Essay: Org Change Management Models, Strategies, And Implications.

Change management is a process that can be described as a movement taken by an organization to transfer its affair from one state to another. Changes in an organization can be massive or can be subject to smaller implementation depending on the requirements of the organization. Change is a new form of business and requires efficiency and new expectations from the business environment. Organizational Change can be subjected to various factors related to bringing change in the structure of the organization to bring implementation of cultural change, innovation, technology adaptation, and performance (Calder, 2013).  The following essay will analyze the organizational change and its implications by comparing and contrasting various change models related to change management and will also showcase the result of changes related to Microsoft by addressing the opportunities with reference to the major restructuring of the organization.

According to Cummings, Bridgeman and Brown (2016), organizational change can be defined as changing the structure of an organization from one state to another through the process of planning, controlling, executing, coordinating, and monitoring the environment of the organization. Kurt Lewin's change management model is very famous for implementing organizational change. Kurt Lewin proposed that the key to resolving conflicts is through proper implementation of planned change to make individuals understand and restructure their perceptions residing around them (Galli, 2018). Kurt Lewin proposed a three-factor model of organizational change and this stage theory depicts Unfreeze, Change or Transition, and Freeze. Lewin believed that to bring proper implementation of planned change these three stages are very much important where at first the perception of change required is needed and the moving towards the desired level of change for optimizing behavior and finally solidifying the newest behavior as the current norm (Cameron & Green, 2019).   

According to Calder (2013), Kottler 8 step change models depict eight stages that help bring change to an organization. The eight-step model's first step resembles a sense of urgency which reveals that the organization has to reveal the need for change and motivate employees for upcoming transformations. The second step is the formulation of the guiding coalition which defines that a team should be prepared that has completely understood the need. The third step reveals the creation of a strategic vision to provide a solution regarding how the change will be implemented in the organization. The Fourth step reveals conveying of vision to employees through transparent communication, the fifth step is the empowering of employees to enact the action plan regarding the change. The sixth step reveals the generation of short-term wins for motivating employees through early success. The seventh step describes sustaining the acceleration by progressing into long-term goals and finally incorporating the change into the culture of the organization. Kottler defines organizational change as altering of culture and underlying technology or infrastructure for bringing efficiency to its internal processes (Galli, 2018).

On the other hand, according to David Cooperrider (2018), Appreciative Theory depicts that organizational change can be brought about by a key positive organizational approach and collective learning and implementation. The 5Ds of the Appreciative Inquiry Model help in approaching change at all levels within a system from mentoring, one-to-one coaching, and wider system change. The five Ds are Define which reveals the focus of the inquiry and in which system the change is required, Discover which states the findings of organizational success, strengths, and excellence period, Dream which depicts imagining of past successes and achievements to identify new possibilities in future, Design revealing the creativity of dream to bring discovery and final is Destiny which indicates the process of delivery of Design into organizations for successful implementation of the change strategy (Bushe, 2013).

Strategies for Introducing Change

Following the above models and theories of change in organizations the strategies used by the organizations for bringing change include planning, honesty and transparency, communication, employee participation, and redefining technologies. Through implanting the Kurt Lewin Change Model organizations depicts effective communication strategy, changing behaviors, processes, and ways of thinking, and at last, bring back to its original stage by stabilizing and solidifying the new change strategy. Kotter's 8-step model help in building leadership strategy for an organization by creating awareness among employees and improving Employee skills to adapt to the new change through the implementation of mission and vision. Leadership qualities can be improved in bringing change through the Kotter model of change (Appelbaum et al., 2015). On the other hand, according to Bushe (2013), Appreciative Inquiry by David Cooperrider has been used by AI communities to build strategies about past achievements for rectifying future planning of change. This theory help organization in building strategy like customer satisfaction, enhancing service implementation, and participation of employee through five principles Constructionist, Poetic, Anticipatory, Simultaneity, and Positive Change (Grieten et al., 2018). 

The main cause of resistance to change is the lack of confidence in adapting to the new change due to poor trust-building causing barriers for the organization in being change management. According to Darmawan and Azizah (2020) resistance to change occurs due to employees' perception of not having enough confidence in believing that the following change will have a positive effect on the organization. The second cause is low self-stability. The low-self Stability makes employees unable to control their emotions resulting in conducting poor behavior and harming others' performance and the organization's reputation. The third cause of resistance to change is intense stress. The employees can feel stressed due to changes occurring in the organization putting pressure on employees' work performance. The fourth cause of resistance to change is due to lack of communication and transparency in sharing proper information which resists employees to bring change to the organization. Besides this resistance does not always occur for the organization but also occurs of its consequences too for example loss of secure comfort environment, salary, and status of the individuals (Hackman, 2017). The factors that result in resistance to change are lack of motivation resulting in degradation of performance and can also pursue lack of need for achievement which tends employees accustomed to old change and is not ready to participate in new organizational change strategies. Although These factors can cause resistance to change, other factors are depending upon situations and organizations' stability, and employees' mentality for resistance to change (Shimoni, 2017). 

Microsoft has been a leading software company in terms of producing AI tools and technologies to help global customers in performing effective operations. In 2020 when the pandemic hit the global market and employees and customers were forced to stay at home Microsoft decided to bring technological and structural change to its system to help both its employees and customers to meet the demand of customers and also to bring efficiency to its operations department. By identifying the trends in the market due to the pandemic Microsoft realized that the workforce diversity of every organization is changing as every worker and employee are having a different expectation in engaging with its organizations while working remotely (Vitalyst, 2022). Businesses are going global creating a significant need for new tools and technologies that can provide a seamless experience in teamwork and operation handling across different languages while at the same time helping employees to work efficiently. Microsoft has decided to enable new AI features in its Microsoft 365 tools to help customers in meeting their challenges with technology and bring innovative development to their businesses (Akbar et al., 2019). 

Resistance to Change

The main opportunity for Microsoft in bringing change in its organizational culture through AI implementation is because of bringing digital transformation to the global market and in its workplace. The methodology used by Microsoft in bringing change is called PROPEL. PROPEL has been deployed by Microsoft in Microsoft 365 office and other tools like Yammer, Teams, and SharePoint. Microsoft developed proper comprehensive communication of Local state governments to provide support and enhance training to state employees. The PROPEL change implemented with Yammer campaigns and targeted email that reached many influential groups created a wide range of opportunities across social media pages and intranet sites (Vitalyst, 2022).

The change management in Microsoft 365 brought by Microsoft for digital transformation in covid times has been adopted by teams and agencies in different states. The cloud implantation in Microsoft 365 through AI has helped healthcare organizations in monitoring employees' status during the covid times. The change in technology in its system by Microsoft has also helped Global Financial and Payment Technology providers. The change management brought by Microsoft in its technologies has helped financial providers to build a live multi-faceted platform for the training purposes of the employees remotely. The next level of customers that Microsoft decided to impact through a change in innovation are Global retailers (Hong & Park, 2020). To increase the adoption of AI technology for transformation Microsoft has developed a series of different exciting days significantly to introduce their global workforce to Microsoft chat support and teams. In order to increase the motivation of employees, Microsoft introduced excite days where employees can involve in activities like a scavenger hunt and can create team bonding and collaboration. Microsoft 365 has been used by global businesses and introducing AI in its software combined with new technologies has helped its customers in bringing efficiency in the performance of employees in covid times and also helped Microsoft employees to engage in getting proper communication and motivation increasing the performance of the organization (Lewis, Chatfield & Johnson, 2019). 

Leadership in Microsoft has been prominent in bringing change management to the organization. Satya Nadella has been the CEO of the company for the past few years. The company decided to follow three core pillars helping the employees of the company in viewing one vision of achieving the goal. The core pillars Satya Nadella implemented to bring change in its management are Customer Obsessed, Diverse and Inclusion, and One Microsoft. Customer Obsessed indicates that the company is going to implement new styles and changes in its technologies and structure to provide better solutions to its customers (Tang, 2019).  Diverse and Inclusion indicates that in a covid situation the company managers should diversify their thoughts in bringing new engagement in technology while preserving one mission and vision in achieving the goal at the same time serving every customer segment through innovations. The company decided that value offering should not be discriminated among customers and should be served equally to all the customers. One Microsoft has been implemented as the core mission of the company which states that the company stakeholders are like a family that believes in collaboration and togetherness of everyone providing their valuable time in the organization regardless of boundaries and hierarchy to serve customers as a part of the whole team known as Microsoft (Evans, 2020).

Consequences of Resistance to Change

Microsoft has implemented its change management through the ADKAR model of change implementation. The era of tools implemented in Microsoft 365 and the adaptation of new tools in global business have created an impact on the performance of the organization. According to Vitalyst (2022), Microsoft has applied the ADKAR model for the proper implementation of change management. ADKAR model refers to five steps Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and reinforcement. Microsoft has used awareness to create an environment where customers can adopt new tools to change the course of dynamic business capabilities and enhance resources at the same time. The desire indicates that Microsoft has seen the trend of digital revolutionization and desired to bring change in its organizational structure and technology to help customers and its employees. Microsoft and its teams gained knowledge about the desired requirement of change by collecting data from different customer segments contributing to gaining insight into global market requirements (Harrison et al., 2021). The ability section includes the implementation of tools in Microsoft 365 and has been used by employees to report the effect of better performance of the technology in team management and performing tasks within the organization. the reinforcement state when Microsoft finally started to roll out its new technology to the global market for customer satisfaction. The company by implementing new changes in technology and implementing new tools has created a huge change in innovation for the future business (Gotsch, Lienhard & Schögel, 2019).

The new change management brought by Microsoft in its technology adaptation and change in the structure of the organization by motivating and providing training to employees to upskill their limits and providing them valuable resources to bring performance efficiency and created a huge success space for the company. The change management workshop brought by Microsoft has helped customers in adopting technology five times better than the previous performance. This organizational change has also helped Microsoft employees in bringing new ideas and experiences onboard and at the same time bringing acceleration in their digital journey which is the future of the world (Mansaray, 2019). The Microsoft cloud database implementation in Microsoft 365 has also helped businesses in fostering teamwork and also at the same time encouraging them in making new investments in future technology. Microsoft's main aim is to transform the traditional method of business into a futuristic transformation empowering organization in the global market to be more agile in future workplace circumstances (Delaini, 2022).

Microsoft in 2021 has further used changed management best practices to bring more innovations in its work efficiency by implementing one solution that can cater every solution to every department working within the organization. The MSXi solution with the help of a new project team called project v-team has changed the old system of the company’s risk management and coaching conversations. The new tool used as a single version can create a solution for a range of users starting from salespersons, managers, company leaders, finance, and operations across Microsoft (Delaini, 2022). As each team report in the older version has to be gathered from different data sources the new system will bring all departments to one page providing flexibility and effective communication and sharing of data to different sources at the same time helping in handling security and standards and mitigating the risk of Data privacy. Microsoft has always looked for new changes that can create an impact on the performance of the organization as well as on customers. The company by taking advantage of the rise of digitalization due to the pandemic has created an image in the market by providing innovations catering to every section of society and guiding its employees to build a team of technological empowerment to stay ahead of its competitors in terms of technology and innovation (Rosenbaum, More & Steane, 2018). 

Conclusion 

The above essay has described Organizational change and the strategies made by the organization in implementing change. Organizational change can take many forms starting with a change in strategy, procedures, policies, technology, and culture. Organizational change can be brought to bring efficiency to the organization by maximizing resources and capabilities. Employees are sometimes resisting change due to changes in culture and the adoption of new methods forcing them to not participate in bringing change. Microsoft through proper planning and upskilling employee motivation and training has successfully planted change which is beneficial for both employees and customers meeting the requirements of digital transformation in global business. Through proper strategy formulation and collecting trends in a crisis, Microsoft is constantly rebuilding itself in terms of providing the world with innovations and building a work culture that follows one mission and vision of achieving the goal through constant transformation.

References 

Akbar, M. A., Sang, J., Khan, A. A., Mahmood, S., Qadri, S. F., Hu, H., & Xiang, H. (2019). Success factors influencing requirements change management process in global software development. Journal of Computer Languages, 51, 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cola.2018.12.005 

Appelbaum, S. H., Degbe, M. C., MacDonald, O., & Nguyen-Quang, T. S. (2015). Organizational outcomes of leadership style and resistance to change (Part One). Industrial and Commercial Training. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-07-2013-0044 

 Bushe, G. R. (2013). Generative process, generative outcome: The transformational potential of appreciative inquiry. In Organizational generativity: The appreciative inquiry summit and a scholarship of transformation. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1475-9152(2013)0000004003 

Calder, A. M. (2013). Organizational change: Models for successfully implementing change.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2019). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LX-5DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=v-jMWb0Tyq&sig=g2bjblmIX_SxYClGN-uuWVKp1zI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 

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. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0018726715577707

Darmawan, A. H., & Azizah, S. (2020, January). Resistance to change: Causes and strategies as an organizational challenge. In 5th ASEAN Conference on Psychology, Counselling, and Humanities (ACPCH 2019) (pp. 49-53). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200120.010 

Delaini, S. (2022). How Microsoft used change management best practices to launch a new business intelligence platform - Inside Track Blog. Inside Track Blog. Retrieved 1 April 2022, from https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/how-microsoft-used-change-management-best-practices-to-launch-a-new-business-intelligence-platform/.

 Evans, T. R. (2020). Improving evidence quality for organisational change management through open science. Journal of organizational change management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2019-0127 

Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132. DOI: 10.1109/EMR.2018.2866860

Gotsch, M. L., Lienhard, S. D., & Schögel, M. (2019). Case Study: Change Management & Leadership at Microsoft. https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/publications/261336 

Grieten, S., Lambrechts, F., Bouwen, R., Huybrechts, J., Fry, R., & Cooperrider, D. (2018). Inquiring into appreciative inquiry: A conversation with David Cooperrider and Ronald Fry. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(1), 101-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492616688087 

Hackman, T. (2017). Leading change in action: Reorganizing an academic library department using Kotter’s eight stage change model. https://hdl.handle.net/1903/19125 

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for change management, improvement and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management models in healthcare. Journal of healthcare leadership, 13, 85. doi: 10.2147/JHL.S289176

Hong, S. H., & Park, M. J. (2020). Dynamics of marketing automation adoption for organisational marketing process transformation: the case of Microsoft. International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 12(3), 205-224. ISSN: 1750-0664

Lewis, C., Chatfield, C., & Johnson, T. (2019). Microsoft Project 2019 step by step. Microsoft Press.https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9781509307425/samplepages/9781509307425_Sample.pdf

Mansaray, H. E. (2019). The role of leadership style in organisational change management: a literature review. Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), 18-31. https://article.jhrm.net/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20190701.13.pdf 

Rosenbaum, D., More, E., & Steane, P. (2018). Planned organisational change management: Forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. Journal of Organizational Change Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-06-2015-0089 

Shimoni, B. (2017). What is resistance to change? A habitus-oriented approach. Academy of Management Perspectives, 31(4), 257-270. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2016.0073 

Tang, K. N. (2019). Change management. In Leadership and change management (pp. 47-55). Springer, Singapore. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg-Wang-4/publication/315745050_Change_Management/links/5bcd521f299bf17a1c661d30/Change-Management 

Vitalyst. (2022). Vitalyst.com. Retrieved 1 April 2022, from https://www.vitalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/MSFT-and-Vitalyst-Case-Study.pdf.