Exam Questions
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Why Major Organizational Change Fail?
Organizations and individuals are subject to numerous factors, which influence decisions and actions, taken in a given external environment. While many contemporary organizations already understood that responsiveness and flexibility are the key to success and sustainable development, a lot of them still fail in their change efforts. Kotter (2002) argues that people and organizations fail not because they are incompetent or unemotional, but because they do not have an opportunity to experience a highly successful change. The point made in this work is that people tend to be extremely resistant to change as they are pessimistic and fearful when it comes to change. Organizations, which fail to address these individual characteristics at the time of change, will likely fail to conduct the process and receive an effective outcome. There are many components to change management, but any change should start with receiving the needed buy-in from the relevant stakeholders and creating a base of change ambassadors, which are able to delegate the responsibility for this change and translate the strategic goals into real-life tactical elements for the regular employees in the company. Change is a continuous process, which should come along with the transformation of individual and organizational cultures nd, thus, the feeling of the bond between employees and the company is important.
Kotter 8-Step Change Model
There are various approaches to leading change and addressing the resistance in the organization. One of the effective frameworks is the Kotter´s 8-Step Change Model, praised for its effective and fast response in terms of allowing organizations o transform themselves quickly using the tools and methods of this approach. The author of the model suggests that the key to success understands that the “business as usual” is managing change and uncertainty. With that in mind, the model involves the following 8 stages. First of all, for change to actually happen, the leaders have to create urgency, outlining the benefits for the company as a whole. Secondly, the leaders of change have to form a powerful coalition to be able to drive this change throughout the organization. The ambassadors should bring emotional commitment and actual knowledge about the change to bring it down the hierarchical ladder in the company. The third step is to create a vision for change, outlining the values and strategy for this transformation. It is critical for this stage to ensure that change leaders can describe the change concisely and clearly to other stakeholders. The fourth step is to communicate the vision. In other words, the coalition of change should be able to make the change more real and part of everyone's day-to-day life to ensure that people are involved. On the fifth stage,the organization should focus on removing the obstacles, which may include the acquisition of the right knowledge and professional consultants, reviewing organizational structure and reward system for individuals and address the resistant among employees. The sixth stage of the model is focused on the creation of the short-term wins, which allow the coalition demonstrate the progress and positive side of change. Individuals are often not ready to see long-term in the future and require the demonstration of actual fast gains to remain motivated. The seventh stage brings forward the importance of building on change. In other words, many companies fail as they announce the win too early, before actually measuring the success and return on the change. Finally, the last stage of the model outlines the role of anchoring the change to the corporate model of a given company. This means that the change should be incorporated in the individual and organizational culture to become usual and accepted by the vast majority as normal.
Bridge´s Transition Model
Bridge´s Transition model outlines the principle of guiding people through change in a way that will offer the least resistance and higher and faster rate of acceptance at all levels. The author argues that people are often very uncomfortable with change and resistance is the most natural reaction. The model of transition outlines three stages that people go through. These stages include ending, losing and letting go, the neutral zone, and the new beginning. The focus of the model is not in the organization, but on the individual perspective of driving change. The author suggests that people will go through the change at their own pace and the early adopters drive late acceptance. On the first stage, the organization has to lead with fear, denial, anger and other strong emotions. Stage two outlines the level of confusion of individuals with the upcoming changes. Some of the common emotions to lead with include resentment, anxiety, and skepticism. To address these emotions, leaders should demonstrate fast gains and transparency in a communication process. Finally, the new beginning stage is when individuals have accepted change and demonstrate the high level of energy and openness to learning and renewed commitment to the strategy. At this stage, it is important to give continuity to the change.
The Experience Change Model
How people experience change is the question which concerns academic and business professionals for many decades. Contemporary business environment outlines the challenges, which companies face with regards to managing emotions and uncertainty caused by the change in the volatile and fast-changing corporate environments. Similarly to other models of addressing change, the experience change focuses on the transition and transformation of a mindset of individuals, who are involved in the change process. The idea behind the model is to understand that change is always met with resistance and people need to feel and understand the benefits of this change before they can dedicate themselves and spend energy to build on this transition. Each individual has the different pace of adopting change and there are several major stages of the change curve: shock, denial, anger, depression, experiment, acceptance, integration. The morale and performance are affected accordingly, based on the stage of experiencing change that people are in.
It Isn’t The Changes That Do You In
Thomas McKee notes that “it isn’t the changes that do you in, it is the transitions. The author suggests that many organizations implement change, but fail in the process of transition. The point that should be made here is that in order to succeed in change, the companies and individuals should be able to make a smooth transition within the organization. McKee outlines the role of transition as a psychological process, which actually defines the effectiveness of change, based on the speed and degree to which people accept change and come to terms with the new situation. Unless the transition takes place, the change will not happen. With the above in mind, organizations should constantly manage change and ensure that every change is given continuity and elaborates accordingly.
The Meaning of See-Feel-Change
Change management is a complex psychological process, involving individuals and groups. Bridges (2003) argues that when it comes to leading change, the reality shows that changing behaviors of individuals is not about changing their thoughts but rather about helping them to see the reality in a way that allows influencing their feelings. That said transition is the process of transformation of feelings and new truth for each of the individuals involved in the process. Individuals have to see and visualize the change, feel it personally and only then, they will be able to accept the change and transform the behavior. It is evident that seeing new and unexpected is always a trigger for stronger emotion and change management, according to the author should consider these emotions are the key to the success of the change management process.
Leading Vs. Managing Change
There is a significant difference between the roles of a leader and a manager. Management capabilities involve the competence and ability of individuals to deliver results for daily operations and actual process of operational and tactical implementation. Leaders, on the other hand, deal with change and uncertainty through managing human capital and emotions. Such skills and abilities are often difficult to teach and train. With that in mind, companies should ensure to possess both, management and leadership capabilities to drive change. This means that change managers and change leaders can be different individuals with the diverse set of skills and experience in professional and personal lives. In other words,while management deals with keeping the change under control, leadership is concerned with vision, driving forces and transition.
What is Buy-in
When we talk about change management process, we often refer to the importance of buy-in for the success of change. The reality of many change programs outlines that failure of building a coalition, which enables and drives change is one of the common and significant reasons for failure. Buy-in is the key to change management and the term is used to describe the level of involvement of key individuals in the process of leading change and transition. Buy-in is the result of the successful building of coalition and the base of ambassadors, who delegate the change and ensure a transition from the top to the bottom of the organization. Buy-in is critically important to the companies at the time of change as it is the way to avoid resistance and eliminate uncertainty from the process of transition. Without buy-in from all levels of the organization, change leadership is likely to fail in a short term, in spite of how good the change is.
The Impact of Emotions on Change Success
Kotter (2002) notes that emotions are the heart of change and change management success is measured by the ability of the change leadership to manage the emotions and avoid resistance. Bridges (2003) gives a lot of attention to the role of emotion and individual perception in the change management process. The reality shows that individuals are naturally resistant to change and in order to ensure the successful transition to new situation and culture, a company should focus on addressing emotions, which are involved in the process. The Bridge's Transition Model is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate how emotions impact change. The point that should be made is that the change proposition and project can create interest and demonstrate the constructive benefits for the company. The change project itself, however, will not be able to create buy-in. People need to visualize the change and feel it in order to transform the reaction from resistance, confusion, and uncertainty to acceptance and bond, needed for the success of a change. Understanding and conceptualizing the types of emotions, which accompany organizational change on a group and individual levels, is fundamental to the change process as the emotional experience is the final outcome of any transition within the organization, resulting in new corporate culture.
Works Cited
Statistics New Zealand. Key Facts. Statistics New Zealand, Tatauranga Aotearoa. Web 13 Apr 2016, http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/film_and_television/ScreenIndustrySurvey_HOTP14-15.aspx
Bridges, William. Managing Transitions. Making the Most of the Change. 2nd Edition Cambridge: Perseus Publishing. 2003. Print.
Kotter P. John. The Heart of Change. Real-life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press. 2002.Print.
