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possible, and instead organizations can recruit a small number of opinion leaders to
promote the benefits of coming changes.
Organizational change can take many forms. It may involve a change in a
company’s structure, strategy, policies, procedures, technology, or culture. The

change may be planned years in advance or may be forced on an organization
because of a shift in the environment. Organizational change can be radical and
swiftly alter the way an organization operates, or it may be incremental and slow. In
any case, regardless of the type, change involves letting go of the old ways in which
work is done and adjusting to new ways. Therefore, fundamentally, it is a process that
involves effective people management.
Managers carrying out any of the P-O-L-C functions often find themselves
faced with the need to manage organizational change effectively. Oftentimes, the
planning process reveals the need for a new or improved strategy, which is then
reflected in changes to tactical and operational plans. Creating a new organizational
design (the organizing function) or altering the existing design entails changes that
may affect from a single employee up to the entire organization, depending on the
scope of the changes. Effective decision making, a Leadership task, takes into
account the change-management implications of decisions, planning for the need to
manage the implementation of decisions. Finally, any updates to controlling systems
and processes will potentially involve changes to employees’ assigned tasks and
performance assessments, which will require astute change management skills to
implement. In short, change management is an important leadership skill that spans
the entire range of P-O-L-C functions.
Workplace Demographics
Organizational change is often a response to changes to the environment. For
example, agencies that monitor workplace demographics such as the U.S. Department
of Labor and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have
reported that the average age of the U.S. workforce will increase as the baby boom
generation nears retirement age and the numbers of younger workers are insufficient
[1]
to fill the gap. What does this mean for companies? Organizations may realize that
as the workforce gets older, the types of benefits workers prefer may change. Work
arrangements such as flexible work hours and job sharing may become more popular
as employees remain in the workforce even after retirement. It is also possible that
employees who are unhappy with their current work situation will choose to retire,
resulting in a sudden loss of valuable knowledge and expertise in organizations.
Therefore, organizations will have to devise strategies to retain these employees and
plan for their retirement. Finally, a critical issue is finding ways of dealing with age-
related stereotypes which act as barriers in the retention of these employees.
Technology
Sometimes change is motivated by rapid developments in technology. Moore’s
law (a prediction by Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel) dictates that the overall
complexity of computers will double every 18 months with no increase in
cost. Such change is motivating corporations to change their technology rapidly.
[2]
Sometimes technology produces such profound developments that companies
struggle to adapt. A recent example is from the music industry. When music CDs

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