EC222 Leadership and Management: Change Management Process

1. 

The change management process refers to a method in system engineering that represents the method of determining attainability, requesting, implementation, planning and the evaluation of changes to the system (Della and Solari 2013). The primary goals remain in supporting the traceability and processing off the changes to a set of interconnected factors.

Figure: Flowchart Representing the Change Management Process

Source: (Cameron and Green  2015)

2.

The major external forces of change include globalization, technological change, workforce diversity and the management of the ethical behavior. However, the external environment comprises of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal.

The external environment influences the change strategies in the following manner:

• Political factors influence the regulations and the regulations shape the business environment.
• Economic factors influence the business revenue. In other words , keeping a tab on the economic indicators helps in anticipating changes in business environment
• Social factors helps in determining the profitability of the marketing tactics
• Legal factors influence the business operation after the implementation of change strategies. Some of the legal factors includes, consumer laws, discrimination laws, fraud laws, health and safety laws
• Technological factors helps in defining a competitive edge for the business after the implementation of change strategies
• Environmental factors keep business under scrutiny.

3.

The cost-benefit analysis of the change management process attempts to portray relationship between the cost involved in managing the change related to people side and benefits of using the structured approach for encouraging and  enabling the employees in adopting the change. However, for enhancing cost benefit there are five perspective of benefits put forward for drawing upon a case of change management (Bradley 2016). These include:

Perspective 1: ROI factors of people side since the change management process drives the ROI of the project.

Perspective 2: Cost avoidance since change management acts as cost avoidance tactic

Perspective 3: Risk mitigation since the process of change management acts as a tool for risk mitigation

Perspective 4: Insurance of benefit realization since it is supported by change management

Perspective 5: Change management process enhances the probability of meeting the objectives.

4.

According to Lewin, Change for an organization as well as individual represents a complicated journey involving various stages of transitions before reaching the equilibrium stage (Hayes 2018).

Step 1: It is known as unfreezing that is involved in improving the people willingness towards change by moving from comfort zone to transformed situation.

Step 2: It is the stage of transition or actual implementation of the change. It ensures the acceptance of newer ways of doing the things.

Stage 3: It is the stage equilibrium where people internalize or accept the change as part of life thereby ensuring the establishment of new relationships.

5.

The eight step processes of Kotter are as follows (Pollack and Pollack 2015):

• Creation of sense of urgency.
• Formation of powerful coalition.
• Creation of a vision.
• Communication of the vision.
• Empowerment of others for acting on the vision.
• Planning and creation of short- term wins.
• Consolidation of improvements and ensuring further change.
• Institutionalising the newer approaches.

6.

The strategies and actions for embedding a change are as follows:

1. Creation of a momentum: This involves demonstrating the consequences provided the change is not implemented and the future impacts.
2. 2. Formation of a Powerful Coalition: This involves identification of the influencersand the stakeholders who would undertake the change
3. Creation of a Vision for Change: This involves the determination of values that remain central to change.
4. Communication of the Vision: This involves talking quite often about the change and the vision.
5. Removal of the Obstacles: This involves identification or hiring of the change managers whose core role lies in delivering change.
6. Creation of Short term Wins: Looking for projects where the change can be implemented with requiring the help of the critics.
7. Building on Change: After each win it is necessary to analyse the things that went right and requires improvement.
8. Anchoring the Changes of Culture: This involves talking about the progress of the change process.

7.

Most organizations respond to the changing markets, customer demands and the technical advances for its survival. Employees within an organization prefer the common means of doing the business there leading to the difficulty in implementation of adaptation and change difficult. However, companies can undertake change management by understanding the organizational behavior (Huczynski, Buchanan and Huczynski 2013). It is therefore necessary to discuss the change in open forum thereby allowing the employees in asking questions without any fear.

8.

The potential barriers to change include (Doppelt 2017):

• Fear of the unfamiliar and the unknown
• Unsuccessful leadership
• Broke down communication
• Excessive complexity

Strategies and actions for addressing barriers include:

• By being proactive: This involves the systematic means of addressing the problems
• By getting required approval: Support of department managers and team lead can encourage people in adapting to the change
• By practicing transparency: It is necessary to put forward a clear communication about the present happenings and the further steps forward
• Facilitating the staff changes and the training: Employees can be made to feel more secured by ensuring required training
• Ensuring buffer and flexibility for the Unexpected Events: Keeping a buffer space thereby allowing others in making mistakes and doing things in a different manner.

9.

The components of a change management plan include:

• Readiness to the Assessments.
• Communicationand  Planning
• Sponsoring Activities and Roadmaps.
• Changing the Management Training Activities for Managers.
• Development of Training and its Delivery.
• Considering Resistance Management.
• Feedback  of Employees and the Corrective Action

10.

Stakeholders are the individuals and the groups who influence the success of the change plans. It is often the skill of communication, consultation and the involvement of the people that helps in determining the success of the change initiative (Hornstein 2015). Stakeholders make use of the engagement strategies that includes plans for driving the organizational change.

The ways of minimizing the risk of a change project involves:

• Identification of the risk at the initial stages of the project
• Undertaking communication about the risk
• Considering the opportunities and threats for risk assessment
• Prioritization of risk
• Understanding the reason and impact of risk
• Developing responses to risk
• Development of contingency plan for every risk’
• Recording and registering the project risk
• Tracking the risk along with the associated task.

11.

There are two methods of communicating with the stakeholder group. This includes the formal method and the informal method (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). The formal method includes the meetings, newsletters, emails, posters and conference while the informal method includes lunch meetings, meetings at the sports events and meetings via the voice mail.

References:

Bradley, G., 2016. Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits through change. Routledge.

Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers

Della Torre, E. and Solari, L., 2013. High-performance work systems and the change management process in medium-sized firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(13), pp.2583-2607.

Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.

Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.

Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D.A. and Huczynski, A.A., 2013. Organizational behaviour (p. 82). London: Pearson.

Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), pp.183-202.

Pollack, J. and Pollack, R., 2015. Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an organisational change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(1), pp.51-66.