Abstract
There has been a huge debate and research on different forms of the organizational change and various methods of managing those changes in the organization. Various studies and scholars have put forward their ideas and views about the change management with complementary as well as opposing models of managing change in the organization. It is very crucial for an organization to change continuously and it is equally important to manage the change happening in an organization with a proper model. This paper identifies and analyzes various reasons for the organization to change and manage the change. The paper further moves ahead by identifying the need for change for Aon-Hewitt based on the model. The paper discusses different actions that can introduce and manage change in the Aon-Hewitt, formerly known as Hewitt Associates so that the company performs its activities efficiently to remain competitive. The discussion streamlines the changes occurring in the organization in the frame of the top-down managerial process and the result of planning. In an overall, this paper discusses the implementation of Kotter’s 8-step approach in the introduction and management of the change in Aon-Hewitt.
Introduction
All the organizations operate in the changing business environment. The environment keeps on changing, and this poses the requirement for a change in the organization. To stay competitive in the business, it is very important for all the organizations to change or adapt changes. In case they fail to do so, it is very likely that their existence will be at stake. In the recent period, these continuous changes in the business environment have forced the companies to alter the way they perform their functions as well as transform their plans and actions (Harigopal, 2006).
The factors like the changes in the government policies, a rapid outburst of technology, changing the preference of the people as well as changing global power distribution, etc. have forced every company to formulate and implement the strategies in a way that can turn these kinds of changes into the competitive power. Hence, these changes force companies to change by putting their close focus in the surrounding.
There are different changes to which the organization can respond quickly and introduce the required changes in the organization; however, there are some changes like natural calamities, change in the government, change in the major policies regulating the business, civil and international wars, etc. that introduce the chaotic condition in the organization. So, the changes in the environment can be both of constructive or destructive nature, and the organization must understand the nature of change and respond accordingly. For example, the rapid fluctuation in the foreign currency can create a loss to a company that conducts its business in the foreign currency. So, in such condition, the company must understand if it is advantageous or disadvantageous for the company. However, understanding or predicting such changes is difficult, and it is facilitated by keeping the track of changes occurring in the environment and analyzing them predicting the future to ascertain how the situation unfolds in the future (Stamm, 2012).
Introducing the change and need for change is a subjective factor. Depending upon the nature of the organization, the change requirements are different. For example, for the technology-based organization, there is a frequent need of change while manual companies do not change frequently. Above all, one universally accepted fact is that despite the difference in the intensity of the change, every change must be managed properly to produce the fruitful result (Harigopal, 2006).
Company Introduction
Hewitt Associates is an American company that specializes in the management consulting business and as the provider of the human capital. The company was founded in 1940, which was then later in 2010 purchased by Aon to give rise to Aon Hewitt. The headquarter of the company is located in Lincolnshire, Illinois Hewitt Associates LLC, 2010). The company has always excelled in its field of operation providing the management solutions to many of its clients for over 75 years. The main competitive strength of the company lies in its pool of qualified and competent employees. With more than 500 offices in more than 120 countries, the company holds a big pool of employees. With its qualified and competent pool of employees, the company has been delivering the unmatched service to its clients building a strong clientele.
The company, as a management consultant, takes its client very importantly and always focuses its resources on building a working environment where the employee can put their knowledge and skills in the best to provide the best solution to the client. As a consultant, the company must deliver the best solution, which is only possible by the teamwork, so the company fosters the environment for teamwork and values it. Standing as one of the top companies in Fortune 500 list, the company has synchronized its international as well as domestic standards and practices to stand as the best company in the industry. The company is driven by the implicit objective of becoming the industry leader in which the company focuses on the importance of employees’ empowerment and satisfaction. In addition to this, the company provides software to its customer, so that much of their problem is solved, and the work of the company as a management consultant is simplified by the use of that software. It is also an attempt of the company to simplify the complex working condition for the employees (Hewitt Associates LLC, 2010).
The management consulting is the major business of Hewitt Associates, and the company put its emphasis on the development of the client relation based on the trust and satisfaction. This approach of the company ensures that the information and the solutions given by the company to its clients are relevant and scientific.
Diagnosis
The main reason demanding for the change at Hewitt is the performance of the employees. Despite the fact that they work so hard, their performance has always remained low. They are not able to meet the industry par in the performance metrics. The employees work hard for long hours with abundant pressures on their head throughout their time in the office; they are not able to meet the performance par. While the organization is not getting good performance from the employees, the employees feel that they are overburdened with the workload. Their feel like they are hackneyed and the issue of low motivation have started growing its roots deep down in the employees. Because of this, the employees have faced psychological as well as physiological imbalance leading to various performance related issues like poor attendance, low commitment, etc. affecting the overall efficiency of the company. If this problem persists in an organization, then it is very likely that the company will face a huge trouble in near future because many employees might quit their job causing the huge turnover cost of recruiting new employees as well as training them (Hewitt Associates LLC, 2010).
If we analyze the firm’s business, then it is clear that the company’s sales are increasing significantly, but the company’s earnings are not that healthy. Though the escalation in sales is satisfactory, the company is facing problem in increasing its net profits as per the proportion of sales increase. This kind of stagnation of profits while the sales are increasing might invite the problem to sales team forcing them to put higher effort. Even though the performance from the sales team is reflected in the sales escalation, their true contribution might not be reflected. If this continues to happen and the company fails to identify the source of problem and measures to correct it, then the company will lose its talented sales team along with other employees because they will not see their growth in the company with no growth in the profits.
The employees at Hewitt often experience that they are not getting appropriate consideration even in the issues that have a direct impact on the overall organization’s performance. The employees have put their worries and dissatisfaction on the company’s negligence and individuality to the top management, and they have also urged the management to look into this issue seriously. As a result of this negligence, the company has experienced the communication breakdown or the interrupted communication. This poor communication will be the root of big problems and is the subject of worry for the management. The company has implemented various changes and executed various strategies that were not even discussed with the employees, and this was reflected on the nervousness on the employees while working. This kind of activity has been proved to be wrong by the falling of international as well as the national business of the company. In addition to that, the stakeholders of the company have forced the company to alter the strategies or the management practice on this issue (Hewitt Associates LLC, 2010). So, the company needs to implement the changes scientifically so that it is accepted organization-wide and improves the performance of the company, as well.
Kotter’s 8-Step Approach
Because the company has faced problem in installing the change in the organization, the company wants its changes to be installed on the planned basis so that it creates a minimal problem in the organization. The company believes that if the changes are installed based on plan, then there will not be resistance from the employees and the change will be effective (Hayes & Richardson, 2008). The company aims to improve its communications strategy to bridge the gap in the organization.
Harvard professor and experienced change consultant, John Kotter has devised a model of change management and the organizational leadership (Stamm, 2012). He has identified eight steps in his model to manage the organizational change and achieve the best results from the successful change in the organization. The organization must follow the below-explained steps to manage the changes.
Creation of Urgency
This is the very first step and important step in the change management model of Kotter. Before introducing any changes in the company, the company must be able to create the urgency of such changes in the company so that everyone in the company becomes ready to accept the change. Hewitt Company must be able to convince its employees that there are changes needed in the organizational communication and other structures so that the performance of the employees can be increased.
Formation of a Powerful Guiding Coalition
After communicating the need for change in the organization, the company must assemble the groups or employees in the organization who are ready to lead the change happening in the organization. They can communicate the vision for change more clearly to the colleagues in the organization while they will be working as a mediator to relay the suggestions from the other employees regarding the change from the lower employees. Hewitt can implement this by identifying the employees with influencing the character and have the big group behind them.
Create Vision
There might be several suggestions and ideas flowing to the top management regarding the change. Taking each suggestion and idea into consideration is not possible so the company must create a vision. There might be several suggestions, several changes that are highlighted by the employees and the management to improve the performance. All those suggestions and change plan must be organized by creating a vision for the change (Pugh & Mayle, 2009). The vision provides the clear path for the company to drive its change effort.
Communicate the Vision
Once the change vision is defined, the vision must be communicated well. The communication must come from top to down and throughout the organization. Miscommunication creates the fear about change in the employees so that it is very likely that they resist the change. The management must be open to suggestions and address all the anxiety of the employees regarding change.
Empowering Others to Act on the Vision
Once the vision about change is formulated and communicated, the company now needs to empower its resources. The company must identify the factors that are resisting the change and solve them so that the company can implement its performance plan effectively. If the company structure or policy does not fit with the vision, then it must be changed. Also, Hewitt will persuade non-traditional and risk-taking actions, ideas, and activities (Harigopal, 2006).
Creation and planning from short-term wins
The change must not be implemented at once. The purpose of change implementation should be for short term, as a pilot test. The change must be evaluated based on the visible impacts that the changed process has generated. In the meantime, the contribution of employees and the change in their performance must be appraised and rewarded so that they becomes motivated to accept the change and change their behavior according to the need.
Institutionalize New Approaches
Many changes fail because many companies declare the success of the change too early. However, the company must continuously work on stabilizing the change and fine-tuning the change. The policies, structures and system that do not fit in the change plan must be updated with more supportive ones. The employees’ development and hiring are required to make sure that the resources are used efficiently in the changed system. The employees must be trained to develop new behavior that synchronizes with the changed system.
Consolidate Improvements
As a final step, the company must consolidate the improvements continuously. The various programs must be developed to stabilize the change. The management must put its effort continuously so that the impact of change becomes visible in the entire organization. The new works and projects must be taken according to the change, and every activity must be driven by the changed values and ideals.
Conclusion
The paper discussed the change management process using the Kotter’s 8-step model. The paper identifies a change in the organization and suggests the management of the change based on the model. The change is introduced based on several steps identified and discussed in Kotter’s 8-step model. This paper stressed on the fact that every change must be scientifically planned and executed based on the certain model for it to be successful. The paper identifies various changes that are to be planned in Aon-Hewitt. The various reasons for the changes in the company were identified that emphasized the change necessities for the organization to stay competitive. The successful change management in the organization is the main reason for the company to operate successfully in the competitive business environment.
References
Harigopal, K. (2006). Management of organizational change: Leveraging transformation. NewDelhi: SAGE.
Hayes, S., & Richardson, I. (2008). Scrum Implementation Using Kotter’s Change Model.Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 161-171. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-68255-4_16
Hewitt Associates LLC. (2010). About Hewitt. Retrieved August 8, 2012, from HewittAssociates: http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/AboutHewitt/WhoWeAre
Pugh, D. S., & Mayle, D. (2009). Change management. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Stamm, P. (2010). Change Management: The Analysis of J.P. Kotter’s eight steps. Munchen:Verlag.
