Change Management - Assignment Example

Download file to see previous pages For most cases, change in an organization is an emergent phenomenon and takes place at a slow pace. On the other hand, planned change is seen less commonly and requires a thorough analysis of the environment and development of strategies for improvement.
Change management includes a range of activities ranging from communication and discussion to implementation and so the ideal change management process should take into account all these factors (Gustin, 2007). It is generally regarded as a strategic improvement for the organization and requires effective management to accomplish the desired results. Furthermore, upon this concept, this paper will describe the calm-waters and white-water rapids metaphors used for change management. It will focus on learning processes in the context of change management as well. The latter half of the paper will deal with force-field analysis and change management in the organizational culture.
Calm-waters metaphor was popular amongst practitioners and academics for quite some time (Rao, 2012). Particularly till the late 1980s, it was a just delineation of the environment and circumstances the organization was observed. It can be likened to a big ship, which, on its usual course around the sea, faces an occasional storm (Robbins, DeCenzo, Bhattacharyya and Agarwal, 2008). The path traversed by the ship is not new to it, since it follows the same course every time it sets out on a journey. The interruption that it comes across with is temporary. Kurt Lewin’s 3-step change process is a comprehensive explanation of the metaphor. The three steps include unfreezing of the status quo, modification to the new state, and freezing the change again in order to make it permanent (Robbins and Coulter, 2007). ...Download file to see next pagesRead More