NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

DEFINING CHANGE AGENTS
SANDEEP K. KRISHNAN
Abstract
This article tries to define a change agent. Drawing extensively from the literature the paper
tries to examine who a change agent is, what a change agent does, what makes a change
agent, and how we can groom change agents. The interesting aspect here would be the link
up of the change process models with the change agent and finally how an organization can
enable change agents.
Sandeep K. Krishnan is a
Fellow of the Indian
Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad. He
currently works with the
RPG - Group Human
Resources. He has
presented papers on
employee intention to
quit in forums like the
Academy of
Management, USA. He
has published several
papers and is passionate
about his work in the
area of talent
management.
Introduction
Organizations are facing
tremendous internal and external
pressures to change. With this
being the trend, being a change
agent has become a universal
competency for most of
professionals. This, on one side,
opens up tremendous
opportunities for individuals to
apply their knowledge and skills
for the betterment of the
organizations but also exposes the
individual to be either becoming
open to change or becoming the
change agent. However, the change
agent has a challenging role with
respect to not just being an active
partner adapting to change but
initiating, driving, and
institutionalizing change. This is in
line with the Kurt Lewin's three
stage process of change where
there is unfreezing of the current
state, implementing change, and
institutionalizing new systems
(refreezing) (French and Bell, 2003).
Who is a Change Agent?
Cohen (2006), drawing up the high
linkage of the change process and
the change agent states four
important aspects of being a change
agent. This includes initiating/
leading a project that changes the
way in which things are done,
define how the change should be,
understands the reality of the
change, is able to take up the
resources for the change, and stick
on to the agreed change process
and face challenge on course. This
description of what a change agent
needs multiple skills. Linking up
Cohen's definition of change agent
and Kurt Lewin's model of change,
we can see that a change agent is a
person who unfreezes the current
situations, who introduces the
change in terms of new practices,
and finally ensures that new world
is established and runs efficiently.
What a Change Agent Does
In each of the stages i.e unfreezing,
moving, and refreezing a change
agent should be specific activities
that enable the change. In the
unfreezing stage, the action is to
develop a need for change and
point out why things should
change from the way in which
things are done around. Here we
are also assuming that we are
speaking of internal change agents
rather than external OD
consultants or management
consultants and hence the
complexity is more pronounced
and interesting. Based on Caldwell
November 2007 NHRD Journal 43