Report on Change Agent

            A person who introduces changes in the way of doing things is called a change agent. Change agent brings changes to long-held methods of doing things in a group or in a company. Other terms used for change agent are Change advocate or Agent of change. Agent of change brings entirely new management structure or modifies already present ones. He can transform an old methodology of doing something into an entirely new one.

There are two types of change agents:

Internal Change Agent

        Internal agent is an individual who is from within the organization, company or group in which change is expected or already done. Usually agents of change belong to higher ranks like managers, but it is not always necessary. Any person who has the potential to change the customary methods of things can be an agent of change.

External Change Agent

        Any individual who brings changes into the system, yet doesn’t belong to the group himself is an external agent of change. He can be consultant or somebody else whose sole responsibility is to transform older system to a newer one. (NicoSchulenkorf 2010)

Traits and Characteristics of a Change Agent

Diverse Knowledge:

    Knowledge of how to change methodology with good results is the best character a change agent can have. In addition he is expected to have knowledge in many other disciplines like ethics, basics of evaluation, knowledge of development and many others.

Respectable:

        A change leader works for the betterment of organization. He must be considered authentic in terms of his doings and strategies because only then he will be respectable by members of group or company.

Strategic:

He has a pre-planned strategy ready for all kinds of situations. He is able to change or modify strategies when needs be.

Risk-taker:

        He is someone with broad vision and is eyeing on long-terms effects of strategies. He is a risk-taker not fearing short terms failures but knows how process of changes can be filled with obstacles at times.

Experienced:

A good change agent is studded with a lot of experience in diverse fields. He has experience of handling situations as well as people.

Courageous:

        Courageous not only means that he is ready for change but also he is welcoming to criticism by people and knows how to use criticism in a constructive way.

Strong network:

        He is a relational person. He knows how to engage people and can get the work done from them. He has a good networking because he knows change is not possible without people’s involvement. (Doring 2010)

Role of Change agent in change management process:

 He recognizes the need for change and is able to initiate or modify a change process in accordance to the needs of company

He is a participant himself and works with team members to bring the change

He identifies the situation of the organization and then sort outs the different options available which can undergo change and researches different styles of change of management.

He brings about the required changes in the management styles and methods.

A change agent is not a tool who can change the entire system himself, but is a person who acts as a consultant and an advisor. He is someone who can guide groups or organizations and can help them in sorting out the proper direction.

He works as a trainer by training staff and improving their skills. He helps them achieve the highest levels of success.

A change agent is supposed to be a coach and mentor of the staff. He knows how to interact with adults and make them adapt to new strategies.

He is a facilitator. He makes the change process easy for members of group by making it understandable.

He encourages his people to help him bring the change. He understands them and has a good relation with them through his strong networking capabilities. (Coplin, Merget and Bourdeaux 2003)

Change agent as an influencer

There are three organizational management levels which are overlapping as well;

            Understanding a need of change is very important and of course the first step to start a change initiative. A change agent recognizes these needs by careful evaluation of ongoing methodologies of management and strategies of work. Once he has identified the current management situations, he directs team members and process in the direction of new change by taking help of new and modern technology. He makes his people skillful and guides them at each step by participating with them. He communicates with them and encourages them to stay on line to bring the change. (Lemke and Coughli 2009)

        A change leader may fails in change initiative when he is not strategic and smart enough. A big reason for failed change initiative is the inability of change agent to understand that it is not only the process that needs change but in fact people play a key role in making it possible.

        A change initiative can be successful only when the leader of change knows where to allocate resources of money as well as energy properly, and how to be able to modify and adjust change process at any step. He keeps his on the bigger picture and is able to bring innovative ideas to the table. (Adelman and Taylor 2003)

Challenges of a change agent and their solution:

Lack of Support:

            A change agent needs support for its change initiative strategy to be successful. But, most of times, agents of change do not get support just from the beginning. Getting people on board with them is a very challenging task.

Politics:

            Politics are faced on all work places and fighting and getting through these politics is an art. Change leader has to face politics while getting their work done.

Act of balancing:

         People never want to be told what to do and interrupted by any person, especially when it is someone who wants to make changes to their long-learnt methods and ideas. When and how to implement things on staff and acting as a participant is a challenging task and requires balance.

Lack of Attention:

         Process of change can be slow sometimes, especially when organization is already working something big. People and organization itself may lose interest in change process and be more pre-occupied in work. Change leader has to fight such kinds of issues.

        Change leader plays a vital role in the long-term well being o a company and it helps the organization to keep pace with time. Change leaders are faced with many barriers while they are implementing their new strategies. These barriers can be vanished if change leader explains the employees and organization the long term benefits of the new methodologies of management.

        A good agent of change has to have powerful communication and networking skills so that he is able to engage people with himself and keeps their attention towards him. All the people may not stand with him in the beginning, but he will have to prove his authenticity with time to them. He can make them work on board with him once he has gained their trust. Change leader has to make things and new technologies easy to staff and act as a mentor to influence them become up-to-date in their methods of working. (J., L and Foa 1999)

References of Change Agent

Adelman, Howard S., and Linda Taylor. 2003. "On Sustainability of Project Innovations as Systemic Change." Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation 1-25.

Coplin, William D., Astrid E. Merget, and Carolyn Bourdeaux. 2003. "The Professional Researcher as Change Agent in the Government–Performance Movement." Wiley Online Library 711.

Doring, Allan. 2010. "Challenges to the Academic Role of Change Agent." Journal of Further and Higher Education 148.

J., Michael, Richard L, and Lin Foa. 1999. "Technology as a change agent for the teaching process." Taylor and Francis Online 24-30.

Lemke, Cheryl, and Ed Coughli. 2009. "The Change Agents ." Educational Leadership 54-59.

NicoSchulenkorf. 2010. "The roles and responsibilities of a change agent in sport event development projects." Science Direct 128.