Mobile App for Change Management in the Workplace

First, change is important. More and more enterprises understand that Darwin’s theory of survival applies to businesses, too. Second, change is difficult. There are multiple models of going through an organizational change, but few of them can capture the challenge in all its aspects.

Combining these models with each other as well as with cutting-edge HRM technologies can significantly evolve and improve change management. That is exactly what this article is aimed at.

What change management lacks: democracy and flexibility

Fundamental change involves not only business reforms, but also intricate psychological transitions and ‘withdrawals'. For example, to turn obligatory tax payment into a customer service in 1990s, the Internal Revenue Service had to reshape their employees’ entire behavior pattern, which required immense work and a lot of time, since it’s in the human nature to resist change.

Despite leaving space for resistance in theory, no model actually shows how to implement change in a manner different from the ‘top to down’ or unrealistic ‘command and control’ method. Moreover, some experts’ tips can be counterproductive if taken to the extreme (like, repeating the same vision statement over and over again). Such obtrusiveness can easily make employees completely turn their back on the idea.

Both Lewin’s and Kotter’s models tell about how communication is important during change, but some companies are not even office-based and have employees working in shifts or in the field. These organizations can face trouble with tuning their communication, yet they still have the right to go through the process of change successfully.

How to evolve change management with mobile

Letting people actively participate in the process of change and be its driving force is what both models, Lewin’s and Kotter’s, suggest. Still, most HR managers would agree that achieving employees’ engagement is one of the most difficult objectives a company may target at the time of change.

In other words, change would be faster, smoother and more efficient if everyone in the company were immersed in the process, played their roles in it and were interconnected. And that is exactly what mobility, with its extremely flexible nature, can offer for all the 3 steps of Lewin’s model.

Before the change

According to Lewin, ‘unfreezing’ a square ice cube means destroying the status quo. Kotter would later elaborate on this first step and highlight the need to announce oncoming changes and their prerequisites upfront, decide on the ‘vision’ the company should strive for and appoint the ones responsible for bringing the change to life.