FREE online courses on Change Management - A Body of Knowledge
Stemming from the view of change management as an area of
professional practice there arises yet a third definition of change management:
the content or subject matter of change management. This consists chiefly of the
models, methods and techniques, tools, skills, and other forms of knowledge that
go into making up any practice.
The content or subject matter of change management is drawn
from psychology, sociology, business administration, economics, industrial
engineering, systems engineering, and the study of human and organizational
behavior. For many practitioners, these component bodies of knowledge are linked
and integrated by a set of concepts and principles known as General Systems
Theory (GST). It is not clear whether this area of professional practice should
be termed a profession, a discipline, an art, a set of techniques, or a
technology. For now, suffice it to say that there is a large, reasonably
cohesive albeit somewhat eclectic body of knowledge underlying the practice and
on which most practitioners would agree - even if their application of it does
exhibit a high degree of variance.
To recapitulate, there are at least three basic definitions
of change management:
- The
task of managing change (from a reactive or a proactive posture)
- An area
of professional practice (with considerable variation among practitioners)
- A body
of knowledge (consisting of models, methods, techniques, and other tools)
