Change Management Plan Paper- Crystel

Change Management Plan Paper and Defense: Crys-Tel

Rapid change pervade today’s business environment and a company’s success often hinges on its ability to effectively adapt to this change. Companies that establish change management strategies and design organizational structures conducive to open communication and teamwork, often fair better than those stuck with a purely hierarchical structure. Crys-Tel Telecommunication Company is based on Illinois and offers a diverse line of products and services. Crys-Tel is experiencing regular changes in both the administrative and technological side of the business. Crys-Tel management is concerned with optimizing flexibility, promoting innovation and coping with frequent change and has decided to apply behavioral change techniques through the use of a consultant in order to build a culture that can sustain constant change.

Through climate and employee satisfaction surveys, Crys-Tel isolated several negative implications change will have on the company if CrysTel management leaves the present structure and processes as is. These behavioral implications also serve to stress why the current situation is not conducive to transformation and how these two departments might even serve to undermine change efforts. Employees in both the Sales and Delivery and Marketing departments expressed concern over the lack of communication among Crys-Tel departments and the power levels. Employees surveyed also felt that managers do not lead by example, that there is little company mentoring, teams do not feel empowered, and that both departments lack a culture of risk-taking and conflict resolution. Change in such an environment would likely result in operational confusion, a faltering commitment to Crys-Tel’s mission and, eventually, low employee morale. (UOP, 2008).

Failure to concentrate on the implications of change on the current structure will negatively affect the Crys-Tel; the ramifications of not addressing the change implications are potentially lethal. CrysTel currently lacks the open and honest communication necessary to limit opposition and, therefore, the net result would be excessive passive or active resistance that could completely derail the company’s competitive edge. Another ramification of operational confusion resultant of too much change or ill-defined procedures and functions could lead to organizational paralysis because employees no longer understand company processes. This in turn creates deep frustration and even resentment among the workforce. Finally, if employees fail to understand the reason behind the change and/or the company’s new vision, commitment to strategies and goals will waver and morale will plummet. Employees’ might manifest their frustrations in muted creative problem-solving and/or an outright unwillingness to adapt.

The Lewin’s three-stage change model is the most appropriate for Crys-Tel. This three step model will allow Crys-Tel to use order to unfreeze, change, and refreeze behaviors, attitudes, and organizational practices. Lewin’s model advocates for the role of habits in peoples’ thoughts and actions (Kreitner-Kinicki, 2003, p. 677). The first step of unfreezing, the employees at Crys-Tel will have to leave behind their old behaviors and attitudes and become motivated to change. For the two weakest departments, marketing, sales and delivery, means changes in many areas. In the marketing department, a new attitude towards communication and training will be necessary. In the sales department, an attitude and behavior modification in the areas of leadership, teamwork, communication and mentoring will be critical.

Now in the second step of Lewin’s model which is the changing step; will be the most important step for Crys-Tel. In order for Crys-Tel to be transformed into an organization that does not have a high-level of resistance to change and is ready to adapt to continuous change, employees must use this step to look at processes and behaviors in a different light by learning a new way of doing things. For the marketing department, this means setting performance objectives, defining job roles, increasing communication and relationship, and improving leadership. The sales and delivery department must make some changes such as involving employees in problem-solving, and implementing a formal conflict resolution process. In addition, increasing employee confidence in decision- making, encouraging creative thinking, and creating a training program are important to the change that will need to be implemented in the sales and delivery department during this step.

The third and final step is the refreezing step. In this third step, the employees at Crys-Tel will need to incorporate the new attitudes, behaviors, and processes into the normal way of doing things. Employees will be expected to demonstrate these changes and positive reinforcement will be necessary to ensure the implementation. If implemented successfully the marketing, sales and delivery departments from there on should experience improved communication and more efficient work processes.

Change is necessary in today’s business environment. Some companies manage the transition by empowering and motivating their employees to embrace change. Others implement short-term fixes to problems or turn a blind eye to change altogether (Kreitner-Kinicki, 2003, p. 676). There are several of models of organizational change available and after reviewing the results from Crys-Tel’s employee satisfaction and climate surveys, management should use a holistic approach which takes human variables and potential resistance into consideration.

Resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine (Kreitner-Kinicki, 2003, p. 685). Resistance to change has the potential to occur during any change plan. The departments at Crys-Tel have to be motivated and adaptable to change in order for the company to succeed in their plan to sustain change through the frequent advances in technology. Factors in resistance to change are lack of communication, assignment of responsibility, and the lack of recognition for achievements and direction. If these factors become an issue at Crys-Tel it will be important to address them immediately. Crys-Tel employees need to be given the opportunity for input and guarantee that the job they are doing is important. Encouraging a better relationship with the employees and defining a channel for communication will be necessary actions for the Crys-Tel leadership to undertake in order to decrease resistance.

By having a complete range of change strategies; it should be the contingency strategy that the leadership at Crys-Tel can use.

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