Question

Case Study

You work as a Change Manger for ABC Company. In this project you are required to demonstrate your skills and knowledge through identifying change requirements and opportunities, developing a change management strategy, and implementing a change management strategy. You can demonstrate evidence of your planning by providing the communication strategy and action plan to ensure consultation and participation, stakeholder analysis, risk treatment action plan, a work breakdown analysis, a responsibility assignment matrix and a project schedule. Read the instructions below and answer all the questions.

You receive an email from the Business Operations Manager at ABC Company.

As you may be aware, the current financial standing of the organisation is little less than satisfactory. We have faced various issues over the past 3 months and have been unable to make a recovery. I believe that change is inevitable at ABC, so we are delighted to have you on board and hope that you will lead the way for ABC during this necessary period of change.

You need to consider how you will work and communicate effectively with other departmental managers and the human resources department to develop a corporate culture that accepts your proposed change.

Please start by examining the key points from the business report that follows and report on your proposed changes. Prior to commencement you may want to ask yourself the following:

• What is the change?
• Why is the change being made?
• How is the change going to affect ABC?
• How will you prevent change from challenging ABC’s ability to create value and regain relevance?
• How will you lead, manage and sell change effectively?

In the ABC Company Business Report, the key points are:

• Over the past 3 months, ABC has lost several of its key managers. This has had a serious effect on the corporate culture.
• Executive management have not yet found qualified replacements for these managers. Instead, they have been hiring unqualified trainees to cut further operational costs.
• Competitors have begun to take market share and ABC has not implemented the required changes to products and services to stay relevant in the market. As a result, ABC is finding it very difficult to stay competitive.
• New technologies have been purchased but not yet implemented throughout the organisation because the required training has not been organised. As a result, resources are either lacking or not being used effectively.
• As a result of the financial standing, cost cutting has been inevitable. This has been very emotionally taxing on staff and ABC has had to sublet part of its office space.
• Due to the business downturn, ABC has been left with no other option but to introduce the Lean Manufacturing System. This has significantly impacted the way the company orders raw materials, which has created issues with the shipping and receiving schedule.
• Manufacturing habits require a redesign in the manufacturing division as a consequence.
• Staff morale and productivity are at record lows. Management intervention is vital in maintaining time lines and ABC milestones.
• The ABC vision statement is outdated and does not reflect current situations.

You are required to answer all the questions below.

1. Conduct a change readiness assessment:

1. Explain what methods you would use to gather information relating to the change readiness of the organisation
2. Conduct a force field analysis and provide a summary of the driving and restraining forces for change
3. Provide a list of strategies to increase the driving forces and reduce the retraining forces.

2. Develop the change vision statement and identify the methods you will use to communicate the vision to motivate staff.

3. Formulate the change strategy, identifying the guiding principles and high-level or broad tactics to realise the benefits of the change.

Answer 1

a. ABC company is facing a hard time as regards to its financial condition and also they have to deal with the shortage of trained employees and most of them were the managers and due to cost-cutting, the company is hiring unqualified trainees to work in the organization. The first step to gather information relating to the change readiness is to have a keen self-evaluation of the whole organization. The views of all the staff must be taken into consideration and the decision for change must be carried out as communication among all the employees is me to success for all the organization. The management must take all the employees into confidence so that they can help in increasing the productivity in the organization. The assessment of the change must be done so that the proper plan can be charted out. All the available resources must be evaluated and the skills must be thoroughly examined. The goals must be analyzed. The risk factor must also be considered so that proper action can be taken. After planning the next step is to design the change plan and the stakeholders must be made aware of the change which is going to be done within the organization. The existing employee training must be conducted so that they can fully utilize the available resources with minimum wastage. This will help in change assessment in the organization.

b)The force field analysis presents the various factors which are favoring the change and the forces which are not supporting the change. The forces which are for the change is more than the forces which are against the changes. So, the company can utilize its resources for conducting a change within the organization.

c.The driving forces could be increased by fully utilizing the available resources and minimizing the wastes. training the employees so that the unqualified trainees. The available resources must be judiciously utilized and the raw materials must be utilized. The restraining forces can be curbed by utilizing the untrained employees and their development. The competition must be handled and new products must be launched so that the company can gain a lost reputation in the market. The shipping related problems must also need to be addressed so that raw materials can be easily received for increasing production.

The staff must be conveyed about the whole change process so that they can understand the need for change and accept the change which is going to take place within the organization. All the communication gaps must be removed and their opinions must be given due respect so that they work efficiently and they remain motivated. This will help in making the change a profitable one.