The development of the sphere of human activities is dynamic. Often such development is coupled with numerous variations that are conventionally perceived to be normal. However, the real state of things may differ with regard to organizational change. In other words, change in a corporate layout, management, ethics, size and other aspects requires planning as a prerequisite. Moreover, since real change ought to be naturally motivated, the entire discipline of change management is applied to the cases in which a particular organization requires a series of complex changes for a wide range of purposes. It is, therefore, essential for change management to be incorporated into a business strategy for appraisal of the constant business progress . The corporate organization should always strive to constantly address existing problems and capitalize on key advantages. Considering such point, it is necessary to admit that the focal point of current essay is to discuss and make suggestions about a change strategy, deemed necessary for the organization.
More precisely, the essay introduces the case via brief overview of the situation within the organization. Further, it gives an account of the principal company challenges that are related to the change strategy. Consequently, the change strategy, as well as well-researched suggestions regarding the exact ways of the implementation of the envisaged change plan, are exhaustively outlined and the most expected outcomes of the change strategy are described.
Brief Overview
In the first place, it is necessary to admit that the organization does not practice any change management at all. Instead, the mandate for all organizational and structural issues should be bestowed on Industrial Relations department, which runs its functions on a formal structure. The representatives of the department are responsible for making certain decisions, which are, therefore, subjected to further scrutiny by the rest of the company officials. In other words, Industrial Relations merely formulate certain ideas but do not eligible to participate in their enforcement. Such fact often provokes resentfulness among the workers of other departments who would have to assist their colleagues. As a result, Industrial Relations would often suggest new organizational changes and put psychological pressure on the rest of the departments for their unwillingness to complete the outlined tasks. In the event that any attempts of change fail, the situation in the organization may imply some other factors.
Managers are obliged to take new responsibilities of streamlining all departmental operations so that the effectiveness of their leadership can be felt across the cadres. Consequently, the organization should avoid frequent conflicts, which continue negatively influence the production processes. That is why the organization strongly needs a change strategy for 2014 – 2017 to help manage issues of such magnitude. The result-oriented strategy would be inclined on concrete objectives and implementation structure of a flexible change management. Regarding a total absence of the system of addressing such issues, it would be wise for the organization to adopt a “change for changes” mechanism as long as the implementation of change management is associated with a variety of drastic events. It is a significant point regarding the situation within the organization and it should be noted that the core problems of the company are not explicit to warrant being given an independent account.
Core Problems
It is obvious that the main problem of the organization is absence of change management. Apparently, the entire staff does not have any feeling of urgency, which can be regarded as a strong motivator concerning taking innovative approaches (Kotter 2007). Such factor works in the reversal manner: absence of motivation means absence of a desire for changes and vice versa. Since the company lacks such essential components of the ethical perspective, it does not fully address any organizational behavior. Such factors make a considerable impact on the possibility of changes within a given company. The reason is as follows: the employees are demotivated, hence, cannot perform changes within the firm. It can be explained by the fact that the majority of them are contended with usual hierarchy within the organization.
However, such negative attitude can be associated with a total indifference to the improvement of the company and, hence, lack of commitment. At the same time, it is increasingly evident that the company is trading on a futile course. Taking into account that the staff has a wrong perception of the company’s performance, key advantages and disadvantages, the employees are unwilling to accommodate any changes. They are satisfied with the present situation and would not make any efforts in contributing towards the company improvement as long as they see that it reaches the right goal. Basing on such situation, it is necessary for the organization to implement drastic changes with regard to every aspect. The organization is, therefore, in dire need for a “change for changes” approach in causing considerable amendments within a corporate structure (Cells, Jong & Nauta 2012). It will expedite the implementation of evolutionary change management on a regular basis. By giving an account to the core problems of the company, a change strategy is supposed to be outlined.
Change Strategy
Regarding change strategy for the organization, it is necessary to admit that the organization should take a proactive approach. As long as the personnel lacks motivation for initiating meaningful changes, some drastic measures have to be taken (Meyerson 2005). The most effective method to empower the entire staff for considerable changes is developing the key strength for obtaining evident opportunities. It can be attained by the implementation of innovative projects, establishment of partnerships, participation in tenders, among others. The main purpose for such actions is to establish a credible need for changes “visible” for the entire organization. The organization is striving for obviously false objectives so that they have to be substituted with real and feasible goals, which can cause a need for changes within the company. As soon as new strategic values are realized, a change in the organization’s environment will be clearly seen, as a need for reorganization is often a natural desire.
The change can be boosted by a wide range of actions within the organizations. It is recommended to utilize multiple economic initiatives. In such way, drastic layoffs, downsizing and the optimization of the company’s resources is highly necessary to create conditions, in which the organization will be supposed to reconsider its strategic objectives and overall organizational behavior. Such factors will compel the entire staff to participate and take the necessary remedial actions. As usual, a majority of employees will try to resist the changes, but with persistent implementation of the plan they will start assisting the process with time. Layoffs and downsizing definitely renders some workers redundant, thus, reducing the size of the organization. Though, such procedures usually result in the increase of stakeholders’ values (Garvin & Roberto 2005). However, it is an imperative aspect, especially in terms of “changes for change”. Moreover, vertical organizational change will influence the relationships between leaders and average workers on the basis of various initiatives and related reward system, which have to be incorporated into the change strategy.
As soon as the basis for the changes is created, it is essential to establish the connection between workers and fundamental change agents. Therefore, every organizational aspect is supposed to undergo changes of a certain extent. It is important to place emphasis on the fact that the organization should make changes for the establishment of environment, which will consider change as a regular and gradual process (Beer & Nohria 2000). In other words, the organization needs to change in order to adopt a change culture. That is why a change strategy has to switch to an evolutionary approach, which presupposes gradual changes throughout the entire lifecycle of the company. Gradual changes require a profound framework, since they are geared towards enhancing other aspects of the organization and cannot be implemented to their largest extent.
Considering the peculiarities of the company’s strategic objectives, the change strategy may be amended during its factual implementation. Consequently, initiation of change-leading team is extremely required. It can consist of former leaders and heads or staff volunteers, who had earlier decided to take responsibility for the implementation of change management in the company. The team has to reinforce prioritization of changes together with committed workers regarding the content of the main objectives of change strategy. Thus, the frameworks may change in accordance with the employees’ preferences regarding any changes. Changes in frameworks may take as much time as it is necessary, since the main purpose of the strategy is the establishment of the relationships between workers and key leaders. The way the main objectives are achieved is not substantial, while a collective desire is a natural phenomenon, which will lead to the outlined changes (Kegan & Lahey 2005). Such aspects will also be discussed from the perspective of the change methodology.
Besides, frameworks are recommended to be classified strictly as a practical purpose because classification of preferred workers’ frameworks would help indicate the nature of problems the company faces at a given moment (Armenakis & Harris 2009). At the phase of change implementation, framework classification can be utilized as the orientation of the further actions in terms of the change strategy. Then, the most prevailing class of the frameworks will distinguish the perspective from which the organization’s change has to be initiated. In this particular case, a connection between the organization and its employees reaches its maximum, since the basis of the strategy relies on the diversification of the employees’ outlooks and attitudes regarding the change strategy. Such approaches will establish positive relationships between heads and workers and decrease a risk of change resistance, which is known to be the main contributing factor to 70% of change failures. However, all negotiations with staff should not exceed the terms of the firm’s change strategy.
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Methodology
As pertains to methodology of the change strategy of the organization, it should be admitted that it has to be based on Burke-Litwin model. The current model implies mutual relationships between all stakeholders within the organization even though it is focused at leadership. A distinct advantage of the present model appliance is based on the internal and external alignment of teams and leaders, which is an important aspect concerning a current situation of the company (Edwards, Franken & Lambert 2009). Hence, communication between leaders and average workers should be established via board meetings, seminars and team building events that can be held in the informal manner. As for the workers’ participation in change programs, it is necessary to note that every employee should be personally responsible for learning and contributing to changes. In addition, an external consultation of the organization is supposed to be conducted for identification of relevant strength and opportunities.
In regard to the ethical perspective of the changes, the involvement of all staff in the mainstream corporate ethics is a normal process, but it is important to consider a principle of diversification, which plays a significant role in cases of resistance to change. In such way, all workers should feel free to raise reservations regarding the way they personally change. Every employee has to change in accordance with his/her personal vision of the outlined change objectives (Hughes 2010). That is why it may be necessary for the organization to conduct multiple dismissals. Workers, who are resistant to changes, should be suspended at least for a certain period, until they are ready to adjust to the new corporate hierarchy. Similarly, it is crucial to conduct a survey among the employees in order to distinguish what views and attitudes they have towards the change strategy. Accordingly, their individual opinions should be considered. At this phase, any desire for change is valuable for the organization.
After adoption of a regular change management, it is essential to develop a related framework. As it has already been mentioned, it is supposed to be changeable. Therefore, it is recommended not to implement any particular framework at all. To be more precise, workers have the liberty to choose of a framework via communication between departments and chief executives. It can be explained by the fact that a principle of diversification still has to be considered. At the same time, team leaders need to empower their subordinates for achievement of the overall company objectives. It will ultimately help outline the personal ambitions and goals of the organization in order to create a corporate culture (Gold, Mumford & Thorpe 2010).
Further, a development of a continuous change is needed. Considering such point, the methodology should diagnose the existing frameworks with regard to the staff demands. It can be explained by the fact that frameworks, which are the most preferable by the employees, imply a certain disadvantage in the organization’s strategy, since the workers consider improvement towards a particular aspect to be an important change. In such cases, special board meetings have to be initiated for brainstorming of possible strategies. Leaders are expected to outline main steps, benefits and rewards concerning the fulfillment of the main tasks (Evard & Gipple 2009). Afterwards, a certain distinct framework is recommended, as long as leftists are excluded from the agenda due to their divergent personal decisions.
Eventually, in the event that the change strategy fails, it will mean that the company was entrenched on wrong objectives. Therefore, the organization will need to conduct more thorough consultations in order to detect important objectives for a new change process. Hence, the organization should implement a combined change strategy, which will include both taking drastic decisions and gradually addressing the detected problems. For instance, the problem of failure will be definitely related to some ethical considerations as long as the staff is the main driving force of the change process in the firm (Jones & Recardo 2013). Moreover, it will be necessary to conduct additional layoffs and elect new leaders. It is worth admitting that they are expected to be chosen voluntarily so that only committed people become the main leaders. Generally, these are the main points regarding the methodology for the change strategy.
Expected Outcomes
First, the most expected result of the change strategy is complete adoption of change culture. In other words, the company is expected to implement changes on a regular basis. More so, the staff should be change-friendly so that the organization does not face any hindrances to changes. Such outcome is the basis for the rest of the expectations. Subsequently, the organization is supposed to find its actual goals in order to formulate its strategic objectives, vision and mission. It is an important aspect, as it is a core of current company’s problems. Adequate assessment of objectives is primarily related to change management, as a development towards new and relevant goals drives a need for change. Due to considerable changes within the company, the involvement of innovative approaches on the basis of various projects is also expected. A process of constant development depends on frequency, appropriateness and quality of changes. Otherwise, the implementation of continuous change strategy will be redundant and the organizations will remain at the same level of stagnation.
With regard to the ethical perspective of the organization, it is expected to create the environment for a strong staff-friendly leadership. Improvement of such aspect can be traced throughout the entire change strategy. Leadership should serve the function of powerful booster of motivation for average workers and authoritative guidance. Therefore, the last expectation from current change strategy is creating of organizational ethics, which will be based on teamwork, insight culture and commitment to the company’s goals and community.
Conclusion
The organization is facing serious problems regarding change management, ethical environment and relationships between leaders and average employees so that the change strategy can consists of a wide range of solutions aimed at addressing the problem. The aforementioned core problems of the company can be resolved if the change strategy will be properly implemented. In connection with that, the paper has suggested the change strategy for the company with the consideration of main change dimensions. Consequently, the methodology for the change strategy has been suggested and its features well-elaborated. Eventually, the paper has outlined the most expected outcomes of the proposed strategy. The main objective of the outlined strategy and related methodology is based on “change for changes” principle. It is caused by the fact that the organization needs a series of irregular changes, which can make the entire company adopt change culture as a pivotal component of the corporate strategic performance and ethical code. The process of the change strategy implementation can be subdivided into two logical phases: creation of conditions for a regular change management and development of continuous change strategy based on the evolutionary approach.
It is difficult to ignore the fact that any strategy cannot be implemented without a distinct framework. With regard to the peculiarities of the company, it is worth noting that a flexible and versatile framework is necessary, since relationships between leaders and staff cannot be described as satisfactory. That is why frameworks have been suggested to follow the preferences of the employees, which may help the company solve multiple challenges. Such approach enhances an elaborate rapport between workers and their leaders so that the firm should start valuing a different form of leadership. Finally, the most preferable frameworks are the most reliable indicators of the company’s problems because the employees will think that a company should strive for a particular objective. As a result, the company will have an opportunity to solve strategic, as well as ethical issues, which are mutually related.
