the most complex one during change management is ensuring that the set of people providing the services have right skills, right attitude and behavior and in the meantime are well-motivated to work in a partnership approach for accomplishing the shared goal. Training and capacity-building of employees is one of the most powerful vehicles for an organization to create breakthrough change and thus it should be made an integral part of the change process. It reflects management commitment toward employees and can achieve three simultaneous results: Building alignment to the desired change; enhancement of individuals’ skills; and reinforcement of company-wide communication.
Performance-based management system should be introduced to combat the non-working culture and reinforce the motivation of those few percentage of employees who are the real backbone of the entire corporation. An appropriate system for setting performance objectives and measuring progress against them, and a reformed pay structure conducive to attracting, retaining and motivating highly-qualified staff is a prerequisite. Nepali citizens have high expectations from the new leaders in the public sector as they are perceived to have the right competence for managing public entities.
The writer is a Development Management Consultant
manoramaa@gmail.com
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