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IT Organization Change

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by philip.wang

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Tim is an IT manager of 12 IT professionals team in an world wide company. Tim has sound knowledge in IT infrastructure and applicaiton support. Tim works hard to drive IT to meet the businees's required and he got appriciates from his manager of the business function, General Manager. However, his functional manager, GA APAC IT manager, drives a global IT organization change recently. After the change Tim's team will be separated.Staffs works as local helpdesk will allocated to Finance department and report to Finance controller. The others will allocate to APAC IT organization and report to APAC IT manager. Tim, himself, is assigned as APAC project manger in this organization change. Tim considers it as down grades in his career path and feels unhappy to the change. So he shows negative actions such as leave early etc. after the change. What can you suggest to Tim? Should he find other opportunities in other companies for his career development? How he can adapt himself to the change?

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by thomgordon

I have one thing to say to Tim.

Adjust your Career Path or get off it!

The worst thing any IT professional can do is reject organizational change, no matter how hair-brained it seems. As long as you can learn new skills within IT, there are few places you should avoid. Every IT professional should be a 'Change Agent', helping his organization to make better use of IT to do its Business.

Every organization that embraces change needs talented and skilled people to navigate the new course. Rather than resist changing himself, Tim should find ways to either make it work or perhaps recommend course corrections to steer his organization onto a more realistic path.

Sometimes, the fit of an individual within an organization is poor. A creative individual may not fit well with an ultra-conservative group (or vice-versa). That is a sign that the individual should be hunting for a new job. He could try to convince everyone else that they are wrong but he is quite unlikely to succeed (even if they really are wrong!).

Job hunting can be rewarding in many ways. You might find your dream job or you might even come to appreciate your current job a wee bit more. Either way, you can't lose.

FYI. It is often better to find a new job before you quit your old one. The only real exceptions are if you are seriously planning evil deeds or would be healthier in a straight-jacket.

Enjoy IT while you still can

by ebeck

Excellent reply ThomGordon! I wish I had this advice long ago.

Tim should take on the new challenges as PM, since it may afford him more opportunities. More exposure to varied projects, including management of outsourced projects. It also sharpens one's skills at negotiation and leadership, since there are no direct reports and the relationships have changed.

This move could actually provide better experience than that which Tim would get as a manager alone. Then after working with it, Tim will be better prepared to move to the next spot. But Tim should give it a try first and get something out of it.

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