research article ‘Competencies for Managing Change’ some qualities ‘competencies’ were identified by the authors. In your own opinion, which of the identified ??

competencies is the most important and why?

Bond UniversityePublications@bondMirvac School of Sustainable Development Institute of Sustainable Development andArchitecture1-1-2010Competencies for managing change Lynn Crawford Bond University, Lynn_Crawford@bond.edu.auAnat H. Nahmias Human Capital Practice, Presence of IT, SydneyFollow this and additional works at:http://epublications.bond.edu.au/sustainable_developmentPart of th eBusiness Administration, Management, and Operations Commons This Journal Article is brought to you by the Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture atePublications@bond. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mirvac School of Sustainable Development by an authorized administrator of ePublications@bond. For more information, please contactBond University’s Repository Coordinator.Recommended CitationLynn Crawford and Anat H. Nahmias. (2010) “Competencies for managing change”Internationaljournal of project management,28 (4), 405-412.http://epublications.bond.edu.au/sustainable_development/57Crawford, L. H. & Hassner-Nahmias, A.(2009). Competencies for Managing Change. International Journal of Project Management, Submitted for publication.Page | 1Competencies for Managing ChangeProfessor Lynn CrawfordUniv Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; LSMRCMirvac School of Sustainable Development, Bond University, AustraliaVisiting Professor, Cranfield University, UKDirector, Human Systems International LimitedandDr Anat Hassner Nahmias Change Management Leader, Human Capital Practice, Presence of ITAbstractOrganisational changes are now recognised as a specific project type that can benefit from the application of project management skills, tools and techniques. Associated with this trend is evidence of a degree of rivalry in the marketplace between Project Managers and Change Managers concerning who should be managing business change. And these are not the only contenders. Corporate executives and senior managers, although they may engage the assistance of both Project Managers and Change Managers, generally see themselves as taking the leading roles in managing major organisational changes and transformations. As such endeavours are most likely to take the form of programs, comprising multiple projects across the organisation, Program Managers are seen by some as being most likely to be responsible for managing organisational change initiatives. This paper reports on research undertaken to explore the differences in approach and practice of Project, Program and Change Managers as a basis for determining the competencies required to effectively manage change initiatives. Crawford, L. H. & Hassner-Nahmias, A.(2009). Competencies for Managing Change. International Journal of Project Management, Submitted for publication.Page | 2Competencies for Managing ChangeIntroduction In the project management field, organisational changes have become recognised as a distinct type of project or program (Partington, 1996) that has generated a growing research interest (Levene and Braganza, 1996; Crawford et al. 2003; Pellegrinelli, 1997; Leybourne, 2006; Bresnen, 2006; Lehtonen and Martinsuo, 2008; Nieminen and Lehtonen, 2008). In the field of change management, organisational change initiatives are often described as projects or programs and reference is made to use of project management skills, tools and techniques (Dover, 2003; Leybourne, 2006; Biedenbach and Söderholm, 2008; Oswick and Robertson, 2009). In the marketplace, there is evidence of a degree of rivalry between Project Managers and Change Managers concerning who should be managing business change. And these are not the only contenders. Corporate executives and senior managers, are generally the change owners, and although they may engage the assistance of both Project Managers and Change Managers, generally see themselves as taking the leading roles in major organisational changes and transformations. As such endeavours are most likely to take the form of programs, comprising multiple projects across the organisation, Program Managers are seen by some as being most likely to be responsible for managing organisational change initiatives (Pellegrinelli et al. 2007). There is a popular view in the project management community that Project Managers are managers of change or change agents (Turner et al., 1996), but others (Partington et al. 2005) consider that projects or programs that require significant amounts of behavioural and organisational change, particularly those that might be characterised as involving 2nd order change (Levy & Merry, 1986; Gareis, 2009) demand high levels of interpersonal skill, astuteness and sensitivity and a fundamentally different approach to the candid, direct, and rational style valued in competent project managers. They also suggest that Project Managers, or Project Managers promoted to Program Manager roles are not always suited to the demands of organisational change Crawford, L. H. & Hassner-Nahmias, A.(2009). Competencies for Managing Change. International Journal of Project Management, Submitted for publication.Page | 3projects. They need to learn skills and capabilities beyond those required to manage a typical project in order to drive change. In practice the role of the Change Manager has emerged from a different disciplinary background to that of Project Managers. Project management can be seen as having its origins in engineering with a focus on planning and control while organisational change as a discipline has grown from the Organisational Development field (Vaill, 1989) and places significant emphasis on the behavioral aspects of managing change. This leads to the recognition that there are two distinct bodies of knowledge underpinning the practices of the Project Manager and the Change Manager. The project management body of knowledge is well defined in standards and guides produced by the project management professional associations. The field of organisational change and development is less well served in terms of professional and representative bodies (Hughes, 2007, p. 47) and practice standards but arguably much richer in terms of theoretical foundations. Consideration of both fields suggests that Change Managers coming from organisational development backgrounds may lack the technical and administrative discipline of project management, while Project Management qualifications offered by the professional associations and even the majority of academic institutions do not require Project Managers to demonstrate practice or underpinning knowledge in organisational development or behavioural aspects of change (Pellegrinelli, 2002). There is certainly evidence that poor management of human factors is associated with failure of organizational change projects (Buchanan and Boddy, 1992; Todnem, 2005; Luo et al. 2006; Maguire and Redman, 2007). The role and professional background of the person best suited to manage change is atopic of often-impassioned debate in the literature and in practice. There are many who believe that this role should be performed by the Project or Program Manager(Obeng, 1994; Turner et al., 1996; Pellegrinelli, 1997; Kliem et al., 1997). Other authors believe that the person managing change should come from a background which is less technical or project-based and more focused on behavioral science such as human resources, organizational development, and/or psychology (Kanter et al., 1992; Connor and Lake, 1994; French and Bell, 1999; Cummings and Worley, 2001; Crawford, L. H. & Hassner-Nahmias, A.(2009). Competencies for Managing Change. International Journal of Project Management, Submitted for publication.Page | 4Caluwé and Vermaak, 2003). The OGC’s Managing Successful Programmes (Office of Government Commerce (OGC), 2007) envisages that roles of both Programme Manager and Business Change Manager will be involved in the management of change initiatives. As mentioned earlier, Project and Program Managers’ roles are well-established in literature, in practice, in academia and by professional bodies such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the International Project Management Association (IPMA). Change Management roles are not as clearly articulated. Job sites such as “My Career,” “Monster,” and “Seek” provide evidence of consistent demand for Change Managers, but role definition and support is considerably less well developed than it is in the project management field. Although a Change Management Institute (CMI), with global aspirations, was formed in Sydney in 2005 to meet “the professional development needs of Change Managers through the provision of networking, education and accreditation” (Change Management Institute, 2009), professional bodies for change management are not as well established as they are for project management and there is very little literature support for specific change management roles. The change management literature focuses more on theories and processes of change than on the definition of roles of those involved in its implementation. Many actors, at different levels of the corporate hierarchy, are seen as involved in effecting organisational change. Reference is made to change leaders, change agents, change managers, change drivers, interim managers (Smid et al. 2006), organisational development consultants (French and Bell, 1999; Caluwé and Vermaak, 2003), as well as an “external consultant or internal project leader” (Jarrett, 2004, p.246; Jarrett, 2004). Although the use of projects to implement change (Biedenbach and Söderholm, 2008) and the need for project management skills (Nikolaou et al. 2007) are mentioned, the change management literature does not specifically identify a need for Project or Program Managers. This paper reports on research that aims to contribute to the emerging and very practical debate about choice of managers of change projects by examining the competencies required to manage change.

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Major competencies for managing change

Of the competencies identified by the authors, the most important ones are required to implement change in organizations, regardless whether the change is implemented by project/program managers or change managers and regardless whether the change is first or second order. The competencies exhibit both leadership and management skills, knowledge and attitudes. They demonstrate technical and administrative discipline as well as knowledge of organizational development and people’s behavior.

Hence the major competencies advocated for by the authors are leadership, team selection and development, communication skills and stakeholder management. Other important competencies are cultural awareness,decision-making, quality management and general management skills (planning, monitoring and controlling)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Reference

Crawford, L., and Nahmias, A. H. (2010).Competencies for Managing Change.International Journal of Project Management,28 (4), 405-412.http://epublications.bond.edu.au/sustainable_development/57.

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