NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

human resource process like leadership
development, employee feedback and
development. Any change that is implemented
without this aspect in place may have a high
chance of dying out in the due process.
Challenge of the change agent(s) here would
be create collaboration, involvement, and buyin
from as many critical stakeholders as possible
in enabling success. The final step that would
be crux of institutionalizing change would be
to understand the transformational outcomes
of change.
What Makes a Change Agent?
It is widely quoted in literature that certain
skills and personality traits make a person a
change agent. Driving change is a difficult
socio political process than a pure rational one.
Some of the basic characteristics that are
mentioned in the literature are the courage,
patience, ability to motivate, adapting to
change, ability to neutralize resistance, and
ability to come back from setbacks. Furnhan
(2002) states that to be part of the change
process the manager should have the courage
to fail. They should also use this to deliver bad
news and confronting people who are poor
performers. Also in case of a change there are
chances of chaos and the author puts it rightly
that the managers should have the moral
courage to confront ethical dilemmas. The
critical element here would be the ability and
the skill to take people along. That is to
encourage people who support change and
ensure that others are given the right inputs to
be motivated to be part of change.
Santos and Garcia (2006) have found another
interesting aspect on how managers become
part of organizational change. They found that
mental models with which managers operate
can determine how they pursue organizational
change. An understanding of the real time
events and whether they can create
organizational change make the manager
participate in the change process. Interestingly
study by Grimm and Smith (2001) have found
that young managers who have less experience
are more participative and take initiative in the
change process. This study was also of
considerable interest because it could link a
positive impact of people with MBA degree to
organizational change. It was postulated that
younger managers were more likely to have an
MBA degree and they were more ready and
inclined towards change that are strategic in
nature.
As Cohen (2006) puts it together, some of the
basic characteristics of change agents are
courage to make the change, flexibility to adapt
as the change, ability to welcome resistance,
respectful treatment of staff, willingness to
learn, humor as you go through change,
humility to accept when things are not going
well, and critical thinking to recognize when
things are not working. Rosabeth Moss Kanter,
a well-known change expert puts an interest
perspective to one of the most relevant action of
a leader as a change agent. It is always easy to
ride on a success and when everything is
positive. However, the striking challenge is
when it is a losing streak. The critical job of a
change agent here would be to restore
accountability in the process of change, and
bring in teamwork and collaboration to the new
initiatives (Moss Kanter, 2005). Interestingly
what makes a change agent can be quoted from
Furnham (2002) as "the courage to fail is the
courage to be first, to try something new, to be
ahead of your time, to trust your instincts, to be
creative - knowing it could all go very wrong
with very significant consequences for the
manager and who they manage."
How Can We Groom Change Agents?
As discussed in earlier sections, a change agent
should basically have the understanding of the
context, ability to motivate and lead, have the
competence to adapt and respond to change
November 2007 NHRD Journal 45