| Change Management joins the business dictionary in the late 80's, several years after the early appearance of this concept in the psychological and organisational literature.
The blossoming of Change Management goes hand in hand with the widespread adoption of the Business Process Re-Engineering, encompassing a wide array of managerial disciplines ranging from Project Management to Training, with the common goal of mobilizing and addressing human and material resources to handle wide scoped changes affecting the business arena.
Change Management is therefore meant as the "systematic governance of change processes through the integrated and closely monitored development of people, organisational procedures, structures and technologies".
Change Management's aim is to make things happen
The implementation of process driven organisational patterns in large USA businesses and government bodies between 1990 and 1995, the privatisation process started in Britain in the early Eighties, the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the hopes associated to public intervention in the economy, combined with the acceleration of market globalisation and the convergence of ICT and Internet technologies in the second half of the Nineties, are now spreading their impact in the stagnating European business arena.
Italy, the slowest wagon of the European train, will be more impacted than neighbouring countries, due to his reluctancy in perceiving the need to change: this will make the inevitabile transformation even more painful, as they will take place in a shorter elapse of time.
Italian private and public organisations will therefore be faced with an unprecedented amount of change which needs to be addressed and managed to delivered the desired outcomes.
Change Management skills are available in multinational service companies and, to a narrower extent in Italian HR and training consultino companies. Little help will likely come from HR Departments of the largest companies, still mainly focused around industrial relations, with marginal attention devoted to technology and globalisation driven transformations.
This environment is clearly favourable to bring about a development of Change Management competencies and to promote an exchange of relevant "on the field" experiences so as to grant legitimacy and full visibility to this important branch of management.
The meetings among Change Management analysts and practicioners clearly pointed out the lack of an institutional and recognized forum where Change Management experiences could be exchanged and made available for the business community.
These considerations drove some business managers and recognized opinion leaders in the field of Change Management to establish Assochange, the Italian Change Management Association.
Assochange's main goals are:
- provide opportunities for a systematic exchange of experiences, methodologies and tools implemented in Italy and abroad;
- create awareness and understanding of Change Management contribution to address the highly critical link between people's culture and behaviour and socio-economical transformations;
- promote Change Management culture in private and public organisations;
- shape and consolidate the Italian way to Change Management, customizing the best international practices to the Italian business and cultural environment.
Assochange, in other terms, aims at becoming "the home" to Change Management professionals, regardless of their work context:
- service and manufacturing businesses;
- universities;
- consulting firms;
- local and central govt.
Assochange will pursue its goals through a number of activities and initiatives, such as:
- meetings among Change Management practicioners to exchange experiences, thus creating a link between Academy, consulting and business;
- best practices' scouting and sharing;
- documentation and information collection, to provide a comprehensive orientation to undergraduates and graduates wishing to explore Change Management issues;
- Internet site meant as a vehicle to share information gathered
Consistently with these directions, Assochange will promote and carry out in 2005/2006 a number of events, like the Italian Change Management Congress to be held in Milan in May 2005.
The Congress will mark a watershed in the Italian Change Management world, as it will be the first formal occasion to bring together people working, from different perspectives, around this fascinating and relatively unknown managerial practice.
Assochange appointed a Scientific Committee, open to contributions and membership from the academic world. The Scientific Committee will foster research on key Change Management issues, like:
- communication
- micro and macro organisational alignment
- skill development
- compensation schemes
- training and education
- organisational climate surveys
- Change readiness surveys
- the role of technologies
Assochange founding members include IBM Italia, Isvor Fiat, IVECO, Unisys and Universitą degli Studi di Bergamo. These organisations are represented in the Board by:
IBM Italia:
Giovanni Sgalambro
Agostino Fornaroli
Isvor Fiat:
Ruggero Cesaria
IVECO:
Giuseppe Boschi
Universitą degli Studi di Bergamo:
Massimo Merlino
Unisys:
Salvatore Merando
Several business and service organisations joined Assochange since its foundation, thus witnessing the increasing credibility of the Association in pursuing its goals for the benefit of the entire Change Management Community. |
