Change Management Strategy - Essay Example

Abstract

In terms of the rapid development of modern technologies, the way of conducting business changes practically every day. Managers are seeking new approaches, which will be more effective to achieve particular goals and objectives of their companies. As a result of this has notably increased the importance and significance of the change management.

There is a plenty of different change management strategies. Each of them is effective and appropriate in particular situations. Nevertheless, there are eight main errors, which negatively affect the process of leading change. Therefore, based on the eight steps to transforming the organization of John Kotter, we will analyze current change management strategy of the business, develop a business case and provide some recommendations to improve this current model.

Needless to claim that with an increasing development of modern technologies the need for changes increases too, especially talking about small and large business. The explanation of this might lie in the fact that every day new initiatives and projects are launched to improve performance, increase the overall revenue, and enhance competitive advantage. Therefore, along with those above-mentioned tendencies increases the importance of an effective change management, which can help to enable a more mobile "workforce, re-engineering all the processes within the organization to ensure regulatory compliance or pursuing an enterprise-wide transformation around customer experience" (Todnem, 2005). Hence, the main objective of this work is to examine the role of change management strategy in achieving business, organizational, and cultural goals on the example of particular organization.

To start with, before examining the role of change management by means of referring to Kotter's eight steps of transformation there is a need to define what is considered to be a change management and analyze its main steps. So, according to the Business Dictionary change management can be defined as the process of "minimizing resistance to organization change through the involvement of key players and stakeholders" (NA, 2016). To be more definite, it is the process of "continually renewing an organization's direction, structure, as well as capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers' (Moran & Brightman, 2001). Hence, according to the above-mentioned definitions, change management should be considered as an integral part of the organizational strategy. On the basis of this, it becomes clear that "change management is becoming a highly required and important managerial skill” (Senior, 2002).

Analysis

As it has already been indicated in the previous paragraphs of this paper, change management plays an immensely important role in the organization. Its role can be easily defined on the basis of improvements that change management brings to the organization strategy. The first and foremost improvement which should be mentioned within the framework of this paper is the thrive in an ever-changing world. To put it simply, "organizations are facing faster, more complex, more interdependent and more cross-functional change than ever before" (Waddell & Sohal, 1998). Therefore, "being able to deliver results on multiple changes allows companies to achieve their strategic vision and thrive in today's changing landscape" (Waddell & Sohal, 1998). The explanation of this lies in the fact that an appropriate implementation of change management provides them with a unique opportunity to better deliver its results on each change as well as to build competencies that contribute to growing organizational capacity to tackle more changes at one time (Senior, 2002).

Secondly, effective change management helps to deliver the people-dependent portion of project ROI. To be more specific, “changes in the organizations are undertaken to improve performance by means of focusing on helping people change how they do their jobs” (Todnem, 2005).

The third benefit of implementing change management lies in the fact that it helps to close the gap between requirements and results. It needs to be pointed out, that in most of the cases all the changes that occur within a particular organization deliver the “the necessary outputs without delivering on expected outcomes” (Waddell & Sohal, 1998). Therefore, the importance of an effective and properly implemented changes lies in closing the gap between requirements and results, outputs and outcomes by means of effectively supporting and equipping “those people impacted by a change to be successful in bringing to life in how they work” (Moran & Brightman, 2001).

The other important benefit of effective change management, which should be mentioned, is mitigating mission-critical risk. To be more definite, often managers do not pay additional attention to risks created by a change. As a result of ignoring the adoption and usage of a solution and focusing exclusively on meeting technical requirements, the outcomes are excessive and cost. The last but not least advantage of implementing the change management within the organization lies in the fact that its helps to treat employees right. Briefly speaking, "by proactively engaging and supporting people in times of change, the company demonstrates in action that it values them the most, which in its turn significantly alleviates the process of implementation the changes” (Todnem, 2005).

To properly analyze the change management model of my organization, Kotter's eight steps to transformation model will be applied. Before starting the analysis of my organization, it is worth to be mentioned that the current change management model is the empirical-rational strategy. It is one of the four basic strategies, which are widely used to manage change in and to the organization. The essence of this particular approach to change management lies in the fact that "people are rational beings and will follow their self-interest, once it is related to them" (Todnem, 2005). Therefore, it is safe to claim that successful change is based on the communication of information and the proffering of incentives.

According to John Kotter, there are eight main steps that can help properly implement changes within the organization in any type of business. These steps include establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, planning for and creating short-term wins, consolidating improvements and producing still more change, institutionalizing new approaches (Kotter, 1995).

Talking about the first issue with the current change management model within our organization, it is worth to be mentioned that the empirical-rational strategy centers mainly on the balance of incentives and risk management. Nevertheless, such model does not establish a great enough sense of urgency (Kotter, 1995). To be more specific, in the majority of organizations, which face the need for changes, “executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones and convince them that changes are necessary” (Kotter, 1995). Apart from not establishing a great enough sense of urgency, empirical-rational change management strategy does not contribute to creating a powerful enough guiding coalition. The explanation of this might lie in the fact that the implementation of this particular strategy is mainly supported by state and federal grants or through companies that are willing to fund the production of knowledge for profit potential. In its turn, such state of affairs means that guiding coalition for implementing changes is created outside the organization.

The third issue, which should be mentioned regarding the empirical-rational change strategy, is the lack of vision. To be more specific, “within this process, the change agent relies on the consulting support function, offering information and disseminating knowledge” (Chin & Benne, 1969). As a result of this, for success to occur, it is imperative for the change manager to provide rational benefits and to be able to clearly demonstrate them. Hence, the main focus is made on the innovation and on the organization rather than on individuals, creating and sharing the vision among them. Apart from this, I should mention that this particular issue is probably one of the important in my organization. The lack of vision makes it significantly harder to implement the change due to the fact that employees are not sure if the changes are needed or not. In other words, “a vision says something that helps to clarify the direction in which an organization needs to move” (Kotter, 1995).

The other issue, which should be mentioned during the analysis of the empirical-rational strategy lies in unsystematically planning for and creating short-term wins. To be more specific, the main emphasis is made on the innovation rather than on individuals and long-term vision rather than on a number of short-term goals. The essence of this particular problem lies in the fact that “real transformation takes time, and a renewal effort risks losing momentum if there are no short-term goals to meet and celebrate” (Kotter, 1995). In other words, “most people will not go on the long march unless they see compelling evidence within 12 to 24 months that the journey is producing expected results” (Todnem, 2005). In its turn, it is safe to claim that establishing a few short-term goals help to establish a clear vision, which will inspire the employees and make them believe that change is necessary.

The last but not least issue, which should be mentioned in this paper regarding the current empirical-rational strategy model in our organization is declaring victory too fast. To be more specific, it is a common mistake that after “a few years of hard work, managers may be tempted to declare victory with the first clear performance improvement” (Kotter, 1995). The same thing can be said with regard to my organization. Therefore, it becomes immensely important for the company “instead of declaring victory, leaders of successful efforts have to use the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle even bigger problems” (Kotter, 1995).

Business case

Based on the analysis of our organization’s current change management model by means of using Kotter’s eight steps to transforming the organization, it needs to be pointed out the main problems and the ways of their solving.

Motivation of the change management strategy

As it has already been mentioned in the previous paragraphs of this paper, current change management model has a plenty of issues, which should be properly resolved or improved. The first and foremost, empirical-rational model is mainly focused on the innovation and long-term goals rather than on people and short-terms goals, which will help to implement changes more effectively. Secondly, the currently model does not create a great enough sense of urgency. Apart this, the empirical-rational change management strategy does not contribute to creating a powerful enough guiding coalition, which has a negative impact on implementing changes within the organization as well as understanding the need for changes between the employees. As a result of this, current change management model does not contribute to creating a clear vision. Therefore, it becomes necessary to develop a new change model strategy or provide some improvements to the current one since change management is immensely important for every organization to stay competitive on the market.

Improvements to the current change management strategy

The first and foremost thing, which should be improved within the framework of current change management model, is establishing a sense of urgency. According to John Kotter, it is one of the most important things that should be mentioned during the process of implementing the changes. The explanation of this lies in the fact that creating a sense of urgency helps to properly estimate the importance of driving people out of their comfort zones during the process of changing.

The second recommendation is to create a powerful enough coalition to guide the changes. As is has already been mentioned in the previous paragraphs of this paper, the current model of change management is mainly focused on the innovation rather than on people. Such an approach is wrong and is not effective because “whenever some minimum mass of people is not achieved early in the effort, nothing much worthwhile happens" (Kotter, 1995). To properly implement changes, the organization should pay a notable attention to creating a coalition, which will guide other employees and make them confident in the urgency and importance of the changes.

The last recommendation, which should be mentioned, is to pay more attention to establishing short-term instead of long-term goals. It will help the organization to motivate the employees by means of achieving a number of short-term goals and demonstrating the results of the work.

The benefits and risks associated with the change management strategy

Talking about the benefits and risk associated with the improvement of the current change management strategy it is worth to be mentioned that focusing more on creating a sustainable and clear vision will help to motivate the employees and convince them in the necessity of the changes. Apart from this, an appropriate change management strategy provides the company with the opportunity to clearly define the most important short-term goals and achieve them in the nearest future. In its turn, such an approach will positively affect employees' morale, which in its turn will have a positive impact on the overall state of affairs.