The Digital Journey implies a holistic effort to rethink and transform the core processes of government beyond the traditional digitization efforts. It evolves along a continuum from the use of new working methods and relations with the citizens, to changes in IT contracting practices and organizational change initiatives that involve the whole organization's ecosystem.
Definition of Change Management
Change management can be defined as the methods and manners in which an organization describes and implements change within both its internal and external processes. It encompasses not only the technical aspects but also the human side of change.
In this sense, change management is not only a reactive tool for managing resistance against change; it is most effective as a tool for engaging and involving stakeholders, particularly employees, in the change process.
Managing change can be challenging, and part of the problem is that there is little consensus on which factors have the greatest influence on transformation initiatives.
There are 3 Categories of change. These include:
Incremental
Transitional
Transformative
The 3 destinataires/recipients of the change are:
Individuals
Teams
Organizations
Over the past few years, change management specialists have increasingly prioritized soft issues like culture, communication, leadership, and motivation. While these elements are undoubtedly critical for success, managing them alone may not suffice for the successful implementation of transformative projects, especially those required in the context of digitalization. The barriers to change management can be grouped as follows:
| Factors | Description |
|---|---|
Sound research indicates that change projects fail to gain traction when organizations overlook the hard factors. This implies that in parallel with the soft elements, the organizations must pay attention to the hard issues too.
Anticipating common barriers within government bureaucracies prior to deploying digital transformation is critical to ensuring that stakeholders involved in the change are equipped with the necessary digital skills to overcome these obstacles.
Globally, there are common barriers that hinder change implementation, whether digital or non-digital, within organizations, particularly in government agencies. These barriers can be attributed to both soft and hard factors:
Resistance to change in the digital era is a combination of both timeless causes and new challenges that are specific to modern technologies. The introduction of digital era change to governments has occurred through mechanisms that were established well before the digital revolution took place.
In order to deliver successful digital era public services, it is crucial for public servants to overcome these barriers that hinder progress. To achieve this, existing solutions can be utilized or new ones can be created to help overcome these obstacles in a government context.
Soft Factors
Soft factors can have a significant impact on the success of change programs and projects. While having visionary leadership is often crucial for transformation projects, it may not always be the defining factor. Similarly, effective communication with stakeholders, and positive changes in attitudes and relationships within teams and organizations can also play a critical role in driving success. However, these factors, including culture and motivation levels, can be challenging to measure and translate into reliable data.
Hard Factors
Change management is closely tied to hard factors, which have three distinct characteristics. Firstly, these factors must be measurable in direct or indirect ways. Secondly, organizations should be able to communicate their importance both internally and externally. Finally, organizations must be capable of quickly reacting and influencing these elements. Some examples of hard factors that can impact a transformation initiative include the time required to complete it, the number of people necessary to execute it, and the availability of associated financial resources.