Businesses must adapt to deal with the reality of an ever-changing world, writes Colm Ward

Change can be frightening. Whether it is in business or personal life, changes can create feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. For that reason, people's first reaction often is to resist any attempt to introduce new ways of doing things.

But, frightening though it may be, change is an inevitable part of business and a great deal rides on how that change is managed.

Over the last decade or two, Irish business has had to face the reality of an ever-changing business world. E-commerce, social partnership, globalisation - these and other developments have radically altered the way people do business throughout the world.

There are various reasons why an organisation may need to change. For companies in the private sector, the change process could be driven by the need to increase profits and productivity. For those in the public sector, it could be driven by the need to improve the quality of service given to the public.

For example, the pay rises agreed as part of the last three social partnership agreements have all been linked to modernisation and improvements in work practices in the public sector.

"The challenge for all organisations nowadays is to remain competitive, contain costs but don't stifle creativity," says Dr Damian Thomas, national co-ordinator for organisational change and innovation with the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP).

The centre was established in July 2001 to support and drive change in the Irish workplace. Its primary focus is to encourage organisations to adopt a partnership approach, which means involving management, workers and unions in the decision-making process.

Since its establishment, the centre has worked with many organisations in both the public and private sectors to identify the issues that are going to affect the workplace of the future and to develop guidelines for organisations on how to manage change successfully.

The centre recently published a competency framework for managing change through partnership in which it identifies the skills needed to develop a partnership approach. The framework is intended to act as a guideline to help organisations build a culture of partnership between management, staff and any other stakeholders.

There is an urgent need to improve the way in which change is introduced and managed in this country, according to Ms Lucy Fallon-Byrne, director of the centre.

Speaking at the launch of the framework document, she said many organisations were now facing the need for change.

"Many Irish organisations are now in a critical period of transition. Organisations in the public and private sector will have to embrace organisational change if we are to remain competitive, safeguard jobs, improve the delivery of services and respond to the changing needs of employees," she said.

"Bringing about these changes will require more collaborative working relationships and the building of a culture of change in all organisations." By developing these collaborative working relationships, organisations will be able to involve and empower their employees and hence reduce resistance to change.

The key to doing this, says Dr Thomas, is good communication.

There are numerous ways in which information can be passed between workers and management within an organisation, such as newsletters, team briefings or formal consultations between all interested parties.

This in turn can create a situation whereby staff are motivated to become more involved in the process. If they see themselves as equal partners, they are more likely to offer suggestions as to how that change might best be managed, drawing on their own personal experience on the "coalface" of the organisation. In this way, they be given a sense of "ownership" of the change process.

"If \ embrace the change and they are aware of the need for change, we find that creates a dynamic where they suggest ways in which to do it," he says.

By involving staff in this way, a two way communication process is opened that, he believes, ultimately makes for better, more accountable management. "It makes for better managers if \ are forced to explain and rationalise decisions to a forum."

The central role that staff have to play in a change process mean that management have to address three main issues:

the need to get better value from staff;

the need to create awareness of the reasons for change;

the need to incentivise the change process by rewarding staff for their involvement.

By addressing these challenges, organisations should be better able to move ahead in an uncertain future.

The value of good communications can be seen in the example of the Irish Courts Service.

Established in 1999 to provide a support framework to the courts system, the Courts Service was faced with the challenge of modernising a system that had remained largely unchanged since its establishment in 1924.

This involved integrating a large number of individual court offices around the State into a single entity. It also involved the introduction of a more modern information technology system.

To do this, management adopted a strategic approach to human resources management. This meant that staff were consulted at every step of the way.

An important aspect of this process was reaching agreement with the different unions on issues such as management structure, staff structure and the arrangements for filling promotional posts.

A number of measures were also taken to ensure an effective system of internal communication. A staff newsletter was published, which informed staff throughout the service of any developments that were taking place.

There was also a big increase in training and development so that staff would have the skills they needed to work within the new system. Training programmes included information technology, customer service, front line skills, management and an induction programme.

These initiatives all combined to create a new, modernised service while retaining the support of the staff.

The need for this type of partnership in managing change is being recognised by many in political and business spheres.

Speaking at the opening of the new offices of the National Economic and Social Development Office, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, stressed the need for partnership in change. "One of the key issues facing us is how to modernise our workplaces to achieve high performance," he said.

"The Government, employers and unions believe that co-operative working relationships are the key to managing change, achieving higher performance and a better workplace."