John Kotter, an expert in leadership and change management, believes that organizational change typically fails because senior management does not follow the following plan:
1. Establish a sense of urgency about the need for change.
2. Create a powerful-enough guiding coalition that is responsible for leading
and managing the change process.
3. Establish a vision that guides the change process.
4. Effectively communicate the new vision.
5. Remove obstacles that impede the accomplishment of the new vision.
6. Systematically plan for and create short-term wins. Short-term wins
represent the achievement of important results or goals.
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.
8. Anchor the changes into the organization’s culture. It takes years for long-term
changes to be embedded within an organization’s culture.
These steps also subsume Lewin’s model of change. The first four steps represent Lewin’s “unfreezing” stage. Steps 5, 6, and 7 represent “changing,” and
step 8 corresponds to “refreezing.” The value of Kotter’s steps is that it provides specific
recommendations about behaviors that managers need to exhibit to successfully
lead organizational change. It is important to remember that Kotter’s research reveals
that it is ineffective to skip steps and that successful organizational change is 70% to
90% leadership and only 10% to 30% management. Senior managers are thus advised
to focus on leading rather than managing change. (Kreitner−Kinicki, 2003)
In the Change Management Questionnaire I was tasked to complete a simulation that would test how well I could comprehend the issues at hand and implement strategic initiatives with the least amount of chaos as possible. I experienced numerous challenges while attempting to implement what I thought to be great action plans. As the Chief Operating Officer I have been tasked to employ various tactics to overcome resistance and lead Synergetic Solutions through this transition period.
Synergetic Solutions Incorporated is a systems integration business whose primary function is to assemble and resell leading computer brands. The company’s current revenues are worth $ 6 million. There are currently 300 employees in the sales and service departments, working in five locations on the East Coast. The Chief Executive Officer has stated that in nine months he wants to see:
- Increase in revenue $6 million to $12 million
- Productivity increased by 4%
- Absenteeism decreased by 2%
Two internal drivers of change for the organization is absenteeism and
Productivity. And one of the external drivers of change for the organization is the skill level. The CEO has set quarterly growth targets that will measure employee involvement such as productivity and absenteeism. Each employee must make a conscience effort to be in place in order for the organization to meet its business goals. Most employee in this trading organization possess only basic computer assembling and troubleshooting skills, while a few higher-skilled individuals operate as team specialists.
Attempting to make such immediate changes can cause resistance. Common forms of resistance are:
- Doing as little as possible
- Slowing down
- Personal withdrawal
- Committing “errors”
- Spoilage
- Deliberate sabotage
Strategies for successful change implementation
- Communication – keep employees informed about the change effort- engaging the functional heads and team leaders has helped to communicate the changes and address employees concerns.
- Involve employees in the decision process Involving employees in the change process
- Training – Quality training with follow up coaching
- Energy, focus and support
- Negotiate some of the benefits to make up for the cost of change - f
- Coercion may be needed when an employees mental state can not transform to the ideal state the organization is driving
(Kreitner−Kinicki, 2003)
The most effective leadership style for the COO within the organizational structure and culture would be transformational. This type of leader would inspire their followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization and who is capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on his followers. By the force of their personal abilities they transform their followers by raising the sense of the importance and value of their tasks. My experience as the COO was a perfecting process.
In this simulation I totally bombed. I was removed from my leadership role and asked to observe and learn from my superior the CEO. I learned that I truly didn’t understand the process of implementing change. In this simulation as the manager making the decisions I did not unfreeze the organization as in Lewins change management theory so I failed on every account. Without ensuring that there was continuous improvement even after the new processes was put in place continued to rattle the employees. I was too focused on the goal and not the people that I needed to achieve those goals.
References
Eckerman, A. C. (1969). A new look at need theory: an extension of Maslow’s hierarchy. Training and Development Journal, 18-22. Retrieved March 28, 2004, from EBSCOhost database.
Kreitner−Kinicki. (2003) Organizational Behavior. Managing Change and
Stress. Sixth Edition. IV. The McGraw−Hill Companies. 19(682)
McShane-Von Glinow, and Kreitner-Kinicki. (2003) Organizational Change and Development. In UOP (Ed.), Organizational Behavior (p489)
Rosenberg, R. (2003, Summer). The Eight Rings of Organizational Influence™: How to structure your organization for successful change. Journal for Quality & Participation, 26(2), 30. Retrieved April 21, 2004 from EBSCOhosy database.
Schein, E. (1999, August) Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the Field and in the Classroom: Notes Toward a Model of Managed Learning. 59 (1), 1. Retrieved April 21, 2004, from EBSCOhost database. University of Phoenix. (2002). Leadership In Action. Retrieved April 13, 2004 from:
