- THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
PROCEDURE “prepare for change”
- Selection of a team to spearhead the changes that it anticipates to implement at the company.
- Restructuring of the management- The management of J & T Bank should collaborate with the selected team and all employees to establish whether to centralize or to decentralize the bank’s management in order to achieve its strategic goals.
- Evaluation of the Human Resources Department- The selected team should establish the faults and causes of complaints among sections of its human resources. This will serve as a basis of equalizing human resource functions at the branches and at the Head Office.
- Evaluation of the customer services department- The team should also establish the deficiencies in its customer service in order to effectively embark on improving its customer service.
“Implement change”
- Adopt a suitable management structure. J & T Bank’s management should most certainly adopt a decentralized management structure so as to enable branches to customize their services to suit the needs of their markets. This will also increase employee satisfaction as they are able to contribute more in decision-making.
- The management should then carry out a survey to establish the causes of high employee turnover as a result of dissatisfaction. In response the management should offer salary increments, promotions and vary the demographics of different job positions for increased inclusivity.
- The bank should evaluate its employees and select those with high interpersonal skills as the ones at the forefront of customer service. Employees can also be trained on customer service to enable them deliver quality-customer oriented services
- The bank can also change its core values to include aspects that will drive its improved customer services agenda.
“Reinforce and evaluate”
- The committee mandated to spearhead the changes at the bank should prepare evaluation scorecards against which it examines the changes at the institution
- A programme for the continuous training of employees on customer service should be developed.
- The decentralization structure of the bank should be enhanced through selection of competent managers and team leaders to ensure the overall goals of the company are arrived at.
- Employees should be continually evaluated for promotions while staff recruitment and selection should reflect gender balance and spread uniformly across varying ages (Leban & Stone, 2008).
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- Why is it important that you understand the change process when managing organizational change?
Understanding the change process helps one to prioritize effectively and plan for sustainable change while maintaining and increasing the profitability of a company during a given phase of implementing changes.
- What are some of the impacts for managers who do not follow this process when managing change?
Managers who follow the change process appropriately can face
- Internal revolt from some employees who feel excluded from the decision-making
- Collapse of the changes that they implement
- Conflicts and disagreements between stakeholders to that company
- Losses
- Poor customer relations
- Compromised quality of services (Leban & Stone, 2008)
B. CHANGE GOALSPROCEDUCE
- What is changing
The organizational culture of J & T Bank is changing. The Bank wants to improve its customer service people, procedures technology and structure to meet or exceed the industry’s best practices to satisfy market demand in the next financial year.
- Why is it changing
The bank wants to be the leading provider of retail banking services in Australia. It targets to increase its market share by 12% in the next 3 years.
- The change goals including when the change program will start and finish.
At the moment J & T Bank has all its operations across the country managed consistently in the same exact systems and processes. At the moment customers are tired of impersonal “big banks” with hidden fees and impersonal service and that is the position at which J & T Bank finds itself. In 3-years time the bank wants to improve its customer service drastically in order to gain a 12% market share. In order to get there, the bank plans to attract new customers with a personal, warm, friendly and transparent approach to banking.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- Why is it important that you complete a change management strategy?
Completing a change management strategy increases the chances of projects succeeding. It also increases employee awareness, willingness and motivation to achieve corporate goals. The greatest reason for project failure is resistance from employees and bad management. A complete change management strategy addresses these vital aspects of human resources thereby increasing chances of sustainable development.
- Why should your change management strategy include a clear definition of your change goals?
- What are some of the potential impacts for not developing clear change goals?
- Confusion among stakeholders
- Time-wastage
- Wastage of resources
- Conflicts and disagreements among employees and the management.
- Failure to achieve any of the set goals
- Retrogression in the development agenda of a company
- CHANGE IMPACTSPROCEDURE
When assessing the impacts if change, participants should consider the following in each of the four aspects of change management.
- People
- Participants should consider whether people have received the information they need to carry out selected change objectives
- Access whether the people allocated responsibilities are capable of delivering as required
- Offering adequate training on participants
- Processes
- Identifying and agreeing on the indicators of change or the sequence of implementing change
- The processes that need to be kept running and those that may need to cease to pave way for implementation of changes
- Cost implications of altering processes
- Changes in the time allocations to different processes
- Supervision of processes
- Technology
- The equipment and technology gadgets requirements to institute changes
- The cost of incorporating technology into the anticipated changes
- Availability of skilled manpower to handle technical and operational requirements
- The obsoleteness or the expected service of the necessary technology
- Structure
- The participants should establish a clear chain of command in the pursuance of change objectives
- Proper allocation of duties and responsibilities
- Proper structure in the ordering of supplies, manpower and finances should be put in place to ensure change objectives are met.
(Leban & Stone, 2008)
- Who/what is impacted
The people impacted by the changes anticipated at J &T Bank are the employees to the bank, the management and the customers to that bank.
- How they are impacted
- Employees at the head office of J & T Bank will be required to collaborate and share more with their colleague serving at the braches. All employees will also be required to offer improved customer service to the bank’s customers. They shall also be evaluated equally for promotions and shall be equalized based on gender and age.
- Employees shall implement a new system for managing customer transactions to replace the systems where tellers work across multiple systems
- The management shall be required to adopt a decentralized structure of management to ensure that the goals of customer service are met
- The management will also provide the linkage between the branch and head office management levels.
- Customers to J & T Bank are the ultimate recipients of improved customer service from the bank and with increased market shares customers will enjoy cost-effective banking services, Faster transaction processing times, .
- When the impacts will be realized
- The impacts to the changes at the bank will be realized soon after the implementation process has started. Significant realization of the impacts is expected after 3 years when the bank targets to have a 12% market share.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- Why is it important that you identify change impacts for each of the four categories: people, process, technology and structure?
Identification of change impacts for each of the four categories helps participants to gauge the viability of achieving anticipated change objectives. It also helps in the identification of resources and the cost implications for the sustainability of the changes being made.
- What are some of the potential impacts if you don’t consider the impacts from implementing a change?
- Lack of sustainability for the company
- High costs could be incurred unnecessarily
- Loss of marker shares
- Retrogression
- What are some of the challenges managers face when identifying change impacts? How could you overcome these?
- Non-cooperative employees
- Inadequacy of resources to implement anticipated changes
- Lack of skilled personnel to spearhead the change process
- Ambiguity of processes, operations and function (Leban & Stone, 2008).
D. COMMUNICATION PLANSPROCEDUCE In order for this change process to take place the participants will develop a communication plan to communicate their change management strategy. The audience comprises of the customers who are the ultimate beneficiaries of improved customer service. The customers will experience personal, warm, friendly and transparent approach to banking. As the changes are being made to the structure and delivery of services by J & T Bank, the customers will be notified through the print and electronic media of new features to banking that they can enjoy at both the head office and the branches of the bank. Periodical communication will be made say after three months on what the bank will have achieved. Customers will also receive constant communication on changes through brochures, emails, newsletters and posters and other possible avenues that the bank will deem fit. The annual newsletter of the company will elaborate in deep details the changes the bank will have made and give insight on the planned changes. The team mandated to spearhead the changes at the bank will develop material on the progress of changes at the bank. They shall then notify the marketing, customer services department of the bank who will be responsible for all communication. In case any participants need to seek any clarifications, they should do so by enquiring from the team spearheading the change agenda and from the executive management.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- What is the difference between the activities detailed in your change management project plan and your communications plan?
The former outlines all the changes that are anticipated at the bank including the resources and the timescale required for the planning, implementing and evaluation phases. The latter only gives guideline on how information regarding the changes will be conveyed among the different participants and more so to the audience (customers) of the planned changes.
- Why is it important to that you have a separate communication plan?
A separate communication plan ensures that there is minimal confusion in the implementation of changes. Selected individuals can exclusively handle all communication matters and link up with the other team. Communication is a key and sensitive element in the successful achievement of the company’s goals and hence the developments of a separate communication plan.
- What is the value of developing a set of key messages to support your communication plan? When and how would you use key messages?
The value of developing a set of key messages to support communication plan is to enable the participants to respond timely to emergencies and eventualities that may threaten to derail the achievement of change objectives.
- How can you ensure that your communication activities promote the benefits of the change to the organization and minimize risk?
Communication activities can promote the benefit of change organization and minimize risks by opening up several channels of communicating with all the participants. These channels can include emails, phone calls, social media communication, newsletters, and text messages among others. Communication through emails should be guarded and privacy maintained to overcome the risks of information reaching unintended persons.
- Why is it important that you consult with others when developing a communications plan? What are some of the potential impacts if you fail to complete consultation?
The more the consultations, the more the participants will unearth hidden aspects to implementing changes. Consulting with other participants helps them to reach agreements on the expected outcomes as well as the timelines and the resources that go into implementing a change. This ensures that the projects have support from all the participants, decisions are arrived at in timely manner and that a good foundation for the sustainability of the projects is achieved. Failure to consult fully results in disagreements, revolts and conflicts. Leban and Stone, (2008) assert that corruption and mismanagement of resources is a given leeway when there are minimal consultations while the sustainability of the project is always in jeopardy.
E. EDUCATION PLANSPROCEDUCE
The participants that for this activity will need to develop an education plan to ensure employees have the skills and knowledge required to implement the required changes at J & T Bank. Employees will be trained on customer relations. They will also be trained on development of strong teams. The training will occur as an ongoing project as some aspects of the implementation changes are taking place. Employees will be trained on-the-job on customer service, adaptation to corporate changes and effective communication for two weeks. The training manager for the bank will be responsible for organizing the training. FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- How does an education plan help to ensure that changes are implemented successfully?
Education equips the employees with knowledge on better customer service.
- Can you use the key messages developed during communication planning during education activities? Why or why not?
Key messages developed during communication planning will be used during the training especially on the topic of effective communication. The messages enhance understanding of learners.
- How can you ensure that your education activities promote the benefits of the change to the organization and minimize risk?
The trainees will be taught on the proper communication channels to use in case of eventualities. Trainees will be assessed on the training objectives in order to establish that the education activities promote the benefits of change to the organization and minimize the risk of failure.
- Why is important that you consult with others when developing an education plan?
It is important to consult with others when developing an educational plan to ensure that all the pertinent areas of training are addressed, the right time for trainings allocated and basically ensure that all participants are carried on board.
- What are some of the potential impacts if you fail to complete consultation?
Failure to complete consultation leads to disagreements, and failure to address all the educational needs of participants (Leban & Stone, 2008). Trainees could also boycott training if their educational demands are not met and this could lead to losses in time and monetary resources.
F. RISK MANAGEMENT AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSISPROCEDUCE Participants shall be required to complete a risk management assessment and cost-benefit analysis for the changes they identified as required for the simulated workplace, J&T Bank. The analysis shall reveal the potential benefits to be gained from the planned changes or the losses that incurred when the projects are implemented.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
- Why is it imperative that a risk management assessment is completed?
A risk management assessment shall reveal potential pitfalls for the planned changes and hence measures to maximize benefits and avoid the risks can be instituted.
- What are some of the impacts if this is not completed?
- The whole change process might result into massive losses
- Disagreements can arise as to the allocation of resources
- Funds can be embezzled by those entrusted to run the project if measures are not taken to curb the same.
- Is it necessary to identify a strategy for mitigating each and every risk? Why or why not?
It is necessary to identify a strategy for mitigating each and every risk. This is necessary in order to address all the aspects risks that may arise. To curb corruption, the managers should select individuals of high integrity to be in charge of the funds. The participants should draw a comprehensive plan on how to settle disputes that can cause a collapse of the planned activities (Leban & Stone, 2008).
- What are some of the challenges managers face when completing a risk assessment for implementing change?
- Failure to allocate enough resources leading to achievement of compromises results
- Inability to anticipate all the possible risks that may affect a given activity
- Time constraints
- Lack of cooperative participants
Cost-benefit analysis discussion
- Why should a cost-benefit analysis be completed?
The information obtained can be used to institute measures minimize chances of risks crippling the planned changes. If a cost benefit analysis revealed that the costs far outweigh the benefits, I would not embark on the changes.
G. RISK MANAGEMENT AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSISPROCEDUCE Participants for this activity will develop a program for measuring and reporting on the process of the implementation for the change management strategy for J&T Bank. The success of the activities can be evaluated by using scorecards against which the progress of change activities are checked and monitored.
Success on the change activities will be measured by the customer responses and the increment in the number of new customer acquisitions. Customers will also rate the bank on the quality of service that they receive from the bank. They can do this by accessing the company website and rate the bank’s services on a given scale. The team spearheading the changes will report weekly on the progress of the changes being made by the bank. All the departmental leaders in the bank will receive copies of the report.
References
Leban, B., & Stone, R. (2008). Managing organizational change. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
