Explain in detail what you believe to be the most important characteristics for successfully implementing organizational change. In an organization, there are many variables. These include leadership, people involved such as employees, motivations such as financial gain and the current economic climate, as well as many others. For organizational change to be successful, many characteristics and criteria must be met before it can lead to success. change is when a “business or organization goes through a transformation. Organizational change occurs when business strategies or major sections of an organization are changed. »[1] This means that areas of an organization progress from one action position to another with the goal of improving the effectiveness or capacity of an area. Motivation for change can have a huge impact on the support of those involved. This could be due to extrinsic factors such as financial gain or intrinsic factors such as ethical practice. This motivation must, however, be sufficiently strong and required with a realistic vision of success. support from those in the organization who care about the cause of change. Those who are not affected by it will often be ambivalent about the effort required to make the change. Deciding what action to take before implementing a change requires a lot of thought and consideration because every change made poses a potential risk to an organization and some changes can lead to interference or conflict between departments within the organization , thus creating an inharmonious mechanism which, in turn, can seriously affect the performance of an organization. It is a common analogy that an organization or business is like a clock, with different cogs and mechanisms...... middle of paper ......ement Template - MindTools Change Management Training .com. nd. MindTools.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm. [Accessed January 20, 2014]. Forces and resistance to organizational change - 2010. Fred C. Lunenberg. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C.%20Forces%20For%20and%20Resistance%20to%20Change%20NFEASJ%20V27%20N4%202010 . pdf. [Accessed January 20, 2014].What is organizational change? definition and meaning. nd Business Dictionary [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organization-change.html. [Accessed January 20, 2014]. Top-down initiatives in organizational change and Emerald vision. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/management_thinking/articles/pdf/top_down.pdf. [Accessed January 20 2014].