Leading Organizational Change - Assignment Example

Leading Organizational Change Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Leading organizational change is an important aspect of managing the change process in an organization. This analysis will focus on leading organizational change successfully. Question 1: Relationship between change readiness and change agents Leading organizational change is complex and should be managed with care. There is a relationship between change readiness and organizational change agents. In the first place, change diagnostic process needs to be done carefully by the change agents. It is important to identify the change agents in this case. The change agents include the top management, the employees, the suppliers and the customers as well as the shareholders (James et al 2013). Change readiness is achieved by ensuring that there is effective organizational diagnostic. Organizational diagnostic is the process that analyses the situation of the issue that needs to be changed and then developing the most appropriate intervention techniques. For instance in the engineering and medicine department, the diagnostic process starts by identifying the conditions of the diseases or condition manifested by the patient (Hayes 2014). In this regard, there is a relationship between the change readiness and agents of change since the agents of change have the responsibility of conducting the diagnostic process. The main components of the diagnostic process in the medicine include symptoms, cause and intervention as indicated in the figure below; (McFillen et al 2013) The role of diagnostic process is to ensure that the change agents are aware of the change that is to take place in the organization so that they can be committed to implement the change as they are part of the change. Therefore, there is formal relationship between change readiness and change agents (Czarniawska 2004). On the other hand, change readiness has also a formal relationship with the change agents. Change readiness is associated with the readiness of the individuals like the employees to embrace the change in the organization. This implies that the individual readiness like the beliefs and attitudes are the key indicators of readiness for change (Alannah et al 2013). Developing a common culture of implementing change can help to accommodate the individual intervention regarding the change. For example, the employees should be included in decisions making so that they can be part of the decisions and they will be committed to implement the change. Furthermore, the individual change agents like the employees need to need to belief that the change is needed in the organization and this will indicate readiness for change hence positive working relationship. The components of change like love and delegation of authority should be embraced to ensure readiness for change. In addition, there should be group readiness for change. For instance, there will be teams that should work together towards achieving the organizational change. In this context, there is a relationship between change readiness and change agents (Llandis & Bahn 2013). For example, there should be teams in the organization so that they can have common interest in implementing change. The evidence of the relationship between change readiness is the merger between the transport and planning departments. The human resource manager as the key change agent had the responsibility of identifying the culture as indicated by the two departments so that the merger of the departments will develop flexible culture and that is vibrant to the public demands. In implementing the change, cultural change is the key concept that influences the success of implementing change (Hayes 2014). The human resource manager ensures that the employees and other stakeholders are aware of the change to be implemented and they are part of the change. In this way, the human resource manager will have helped to change the culture in the organization to ensure that the stakeholders are ready to accept the new policies. In this effect, the human resource manager plays key role as a change agent by recognizing that change is difficult and appropriate measures have to be taken. The human resource manager helps to promote change readiness by ensuring effective dialogue with stakeholders (McFillen et al 2013). In this regard, there is a big relationship between change readiness and change agents. For example in this case, the human resource manager engaged the stakeholders like the employees and the public in understanding the need to change culture which was set by the individual departments before the merger indicating a relationship between the change readiness and change agents. Question 2: The table below indicates the elements that can be used to analyze the effectiveness of implementing change at BTS. Element High Medium Low Employee engagement X Effective delegation of authority X Employee motivation X Employee participation X Cultural integration X Effective communication X From the case study, there are various reasons that can be argued besides placing the X where it is. N the first instance, the employee engagement was not fully taken into account when Tommy was making the decision of automating the functions in the organization (Rafferty et al 2013). For instance, Tommy did consider the views of the board members before the decisions of exploiting the business opportunity identified. This led to the mayhem in the management ranks and this led to lack of implementing the change successfully. In addition, effective delegation of authority is a medium issue in managing change implementation. In the case study, it is not clear how delegation of authority affected the change implementation process. However, Tommy did not delegate the duties effectively and he was making decisions and was making most of the decisions with Khadija (Barratt-Pugh et al 2013). In this regard, the delegation of authority does not affect the change management process greatly. Employee motivation is another important function that influences the implementation of change management process. In this case study, the employees were not motivated since the new management threatened their jobs by automating the services without considering their expectations. However, the culture of the organization has been based on the employee approach (Klein 2012). Initially the employees were motivated because of the employee approach strategy that was applied by the founders of the company. Furthermore, employee participation is high impact when implementing change in an organization. This means that the employees should participate in decisions making. Tommy and Khadija did not ensure employee participation so that their expectations can also be included in the change management process. Tommy did not even listen to the advice of the senior management board and this led to the mayhem in the ranks of the organization (Briody et al 2012). In this context, the employee participation is ranked high in influencing the change management process. Cultural integration on the other hand is considered to have high impact on change management process. The culture has been emphasizing on employee participation and motivation. However, with the new management, the focus is on improving the productivity of the garments by automating the manufacturing process. This implies that there is cultural shock and this did not go well with the employees thus they resisted the changes implemented in the organization (Waddell et al 2011). This is why the cultural diversity is ranked among the highest factors that influence implementation of change. Question 3: Open systems theory An open system theory is a theory that suggests that any organization has a relationship that is dynamic to the environment and a series of inputs which are processed to produce outputs. From this table, it can be indicated that an open system has been applied by BTS to manage its operations as well as change management. In the first place, the first input for the organization is the cotton. BTS uses the cotton to manufacture quality cotton garments to meet the needs and expectations of the customers. The feedback of the customers is important in understanding the needs and expectations of the customers (Murray 2006). The other input according to the open systems theory is the wool. This is another component of the raw materials that is used by TBS to manufacture the quality products of the company. The materials are raised from the local suppliers as well as the international suppliers. Finally, the human skills are also used to transform the raw materials into finished products. There could be no processes if there are no human skills that help to run the processes. On the other hand, the processes help to adapt the inputs to become the finished products. The first process includes using the human skills to transform the inputs into finished products. This means that the inputs like the cotton and wool are transformed into products. The other process is the packaging of the products. The products are packaged so that they can be transported easily to the customers. Furthermore, team building is another important concept that helps to motivate the staff so that they can offer their best skills to improve the output (Lewis 2000). For instance, the employees should undergo training and development so as to develop their professional skills leading to improved output. Finally, the management information system is another process that helps to transform the inputs into finished products. Through management information system, it is possible to share the customer feedback and improve communication among the different departments. Finally, the output includes the cotton and wool garments. Once the inputs have undergone the processes, the end products are the cotton and wool garments. This is the aim of the organization. In addition, through employee training and development, they will be motivated leading to improved performance (Liu & Perrewe 2005). Therefore, BTS can expect high performance if the processes are managed effectively. Question 4: Kotter’s Integrative Model According to Kotter’s integrating model, there are various processes at the center of the organization that help to promote structural elements on the outside of the organization. In the first place, the information gathering process is important in supporting the management of BTS to ensure that the stakeholders especially the employees are well equipped with information regarding change management (Van de Ven & Huber 1990). Furthermore, communication process is important as it helps to support the formal organizational arrangements. BTS has formal communication structure whereby the top-down communication strategy is applied. The board members make strategic decisions which are then communicated to the stakeholders like the employees and the customers. The employee participation in decisions making helps to improve employee motivation (Czarniawska 2004). This is because they are included in decision making thus they can be committed to implemented the change or decisions which are made in the organization. Moreover, the matter energy conversion can also help to ensure that the wider environment is preserved. BTS has been on the fore front to in manufacturing products which are recyclable to ensure that the environment has been preserved (Fronda & Moriceau 2008). The impact is that the organization is well reputed and in the process has managed to attract and retain its market share both in Indonesia and outside. This can be indicated in the model below. (Hayes 2014) Based on the case study, the first strategy that is most effective at the short term is that the leaders should respond effectively to the feedback from the customers to make improved decisions. For instance in this case, Tommy should compare the international global market opportunities as well as the effects of transiting from traditional manufacturing process to automating the manufacturing process (Parkin 2004). This will help to improve the quality of decisions made. Other short term strategy is to automating some functions not all the functions at once. On the other hand, the BTS should be able to maintain its structural elements like communication and employee motivation and align the elements with the organizational processes. In addition, employee training and development s another strategy that can help to improve the achievement of the long term functions. Finally, at the long term, the elements like systems and structure as well as culture should be taken diagnosed. The board can change the structure of the organization at the long run to meet the expectations of the stakeholders (Silverman 2006). These elements help to ensure that the change in the organization is implemented successfully. In this context, the issues affecting BTS will have not been experienced if the change management process had followed the Kotter’s integrative model. Question 5: Lessons leant from Norwegian Civil Aviation Industry The first learning that can be leant from the case study by BTS is that culture management is important in implementing the change. From this case study, it is evident that when managing change it is important to consider the culture of the stakeholders. At first, the project was initiated and took off effectively. This is because the stakeholders were involved. Failing to consider the culture of the stakeholders will lead to conflicts. In this context, there should be organizational culture that accommodates the subcultures of the workforce so that they can work together as a team towards implementing the change (Steuer & Wood 2008). This means that the management should embrace the culture of change in the organization and also employee participation. In this case, the management did not consider the culture of the people and this leads to conflicts since the employees were not consulted especially when downsizing the workforce. The expectations of the employees were not met and this led to conflicts since downsizing the workforce met the staff unaware leading to failure in change management. The other lesson that lesson that the board of BTS can learn from the failures is that stakeholder participation is important when implementing change in an organization. This is because engaging the employees in strategic planning for helps them to understand what the change aims to achieve and if their expectations can be met (Barratt-Pugh et al 2013). This is because engaging the employees will enable them to give their expectations and hence the change will not be a shock to the employees. In this effect, the management of BTS should ensure that the employees participate in strategic planning process for the change so that they cannot perceive the change as a shock. Furthermore, the board of BTS should learn that building trust in the management will reduce the resistance to change. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure that the employees trust the management by implementing the strategic plans as discussed. It should be the culture of the organization to develop long term history of implementing the strategic plans based on the expectations of the organization and that of the employees (Eric 2011). In this effect, the management should be able to build trust among the employees. The employee resistance led to ineffective implementation of the change and this should be understood by the board of BTS. The first parallel that exists between Avon and BTS is that the board of BTS had the culture of focusing on the needs and expectations of the employees. On the contrary, the culture of Avon was based on organizational performance. This means that the organizations have different approaches to management since BTS applied the employee based approach while Avon applied the market oriented approach (James et al 2013). The other parallel between BTS and Avon is that the approach that was used to approach change by BTS is market based while the change approach that is applied by von was performance based approach. In this context, the organizations have parallel in terms of the approaches to management which are applied. Conclusion Leading organizational change is a complex process that should be handled carefully in order to succeed in implementing the change. There is a relationship between the change readiness and change agents. The change agents include the management, employees, customers and other stakeholders. In order to manage the change effectively, there should be individual readiness as well as whole organization in order to ensure participation of all the stakeholders. Factors to consider in implementing the change include cultural diversity, employee participation as well as effective communication. In addition, Kotter’s integrative model can also be used to implement change successfully by identifying barriers and strategies to manage them. References Alannah E. R., Nerina L. Jimmieson & Achilles A. A 2013, Change Readiness: A Multilevel Review, Journal of Management, Vol. 39 No. 1, PP. 110-135. Barratt-Pugh, L. Bahn, S & Gakere, E 2013, Managers as change agents: Implications for human resource managers engaging with culture change. Journal of Organizational Change, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 748-764. Briody, E. Pester, T.M & Trotter, R 2012, A story’s impact on organizational-culture change. Journal of Organizational Change, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 67-87. 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