Hi Rishi,
These links may help answer your questions:
Five Key Responsibilities of a Change Manager
Seven Roles of a Change Agent
Heather

In the North American context, organizational change managers have become little more than a commodity, hired to support project objectives while concentrating on communicating milestones and coordinating training. Change managers are usually embedded within the project team and are often called late to the party, starting after the business case, analysis and technical build have already begun. There is time only to identify stakeholders, attempt to ascertain their workplace challenges and position the new technology/process change within an operational and culturally-appropriate context.

At least, this has been the majority of my experience as a contracted change manager in the banking, insurance, oil and gas, financial regulation, utility and transportation industries over the past several years.

To a certain extent, we change managers are to blame. We work within the cultural constraints of an organization. We rarely question the assumptions about the effectiveness of the organizational change being implemented or the assumptions driving the business case. We do not question the existing power structures. We often have an ambiguous role with change influencers and we almost always overestimate the relative effectiveness of corporate (and our own) communications. We are apologists for the change – regardless of how it is impacting employees or realizing its promised efficiencies (or not).

For those who have been involved in unsuccessful projects, it is like being a member of the orchestra on the Titanic – you see the impending disaster – but you have no choice but to keep playing.

There are also great project teams where being a contributing member is both fun and productive. Those initiatives where you can witness that the organization, its employees and its customers are truly benefiting from the change being implemented. These are relatively rare, however, and occur only in those instances where the entire organization – management, the project team, vendors and employees – get it right.

Change management will not grow in influence or be regarded differently if the paradigm remains the same. If an unrelated degree and a simple three day course or six month course is an entry into the profession, don’t expect to be anything but a commodity. Until the educational and training requirements contain rigour, a strategic context and an unparalleled attention to detail, change managers will not be seated at the management table nor will they be asked for input concerning proposed changes. Change managers will continue to follow, not manage, change.

Better tune your instrument.