Organizational Change Management - Case Study Example

Organizational Change Management Name: University: Date: Table of Contents Organizational Change Management 1 Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Case Description 5 3.0 Change Diagnostic 6 4.0 Change Implementation 9 5.0 Characteristics of the Effective Change Manager 10 6.0 Conclusion 12 Organizational Change Management Abstract In the contemporary world that is ever changing, change has become inevitable. Inability to rethink organizations can result in increasing turbulence that brings about stress, internal competitiveness, high disconnection as well as individual working harder instead of learning how they can work smarter. Today, change has become a fact of organizations and business life, wherein change resistance can result in a risk of losing the competitive edge. As it will be evidenced in this report, change is a need for business growth as well as survival considering that the world has recently become more dynamic and complex. This complexity and dynamism connote that the stability of the organizations cannot be sustained for a long period of time. Basically, change management involves different aspects like adaptation change, control change as well as effecting change. Change management main objective is to ensure a long-term sustainability of the business. Change management can be described as change of organization’s activities such as organisational culture, business process, technology, workforces, procedures and rules, jobs design, HR techniques, and so forth. This report presents a change management case study with emphasis on the Dubai Police. 1.0 Introduction According to Kazmi and Naarananoja (2013), organization change happens because of some factors, which could be internal or external. Furthermore, change process can generate problems such as resistance, whereby some employees can oppose to the change strategies because of their own perception and thoughts concerning the concept change (Boohene & Williams, 2012). This is attributed mainly to lack of understanding about the status quo or because of self-interest. Therefore, knowing how to overcome resistance and facilitating the implementation of change is very important amongst managers. Basically, Changes may happen at different levels: at the organizational structure level, group level, or individual level. Still, a change within the organizational structure has an effect on the group and individual changes more as compared to how changes in the group and individual level affect the organization. Change is viewed differently by managers and workers and the change enthusiasm level varies from one person to another as well as from one level of the hierarchy to another. What most managers perceive as an opportunity for strengthening or reinforcing the business is considered by scores of employees as unnecessary and disruptive. Police organisations normally operate in an increasingly volatile environment; therefore, they are always in the state of constant change. The need for change originates from different external and internal sources like technological, economic, political and social factors. In this report, the focus is on Dubai Police in terms of change management and the need for effective change managers. 2.0 Case Description Established in 1956, the Dubai Police Force has progressively been transformed. The Dubai Police has over 15,000 employees who are typified by their high-level training as well as multi-specialties. Importantly, Dubai Police is an important part of the UAE Police Force, whose key objective is improving the quality of life by working according to the constitutional rights to maintain safety and security of every person living in Dubai. Furthermore, Dubai Police utilises the highest as well as the most detailed operation measures to perform its powers, functions, and duties through indicators of institutional performance as well as strategic planning practices. In order to be successful, Dubai Police ensures that they efficiently manage financial and human resources and engage in other activities such as strengthening the community partnership, streamlining procedures, engaging in innovative programs, and teamwork. One of change practices at Dubai Police was the introduction of the ‘Skills Investment Program’; the objective of the program was to invest in the Dubai Police’s human resources (Police, 2015). This was to be achieved by harnessing the capabilities and potential as well as the National Human Resources expertise. The change needs the utilisation of the appropriate scientific approaches so as to make the human resources be skilled and be able to offer the best levels of practical and theoretical training to the police. Another goal of the program is harnessing and using these abilities to qualify employees in UAE institutions. Police ability to respond to various changing situations is crucial to the public security and safety. Still, this ability occasionally faltered when the emphasis is on the law enforcement administration. There are police who can adapt quickly to the changing conditions within the field of law enforcement while some show little dexterity to change within the organisation. Basically, the challenges associated with change management at Dubai Police can be many, but the main ones include change resistance, identifying change and communicating change. 3.0 Change Diagnostic Strategies for change management according to Janićijević (2010) are intended for improving the effectiveness of the organisation. Diagnosis is one of the strategies and involves examining the current level of functioning in the organisation with the goal of designing suitable interventions for change. Falletta (2005) asserts that the diagnosis concept in change management is utilised in a way similar to the medical paradigm. In the hospital setting, for instance, the physician performs tests, gathers important information about the human system, and assesses the information before prescribing the course of treatment. Similarly, the diagnostician at the organisation utilises particular procedures to gather important information concerning the organization, to examine the collected information, as well as to design suitable interventions for the change process. The diagnosis helps identify the problem that exists within the organisation. Therefore, Dubai police can use different procedures/techniques of data collection techniques to identify the underlying problems. In the diagnostic process, the data collection results should be fed back to the members of the organizational so that the organizational change process can be initiated. By viewing the Dubai Police as a system, the organizational diagnosticians can focus on the processes and activities within the system that are important to the life of the organisation. In this case, the diagnosis scope could either be symptomatic and narrow or systematic and broad. The latter involves scanning the organization quickly and placing much emphasis on the trouble spots; however, in this type of diagnosis, the problem reoccurs often. For that reason, it is imperative for Dubai Police to examine the whole system systematically when performing organizational diagnosis, instead of concentrating on ‘quick fixes’ as well as rapid diagnoses. Utilisation of organizational models can facilitate the systematic diagnosis at Dubai Police. As mentioned by Falletta (2005), change management needs the help of basic mechanisms and frameworks in managing all efforts of organizational change with the goal of maximising benefits as well as reducing the impacts of change on the employees and prevent interferences. Still, the reasons, pressures, and culture for change vary from organization to organisation. Change within the organisation is attributed mainly to external competition forces, new innovations and technological inventions, demands of the customers or the changing employees’ expectations. The processes of change are steered by a number of strategic considerations, which includes the need for a collaborative working environment and the desire to improve the performance of the business (Pieterse, Caniels, & Homan, 2012). To improve the probability of success in change management, Dubai police should use the models that view change as a series of unending changes such as teleological models, dialectical theory, and evolutionary models. According to Blackman, O’Flynn, and Ugyel (2013), coping with change processes is very stressful and hard for managers since change is often viewed by employees with cynicism because they view change as the latest fad of the management, a quick-fix effort, or an excuse by the company for plant closures or lay-offs. These perceptions and behaviours result in resistance amongst employees and normally results in failure of the organisational change. Therefore, a diagnostic analysis is very important. In the diagnostic analysis, Dubai Police will have to collect information before implementing the change. Through diagnostic analysis, Dubai police will be able to identify the intricacies (facilitators and barriers) within the institution that can facilitate or frustrate change uptake. As mentioned by Hamilton, McLaren, and Mulhall (2007), theoretical models that underpin change are beneficial for facilitating the design of diagnostic analysis. Numerous authors have presented a number of diagnostic models that Dubai police can use to diagnose its change process. For instance, Kurt Lewin in 1951 created Force Field Analysis model for managing as well as analysing problems within the organisations. According to the model, there are forces that drive and restrain change in an organisation. The driving force includes the push for change 9enviromantal factors) while the restraining forces include organizational factors such as poor morale or limited resource. Therefore, to comprehend the problem that faces Dubai Police, the management must identify and define the restraining forces as well as driving forces. Force Field Analysis model can be used to move Dubai Police to the sought after state of equilibrium through the addition of the driving forces as well as reducing restraining forces, where suitable. Such changes are believed to happen concurrently in the dynamic organization. Other models that Dubai Police that can use for diagnosis include: Leavitt’s Model, which suggests that change in one variable can lead to retaliatory or compensatory change in the other variables; Open systems theory that allows for recurrent transformation, cycles of input, output, as well as reintroduced input in the organization; the Congruence Model that view an organization as an open social system in the environment; the Six Box Model by Weisbord (197) that indicates the importance of six components of the organization that must be incorporated in the diagnosis (purpose, structure, leadership, auxiliary mechanisms, as well as rewards; and Peters and Waterman’s 7S model that points out the components that must be included in the change diagnosis (strategy, systems, shared values, structure, style, staff and skills). 4.0 Change Implementation Importantly, Dubai Police must implement the change in stages by first generating the sense of urgency that build up the support for processes of change. Besides that, the organisation must make sure that every person is involved so as to generate enthusiasm amongst the staff. Dubai Police can use Kotter's 8-Step Change Model so as to successfully implement change within the organisation. The model defines eight stages that can be used for organizational transformation as well as change adaptation: the first stage is creating a sense of urgency within the organisation; second stage involves creating an authoritative guiding coalition; third and fourth stages involves creating a vision and communicating that vision, respectively; the fifth stage involves empowering others in order to act according to the vision; the sixth and seventh stages involves creating short-term wins and consolidating improvements so as to generate more change; the last stage is about institutionalizing new approaches (Stragalas, 2010). According to Kotter, managers have to be noticeable role models, always positive and be able to offer proactive justifications that exhibit the association between improved organizational performance and the new approaches (Auguste, 2013). Therefore, for Dubai Police to successfully implement change within the institution, it must first establish a sense of urgency by examining the environment for possible opportunities and crises and then create a powerful guiding coalition by assembling a team that has power and commitment to steer the effort. Afterwards, Dubai police should create a vision that can guide the change and also develop strategies that can turn the vision into reality. After creating the vision, the organisation should communicate the vision to the employees and empower them to follow up on the vision by eliminating or changing the factors and processes that prevent the transformation. The police can be empowered by being encouraged to take risks and be innovative. At this point, Dubai Police should come up with short-term wins by defining as well as proactively supporting successes of noticeable improvements and rewarding every person involved in these successes. Then the organisation can produce more change by consolidating improvements and ensuring the new approaches are institutionalised. Communication is very important during the implementation of the change, because a lot of activities take place during the change processes. Therefore, management of Dubai Police should ensure they communicate at individual, operational, and strategic levels. Employees and law enforcers at Dubai Police should be given an opportunity to offer their perspective. Other factors that define the success or failure of change implementation are team culture, ability to empower, and providing feedback as well as positive reinforcement (Gesme & Wiseman, 2010) 5.0 Characteristics of the Effective Change Manager A number of factors that are characteristic of effective change managers have been identified extensively by various authors as cited by Lunenburg (2010). Such factors according to Lunenburg (2010) refer to the manner through which change is managed by change managers. One of the characteristics that the Dubai Police’s change manager should have is ‘empathy’ an attribute of comprehending another person’s feeling. As mentioned by (Lunenburg, 2010), empathy results in understanding and improved communication between the organization members and the change manager. Another characteristic of an effective change manager is ‘linkage’, which can be described as the level to which the organization members and the change manager are collectively tied in collaborative activities. Therefore, change managers at Dubai Police should understand that the tighter the linkage, the more likelihood the organisational change will be successful. Proximity is another characteristic that change manager should have and has been defined as the psychological as well as the physical closeness of the change manager and the members of the organization. Therefore, when the proximity between the police officers and the change manager is greater, there are high chances that the change processes will be successful. If the change manager increases the proximity, it becomes easier to develop the collaborative linkages. Imperatively, proximity improves the ability to develop empathy between organization members and the change manager. Synergy is another characteristic of an effective change manager and is concerned with communicating the change effort so as to promote success. As emphasised by Gilley, McMillan, and Gilley (2009), organizational change cannot happen unless organisation members adopt new frameworks, processes, values or goals. Therefore, having knowledge of the organizational, group as well as individual, processes that have to take place so that positive change can happen is a characteristic that every change manager must have. Gilley, McMillan, and Gilley (2009) argue that failure to understand the techniques of change implementation can result in organisational change failure. Other factors that can result in failure include lack of communication skills, inability to lead other through the processes of change, and failure by the change manager to reward employees who respond positively to change. 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the report has presented a change management case study with emphasis on the Dubai Police. As evidenced in the report, it is important for the change managers to understand how they can enforce compliance and reduce resistance. Engaging employees during the change process is an important ingredient to change success. Furthermore, the managers should understand how to create and communicate the vision so as to encourage employees to support the change at every level. Consequently, this makes change implementation successful and easier, given that the process of decision-making and participation will enable employees to take direct ownership the organisational change. At Dubai Police, change manager should use discipline and reward as tools to succeed in the change process. 7.0 References Auguste, J. (2013). Applying Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change to the Digital Transformation of an Orthopedic Surgical Practice Group in Toronto, Canada. Health Medical Informatics Journals, 4(3), 1-4. Blackman, D., O’Flynn, J., & Ugyel, L. (2013). Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Organisational Readiness for Complex Change. Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management conference, (pp. 1-18). Hobart. Boohene, R., & Williams, A. A. (2012). Resistance to Organisational Change: A Case Study of Oti Yeboah Complex Limited. International Business and Management, 4(1), 135-145. Falletta, S. V. (2005). Organizational Diagnostic Models: A Review & Synthesis. Sunnyvale, CA: Leadersphere, Inc. Gesme, D., & Wiseman, M. (2010). How to Implement Change in Practice. Journal of Oncology Practice, 6(6), 257-259. Gilley, A., McMillan, H. S., & Gilley, J. W. (2009). Organizational Change and Characteristics of Leadership Effectiveness. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 16(1), 38-47. Hamilton, S., McLaren, S., & Mulhall, A. (2007). Assessing organisational readiness for change: use of diagnostic analysis prior to the implementation of a multidisciplinary assessment for acute stroke care. Implementation Science, 2(21), 1-11. Janićijević, N. (2010). Business processes in organizational diagnosis. Management, 15(2), 85-106. Kazmi, S. A., & Naarananoja, M. (2013). Collection of Change Management Models – An Opportunity to Make the Best Choice from the Various Organizational Transformational Techniques. GSTF Journal on Business Review, 2(4), 44-57. Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Managing Change: The Role of the Change Agent. International Journal of Business Management and Administration, 13(1), 1-6. Pieterse, J. H., Caniels, M. C., & Homan, T. (2012). Professional discourses and resistance to change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(6), 798-818. Police, D. (2015). Skills Investment Program. Retrieved from Dubai Government: https://www.dubaipolice.gov.ae/amgz/ Stragalas, N. (2010). Improving Change Implementation Practical Adaptations of Kotter’s Model. OD Practitioner, 42(1), 31-38. Read More