Interview Analysis, Essay Example

Introduction

For this assignment I interviewed Travis Coleman, a project manager for the large pharmaceutical firm – Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. Position of a leader in one of the strategic project teams certainly requires great skills concerning change management. In the past several years major changes have happened in the company, especially when the American pharmacy firm was merged to become the American Subsidiary of the European firm, Bayer. The company is still going through the integration process, as various techniques and approaches have to be adjusted to the new operational style.

Change Management Theory and Practice Relations

Apart from simply integrating the organizational structures in the two large companies, other areas where change is urgently needed are identified. During the interview Travis mentioned two vital issues that require improvement: research and marketing. Before assessing the change management techniques that are used in Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, several remarks have to be made: real actions do not always respond to theory exactly. Moreover, the transition process is always a very lengthy and complicated one, with a number of minor details. No theory discusses all the actions needed for a successful transformation, so a combination of several theoretical models has to be used.

The conditions that give ground for the changes inside the organization are present:

• Change leader’s competencies – these seems to be present, as Travis Coleman has proven himself to be a highly efficient project leader during the merger of the two companies.
• Perceived need for change – is also present, as the company’s officials recognize the problems that arise in marketing and research and are willing to act to which improve the corporate efficiency.
• Readiness for a change – Hard to evaluate, as most of the mangers clearly realize the problems, but are unwilling to start acting, being slightly afraid of the transitions process, which is always rather confusing.

Areas Requiring Change

During the interview I learned about the major areas that require change in Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. The first one is research and development. The company has successfully developed 11 types of medication for diagnostics, treatment of neurological, cardiovascular and oncology problems. As the company focuses on manufacturing only the meds invented by it, the range of medication available has to be broadened. Treatment against all sorts of viruses is very urgent and is capable of generating great profits. The company however does not have much experience or scientific background in this sphere. With the emerging mutations of the flu viruses, the entirely new market opens up. In order to enter this market and reach success, changes in the research and development department has to be made.

The second issue that requires instant attention is marketing. Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals often fails to properly advertise its goods. In some cases, false information is given to the clients, as the medicine’s curing potential is overestimated. Such initially wrong claims are a sign of the failure of the company to sell some of its products with the conventional advertising methods. This fact has already attracted attention of the government and the company has received a warning letter.

Change Management in Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals

Travis Coleman described the actions take in order to makes sure that the company changes for the better. The beginning of the change process was, he said when, it became clear to most of the managers that problems, which have been stated above, are actually preventing the organization from growing. It then became clear that the changes are inevitable in the long run. Gradually, more and more people started feeling involved in the upcoming change, so the desire to participate started evolving. The fact that information was presented in such a manner, one may surely assume that the ADKAR methodology was familiar to the management of the company. Travis clearly sees what stage of organizational change his company is going through at the moment. ADKAR mode has five blocks, necessary for the successful change to occur:

1. Awareness – the management is already aware of the issues that need attention
2. Desire – people in the company do realize the necessity of the changes and wish to take part in them.
3. Knowing – there is still no clear idea about what the changes should be like
4. Ability – it is not yet known whether the changes will be successful or not
5. Reinforcement

Before actually starting the change process, Travis claimed that the human factor was of great importance to him. He said that he had planned a set of actions to make sure he gets enough support from the staff. He stressed the importance of common goals for the changes, his leadership efforts, good personal connection with the staff, and sustained personal performance. This clearly shows that the PCI (people centered implementation) methodology for the change management is also being used. As the interview has demonstrated, the PCI and ADKAR technologies are both rather suitable for preparing the company for major changes. The staff is aware of the transition process and is willing to cooperate.

Recommendations

Processes, described by Travis Coleman certainly demonstrate willingness to change and good basis for the changes. However, the company is still not rather passive and speaks of changes, rather than actually start it. Therefore, several pieces of advice can be given to the management of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals:

1. Consider the “unfreeze-change-refreeze” model of change management by Kurt Lewin. It demonstrates that the company may not remain in a chaotic state, (when the old system does not work and there is still no new one) for long.
2. Clarify the change objectives and makes sure everyone is aware of the final goal
3. Involve all of the stakeholders, not only the management
4. Establish better communication within the team
5. Create a team personally responsible for the change process and make sure they are well-motivated to come up with specific plan of actions as soon as possible.

References

“Change management – the systems and tools for managing change” – retrieved May 7, 2009 from: http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-change-process-detailed.htm

“Change Management Methodology” – Retrieved May 7, 2009 from: http://www.army.mil/armyBTKC/enablers/cm/method.htm

“Change management methodology overview” – Change Management Learning Center. Retrieved May 7, 2009 from: http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-methodology-overview.htm