Models of Organizational Change and Strategy for Change in Telstra - Case Study Example

Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Change Management Report Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Table of Contents Organizational change management 2 Introduction 2 Barriers to organizational change 3 Theories of organizational change management. 5 Models of organizational change 7 Proposals for change in Telstra 9 Strategy for change in Telstra 10 Challenges that the executive officer could have face 11 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 13 Organizational change management Introduction Organizational change is a change that takes place in an organization and may have significant impacts on the organizational staff performs their duties. This occurs when there is a difference between how the staff is performing and what they should be doing for the success of the organization. Organizational change management is a designed method of changing organizations and their staff from their current state to the state is desired for success of the organization. Organizational change management aims at enabling the staff to take up and embrace changes that are implemented in the organization. Organizational change takes place in different dimensions. It can occur when the organization changes its entire operational strategy for its success; an organization can eliminate or add some sections into its structure and also can change the overall nature of its operations. For organizations to succeed, they must pass through various important changes in their developments. Organizational managers must therefore make efforts to ensure that there is significant change in their organizations since it is their role in ensuring organization’s success (Stone 2005). Barriers to organizational change Initiatives by the organizational managers may sometimes fail to succeed in the organization. This may be due to barriers posed by the structure and procedures of the organization or the staff themselves. Some of the barriers to organizational change include inadequate planning, failure to consult and inadequate training. Inadequate planning comes in where the managers issue commands calling for change without prior training and information to the affected staff. Unlike machines, human beings have psychological needs that may hinder them from responding immediately to commands. Issuing new commands that are aimed at restructuring the organization may not be well embraced unless training is done to the employees to convince them to take up the new direction. The company should take consideration of the attitudes and their fears towards the restructuring process. When those doing the planning are very focused on their objective, they may fail to consider the fact that the planned changes may affect several other people in the organization. When the opinions of the employees are not considered, this will result in deep anger and may hinder the success of the anticipated change (Dent & Goldberg 2009). Another barrier to organizational change is failure to adequately consult those who will get affected by the changes. A notion that an organization can just be changed abruptly may create anger and resistance to the planned change. For a change to be properly embraced, the relevant members should ne fully informed and their opinions on the planned changes considered. Those who are required to participate in the process should be consulted and also the experts in a certain field that will be effected. For example in the Kate Lahey article about the Telstra company, the plan of restructuring the organization that will involve appointment of two chief operating offices is reaching the other employees as rumours. This has resulted into resignation of one of the executives, an indication that they were not consulted when the plans were being laid. Consulting will help in eliminating blame in case the plan does not succeed. The other barrier to organizational change is inadequate training. With the changes that are taking place in technology, operations are increasingly becoming sophisticated. Since changes must be implemented in accordance with the direction that technology is taking, it is important to keep training the employees for them to remain updated. New applications require new training for the employees to fully absorb the applications. Failure to train the staff can disrupt the whole process. The managers should also be training on how to carry out the change process for them to be able to guide the other teams. Failure to this can be a great barrier to organizational change (Eason 2008). Theories of organizational change management. According to contingency theory of organizational management, the ability of a manager to guide his employees depends on several factors such as his preferred style, his abilities, behaviour of his employees and the prevailing situations. There are other theories of organizational change management that can apply in the case of Telstra. Some of the best theories include systems theory, organizational development theory, complexity theory and social world’s theory. According to the systems theory, the interrelatedness of the various parts of an organization must be considered before effecting any change. Making improvements in one are requires that its relationships with other areas be considered. It is important to consider aspects of the organization such as technology, financial and human resources, and its tasks. This is because change can happen by altering one of these aspects. Concerning technology, it is evident in the case of Telstra that the customers are changing from using the fixed line copper networks into using the wireless broadband with aid of their mobile phones. To effect change in such organization, the managing director could focus on altering the aspect of technology (Peter 2002). Organizational development theory is a distinct event of intended change in an organization by considering the concept of behavioural sciences. This therefore lays emphasis on human processes in changing an organization. This theory states that successful organizational change must be based on an agreement between the individuals and the goals of the organization. Team working is important for effective improvement in an organization. In the case of Telstra, the chief executive wants to have two chief operating officers reporting to him so that he can have more freedom to focus on federal government’s national broadband network. The executive officer is not considering the importance of teamwork in his plans. He is therefore not involving other officers in the national broadband network. Complexity theory studies organizations that are characterized by non-linear dynamics. According to this theory, practices are complex adaptive systems that are made up of local agents whose interactions result to continually coming up novel behaviour. Organizational change therefore results due to interactions between the local agents and the complex organization, and between the complex organization and its environment. This theory suggests that before people plan on how to change the organization, it is important they first understand it. This is indicates the importance of always reviewing the structures of an organization so that the employees can have an understanding of what can work better and what needs improvements (Rhydderch, Elwyn, Marshall,& Grol 2005). Social world’s theory suggests that changes occur as a result of negotiation between various social worlds. The theory puts emphasis on the importance of who is making use of the indicators for change and for what purpose. Practices that are taken should aim at improving the quality of work and tat h same time meeting quality standards. With Telstra, the planned change should raise the performance of the company and at the same time comply with the federal government’s expectations of national broadband network. Models of organizational change There are several models of effecting change in an organization. Many managers of organization feels that they need to cause change to happen but they do not know of how to go about it. If Mr. Thodey would have followed the right steps in changing the structure of Telstra, resignation of some officers could have not resulted. The commonly used model of change is the Kotter’s 8-step model. The first step in this model is to create urgency for change. This is because for a change to take place, the whole organization must recognize the need for it. The need should be state as a matter of urgency and every person should be able to feel the urgent need for the change. Some of the things that a manager can do to build urgency on the matter include stating potential threats and things that may happen if the change is not effected (Weick & Quinn 2007). The second step is to create a strong coalition by convincing others on the importance of the change. This coalition must comprise of the key people in the organization who may offer strong support for the idea. The manager can identify strong people within the organization who may not be within the hierarchy but have power to convince the others. To achieve change, the leader must join together a team of influential people who may have powerful job titles or status. These may help in supporting the change process once they function as a team. The third step is to create a vision for change among the people affected by change. Having a clearly stated vision concerning the planned change can help other people to understand the reasons for the intended change. When they fully understand what the plans are intending to achieve, they may take this more positively since they may also understand why they are being asked to act in a certain way. The fourth step is to communicate the vision to the members of the organization. This means informing people of what will happen after the change has taken place. It is important to talk about the vision in every given chance. The vision should be used in making decisions and solving problems. This will help the members to know how the change will help them in future (Bridges 2001). The fifth step is to remove obstacles that may arise during the change process. These include people who may be resisting to the change and any other barriers. It is important to have in place the required structures that will enable a smooth flow of the process. Removing the obstacles may help the concerned people and may help in pushing the change forward. The manager can also hire people who are experts in delivering the desired change. The sixth step is to create short-term wins. This means giving the members hopes of succeeding. It is important to make the members feel the taste of success early before the plan of change is due. This can be achieved by having short term goals that can be met when the plan of change is still in its early stages. The seventh step is to build on the change this means that the manager should not declare victory when it is too early before the plan matures. Victory should be declared when the plan has gone to higher heights. Building on the change involves investing the required resources for the success of the change plan. It is important to keep making more improvements on the plan to ensure that it will get completed in the long run. The last step in the Kotters plan is anchor the changes into the organization’s culture. This means ensuring that the plans are well established in the activities of the organization. Efforts should be continuously made to ensure that the change is reflected into every aspect of the organization. This will make the change o get a permanent place into the culture of the organization. The leaders should also be in the frontline to support the change (Stewart & Furlan 2004). Proposals for change in Telstra The above model by Kotter could be very appropriate when adopted by the chief executive of Telstra. His initiative to restructure the organization, he should have followed the above steps as explained by Kotter. Some of things that Mr. Thodey did not do include forming a strong coalition to help in the change process. His team could have included the other managing directors such as Mr. Milner, Glenice Maclellan and David Moffat. This is the team that could have supported him in implementing the change. But on the contrary, failure to involve them resulted to resignation of some of the officers. Mr. Thodey also failed in stating his vision and communicating it to the members of Telstra. While he was planning for the change, he did not declare his intentions and this was received as a rumour by the employees. His vision would have however enabled the company t deal with issues arising from the national broadband in the next few years. This is the point that he should have communicated to the other members of his company. The chief executive could have eliminated the barriers by informing all members in the company. This is because the barriers that he faced includes resistance to change by some members such as Mr. Milner and this could have not happened if he had involved them in his plans (Hussey 2000). Strategy for change in Telstra An effective leadership team is the one that understands it is human for employees to react to change in either positive or negative way. It is therefore important to apply strategies that will avert resistance from the employees. Some of these strategies include having a clear outline before starting the planned change. Feelings of arises among the staff when they are not informed of the policies and guidelines of the intended changes. The staff needs to be made aware of how their working positions will get affected by the changes. It is this feeling of insecurity that led to resignation of Mr. Milner since the executive officer did not inform the staff early enough. Another strategy is advocacy. This implies giving the members of staff an opportunity to express their opinions regarding the planned change. This means that the members of staff must be informed of the plans and then allowed to give feedback concerning the same. The leader should not be rigid in his plans. He should allow for other people’s opinions and take them into consideration. The other strategy he might consider is to have effective communication. To ensure strength in an organization, information should be well passed form the top to bottom. Mr. Thodey should have taken the initiative of clearly informing his members of staff about his desired change instead of reaching to them as rumours (Van de & Poole 2005). Challenges that the executive officer could have face In trying to restructure the organization, Mr. Thodey could have faced several challenges some of which might have been due to the performance of the company. Most of companies fail to perfume properly due to employees and some other factors. It is obvious that the executive officer could have started by restructuring the senior management team. However, this was not taken positively by the officers some of them who opted to resign from the job. The poor performance of the company therefore continued to be a challenge to changes in the organization. Another challenge was the pressure from the federal government towards national broadband network. He therefore suffered pressures from both within and without the organization. Conclusion Managing an organization change is a very challenging task to many managers. This is due to the human nature of employees where they may tend to resist change. However, there are many factors that the management team needs to observe to limit the likeliness of resistance from the employees. These include observing the theories of managing organizational change, the Kotter’s 8-step model of organizational change management and other strategies in changing the organization. The kotter’s 8step model outlines the steps that should be taken in managing organizational change. These are important in ensuring that the employees embrace the change and that the change is instituted into the culture of the organization. The strategies on the other hand help the employees to feel involved in the change process therefore enhancing their ability to embrace the change. Bibliography Van de, H., Poole, M., 2005, Explaining development and change in organizations, Acad Manage Rev: 25: 510–40. Weick K., Quinn R., 2007, Organizational change and development. Annu Rev Psychol., 50:361–86. Stewart D., & Furlan N., 2004, Managing Workplace Change, Human Resources, vol 28, (61), pp10-11. Dent, E., & Goldberg, S., 2009, Challenging "resistance to change." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 12: 25-41. Rhydderch, M., Elwyn, G., Marshall, M., & Grol, R., 2005, Organisational change theory and the use of indicators in general practice, Journal of Organisational matters, 13:213-217. Peter, E., 2002, Organisational Culture: Organisational Change? Journal of Organizational Change Management; Volume 15 (4); 20-22. Bridges, W., 2001, Managing transitions: making the most of change. Wesley Publishing Company, New York. Stone, R., 2005, Human Resource Management, 5th Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Queensland. Eason, K., 2008, Information technology and organizational change, Taylor & Francis, Boston. Hussey, D., 2000, How to manage organizational change, Kogan Page Publishers, Sheffield. Read More