Change Management in a Company - Essay Example

Change Management Introduction Jesse is appointed as the assistant product owner at Kauflauf and prior to assuming her new position she identifies some loopholes in the manner in which the firm conducts its marketing. Thus, she undertakes a research whereby she finds that field consultants spend a considerable time on less important clients while allocating lesser time for the most beneficial customers. As such, based on her empirical findings she decides to implement changes to the call patterns the moment she assumes office. However, things do not go her way since the field consultants resist the changes, thus violating her plan. How effective has Jess been in taking charge as assistant product owner at Kauflauf? Jesse Westerly was an articulate employee who took over her position as an assistant product owner at Kauflauf with high ambitions to transform the revenues of the organisation. She was very visionary on turning around the fortunes of Kauflauf since she had demonstrated the capacity and potential for achieving the targets and objectives from her previous workstation. Indeed, she was capable of taking charge of the new position since prior to assuming her roles as the assistant product owner, she had conducted an extensive research on the operations of the field consultants and realised the organisation had a market potential that had not yet been exploited. She also discovered that the sales consultants were spending considerable resources and time on lesser clients while spending fewer or none of more profitable and potential customers. It is from this notion she conducted her research and came up with the recommendation of changing the sales calls patterns. Conversely, Jesse was resolute and wanted to assume her position with a performance impact the reason she worked, on the findings to create to achieve her objectives. Based on the change management theory, changes initiated by an organisation should succeed if they originate from the leader (Cameron & Green, 2012). In other words, the change of leadership is the most reliable manner to institute changes in a firm. Therefore, it was prudent as an assistant product owner that Jesse thought of utilising her position as a leader to initiate changes to revolutionise the manner in which the field consultants worked to enhance efficiency and thus boost the overall returns of the company in the long run. Jesse was efficient in taking charge of her new position. However, despite the ideal change plans she had in mind for the business, she did not have a suitable implementation plan that would transform the project into an executable course of action to realise the perceived benefits. In that light, she failed to implement the change strategy and thus resulting in the loss of grip of her new position. The failure portrayed her in an adverse manner as many perceived her a failure because it was her first initiative after assuming the office. However, based on the facts and findings that she based her decisions to institute the changes depict her change plans as valid and reliable; hence, cannot be thrashed off. Why did her first attempt to change sales call patterns fail? Kurt’s theory of planned change stipulates that when implementing new changes in an organisation, all stakeholders should be engaged prior to the changes taking effect. The primary reason Jesse’s changes to sales pattern failed is because she did not involve other parties that the changes affected directly, for instance, the field consultants. Despite that the plan had substantive findings that validated it to improve the revenues of the company after implementation, it was prudent that the sales consultants had to be engaged, and their opinions considered before the implementation. Resistance to change occurs when some groups are side-lined in the planning and introduction of new changes in an organisation (Burke, Lake, & Paine, 2009). The field consultants were the main parties that were to be affected by the new changes and thus were a significant determinant in ensuring the changes to the sales patterns were implemented successfully. Jesse, however, consulted with a few consultants and assumed the plan would go well with the rest without engaging and involving them in the formulation, introduction and implementation of plans. Therefore, after negative reviews erupted the moment the changes were announced, Jesse failed to implement the right change management techniques to control the situation, especially among the field consultants (Palmer, 2004). According to the change leadership theory, resistance to change from various quarters is inevitable since not all parties embrace change positively (Palmer, 2004). Thus, it is the duty of the leaders to manage resistance to change in a manner that ensures all parties understand the rationale for introducing the planned changes in order to quell any differences that arise and hinder the implementation of the changes. Jesse failed to manage the field consultants’ resistance to the changes in sales patterns as she did not create a structured follow-up activity to determine whether the operations in the field were in line with the news changes and to come up with a formidable solution to the resistance. Additionally, the changes failed since Jesse premised all her rationale on the empirical findings and thus did not incorporate other parties to support the implementation of the changes. It is evident that during the initial round of the changes, Jesse only consulted with her boss before implementing them. The fact that she ignored other crucial stakeholders that would facilitate the implementation of the sales patterns’ changes led to their failure (Spiro, 2011). Does her proposed change call pattern make sense? Why or why not? Jesse’s proposal to change call patterns is viable and thus makes sense since it is premised on an empirical research whose hypothesis had been substantiated by findings from the field. To begin with, Jesse noticed the discrepancy in the manner in which the field consultants allocated their time to serve clients and thus she came up with a methodology for classifying customers into six groups based on the revenue Kauflauf generated from them. It is prudent that the company specialised on middle and small enterprises since the larger market players had engaged, the larger enterprises, thus there was a corporate culture among the sales consultants to only focus on the middle and small businesses while foregoing the more major clients. However, it is wrong to assume that Kauflauf only appealed to the smaller customers since the sales representatives made cold calls to the more major customers, but the field consultants were adamant to follow up the calls to close the sales since they had been pre-empted with dealing with the smaller clients. In that notion, it is prudent to note that Kauflauf was losing potential revenues by not engaging the big companies that would have been potential customers (Waddell, Cummings, & Worley, 2011). The proposal of Jesse was valid since from her research after the categorisation of the clients based on their prospective revenues to the company, it was evident that the last two classes contributed a negligible portion of the total amount of income generated by Kauflauf yet the field consultants spent a considerable amount of resources and time on these customers. Ideally, that was not viable since the funds invested on these clients did not yield sufficient or significant revenues. It was from this point that Jesse proposed that at least 30% of the time and resources spent on the last two classes of customers allocated to the first three categories of clients as it would increase the overall amount of revenue collected. Prior to developing her proposal Jesse did not conduct an in-depth analysis to explore all the possible bottlenecks that would hinder her change plans, but in the end the program was proved to be viable since it would have a positive effect on the company’s revenues (Rodd, 2015). Some critics argue that the field consultants were used to the small and middle enterprises since they would get direct access to the individuals responsible for decision making, thus facilitating the process of the sales unlike in the bigger firms where a great deal of organisational bureaucracy has to be experienced before accessing the decision makers. However, even with these considerations, Jess’s proposal remained relevant to the firm. Thus, it is prudent to note that the proposal to change call patterns was sensible as it would ensure there were efficient resource utilisation and the overall revenues of the company improved (Kezar, 2001). What actions should she take to ensure that her next attempt to change call patterns would succeed? Jesse had a modest idea to transform the revenue margins of Kauflauf, but she failed to utilise the right implementation strategy to get results from her proposal, thus leading to failure. To ensure that she succeeds in changing the call patterns, she ought to implement the change management theory by following all the steps to ensure her proposal is implemented as planned. Since she had identified the need to change the call patterns, the next step, Jesse would have been to educate other parties within the organisation to accept the need for change (Burke, Lake, & Paine, 2009). Ideally, the field representatives who would be acting as the implementers of the changes need to be engaged; they need to be convinced and informed on the rationale for the introduction of the changes to ensure the instances of resistance to change are minimised and thus allow for a smooth implementation of the plan. The next step would be assessing and defining the changes that ought to be implemented. In this case, Jesse should explain to other employees of the firm why she thought the changes were imperative and the rationale for the change. Her primary motivation for driving the changes was transforming the revenue margins of the company that was the reason the company hired her. In her previous job, she managed to drive the profits of her organisation to new heights a reason Kauflauf incorporated her to their team to create to turn around the company’s fortunes (Cameron & Green, 2012). Similarly, Jesse needs to analyse the impact of alternatives, for instance, the effect of spending more time with the larger clients as opposed to the smaller customers that Kauflauf had identified as its target market for some time. It is from that notion that she will develop a comprehensive implementation plan together with strategies on how the proposed changes should be actualised. In this step, she will have to engage other parties, especially the implementers of her proposals i.e. the field consultants and other relevant parties by incorporating them in her strategy to ensure the plan receives support from the change agents for successful implementation. Relatively, she has to manage the transition since not everybody in the organisation will embrace the changes. Thus, she will have to come up with a viable change management strategy to quell any form of resistance to the proposed amendments from some section of the employees to ensure resistance to changes does not derail the overall implementation plan for the changes (Sengupta, 2006). What change strategy would you use? In this case, the environmental adaptive strategy is ideal because employees, especially the field consultants will tend to resist the changes that ought to be initiated by changing the call patterns. Since I’m the assistant product owner, the position gives me the powers to readily influence the company’s executives to alter the organisation’s structure to accommodate my proposed changes. Since the field consultants had been inclined to an organisational culture in which they often dealt with only small and middle enterprise clients, the new structure would shift the organisation’s strategy to dealing with larger companies as opposed to the smaller ones. Since the strategy envisions changing the organisation’s working environment, the field consultants will find mechanisms for adapting to the new working environment and in the process embrace the changes to the call patterns without any form of resistance positively. Changing the current organisational culture at Kauflauf is difficult since the employees are accustomed to the traditional way of conducting their operations. However, if a new organisational structure is implemented that and the employees incorporated to it (Waddell, Cummings, & Worley, 2011). What would be your implementation plan? To ensure the proposed changes are implemented successfully, I will first identify the groups of people who will assist in actualising my changes. In this sense, I will determine the implementers of the changes as well as the change agents who will be working to ensure the plan is successful. The field consultants will be the implementers of my change strategy, and thus I will engage them by elaborating the provisions and rationale of my changes together with the impact they will create to the organisation’s performance. Once I have gained their support and trust for the plan, the next step will be to outline strategies and the role of all the parties involved in the implementation of the plan. Once the changes have been actualised, I will come up with transition management strategies that will serve to address any form of resistance to the changes to avoid any distraction to my change plan. Finally, I will evaluate the results from the implemented changes to determine the feasibility of the exercise (Palmer, 2004). Conclusion Jesse had the right strategy for Kauflauf in changing the call patterns to transform the revenues of the company. However, she lacked a formidable implementation plan that would see her plan yield the desired results. The primary cause of her failure is the fact that she failed to engage the field consultants prior to rolling out the change plan a reason they resisted the changes. It is prudent that the field experts were the implementer of Jesse’s proposed changes to the call patterns thus they had to be informed of the change plan and their opinion on the issue taken into account before the actual implementation is conducted. In a nutshell, Jesse had a brilliant plan for Kauflauf but she lacked change management skills that would ensure other employees support her drive to realise the desired results. References Burke, W. W., Lake, D. G., & Paine, J. W. (2009). Organisation change: A comprehensive reader. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2012). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organisational change. London: Kogan Page. Kezar, A. (2001). Understanding and facilitating organisational change in the 21st century. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, 28(4), 147. Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Palmer, B. (2004). Making change work: Practical tools for overcoming human resistance to change. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press. Rodd, J. (2015). Leading change in the early years: Principles and practice. Texas, TX: The University of Texas. Sengupta, N. (2006). Managing change in organisations. S.l.: Prentice-Hall Of India. Spiro, J. (2011). Leading change step-by-step: Tactics, tools, and tales. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Waddell, D., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2011). Organisational change: Development and transformation. South Melbourne, Vic: Cengage Learning. Read More