8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace

Change within the workplace is inevitable, and team leaders must be prepared to provide guidance to their teams on the best approaches to handle the changing organisational environments and practices. 8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace is a unit that helps the leaders within the teams in an organisation to understand their role in facilitating effective transition within their teams and the organisation in general in the process of change.

The unit provides both theoretical frameworks of change, such as Lewin’s Model and Kotter’s 8-stages of change, to ensure that there is an effective understanding of the strategies that need to be put in place to support organisational change. As such, this unit is very important for all leaders who are tasked with supporting employees or groups of individuals tasked with a specific project within the organisation. The main purpose and aim of the unit is to prepare the leaders to handle change effectively.

It focuses on developing an understanding of the process of change and its impact within the organisation hence developing effective strategies to deal with it without compromising the performance of the team as required for a practising or potential team leader. The unit is accomplished through 8 hours of guided learning and is equivalent to 2 credit values across the general ILM Level 2 module.

Who Should Pursue this Unit?

This unit is very versatile, and stakeholders within organiziaonts can pursue it to prepare them to handle change effectively without compromising performance or satisfaction for the employees. The unit is purposely designed to train team leaders and supervisors within the organisation. It provides them with models and information that help them to better understand the change behaviours that are exhibited by members of their team and hence help them to develop practices that help to minimise the negative impacts of these behaviours on the performance of the team members and hence the productivity of the team.

The unit can also contribute to improving the knowledge and skills of line managers and departmental heads. During organisational change, the impacts are felt from the top management downwards. Line managers should ensure they create an environment that supports the teams under them to ensure there is effective handling for the change process. This role of line managers can only be fulfilled with the understanding of the change process hence making this unit critical for these groups of more senior leaders within the organisation.

There are professionals who are tasked with providing services as external consultants to the organisation, especially during the changing process. This unit is suitable for individuals as it helps them understand the process of change hence providing support to the organisation from the basis of information hence improving the efficiency of their contributions to change management and organisation sustainability through the transition necessitated by the change. Lastly, overall, team members can pursue the course to prepare them for handling change in their teams as well as a means for preparing themselves for leadership positions that may arise within the organisation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the external and internal factors that necessitate the change within the workplace

• Identify the changing elements within the organisation

• Communicate effectively with team members on the possible attitudes and responses that arise as a result of the change at the workplace

• Determine the potential barriers that could affect the implementation of the change within the organisation

• Develop strategies to overcome barriers to change, such as effective communication

• Communicate effectively to the team members on the benefits of the suggested change to the organisation.

• Identify the role of the team leader in implementing change in the workplace

• Show understanding on how to support the change process as a team leader

• Suggest approaches that can be used to build and maintain cohesion within the team during this change process.

Key Learning Areas

Understanding change is important for team leaders to provide them with the opportunity to improve the performance of the organisation and team in general. 8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace has key learning areas that focus on providing this information within the organisation. Some of the main learning areas within this unit include:

Change Process

The change process is complicated as it creates significant disruptions within the organisation and changes the normal way of doing things. 8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace is a unit that helps to provide the learners with adequate information that they can use in this context to support the leaders’ ability to make decisions on strategies to use to adapt to the transition being experienced. This area of learning, therefore, helps to understand the factors necessitating change and the reactions that can be generated from the change. It also helps the learners to develop critical thinking in establishing strategies to meet the needs of the team members.

Change Management

Change management is critical in supporting the change process. Team leaders have the duty of improving the position of the team leaders in providing this necessary support. Under this learning area of 8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace, the learners are guided on appreciating the process of change that is instituted from different levels of the organisation and ensuring that their team is able to adapt to the process without compromising performance.

The team leader gets knowledge that is important in managing the culture and identity of the group during and after the change as well as ensuring that the cohesion of the organisation is maintained across the change. Through acquiring theory and practice in this area, the organisation and team are able to sustainably implement change while avoiding the negative impacts that could arise with the process.

Wrap Up 

8000-259 Understanding Change in the Workplace is evaluated by different means of assessment. A written assessment is used for the students to express their theoretical understanding of the knowledge. The learners provide information through responding to suggested questions within the organisation. A supervised practice session is also used to assess the ability of learners to implement the learned concepts.