change management

The human engineering and business-oriented literature delivers since the 60s of the last century a lot of examples how to involve employees in change processes. A consistent methodology is certainly missing. Eminently in small and medium-sized businesses existing approaches are not used for daily tasks. To reach a systematic and successful participation of employees in change processes it is necessary to have an approach which analyzes the relevant surrounding system and also uses and develops the competences, experiences and attitudes of all participants (both staff and executives).

Customer specific value creation is an adequate mean for technology oriented small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to differentiate themselves in the global market place. To achieve this, a tradeoff between efficiency and individualization in value creation has to be handled. In context of mass customization, sales configurators help to accomplish this. However, implementing such solutions rise both an organizational and strategic challenge. Therefore, referencing the context of change management, configurator implementation project case studies and a cross-case analysis are presented. Based on this, a model of implementation phases is derived which allows for addressing the specific challenges and recommendations with respect to such projects..

Change Management and transformability of factories are usually not planned in an integrated way today. While Change Management focuses solely on the change process itself, this process is mostly ignored in the planning process of a transformable factory. The synthesis of these two approaches allows a holistic support of change processes, in order to promote innovations for example, upgrade employee competencies and use the planned technological, spatial and organisational transformability thoroughly.

The structuring of office work is of central importance in a modern knowledge society. The expectations on a knowledge worker are increasing constantly. Beside high productivity and best quality one expects flexibility, mobility and readiness for change. For mastering these challenges best work infrastructure is necessary - work places which optimally support the work itself and which offer positive ambience to the employees. Flexible office structures are fulfilling these requirements best. Their introduction requires in turn a goal-oriented change management.