MGT435: Organizational Change
Introduction The XYZ luxury jewelry and accessories have launched a new campaign to venture overseas. This will be the organization’s first international expansion. As it is foretold the first expansion will start in Shanghai, China. The long term goals set forth for the international expansion is to eventually conquer other areas in: Brazil, Russia, and other parts of China. Implementing change can be challenging to plan when faced with unforeseen challenges. The responsibility of the organization is to address all concerns from all stakeholders and look into the costs of the expansion and developing a new workforce overseas. In order to ensure stability and success we will look at starting with a short-term small-scale change, which will eventually lead towards a long-term, large scale for a successful future of the organization. Change can bring bad along with good ideas and leaders may need to prioritize various change proposals and defuse poor ideas, rather than always responding to changes from the internal and external environment. According to Weiss, there are two different methods that are mostly used and that are Kotter and Cooperrider and Whitney. (Weiss, 2012). These two approaches include: leadership, shared need, guiding coalitions, commitment, communicating, changing structures, empowering others, and making change last" (Gilley, McMillan & Gilley, 2009). According to Czarniawska and Sevon, they are suspicious of the recent trends in business to reconfigure organizations every five years and of the idealization and symbolic value of change as a trophy of managerial success (Czarniawska & Sevon, 1996, p. 8).
Development of a Short-Term Change The new development of XYZ’s expansion to venture into international waters has increased the awareness to management that a change model is needed. There are many change models out there that can help but only one that could be successful for this company. Kotter’s eight step approach provides a detailed analysis of what an organization can do to become successful (Weiss, 2012). See diagram below (Weiss, 2012): The eight-step approach will help build the foundation needed when building a company internationally. It is important to understand what each step can provide to the company and the importance that each step contains.
1. Establish Sense of Urgency- Address critical issues in the organization.
2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition- forming a group with enough power to lead the change and encourage the group to work as a team.
3. Develop a Vision and Strategy-Implements the strategy of change by articulating what the organization needs to accomplish.
4. Communicate the Change Vision-To teach and help employees to understand the changes to come.
5. Empower Others to Act on the Vision- Campaigning to increase awareness of the change and to rid the organization of possible obstacles that may undermine the development of the change.
6. Generate Short-term wins- Help to create visible performance improvements.
7. Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change- Work on improvements and continue with change.
8. Anchor New Approaches in the Culture-Articulate and reinforce new behaviors for success.
These steps are necessary for the organization to focus on the future success for the international expansion. Once the organization is able to establish these 8 steps and master each level then they can focus on long-term goals. The employees, managers, and executives will need to pull together in understanding this change model in order for the organization to be successful with the new direction they are headed.
The employees are vital to the success of this change and they will be helping the management and executives in implementing their vision. When a major change such as expansions of a business there can be a lot of pressure amongst