Mba 520 - Week 6

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Change Management Plan Paper

Fred A Filhala

MBA 520 - Transformational Leadership

Jane Doe

September 2, 2006

Change Management Plan Paper

Change is essential to today's business environment. If a company is to survive and succeed on a macro level, they should analyze and adopt the best overall plan for change on an enterprise level. When examining the best way to make changes in a company that will globally affect the company, it is usually best to look at the total picture before acting, lest the plan fail. This paper will briefly summarize four key areas that leaders and managers must understand in order to successfully make a change, or in the case of our model company CrysTel, manage change dynamically throughout the life of the company. In order to understand completely the change it wants to make, the company must understand the implications of the change and the human variables of change implementation. The company should also strive to understand how to monitor the progress of the change, and how to ensure the continued success of the change. The following paragraphs are an explanation of what CrysTel is, why it needs to change, and how these four key areas can be manipulated to help it succeed in its dynamic need for change in the ever-changing environment it lives in.

Implications of Organizational Change

CrysTel is a telecommunications company that exists in a very dynamic environment, and it has the need for all aspects of itself to be dynamic and able to change relatively quickly. The upper management recently realized that CrysTel has the need to bring more products and services into its portfolio. That means that everybody who works for the company needs to be good at analyzing the best way to change, implementing a change, and sustaining the change. It also means that CrysTel employees need to change with the organization. In order for all of the employees to be good at the constant change that will be happening and be as dynamic as they need to be, they have to have good and dynamic leaders and managers to aid in the effort. Without the support from above, the employees will probably lose focus and the desire to see the company succeed (Miller et al, 2004). If the company does not prepare well, it might experience a high turnover rate as well. A study conducted by Lester Coch and John R.P. French showed that if a group of workers was not prepared for a change properly, that group exhibited a high turnover rate (Krietner & Kinicki, 2003). CrysTel should also be prepared to prepare. According to a popular business slogan (that comes in many varieties), proper preparation prevents poor performance (Pike, 2003). This is very true in this case, as well. The upper management should explore and use whatever means necessary to prepare their staff for change. Sending all of the management to classes, having meetings or even arranging for sabbaticals are all great ideas to get everyone involved and on board for the upcoming changes. The management should, also expect a certain amount of problems; to include the resistance to change that is sure to come to many of CrysTel's employees.

Human Variables of Change Implementation

It would be appropriate for the upper management to select a model for change and to develop a plan for change that includes mitigation of resistance to change and addresses human variables. Given that CrysTel is a technology company that is on the cutting edge of the industry, the best change model seems to be the transtheoretical model for change. This plan is primarily used to describe the relationship of behavior to health related changes in people. However, its recent use includes its ability to help explain individual's response to change. The transtheoretical model sites the following five things as the steps necessary for change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. These steps allow

Since CrysTel will be very fluid, they will need as much training on how to change as they can get, because they will be changing a lot. They will also need to understand and be prepared to mitigate the resistance to change that is sure to arise in some form within the company. The first step in mitigating the resistance is to be up front with the employees from the beginning. That is, the management should explain all aspects of the change to all employees of CrysTel before it happens, this way the employees feel that they understand what is happening, and that they are part of the process. Two related, known personal characteristics of the resistance to change are the commitment to change and the resilience to change. Commitment is important because of the idea that if the employee is committed to the change that is occurring around them, they will be more likely to endure things that they do not like about the change because they feel obligated by the commitment. Resilience is important because problems will occur, and the quicker someone gets over their problem with part (or all) of the change the quicker the process can move on for them and the company. One can begin to instill these characteristics in employees by trying to motivate them to be optimistic. It has been shown that if an employee is more optimistic, then they will tend to be more flexible, tolerant and adaptable (Krietner & Kinicki, 2003).

Measures to Monitor Progress

Noting levels of commitment and resilience among one's employees is just an example of the importance of matching followership styles with leadership styles. How an employee follows can tell a leader a lot about how they need to be handled in order to work efficiently. It is not up to the employee to change. How involved a manager is with his employees' job and personal feelings is an important factor in the change that is required for the manager to meet their employee's followership style. At CrysTel, there are five departments to consider. Each one of these departments has its own style of leadership already, and after examining the climate and job satisfaction surveys it seems obvious that at least two of these departments could use a little change. The Human Resources and the Sales and Delivery departments both seem to be lacking in leadership. Taking a cue from the other three departments, they should probably switch to a more hands on approach with both the job and the employees feelings. That means that the upper management probably

...