Management, Books and Learning

Role of Change Agent in Organizational Development & Change Change agents are the persons who initiate change and  manage change in the organizations. They are specialized  in theory and practice of managing changes. The change agent may be a member of organization or an outsider such as a consultant. An internal agent very well knows the organization and have ability, knowledge and experience of directing people for changes. But, internal agent is removed from regular duties to concentrate on the transition. However, external agents view the organization from the system point of view and is much affected by the organization norms.  Top managers also prefer hiring specialized consultant change  agents as they can offer more objective prospective than insiders. External experts are, however, not well aware of the desires and attributes of the employees, therefore, the changes suggested by them are generally resisted by the employees. Change agents have five set of power

  The biggest advantages are know how, previous experience, ability to deal with ambiguity and the ability to create value in a very short period of time.  Too often clients hire people and call them 'consultants' just because they are on a contract.    There's a huge difference between contractors and consultants IMO. Contractors are usually brought in to fill staff augmentation roles for a period of time.  Think - I need a Project Manager to manage project 'xyz' for 3 months.  They need only have generic PM skills in many cases and the ability to execute.    True consultants are brought in because of their expertise in a specific functional area or areas.  They bring knowledge to the table which isn't available in house and can both execute the tasks at hand as well as guide the client and provide advice towards decisions which need to be made now and in the future.  By bringing in additional subject matter expertise there's a typical value add that