SMS Competency - Change Management

This is one of eleven competences that appear in the SMS Competency Framework for senior managers in South Africa's Public Service. All these competences are viewed as being critical for high performance in the senior manager’s role. The eleven competences are:

1. Strategic Capability and Leadership;
2. Programme and Project Management;
3. Financial Management;
4. Change Management;
5. Knowledge Management;
6. Service Delivery Innovation;
7. Problem Solving and Analysis;
8. People Management and Empowerment;
9. Client Orientation and Customer Focus;
10. Communication;
11. Honesty and Integrity;

Competency definition

Must be able to initiate and support organisational transformation and change in order to successfully implement new initiatives and deliver on service delivery commitments

Proficiency level

Basic

• Communicates status, benefits and issues relating to change;
• Identifies gaps between the current and the desired situation and reasons for resistance to change;
• Accepts and successfully performs a supporting role in the change effort;
• Identifies the need for change;
• Participates in change programmes and piloting of change initiatives; and
• Understands the impact of change initiatives on the organisation within the broader political and social context.

Competent

• Performs analysis to determine the impact of changes in the social, political and economic environment;
• Keeps self and others calm and focused during times of change or ambiguity;
• Initiates, supports and encourages new ideas;
• Volunteers to lead changeefforts outside of own work team;
• Consults and persuades all the relevant stakeholders of the need for change;
• Proactively seeks new opportunities for change;
• Identifies and assists in resolving resistance to change with stakeholders; and
• Designs activities to enable change that are aligned to the organisational objectives.

Advanced

• Monitors results of change;
• Secures buy-in and sponsorship for change efforts;
• Designs, develops, evaluates and continuously improves the overall change strategy after wide consultation with the relevant stakeholders;
• Customises and applies approaches to facilitate change;
• Capitalises on relationships with various stakeholders in establishing strategic alliances in facilitating change efforts;
• Leads major change programmes;
• Benchmarks change initiatives and strategies against best practice;
• Exhibits sensitivity to dynamics within the organisation which affect how quickly change is accepted;
• Takes calculated risks and is constantly seeking new ideas from leading edge organisations and external sources;
• Defines outcomes and measurement criteria for change programmes; and
• Creates innovative ways of reinforcing change, rewarding change acceptance and discouraging change resistance.

Expert

• Sponsors “change agents” (responsible for implementing the change) and creates a network of leaders who support and own the change;
• Adapts current infrastructure to change initiatives;
• Mentors others on the leadership of change;
• Viewed as a thought leader in change management; and
• Inspires change that has impact even wider than the organisation.

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Copyright RSA Department of Public Service and Administration: SMS Handbook - Chapter 5: Competency Framework (2003).

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External Links

Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), Republic of South Africa