In today's business landscape, organizational change is a constant affair. Between mergers, acquisitions and leadership changes, the days of a stagnant work environment are gone, says John T. Mooney, principal of Consultive Source, a human resources firm in Dallas.

"There are just a billion changes that have the potential to create a tremendous amount of turmoil, unrest and insecurity in employees, so we look at change management at many levels of the organization," Mooney says.

The economy has especially altered the way employers look at change management, but this isn't necessarily a positive transformation, says Jay Scherer, managing partner of BPI Group, an HR firm in Chicago. In the past, an employer would typically use a "sell" approach to change management, meaning it would help employees connect to the new future and understand how the company is evolving. Instead, employers are now simply announcing what changes are taking place with little regard to helping employees cope with the new environment.