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8/3/2019 Change Management asignment by arslan tariq

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Introduction:

This case study is about managing change for the business in order toremain sustainable in the market. Although bringing change in theorganization is costly but in long run it is profitable and returns back the

investment. Owner of the organizations wants its business flourishing andwants to adopt new skills and technology in their organization. This casestudy is about bringing change in the organization and how they faceresistance and overcome resistance to change.

Background of the case:

ResearchnNet is a small family owned business and is responsive tochanges in the external market. As this is the era of knowledge thetechnology is changing on fast pace. If the organization is unable to adoptnew technology at the workplace then it will be behind the race of

business competitiveness and even in long run it will become difficult tosustain the business with old and traditional technology thats why theManaging Director wants its business sustainable and have assigned dutyto respond to external environment and introduce and implement changein technology and skill whatever is emerging and present in the market.

Literature Review according to case situation:

Change is inevitable phenomenon for those who are running orowning the business and in that process they also sufferresistance to change. Kurt Lewin introduced the three step modelof change

Source: Smith, M. K. (2001). Kurt Lewin: Groups, experiential learningand action research. [WWW document]. URL:http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm [2004, September 9]

He stated A successful change therefore include three aspects;unfreezing; moving to the new level and refreezing, group life on thenew level the unfreezing will need a catharsis. It is to break open the shellof complacency and self-righteousness and sometime necessary to bringabout deliberately emotional stir up.


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Change is a learning process for the organization management andemployees and it is a response to internal and external environment.

Todnem (2005) suggests that Lewin approach is more focused on changereadiness and facilitating for change than for providing specific pre-

planned steps for each change project and initiative.

Kanter et al. 10 Commandments for Executing Change (1992) that Analyse the organisation and itsneed to change, Create a vision andcommon direction, Separate from the past, Create a sense of urgency,Support a strong leader role, Line up political sponsorship, Craft animplementation plan, Develop enabling structures, Communicate,involved people and be honest, Reinforce and institutionalise change

Kotters Eight-Stage Process for Successful Organisational Transformation

(1996) that Developing a vision and strategy, Establishing a sense ofurgency, Creating a guiding coalition, Empowering broad-basedAction, Communicating the change vision, Anchoring new approaches inthe culture, Generating short-term wins, Consolidating gains andproducing more change.

Lueckes Seven Steps (2003) ) that Mobilise energy and commitmentthrough joint identification of business problems and their solutions,Develop a shared vision of how to organise and manage forcompetitiveness, Identify the leadership, Institutionalise success through

formal policies, systems, and structures, Focus on results not onactivities, Start change at the periphery, then let it spread to other unitswithout pushing it from the top, Monitor and adjust strategies in responseto problems in the change process.Resistant to change is natural and people resist change due to differentpsychological, financial and physiological change.Powell & Posner, 1978; Recardo, 1995; Yukl, 2006 Resistance to changemajor driving forces are These include the following reasons forresistance to change are

Fear of the unknown

Fear of personal failure

Fear of being seen as incompetent

Fear of losing control

Threat to values and ideals

Threat of change to status

These fear and threat encompasses many of the unjustified reasons to

resist change.


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Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) proposed a more emergent view totackling employee resistance, stating that the circumstances of thechange and the content of the change itself will vary largely betweenorganisations and that this should determine the appropriate response.They outline a number of approaches from education, participation,

facilitation, negotiation to coercion, describing who and when to use themto reduce resistance, and details the advantages and drawbacks of each.

Analysis and application of change Management tools:

Managing change is critical in any organization. There are different toolsand techniques available for the managing change but here we will useKurt Lewin Force Field analysis model for managing change in theorganization. Kurt Lewin model is based upon experiments and learningwithin the groups and also it is based upon the research. This model is

change management tool which can help the organization to understandthe importance of change and also can help in reducing the resistance byaddressing the issue which are creating impediments in change. Thesemodels evaluate all the forces which can have effect on changemanagement. Kurt Lewin said that there are two major forces which canbe categorized as driving forces and other as restraining forces. Drivingforces are all the positive and productive forces which can help inpromotion and implementation of change management. These forces canbe external or internal. External forces might be the new technology atwork place, or new skills and expertise to run the business. The external

forces can be changing trends in the market, change in customer life styleand intense competition in the market. Change can help to managedifferentiation in the organization processes and operations. It can bringefficiency in the organization. The other forces which are restrainingforces can create hindrances and resistance in managing change. Theseforces are negative. The resistance to change are due to many fear andthreats. Like people in the organization do not have capacity to apply newtechniques, they do not have experience and qualification. They are in thestate of fear of unknown. They resist due different behavioural,psychological and financial reasons. Resistance can also be faced if propertraining is not arranged and incentives by the management are missing. Ifthe tow forces are in Equilibrium state it means no change isimplementing the organization and the negative force in the organizationcan be overcome through proper trainings and development and also withthe help of motivating staff through incentives and recognition. If themovement is towards the positive force it means change is beingimplemented in the organization with minimum resistance.

Q: 1 How to implement changes that will be agreed by staff?

As MD has assigned this duty to Marketing Manager to scan the externalmarket and whatever factors can influence the organization should be


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introduced in the organization so that it can sustain its business in thefuture. Marketing Manager has tried its best to implement change bywriting it on notice board but whenever he tried to introduce somethingnew he faced resistance from the employee. So, marketing manager hiredthe services of changed consultant to implement the changes with

minimal resistance. Change consultant decided to conduct series ofmeetings with staff and listen their grievances about change. Ifcommunication during change process remains continuous with staff ithelps to reduce resistance and increases trust upon the management. Ifnew technology is being introduced and the needs professional trainingsfor that it is responsibility of the management to provide them customizedtraining and development program so that they can cope with the changeprocess. Change process should be proper planned and it should havelevel so that the employee knows how much level they have achieved.Once the change is planned, it is the management work to provide policy

about change to the staff and share due information with them so thattheir psychological fear and threat should not only be reduced but alsothey feel themselves the part of the system and motivated to bringchanges in their organization. Change is not a one-time process it slowlyhappens and it changes the mind set and behaviour of the employees.When discussed with staff they required that changes should beimplemented in following ways.

Changes should be planned and it should not be abrupt

Changes should be introduced in steps and levels

Proper arrangement of trainings and development should beprovided

Ample time should be given to staff to get familiar with newprocess

Information flow should be frequent and honest

Rewards and incentives should be given to motivated staff

Proper feedback and evaluation system should be introducedfor measuring the success of change and performance

Q: 2 What method or methodology of change management would

be most suitable to use in this case situation - giving fullacknowledgement of the theory behind this method/ology;

In this case Force Field Analysis by Kurt Lewin is the most appropriatemethodology to implement change in this organization. There are twoforces as he said following figure shows about external and internalforces for change and restraining forces for change the


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If the forces are in equilibrium then there is no change but if forces forchange are more powerful as compared to restraining forces then it ispositive change.

External Driving Forces:

Changes in technology

Changing demands in the market

Changing Life style of the customer

Competition in the market

Economic and Social conditions of the market

Political and legal condition of the country

Availability of substitute products

Threats of new entrants

Changing consumer requirements

Internal Driving Forces:

Internal driving forces which compel the organization to change can be

Decreasing market share

Low rate of return on investment

High production cost


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Fear of losing market position

Forces resisting change:

Forces which can resist change might be following

Availability of scarce resources

Poor Skills to implement change

Fear and threat of failure

Rigid response to change the behaviour and attitude

Resistance to change the culture of the organization

Force field analysis is a theory which is widely used by change

management consultants and other practitioners who are brining changeand development in their organization. The force field analysis can beimplemented in the organization by different ways. The following strategicplanning and implementation process is helpful and can act as a guidelinefor the ResearchNet organization to implement change in accordance withexternal and internal forces. It is important to identify the external forcesand internal forces which is compelling organization to adopt new changes

Force field analysis is more productive and effective whenintroduced in teams and groups as compared to individuallevel. Because when it is introduced in team and groups the

discussions and meetings can solve many issues andproblems and the efforts of group can produce synergy in theimplementation of change in the organization. If it isintroduced at individual level the differences amongemployees can disturb the whole process and it will not haveany positive result in the end.

Change should not be perceived as fear and threat rather if itis perceived productive and positive in order to enhance theskills and capacity of the employee it can bring good results.

Change will only be consider positive and helpful for theorganization only when the employee feels they will getbenefit from it and all due information is shared with them. Ifevery individual is interpreting change by itself he or she willassume it in different way.

It is human psychology that he wants to remain in the state ofinertia whenever the equilibrium is disturbed he showsresistance but if they are also involved in the process ofchange and their point of view is listened and answeredproperly then the management will face minimum resistance

from the staff.


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Rate of change and resistance are directly related if the scaleof change is large the resistance management will face willalso be larger. So the change should be introduced in chunksand slowly so that the employees can mould their behaviourand attitude accordingly and obviously it is going to change

the culture of the organization too.

If the change is urgent then pressure should be built by themanagement to introduce and implement change.

When all the people are working in the group and some areworking for change and some are working against the changethen with passage of time resistance from the against groupwill reduce and they will start cooperation for the benefit ofthe organization as a whole

Coercion can also be used if someone is resisting without anyreason so that the organization can work in effective way.Some people only work when they are threatened by themanagement.

Q: 3 Provide a plan for the marketing manager to implement thechanges required over the next year, detailing all activities andjustifying why each will be required.

The marketing Manager is required to implement the changes required fornext year in following ways.

By providing training and development to the staff. Educatingthe staff can reduce the resistance and can enhance thegrowth of change in the organization.

Facilitate the staff in order they can implement changes incomfortable and friendly environment

Encourage participation from the employees so that they canperform better and have sense of respect and ownership inchange process

If some resistance is felt the manager should negotiate withthem

Progress of change should also be shared with the staff sothat they can feel themselves motivated

Information of flow should be continuous and honest so thateveryone have same information and same interpretationabout change


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Frequent meetings should be conducted on departmental levelin order to encourage staff for participation and feedback

Proper evaluation mechanism should be implemented in orderto check the progress of change and response

Cost of change should be calculated and also rate of returnafter the investment should be calculated in order to takeadvantage of limited resources

Recommendation:

Following are the recommendation for ResearchNet in the future in order

to embrace change.

Continuous scanning of the external environment

Response to external environment should be quick andproductive

Organization culture should be open and learning environmentshould be provided to the staff

Continuous assessment and evaluation of change can help to

mitigate issues and problems on the spot

Rewards, incentive and recognition system can help inboosting the motivation of employee to bring and implementchange whenever required

Conclusion:

Change is the phenomenon which cannot be denied by anyone it notonly provide future opportunities and adds value in the processesand operations of the firm but Change management adds value and

skills in employees experience. He gets the opportunity to learn newskills and techniques and in that process his learning curveincreases and also the organization become learning organization.The leadership of ResearchNet is visionary and they want to remaincompetitive in the market thats why they are showing proactiveresponse to external and internal changes so that they can not onlymaintain their market share but can also be technology andenvironment friendly organization in the future.


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References:

Smith, M. K. (2001). Kurt Lewin: Groups, experiential learning and actionresearch. [WWW document]. URL: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm [2004, September 9]

Kanter, R.M., Stein, B. A. and Jick, T.D (1992) p 32-39 The Challenge ofOrganizational Change ( NewYork: The Free Press)

Kotter, J.P. (1996) Leading Change (Boston, MA: Harvard Business SchoolPress) p:59-72

Powell, G., & Posner, B. Z. (1978). Resistance to change reconsidered:Implications for managers. Human Resource Management, 17(1), 29-34.Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=bth&AN=12569903&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Kotter and Schein, E. H., & NetLibrary, I. (1979). Organizational cultureand leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved fromhttp://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=114561

Kotter, J.P. and Schlesinger, L. A (1979) Choosing strategies for change,Harvard Business Review, 57, 2, pp. 106114

Todnem, R. (2005) Organisational Change Management: A Critical

Review, Journal ofChange Management, 5, 4, pp.369 380

Lewin, K. (1951) Field theory in social science; selected theoreticalpapers. D. Cartwright (ed.). New York: Harper & Row.pp. 231-239

Thompson, J. R. and Sanders, R. P. (1997) Strategies for reinventingFederal agencies:Gardening vs. Engineering, Public Productivity and Management Review,21, 2, pp. 137 -55 Todnem, R

Luecke, R. (2003) Managing Change and Transition (Boston, MA: HarvardBusiness SchoolPress)
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