Strategic Change Management. Management Essays. Management Term Papers. Graduate Management Essays.

Strategic Change Management

Assignment Task :
Read the following Scenario, and prepare a report with the guidelines provided.
Scenario: Learners select an organisation and develop a model for change,
incorporating issues related to strategic change in that organisation. They need to
show how they will lead stakeholders in developing a strategy for change and how
they plan to implement the chosen model for change. The report needs to start with
an introduction to the background of change.
The report should include the following:
1. Executive Summary
• Simply an overview of the report, focusing on the key highlight.
2. Introduction of the Chosen Organization and background to change
• History of firm. What is the change? When is it / was it required?
• Explain any three change management models and evaluate the relevance of
these models to the chosen organization.
• Student should identify any 3 models. These models are
recommendations in the main and will have their benefits in various
areas.
• Students must integrate both models. For example, where one model is
weak, the other model might fill that gap. For instance, some elements
of Kotter can be applied along with Lewin’s. Students must put the
elements of the models to work. For example, Awareness in Prosci’s
model should describe how this ‘awareness will be executed.
• Consideration can be given to the use of the model in other situations,
further justifying your application.
• The choice of models might be dependent on culture, time frame for
change, organizational structure, management style and so on.
• A background of each model is encouraged but the models must be
brought to life with the organization of choice.
3. Examine the need (reason) for change in the organization. Assess the factors
that drive the need for strategic change and assess the resource implications for
not responding to these changes.
• This question requires much discussion. Students must do a thorough
review of the reasons for change in the organization chosen. This is
likely to highlight many reasons such as: technology changes, new manager, new process, government policy, competition in the market
environmental policies, internal factors such as employee safety,
employee dissatisfaction.
• Students can apply SWOT and PESTEL which can easily highlight
reasons for changes. For example, in the case of SWOT, the weakness
of poor output can justify the implementation of robotics at a car
manufacturing plant. Further, the economic / macro factor of
environmental laws to reduce carbon foot print, has influenced many
car manufacturers to downsize engines and introduce electric and
alternative energy sources of transportation.
• Drivers for strategic change: this might be due to the impact of the
change on the enterprise. For example, some changes are
transformational, to avoid reverting or relapsing to previous situations
, conditions , even the complexity of the change or general nature
• Student should highlight the impact if the firm does not or did not
proceed with the change itself. There are many resource implications.
The implications can be focused on internal issues – for example, staff
not being prepared or trained for new business opportunities the firm is
embarking on.
• External implications can also be discussed. This might explore
implications of the lack of market readiness to ward off competition.
4. Develop a change management strategy involving the stakeholders and also
devise strategies to overcome resistance.
Your change management plan might want to discuss the following:
1. Define the change ahead.
2. Ensure the change is aligned with the firm’s objective. This must be explained
3. Establish a time frame for the change management process. A Gantt chart can
be considered here.
4. Ensure to have sound leadership and or management support to help drive the
change process.
5. Communicating the change. This is very critical and must be considered and
discussed. Communication must consider when to communicate, with whom
to communicate in terms of groups or hierarchy or departments and if to
communicate to one party first or all altogether (if applicable),what platform to
communicate information (tweeter, Facebook, award ceremony, whatsapp etc)
who should communicate the information, where to communicate the
information if it is to be done in a live format and so on.
6. Appoint a change management sponsor or team leader for the change management project. Students can define the role of the sponsor and suggest
the benefits of the appointment.
7. Student can highlight / or reiterate the importance of choosing the most
appropriate model or models.
8. Monitor / measure the progress of the change. Although some models might
emphasize this approach, it should be highlighted separately.
9. As part of the plan, it’s important to set up or establish a support structure for
staff/ main stakeholders affected. An open door policy might be needed here.
The change management leader or champions appointed, can be used to
provide this support.
10. As part of your plan, one might argue that the strategy should consider a level
of flexibility. Flexibility might relate to a change in time frame or even a
change in the change management model due to some changes in the
circumstances or in the event that the model/s applied is not working as
planned.
11. Determine the impact and those affected. (This can be addressed under
stakeholder management. Student can decide here)
12. Stakeholder management must form part of your plan. This involves,
communicating with all stakeholders, before, during and after the change has
been implemented. Defining stakeholder management and giving a thorough
review of its elements are critical here.
13. Here are some areas for discussion re stakeholders: who are they? What do they
do? Why are they important? Which ones have greater influence over others?
Which ones we should simply inform vs closer management? Also, recognize
the 4Cs of engagement for stakeholders. Students must be very thorough for
the stakeholder part of the question.
• Proper research and referencing, expected at this level. Such may also
contribute to your grade
•
5. Conclusions and recommendations.
6. References (Adhering to Harvard Referencing Format)