Leading and Managing the Change Process in Aviva - Case Study Example

Aviva Case Study Table of Contents Question Leading and Managing the Change Process 3 Kurt Lewin’s Three Phase Change Management Model 3 Kotter’s 8 Step Model 5 Question 2: The Change Plan 6 Restructuring 7 Downsizing 7 Process Reengineering 8 Question 3: Sustaining Change/ Enabling Continuous Change 9 The Dance of Change and Anchoring Change 9 Institutionalizing Change 9 Sustaining Best Practice 9 Sustaining TQM 10 Question 4: Limitations and Critical Reflection 10 Limitations of Change Programme 11 Recommendations 11 References 13 Question 1: Leading and Managing the Change Process Aviva is one of the leading insurance companies around the globe. Recently the management of the organisation has implemented change management strategy in its global business operation by implementing job cutting process. It is true that the organisation may face several issues and challenges regarding implementation of this change management strategy in near future. Therefore, following change management strategies have been implemented in this part of the report in order to address the issues and challenges for Aviva. Kurt Lewin’s Three Phase Change Management Model The three phase change management model proposed by Kurt Lewin can be considered as an important change management model that can help an organisation to address problems and challenges in its decision to adopting and implementing change in business operation process. This three phase change management model consists of three stages, such as unfreeze, movement and refreeze (Neelin, 2010, p.91). These three steps have been discussed with respect to the case study of Aviva. Unfreeze The management of Aviva should try to adopt and implement this change management process before implementation of the newly developed strategy of job cutting across its global business operation. Unfreeze is the first and more important stage of this change management model. It is clear from the news that the management of Aviva has decided to job-cutting across globe in order to reduce the overall business operation cost. This sudden decision and implementation of this decision can affect the business process of the organization as it can demoralise several effective employees to perform effectively. Most importantly, it can create fear among each and every employee that he or she may be axed. Therefore, Unfreezing can be considered as an important stage as in this stage the managers or leaders of the organization as it is their responsibility to inform the sub-ordinates and followers within an organisation to be ready for change. Therefore, it is important for the leaders to notify the employees of the Aviva about newly decided change process way before implementation of this strategy (Liu, 2011, p.89). Aviva is one of the leading organisations around the globe. Therefore, it is highly important to attract the attention of the global employees regarding this decided change management process so that the management of the organisation can avoid the issues, such as workplace conflicts and inadequate business output (Marcus, 2010, p.12). Movement Movement can be considered as another important step of this model. In this step the employees of the organisation can get aware of the adoption of change management process. In this stage the management of the Aviva needs to provide effective training and development process in order to increase the level of knowledge and skills of the employees. It will help the employees to get familiar with the restructuring process. The decision of job cut can become dangerous if the employees are not prepared to move towards new developed objectives (Williams, 2011, p.72). However, it is not an easy job for the leaders or managers of Aviva to motivate sub-ordinates or employees to move forward towards the change process. In this stage, the organisation needs to motivate employees and effectively communicate with them in order to maintain good workplace environment. Refreeze It is the last stage of this change management model. In this stage it is important for the management of the Aviva Insurance Company to think about the stability of the organisation and business operation process regarding the newly adopted change management process. The consequence of job cut can become critical as it can affect the performance level of each and every employee across the globe. Therefore, the managers and the leaders of the organisation should try to enhance clear communication process between the top level management and lower level employees to stabilise the growth rate of the organisation (Biech, 2007, p.99). This strategy will help the employees to understand their objectives and roles according to the adopted and implemented change process. Kotter’s 8 Step Model Kotter’s 8 step model can be considered as an important change management model that can help the management of Aviva to address the issues and challenges regarding the adoption and implementation of job cutting strategy across the world. There are 8 steps in this change management process. It is highly important for the management of the organisation to consider each and every steps of this change model. Create urgency is the first step in this model. In this stage, it is highly important for the management of the organisation to make employees understand about the change. Recent financial crisis and economic slowdown affected the economic environment of UK and several countries across the globe (McArdle, 2006, p.31). Therefore, it is important to follow this stage. Form a significant coalition is the second step. In this step, it is important for the management to convince employees about change and motivate them to perform effectively. Developing a vision is the third stage. Each and every organisation has its own vision. Therefore, it is highly important for the management of the organisation to connect ideas behind the change to the original vision of the organisation. It may influence the employees of Aviva to give their full competence and effort towards job in order to secure their safety and physiological needs. Communicate the vision is the fourth step of this model. It is true that Aviva is going through a tough situation due to inadequate economic environment of the world. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the management of the organization to communicate with the employees regarding new vision and assure them regarding job security in case of good workplace performance (Cummings, 2014, p.22). Remove obstacles is the fifth step of this model. It is important for the organisation to promote competent and skilled employees to upper level in order to motivate good performers to enhance positive business growth rate of the organisation. Developing short-term wins is the sixth stage of this model. In this stage, it is important for the managers to choose and develop short targets to achieve overall objective (Cameron, 2004, p.87). Development from change is the seventh step of this model. In this step, it is highly important to achieve short term goals and continuing with setting of new goals. Institutionalising new approaches can be considered as the last step. In this stage, it is important for the management of Aviva to incorporate changes into the corporate culture of the organisation to overcome workplace conflicts. Question 2: The Change Plan This part of the report will try to propose some change plans. Restructuring Restructuring can be considered as an important change intervention that can help the management of Aviva to overcome issues regarding the implementation of newly developed change process. Most importantly, it is highly important for the management to implement it right after developing change process. It is clear from the news that the management of Aviva is reducing its employee strength in order to reduce business operation cost. Moreover, the management is shifting its employees to India and other parts of the world in maximum number. Therefore, it is important for the management of the organisation to make changes in the division of work and distribution of tasks. Moreover, the definition of formal responsibility and authority should be changed in order to control entire workforce to enhance the change management process (Komives, 2012, p.26). In some areas, it is also important for the organisation to make some changes in organisational structure or hierarchical structure to reduce the possibility of conflicts between employees and management. Most importantly, the management should decentralize its decision making process and develop a flatter organisational structure in some branches to increase the motivation level of the employees. Downsizing It is also an important change intervention that should be considered by the management of Aviva during the development of change management process. The organisation should try to implement it after implementation of the first change intervention, such as restructuring. First of all, it is important for the management to assess several downsizing options regarding the change process and understand the significance of this implication. As it is clear from the news that the management of the organisation has decided to reduce employee strength to reduce business operation cost, therefore the management should understand and address the needs of supervisor and motivating leaders (Fatout, 2002, p.11). These leaders should have the ability to control the team and motivate them during this period of change process. Process Reengineering Process reengineering can be considered as the mixture f both top-down and bottom-up approach. It is true that, the organisation has adopted centralized decision making process and implemented top-down approach by circulating a notice or an internal memo among the employees of the organisation. Most importantly, the organisation is trying to axe the employees of general insurance department. It is an important division or department of the organisation. It is true that this decision will help to reduce business operation cost. But, on the other hand it may have negative consequences as it can create several workplace conflicts, which can be reflected in the performance of the organisation. However, in this case the management of the organisation should also implement bottom-up approach in order to reduce communication gap between top level management band lower level employees. A middle manager needs to be recruited by higher official to enhance the bottom-up approach. This particular process can help the organisation to make the employees understand about the roles and responsibility. This process reengineering change intervention needs to be implemented before circulating notice or internal memo. This strategy will help the management of the organisation to enhance successful change management process (Miller, 2009, p.21). Most importantly it cannot hamper a good relationship between employees and employers. Question 3: Sustaining Change/ Enabling Continuous Change This part of the report will help to address the issues of enabling continuous change or sustaining change in the longer term. The Dance of Change and Anchoring Change It is quite difficult for an organisation to maintain high level of self-confidence and motivation within workplace after the adoption and implementation of job-cutting strategy. Four parameters need to be considered by the management of the organization regarding addressing the issues of sustaining change. First of all, it is important for the organisational leaders motivate, influence and guide the individuals towards the change process in order to meet the developed objective. The leaders should have the managerial skill to manage and control this situation by anchoring the change process and incorporating this in the organisational culture (Maxton, 2004, p.83). Institutionalizing Change In this process the major objective of the management of Aviva should be develop a clear long-term and short-term vision. It is true that recent economic crunch affected overall economic environment of the world. Job loss and unemployment are the major consequences of this economic crunch. Aviva is also choosing this strategy to reduce business operation cost. Effective democratic leadership style is required in order to address the issues of enabling change management process (Hiatt, 2006, p.54). Sustaining Best Practice Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as several leading organisation are operating within same industry. Moreover, several external and internal challenges forced the organisations to develop and implement unique strategies in order to maintain sustainability in business process. In this change process, the management of Aviva should try to follow the corporate governance and business ethics in order to influence the major stakeholders of the organisation (Branmark and Benn, 2012, pp. 231-245). Unnecessary job-cutting, restricting and centralized decision making process can de-moralise the stakeholders to avoid the strategies and decision making process of the organisation. It can affect the profitability of the organisation. Sustaining TQM The management of Aviva should try to change several internal factors to sustain the change management process. Policies, organisational structure and management style are the major issues that should be changed by the organisation in order to sustain change. First of all, the organisation should try to adopt and implement flatter organisation structural process to enhance effective communication process among employees and top level management of the organisation (Buchanan et al, 2005, p.197). Secondly, employee friendly policy should be developed in order to enhance employee motivation and conflict free workplace environment. Last but not the least; it is highly important for the management of Aviva to adopt and implement decentralized management decision making process in order to sustain the business output after implementing change management process. Question 4: Limitations and Critical Reflection This part of the report will discuss about the limitations of this change management process. Moreover, this part will try to provide some recommendations in order to address the issues. Limitations of Change Programme It is true that adoption and implementation of Kurt Lewin’s change management model and Kotter’s change management model will be effective in this case. But, it is also important for the organisation to determine and realise the limitations of the change management programme. It is clear from the news that the management of the organisation suddenly have adopted and implemented change management process. The organisation should have changed differently. The management should have adopted cost leadership strategy to reduce business operation cost. However, this job cutting strategy can have several limitations that can affect overall business output (Anderson, 2010, p.38). In terms of limitations, it can create workplace conflict due to inadequate communication process between top level management and employees. Moreover, it can limit the level of motivation and self-confidence of each and every employee. It can increase level of stress among the employees. It can clearly reflect in the performance of each and every employee. Most importantly, the change can create fear among the employees across the globe. Therefore, each and every employee can try to look for another employment opportunity in another organisation to enhance safety and physiological needs (Hass, 2000, p.14). It can create a real challenge for Aviva as the organisation may lose competent and skilled employees of the organisation. Recommendations It is clear from above discussion that the organisation can face several challenges due to above mentioned limitations of change management process. Following recommendation plans will help the management of Aviva to address the issues. First of all, it is important for the management of the organisation to give some time to the employees to adopt the change. It is true that recent European financial crisis and global economic recession increased several economic issues, such as job cutting and growing unemployment rate. Therefore, it is highly important for the organisation to help employees by giving sufficient time to them to find suitable job opportunity before terminating them from the organisation (Crauder, 2008, p.9). Last but not the least; it is highly important for the organisation to maintain good workplace environment by adopting and implementing decentralized decision making process, the management of the organisation should try to incorporate the important external and internal stakeholders in the decision making process (Rasch, 2012, p.55). It will help the management of the organisation to sustain change management process. Moreover, this strategy will help to employees to accept the change process through a proper and transparent communication process. References Anderson, D., 2010. Beyond Change Management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Biech, E., 2007. Thriving through Change. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Branmark, M., and Benn, S., 2012. 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