Change Is an Integral Part of Increasing the Efficiency of Corporate Planning - Essay Example

?Assessment 2 – Change Analysis Introduction Change has always been an integral part for increasing the efficiency of corporate planning. During the events of change, it is essential to communicate properly with employees in order to implement the change successfully as most of the employees resist change. Change takes place at different levels so as to create a more productive working environment. The major triggers of change include attrition of management, cost cutting, competition and business processes (Anderson, n.d.). In the rest of the part of this paper, the real world examples of change have been provided. In the first part, the example of the organization where I was working is given whereas in the next part the example of change in my friend’s university is explained briefly. The paper ends with recommendation and findings that have been gathered from both the examples. Part A Two years ago, I rendered my services for a local telecom company. The company possesses a large market cap and is considered as one of the leading telecom companies in the country. I was working as a customer service agent in that company and my job was going relatively fine. During my employment over there, the company underwent a substantial change. That change brought opportunities for some workers, but a large number of workers were resisting change. Among them, I was also the one. The type of change which the organization experience was ‘Organizational Restructuring’. The company acquired a new and growing Internet Service Provider Company. This change not only affected the employees but also impacted the customers since I was the once who attends customers calls and therefore I can judge their responses. Rationale for Change The basic criteria which led to this acquisition were the deeper linkages between telecom industry and internet connectivity systems. Nowadays, almost every telecom company which is offering cellular service is engaged in providing internet services as well. Our company was lacking this area of providing internet facility to our customers therefore it instantly identified a local emerging internet service provider company and acquired it immediately. The rationale for acquiring this company was that after viewing the performance and financial position of that company, our top management realized that there are substantial chances for this company to expand and grow even more in future. In this way, it will become an additional revenue generating unit for our company and the deficiency of providing internet facility will also get fixed. Change Process Management The merger and acquisition which are taken place in telecom industry are called as horizontal mergers because all the entities belong to the same industry. Therefore the merger between our company and the small ISP Company was also a horizontal merger. Change management process requires taking some necessary steps at the side of top management. These steps include preparing the employees and customers about the upcoming change. For acquisition, our company had to prepare the employees who were resisting change. In this regard, HR managers conducted seminar and workshops to train employees in dealing with change. Some of our valued customers were also informed about our upcoming expansion so that more trust is built between us and our customers. Apart from this, the change management process also required to downsize where it is required. Few redundant employees were fired. Some redundant departments and operations were also closed. Response to Change Responses towards this change varied from employee to employee. Some employees who got promoted were motivated and enthusiastic whereas those who lost their jobs were certainly very depressed. The overall responses of internal management and employees can be considered as positive because large numbers of employees were motivated, positive and optimistic about this change. Everyone was expecting that this acquisition will prove to be fall in favor of our company because the right entity has been selected for the purpose of fitting the gap of ISP. Implementation of Change The top management of our company was acquainted to a great deal about the failures in mergers and acquisition in the history of telecom industry. In this regard, our R&D department conducted a diminutive research about the major aspects that must be considered at any cost in order to implement a merger or acquisition successfully. They went through the historical M&As in order to gain insights about the reasons that cause failure of M&As in telecom industry. A report was then presented to the top management which composed of all the required points that must be considered and steps that must be taken backed by the research. Since its only two years from the time acquisition occurred, therefore any idea cannot be made about its future position but the performance and number of customers of our company has improved particularly after this acquisition. Part B After interviewing one of my childhood friend, who studied in California State University, I came to know that not only organizational change are required to be studied but changes at university level must also be studied. Therefore, I took the example of my friend, aged 26, who is a graduate of California State University. During his graduation, the university underwent a certain change in the IT systems of the university. Rationale for Change The change in IT system that occurs at the main campus has to be linked with all the other satellite campuses. It means that thousands of employees, 32 campuses, students and staff must adapt their IT systems as well. In this regard, the management of the California State University came with the idea to integrate the system in an automated way (Faucheux, 2009). Change Process Management For the change management process, the university’s management decided to upgrade the IT department and using the automated system. These systems were facilitated by the functionality provided by Cisco Systems. In order to make the change management system more effective, they are now deciding what further changes can be made in the designated area and which systems are to be used by whom (Faucheux, 2009). Responses to Change When the change occurs at university level, generally students are very excited about the change. The reason can be that they can find new, creative and innovative ways of learning, or they will be provided more convenient and comfortable way of learning etc. This change at California State University has definitely benefited the students to a great deal as the entire system has been converted into automated system. Also for staff and management, this change is proving to be very helpful and supportive. Implementation of Change Implementation of change was the responsibility of a professional and renowned IT firm, Cisco Systems. This can be the major reason that the change was implemented successfully as it was executed under the supervision of team of professional experts. The top management of the University was consistently in interaction with the Cisco Team so as to be informed about the process. The coordination of the University’s Management and Expertise of Cisco Systems transformed the IT system of California State University successfully as well as in a professional manner. Part C Comparison of Findings with Literature According to Markovic (2008), globalization has been the major reason of change in today’s environment. Every other organization is competing hard to acquire the latest technology, organizational processes and systems (Markovic, 2008). This has created a sense of attentiveness in organization, attentive to implement the necessary change process at the right time. The two examples which have been discussed in this paper are somewhat linked to this statement. Telecom companies compete to provide the best possible services and universities are also implementing latest technological options in order to expand and improve their rankings. On the other hand, Kotter (2007) has presented reasoning about why transformations and change fail in organizations. Some of the reasons include declaring victory too soon, not systematically planning and developing short term wins, not eradicating obstacles for the new goal, not establishing sense of urgency, not communicating the vision properly etc. (Kotter, 2007). If we look at the above two examples, it will become evident that none of the organization has defined whether the change has been completely successful or not. It has been stated that some positive aspects are observed but the final result has not been declared. Sirkin (2005) has put forward the idea of DICE score. DICE stands for duration, integrity, commitment and efforts. According to Sirkin (2005), it is important to calculate DICE score during implementing change (Sirkin, 2005). In both the examples which we discussed in this paper, results are not shown so instantly instead time duration is required so that results of the change can be revealed. Atkinson (2005) has stated that there are certain dimensions which need to be considered during implementing change. They include resistance to change, communicating change etc. (Atkinson, 2005). In our examples, it has been observed that level of resisting change was not much high therefore it became easier to implement change and change was also communicated properly. Austin (2009) has proposed that during implementing change in organization, social change also needs to be implemented. Social change includes change at the level of individual, organization and societal (Austin, 2009). This type of change has not been observed in both the example. Change was implemented at organizational level only, not on societal and individual level. Stalker (1961) has stated that organizations undergo change particularly for innovation. Technical process, innovation and development are major reasons for undergoing change (G.M, 1961). In our examples, this has proven to be valid because both the organizations implemented change in order to keep pace with the changing innovative environment. Luscher (2008) has presented some ideas about how to cope up with issues that rise from major restructuring. In this regard, they have presented a model which middle managers can adopt in order to give a meaning to change (Luscher, 2008). This fits to our example number one in which change has occurred by major restructuring. No major issues arouse from the restructuring in two years but perhaps in near future some requirement can arise of utilizing those models. Cameron (2008) has mentioned the positive and negative aspects arising from change (Cameron, 2008). This phenomenon was observed in our first example only where those employees who got promoted were excited about change however those who were laid off were depressed and negative towards the implementation of change. Lucas (2008) has mentioned the importance of organizational learning and culture in the context of organizational change. He concluded that organizational change has substantial impact on the capacity of learning of individuals (Lucas, 2008). This idea can be linked to our examples in a way that when change was implemented in university then it certainly will increase the capacity of learning of students and in organization, the motivation of employees will also force them to get involved in the change process and obtain maximum learning. Sharif (2011) mentioned that humans have the tendency of trust towards their organization during the events of change. Level of trust varies from the type of change (Sharif, 2011). In the example of restructuring, those who were laid off certainly would have posed low level of trust while those who were promoted and given more responsibility would have higher trust. In the case of change in university, all the students and staff would have high level of trust in their organization’s decision and this would have supported the decision of management. Conclusion Change management has become a central area of attention for management experts. According to them, in near future a lot of change at every level is expected to be seen. Companies have to keep pace with technology, competition, global environment and economic condition. The basic reason for implementing change is to improve the profits. If the change is not implemented in an appropriate manner, then there can loss of reputation, time and investment. Change defines the future of the company. Every organization implements change for its best but most of the times it turns out in a worst from due to some prominent mistake. Therefore, potential mistake must be predicted and solutions for those must be kept as contingency plan or back-up plan. This paper ends up with a useful recommendation that highlights the major points of concern for companies undergoing a change. Recommendation Companies require to carefully examining the internal environment and makes up a decision about what is the current position of the employees and organization. If the employees are not prepared for the change, which generally happens, then top management needs to hire professional experts in order to prepare the employees for change management. Apart from hiring someone from outside, the top management of the company also needs to communicate with employees and must encourage them to provide their feedback about the change management process. Apart from preparing employees, the most important task is to analyze whether change is necessary for the organization or not. This can be done by utilizing the assistance of internal research and development department. A research must be conducted in order to determine the need of change. Some changes do not require conducting any research and it becomes necessary to implement them. The most important step is the execution of change. Most of the change efforts fail due to inappropriate execution of those projects. Change must bring a sense of enthusiasm, opportunity, security and growth to each relevant entity of the organization. Some more assistance can be taken from the historical theories and model which provide insights about how to implement and manage change effectively. References Anderson, A., n.d.. Examples of Organization Change. [Online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-organization-change-11694.html [Accessed 24 May 2012]. Atkinson, P., 2005. Managing Resistance to Change. Management Services, pp. 14-19. Austin, J., 2009. Initiating Controversial Strategic Change in Organizations. OD Practioner, 41(3), pp. 24-29. Cameron, K., 2008. Paradox in Positive Organizational Change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), pp. 7-24. Faucheux, M., 2009. Examples of Change Management Plans That Worked. [Online] Available at: http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/55056.aspx [Accessed 24 May 2012]. G.M, B. T. a. S., 1961. The Management of Innovation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship. Kotter, J., 2007. Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), pp. 96-103. Lucas, C. a. K. T., 2008. Understanding the Influence of Organizational Culture and Group Dynamics on Organizational Change and Learning. Learning Organization, 15(3), pp. 277-287. Luscher, L. S. a. L. M. W., 2008. Organizational Change and Managerial Sensemaking: Working through Parado. The Academy of Management Journal ARCHIVE, 51(2), pp. 221-240. Markovic, M. R., 2008. Managing the Organizational Change and Culture in the Age of Globalization. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 9(1), pp. 3-11. Sharif, M. a. S. T. A., 2011. Leadership & Organizational Change. University of Miami , pp. 1-8. Sirkin, H. K. P. a. J. A., 2005. The Hard Side of Change Management. Harvard Business Review, 83(10), pp. 108-118. Read More