Internal resisting forces would be –
Employees- All the employees of XXX SCHOOL including teachers, security department, food department etc have to come to work one more day. They will surely resist the change because of the extra workload. They will get higher salary but against the extra work they will ignore the benefit.
Customers – Parents and students will surely oppose the change. Students will not tolerate because anyways they prefer not to go to school and will lose 1 day of enjoyment. Moreover the parents also will not like to send their children to school on Saturday to study more.
External resisting forces would be –
Media – Considering it as an opportunity, the media will try their best to exploit the information of the policy. They might cause a loss of reputation by communicating this policy worldwide. It will also affect the whole XXX group because XXX SCHOOL is a small part of it.
Trade unions- Trade unions are special interest groups who work for the workers. 6 days a week is very much extra work especially for the teachers because now they will get only Sunday to rest and work on their student’s home work etc. Hence trade unions would look into the matter and try to discourage the change as the benefit for workers would be just higher salary.
Driving forces for the change are –
Higher reputation chances because of better scores- This advantage will be a driving force because with more reputation, there would be more profits and larger customer base.
Satisfaction to the customers- The people living in XXX estates around the school will be satisfied with the place because of good grades and won’t think about moving somewhere else.
Resisting forces for the change are –
Negative publicity and loss of reputation in the minds of people who are against it and who believe it to be an unnecessary burden on students.
Loss of motivation of the staff – from now on, the staff would need to work 6 days a week which is mostly unacceptable. Hence they will be demotivated to work even in the normal days.
LEWIN’S FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS –
Driving forces Restraining forces
Better scores - 2 negative reputation - 4
customers satisfied by scores - 3 staff demotivation - 3
total – 5 total - 7
Limitations to the model –
The future impacts of the change are not considered.
The ratings given for each force is not based on true facts and evidences.
As we can see the restraining forces are stronger than the driving forces. Out of the restraining forces, negative reputation has the highest impact. Therefore XXX SCHOOL must focus on its reputation saving the most. Staff demotivation is also bad but providing staff with more salaries/ holidays/extra employee benefits or with fewer burdens over weekend would surely motivate them. Moreover to save its image, XXX SCHOOL should not go against the parent preferences. Therefore, holding half-days on some Saturdays or providing extra privileges on Saturday like extra sports periods, would not only encourage the parents but also the students. They will look forward for a Saturday.
Change phase model-
According to change phase model by Professor J.P Kotter, the main reasons why this change would fail are –
Allow too much complexity.
Fail to win support from staff.
Fail to communicate a vision to stakeholders.
Ignore corporate culture when implementing change.
Therefore to win over these problems, the school must not ignore the staff and include them in the change process. Taking their views and understanding their problems would help them a lot. Stakeholders other than employees would include students and parents. As said earlier many motivational strategies should be employed so that they are not discouraged from school. Moreover, cultures must be taken into consideration. Due to the huge diversity in school, staff and students have varied rituals. The board must seek advice on this topic and after that only, forward the change. The staff and students must not be forced to attend school and abandon their rituals. These will create serious reputation and motivational problems for the business.
Storey’s change model-
Total imposed package- In this approach, all the information about the changed is revealed in one go without any negotiations or deals. The advantage is that everything is communicated properly and the change takes place very quickly. However resistances are not taken care of. In this approach, the change is forced upon everyone.
Imposed piecemeal initiative – Less extreme than the imposed package, this approach is done very slowly and gradually. The employees get more time to adapt to the change. In this method, financial and non-financial incentives are used to motivate people.
Negotiated total packages- Similar to total imposed package, this approach is very quick but involves negotiations and deals with the staff.
Negotiated piecemeal initiative – Similar to imposed piecemeal initiative, this approach happens gradually and also involves negotiations and deals. This is the slowest of all the approaches.
In the change taking place in XXX SCHOOL, the major stakeholders to be considered are students and staff. Following the first and the third approach is not a good idea because then there will be resistances related to motivation and boredom. Going ahead with the 2nd method is the best idea because it gives time for the students and staff to adapt to the extra working day. The 4th method is also good but it is very slow and also requires lots of unneeded financial negotiations. Therefore, to change in a gradual manner according to imposed piecemeal initiative, XXX SCHOOL must first hold few half-days and then move on to full working hours. This ensures the adapting time required. Moreover, incentives such as higher salaries or fringe benefits can also be employed.
In the end, we can see that the change, XXX SCHOOL wishes to bring about can be very helpful. The only barrier existing is the resistances, it will face. However with proper precautions these barriers can be easily overcome. There must be a gradual change so that the staff and students can get adapted easily. Holding half day in the start and then continuing to full length school would serve the purpose. Moreover fringe benefits for the staff must be ensured. These include extra employee benefits and also higher salary. Most teachers and students would complain that because of the loss of Saturday, now they would have huge burden on Sunday. Therefore, they must be rewarded less homework or work load. These incentives would encourage them to work harder. Furthermore, most of the Saturday’s must be reserved for activities other than academics. This would not only ensure development in other areas but also motivate students to attend school. Also all round development being an aim of the school, this will be very effective. To conclude, such a big change should not be forced upon the students and staff. Instead, the use of motivational strategies would also make them look forward to Saturday schools.