Change agent
A change agent (or change management consultant; for example: innovator, operator of change ) is an expert for the constructive bringing about clarifications in decision-making and conflict situations as well as innovations or innovations and changes in personal, organizational, economic-technological or political-social area.
He does this either through intentional action to directly influence the behavior of other people or as an indirect triggering of reactions to the nature of his behavior or to events brought about by it.
The focus here is on the change agent in the narrower sense . The use of the term by consulting firms led to an expansion of its meaning (see below: Term ).
Objective and working method
The aim of a change agent is to ensure that decisions and their implementation are made and implemented on a psycho-social level.
In the best case scenario, the change agent ensures suitable framework situations that promote the natural maturation of quasi-autonomous decisions and their implementation.
- In this way, it causes those involved and those affected to identify with their own behavior,
- gives them confidence in their own abilities and in the solvability of the task and
- gives them satisfaction with their own share in the development or change process.
Development scenarios
For clarifications in decision-making or conflict situations , a change agent describes which framework situations are suitable for promoting the making of necessary decisions. In addition, it describes which events lead to these situations and how they can be triggered.
For innovations or innovations , a change agent describes the requirements to be met and the needs on which they are based. If necessary, he describes how or by which events this need can be awakened, and what solutions he sees for satisfying the need. Finally, he explains which implementation strategy can be used to lead the innovations or new features to success. The change agent influences the diffusion (spread) of an innovation positively or negatively and is not necessarily a member of the social system in which the innovation spreads.
A change agent describes performance and development obstacles and reserves for changes . He designs "triggers" that usually exaggerate existing organizational weaknesses to the point of exaggeration - in the best case to the point of being ridiculous. He challenges those involved to "shake their heads" or "laugh at themselves", and occasionally after a "salutary shock", to demand the necessary changes themselves. The ensuing avoidance of an opposition attitude by those involved in the project leads to a considerable minimization of frictional losses and a high level of self-motivation in the subsequent project work, which cannot be achieved through direct intervention by third parties.
Implementation projects
A change agent gives acceptance to externally determined implementation activities . Tolerance is not enough because it does not exclude subliminal conflict. He achieves this through positive thinking and constructive participation in the psycho-social processes that occur as a result of the change, in the role of co-affected.
It provides inspiration for self-determined implementation activities and promotes the initiative of those involved. He achieves this through committed participation in the conception and implementation processes to help shape the change, in the role of a participant.
term
In diffusion research , the term "change agents" is used in particular by Everett M. Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations). "Change agents" use U. Opinion Leaders to prevent or enforce an innovation. The term was already introduced in the social and communication sciences when it was also taken up elsewhere:
In 1994 the term appeared in connection with business organization. It makes sense to keep the English term in German because too much conciseness would be lost in the transfer.
- Companies in the US investigated why changes in company policy could so rarely successfully penetrate from management to executor, and how the notable exceptions could be explained.
- A few key people were noticed who, even without a special assignment or corresponding skills, were more likely to make a difference from the second row.
- They were hardly recognizable by statistically measurable differences, but they had a few special characteristics and skills in common, e.g. B .:
- They refused higher management tasks if they could no longer work in the vicinity of the "practice front" because they were convinced that the success of the company would be decided there.
- Their management methods were very variable: although they clearly preferred a liberal approach to their employees, they dealt with them very differently in similar situations, depending on their personality, and could, if necessary, appear quite authoritarian.
- These findings did not appear to be particularly productive as search criteria in order to find further potential in "change agents" , in "operators of change" .
- The hit rate remained low; almost exclusively women were among them, presumably thanks to their higher social and language skills, but also because of their lower career aspirations (see above).
Use of terms
The appearance of the term sparked a hype in the consulting industry in the mid- 1990s . Your marketing experts recognized that the economy, which was generally under severe pressure to change, could use this term to suggest the mastery of particularly effective methods if a management consultancy used it in the description of its approach.
The explanations in this article do not reflect this hype and the associated expansion of the meaning of the term. Large consulting firms usually forego its use. They speak in the context of organizational development (OD) of the methodology of change management ( change management ), but which is otherwise to be understood as that of a change agent:
While "change managers" see the use of a "change agent" as a special case for an excerpt from their methodology, "change agents" tend to believe that whoever has a "change agent" does not need "change management".
The understanding of change agents as employees of a company (not of the consulting company), who, belonging to various functional areas and hierarchical levels, work as multipliers in the company, is increasingly gaining ground, especially in the consultancy landscape. They convey messages and knowledge into the workforce, they are transmitters. They ensure that the cogs in the change process interlock smoothly. If, for example, certain training courses are required at a certain point, these can be arranged in good time and precisely through the brokerage work of the change agent. The change agents are selected by the change manager who controls the change process in the company. The person responsible for the process must, of course, obtain the approval of the change agent's line manager before appointing a change agent. And above all, it must be clarified to what extent the potential change agent identifies with the goals of the change.
research
Scientific research deals
- with the research of effective (more conscious) techniques and the (more unconscious) situation and behavioral patterns as well as
- with the practical applicability of the mechanisms found in order to bring about specific changes in a targeted manner.
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab takes a more advanced approach: "Anything that leads to behavioral changes could function as a change agent."
- There the possibilities of influencing all kinds of interactive computer products are examined. - This branch of research is called Captology (play on words, for example "interrogation" or "acquisition technology" ).
See also
- Change Management (Change Management)
literature
- Michael Berger, Jutta Chalupsky, Frank Hartmann: Change Management - (Sur) life in organizations . 7th edition. Publishing house Dr. Götz Schmidt, Gießen 2013, ISBN 978-3-921313-88-6 .
- BJ Fogg: Persuasive Technology. Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco 2002. ISBN 1-55860-643-2
- Everett M. Rogers: Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, New York 2003. ISBN 0-7432-2209-1
Web links
- Captology, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab (English)
- The Web Credibility Project (English)