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Traveling Through White Water; A Manager's Guide for Organizational Change
Traveling Through White Water A Manager's Guide for Organizational Change Author:Linda R. Fisher, Rose L. Kennedy Dear Manager, — Your organization is about to change--just how dramatically, you cannot yet predict. — As a manager, like it or not, you are about to be a key player in that change. Your thoughts naturally turn to what it will mean to you and your own future. Then you consider the impact on the people who report to you. In many ways their conce... more »rns will be greater than your own. You would like, somehow, to make this change easier for them and for yourself.
Your position is a highly visible one. You know top management will be expecting you to manage this change and to lead your employees through it successfully. You think of all the books you have seen in the business sections of bookstores dealing with change in organizations. Any one of them could no doubt give you added insight and useful information. Unfortunately, this change doesn't allow you much time for reading, reflecting, and planning.
It is our intent, with this booklet, to give you a practical, succinct, easy-to-use reference to understand and implement the change that you and the people who report to you are about to go through. Few examples are provided since you will have more compelling ones from your own experience. The summary on pages 18 and 19 will serve as an immediate reference; more detail is provided in the body of this booklet.
It is important that you be committed to this change and knowledgeable about its implications. Your understanding of the impact of change on employees and your ability to exercise the kind and quality of leadership needed may well be the most important contribution you make to your organization's change effort.
We believe strongly that successful change occurs when managers in an organization accept the responsibility of leading their employees through the change process. This effort requires knowledge, sensitivity, and courage--not unlike "traveling through white water." We offer these guidelines, and we wish you well.« less