Essay on Managing Organizational Change

Foreword by Spenser Johnson: One the surface, the story of this book appears to be a fable that is relatively easy to grasp, but it does subtly impart an invaluable lesson on change. The book covers John Kotter’s Eight Steps to bring about successful organizational change and can be equally useful for a high-school student as it is for a CEO of a multi-national organization.

No matter how easy is may seem on the surface, the unfreezing, moving and refreezing stages of Lewin’s 3-Step model must be taken (Lewin, 1946). These stages are difficult and persistence by the organization in sticking to its objectives for growth and improvement must remain a top priority. In reality no matter how many positives a new idea is there will always be resistance when it is introduced. Change management is therefore central to the process of making the transition from the old system to the new and change management practices should be employed throughout the transition (ITIL,

The candidate will demonstrate the skills and knowledge required to develop a change management strategy.

Week 3, the lecture on Managing Change describes organizational changes that occur when a company makes a shift from its current state to some preferred future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to decrease employee resistance and cost to the organization while concurrently expanding the effectiveness of the change effort. Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost constantly if they are to remain competitive. Students of organizational change identify areas of change in order to analyze them. A manager trying to implement a change, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss organizational change and the management of that change. I will talk about the different drivers of change, the factors a leader needs to weigh to implement change effectively, the various resistances a leader may encounter while trying to implement change, and how various leadership styles will effect the realization of change. I will also discuss the knowledge I have gained through the completion of this assignment and how I think it might affect the way I manage change in my workplace.

After reviewing and researching the literature with respect to organizational changes, I have come to the conclusion that organizations have always changed. When everything in the world is changing, organization cannot remain islands. They must change to face new challenges. Bolman and Deal (2008) claim organizations have changed about as much as in past few decades as in the preceding century. Bolman and Deal (2008) claim means that the change organizations have experienced in the last decade are almost similar to those they experience in at the end of the twentieth century.

Process‐driven change seeks to create a context and environment in which employees at all levels of

it is supported by case studies that the linkage between inability of identifying of retail environmental changes and Zahra’s new rescue plan for David Jones failed because after the new rescue plan of Zahra, net profit and share price continued to decrease. Moreover, the case study said that ‘it may be a good five years before strategy can be assessed properly’ (Waddell Waddell, Cummings & Worley 2014).

Health care organizations that choose to convert to an electronic medical record system (EMR) have several advantages; most important it increases patient safety, efficiency, cost-effectiveness and security. Accepting such a transition also presents with its share of challenges like preparing for the required significant time obligation and resources that will make the transition a successful one. Leadership and management must create an atmosphere that will get the buy-in of all stakeholders. Providing information about the process and what methods will be best to make the conversion to an EMR system is an important aspect of the implementation

Management and leadership are viewed as two different perspectives in the business environment. As described by Dr. Warren Bennis ‘Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing’, this means that managers do things by the set rules and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company.

In the 3-step model for successful organizational change, Kurt Lewin argues that successful change in organizations follows 3 steps:

Individuals when faced with any major change will be inevitably resistant and will want to preserve the status quo, especially if they think their status or security within the organization is in danger (Bolognese, 2010). Folger and Skarlicki believe that organizational change produces skepticism in employees which make it problematic and possibly even impossible to contrive improvements within the organization (as cited in Bolognese, 2010) Therefore, management must understand, accept and make an effort to work with resistance, since it can undermine even the most well-conceived change efforts (Bolognese, 2010). Furthermore, Coetsee states for organizations to achieve the maximum benefits from change they must effectively create and

The Burke-Litwin Model highlights the main elements or source of major transformational change and also the changes that are incremental in nature. The four transformational factors are external environment, mission and strategy, leadership, and organizational culture. The main cause that makes a company to make changes is the external environment. It can force any organization to make changes to its mission, culture, leadership, and operating strategies. Changes in the 12 drivers in The Burke-Litwin Model bring a series of change to the overall structure. Various internal and external organizational factors that influence the changes in the organization are:

Change is a necessary way of life. It is all around people: in the seasons, in their social environment, and in their own biological processes .Beginning with the first few moments of life, a person learns to meet change by being adaptive. A person’s very first breath depends on ability to adapt from one environment to another. As indicated by the first quotation introducing this essay, each hour is different, offering people new experiences.

An environment in which change may be the only constant is a challenge to every organisation and manager alike (Hayes, 2007). The need and pressure for change being consistent, it is crucial