Management In Change - Essay: Analysis, Theories, Strategies.

Write a report on management in change.

Discussion

The change management is required in every organization because it is the most important aspect of dealing with the organizational change. The change is mandatory in every organization because it facilitates business growth, development and increases the ultimate productivity of the organization. The main purpose off the change management is to implementing suitable strategies for effectively controlling the organization and controlling the change (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). These kind of strategies help an organization to sustain the change and heightens its ability to adopt the change.

 In order to be effective, the change management must consider the adjustments and replacements of the impacts that might fall on the organization while exercising the change. There must be a process of planning and communication for managing the change. The present report will focus on the case of Lakeland Wonders that is going through a critical stage with a new CEO Mr. Cheryl. The CEO is implementing strategies of change in the organization which are hardly being supported by the members of the organization. The report will analyze the reason behind the change in the organization and what are the activities that needs to be done for an effective outcome. The analysis of Cheryl as a change leader will also be done along with the management techniques. The various existing change literatures will be outlined in the report and will be linked with the change the CEO of Lakeland Wonders is proposing.

It must be noted that an organization might have various reasons for change and there can also such situation come where the organization is left with no such option but to change for better. The reason behind organizational change might be economic climate change or rising threat of competition. The understanding of the process and theories relevant to change would help to know how the organizational changes can be handled in the best possible way. According to some of the scholars the organizational change is defined as a type of movement of an organization which is different and away from the current position of the organization (Bondar, Ruppert & Stjepandi?, 2014). The organizational change in a particular form is designed to increase the efficiency in future. When the organizational change occurs, the managers of the company must keep the balance in order to improve on the present operations with the requirements to respond positively to any new and unpredictable events.

This is a theory that is developed by Kurt Lewin related to organizational change. It is called the Force Field theory. This theory says that there are a wide variety of forces which arise from the manner an organization operates. It can be related to the structure of the firm, its control, its culture which might resist the change. On the other hand, there are also a wide variety of forces that generate from the changing of task along with environmental aspects that push the organization to change (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). These are the two sets of forces which are in constant opposition with each other. Hence, the managers or the leaders of the organization must search for effective ways to reduce the effectiveness of the forces and facilitate the necessary changes in the organization.

Key Concepts/ relevant change theories

The evolutionary change is described by then scholars as the incremental, gradual and narrowly focused change. It is not the sudden or drastic type of change but it is rather a persistent approach to change for better and improve. The total quality management can be considered as an evolutionary change. It is a constantly applied process and shows improvement too over the long term.

It has been found that there are some organizations which needs fast change. When there is sudden ups and downs in the organization, there is no other ways for the organization except implementing change (Kuipers et al., 2014). This type of change is rapid, broadly focused and dramatic too. The sudden technological advancement in the industry as well as in the organization or the sudden climate change can be the reason behind this rapid change.

Change is necessary in any organization and so is the management of that change. The management process might be difficult, but it must be exercised in order to experience better outcome. Hence, first of all, the organization must do the assessment of the need to change through the recognition that a significant problem actually exists. The second task is to identify the change that needs to be implemented (Lines et al., 2015). It must consider the obstacles too which might come on its way.  The third task is to apply the change in the organizational process and evaluate whether the change would bring in desired outcomes or not. The last point is to evaluate the results of the change and compare between the prior situation and the later situation.

The huge range of change occurring within an organization irrespective of the size of the organization might leave greater impacts on the employees themselves. The employees might feel uncomfortable with the change and feel themselves trapped in a diverse and frustrating situation. The perspective of Lewin addresses this entire process of organizational change without much pain. Lewin’s three stages of change are considered to be an ideal ad most influential models for leading the organizational change. His concept of change revolves around the idea of freezing, changing and freezing(Verhulst & Lambrechts, 2015). It is a type of triple play of the modifications of the human attitudes and manages the balance between protecting the human ego and implementing the change effectively. His theory suggests to unfreeze or release the way a given strategy has always been approached. The next step asks to change or adopt the contemporary way of accomplishing the task and lastly the freezing technique asks to lock or freeze. It asks to lock the new mindset of change in the organizational process. This is an effective theory of organizational change.

The need for change or the triggers of change can be based on either the internal reasons or the external reasons within or outside of the firm. As far as internal shifts are concerned, Cheryl who is the CEO of the company persistently elaborates that the board of directors in the company have set wrong and aggressive growth targets for the company to be achieved. Cheryl points out that this high goal cannot be achieved if the situation stays as it is and the operations stay as they are. Cheryl is a highly active CEO and in the due course of her career she has been a positive personality. One of the most important aspect of the nature of Cheryl’s character is that she is a great pursuer of new opportunities and the energy along with enthusiasm she possesses has helped her to succeed in each step of her career.

Lewin's Force Field Change Theory

As far as the external market is concerned, it has been mentioned that the market’s middle price segment is the only segment which was projected for huge growths and the customers of these products were also buying like the Bull’s –Eye at the Big Chain’s. The Lakeland Wonders is recently an expert in the exclusive toys and those toys which were bought and sold at the specialty stores. Hence, Cheryl made a point based on the internal and external analysis of the Company’s environment. She decided to change certain aspects of the company in order to achieve some specific objectives.

In order to achieve certain objectives, Cheryl planned to get entry in a new type of market segment of middle-priced toys. She also wanted to outsource the production of this new segment in far off countries and change from the current designer of Lakeland to the Sampsen Design which is also award winning. It would subsequently recruit other employees into the Lakeland Company in order to support the plans made by Cheryl. She wanted the change to be done immediately and it would have some consolidation with the suppliers too. Thus, Cheryl is apparently pursuing the reconstructive type of change that does not change the core concepts and strategies of the Lakeland Wonders but adds some more opportunities that requires new changes and methods to deliver the expected outcomes. Since, she wants everything to be done as quickly as possible, this initiative is called a reconstruction.

It has been argued that in terms of driving organizational change, “a renewable process goes typically nowhere until the leaders of the company are promoted to higher or senior levels of jobs”. Kotter has asserted that it is difficult to judge the case of Lakeland as Cheryl has the attractive credentials which might support to function as a true leader in bringing the change. Notably, the modern commercial organizations the strategic change can never be attributed to be the result of the “revolt of the slaves”. Hence, from the perspective of  Smollan (2015), the actions of Cheryl are right and suitable to lead the organization towards change.

When the aspect of Cheryl trying to implement the change immediately is concerned in a 94 years old company has different suggestions. It has been suggested that the business strategies must be designed in the manner of ‘logical incrementalism ‘where the steps of change in the process is implemented with an incremental effect. Scholars claim that during the change process, the managers of the organization must prioritize the processes that offer fast and significant improvement in the organization. The same scholars also suggest that a turnaround strategy that elaborates the rapid cost reduction and sped of change or the revenue generation. There are in total seven specific elements of the turnaround strategy:

• The Crisis stabilization
• Gaining the stakeholder support
• financial restructuring
• management changes
• clarifying the target market
• prioritization of the critical improvement areas

In terms of the topic of change in the Lakeland Wonders company, the most significant literature would be to consider the thoughts of Matos Marques Simoes and Esposito (2014). These scholars’ claim that there are distinctively two theories regarding the change in the business. The first theory is the E theory that is founded on the economic value whereas the O theory is based on the capability of the organization to hold the change. As per the view of Smollan (2015), the O theory is the soft type of approach where the main objective is to grow the corporate culture and capability of human through the organizational learning along with the changing process, reflecting, receiving the feedback and also making further changes. The E theory on the other hand is the hard approach that takes into account the shareholders’ value as the only factor for the success of a corporation. In the case of Lakeland Wonders it is anticipated that if the CEO Cheryl fails to appreciate the culture of the company that is long standing, might shake the roots of some employees. Those employees would be severely scared off who have been working in the company by generation through the rapid change that Cheryl tries to bring. Here Cheryl seems to be applying the E theory which might take huge toll on the established culture of the organization.

The Evolutionary Change

The theory E that Cheryl is probably applying might fundamentally disturb the structure of the organization. Moreover, the E theory significantly ignores one of the most important stakeholders: the employees. This is one of the reasons why Cheryl experiences rigidity from the employees in implementing the change. This is because she has not discussed to the about the new change that is going to be introduced in the organization neither she has asked for their consent. She has displayed less concern regarding the viewpoints of the managing director on the overseas outsourcing matter (Van der Voet, 2014). For a well –established and old company like Lakeland Wonders such approach is unsuitable. Hence, the way Cheryl is trying to implement the change needs to be slowed down as it is challenging the current environment.

The cases of Lakeland Wonders and the leadership technique of Cheryl can be analyzed and evaluated by many ways. Cheryl can be considered to be appropriate in her approach to bring change in the organization in order to achieve the objectives. However, the approach she followed to bring change is not suitable for this organization. She has adopted the E theory which prioritizes the shareholders the most and runs the organization in the autocratic leadership style. She might be the CEO of the company but she had acquired the position only six months ago and a new leader of the company is trying to dictate terms to the older employees of the company is not digestible for the organization. Cheryl’s leadership technique is not accepted by the employees of the company and she is well aware of the fact. In spite of knowing the facts properly and resolving them, she is constantly hiring new and suitable employees for her plan. There are many instances in the relevant literature regarding the failure of the leaders due to not understanding the organizational process and culture properly and addressing them during their business operations (Verhulst & Lambrechts, 2015).

Hence, in such a situation it is recommended that the Cheryl must change her leadership and management style and have to be more receptive to the feedbacks from the colleagues. She will have to work on her communication skills and establish a two –way feedback system so that the employees do not become hostile towards her and understand the reason behind change in the organization. The transparency in the flow of information helps to build the relationship stronger. The feedback system is the most useful approach to know and make others know about specific concerns. Cheryl needs to start afresh and not from the scratch. She needs to support the 94 years old enterprise. Hence she will have to change her methods to deal with the operations. She can also make use of the McKinsey 7 –S model that clearly states the stages of formulating desired change in the organization along with ensuring that the change actions are conducted properly addressing the important factors. She must go through the characteristics of participative leadership and adopt it.

Conclusion 

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be said that change is important in any organization but at the same time proper management of the change and its subsequent effects on the organization and its people also need to be taken seriously. The report provides clearly how a sudden organizational change can leave impact on the people who have the foundation through decades. The case of Lakeland Wonders has been properly analyzed addressing the culture, the people and the shareholders. The leadership style of the CEO has also been examined which is a key driver of employee motivation and their support. The report has concluded with appropriate recommendation to the CEO Cheryl that can help her to lead the change properly.

Reference

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234-262.

Bondar, S., Ruppert, C., & Stjepandi?, J. (2014). Ensuring data quality beyond change management in virtual enterprise. Int J Agile Syst Manag, 7(3/4), 304-323.

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), 33-60.

Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014). The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public administration, 92(1), 1-20.

Lines, B. C., Sullivan, K. T., Smithwick, J. B., & Mischung, J. (2015). Overcoming resistance to change in engineering and construction: Change management factors for owner organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1170-1179.

Matos Marques Simoes, P., & Esposito, M. (2014). Improving change management: How communication nature influences resistance to change. Journal of Management Development, 33(4), 324-341.

Smollan, R. K. (2015). Causes of stress before, during and after organizational change: a qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 301-314.

Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.

Verhulst, E., & Lambrechts, W. (2015). Fostering the incorporation of sustainable development in higher education. Lessons learned from a change management perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 189-204.