Personal Change Management Theory, Research Paper Example

It is clear that organizations are forced to undergo frequent changes today. The need for the changes is predetermined by multiple factors, all of which are related to the fact that any organization is an open structure, experiencing influence from the outer world. External conditions of the organization do not remain static, as the variables change fast. Dynamic external factors, such as increasing competition, new technologies, need to enter new markets, etc require reaction from the company that wishes to stay afloat. Moreover, series of internal factors are vital as well. Any organization goes through its lifecycle and has to evolve at some levels. Transitions frequently observed in the business world often require the entire reconfiguring of the enterprise in order to update the organization’s structure to the realities of time.

Change process is often a complicated and lengthy one, as the organization is refusing the old, convenient methods of operation and looks for something new, which is not clear and largely unknown. This definitely is a great stress for all of the stakeholders of the company – employees, clients and owners. This is why the process of change management is so important. Guiding the company through the turbulent times is definitely a very hard task, but at the same time an extremely creative and satisfying one.

The role of the leader in the change management process is hard to underestimate. To begin with, this is the person who realizes the necessity of changes and promotes this idea. Secondly, he/she is supposed to plan the entire process and at least try to predict the results. Then, the leader is expected to motivate the people in the team and make sure the concept of the changing process is clear to everyone. And finally, after the changes have been done, this person is responsible for the results and should make sure that the new structure fits the corporate culture and traditions, remains effective and matches all of the expectations. Therefore, the change leader’s role is unique: without this person nothing can be expected to happen.

Vision is a critical factor for the organizational change. Before any steps are taken the direction has to be established. In my opinion, setting a correct vision of how the changes are going to be implemented, is the first and the most important part of restructuring. “Without vision, strategy making can be a much more contentious activity and budgeting can dissolve into a mindless exercise of taking last year’s numbers and changing them 5 percent one way or the other” (Kotter, J. P. 1996; p.71) Obviously Kotter claims that vision can not be measured in numbers and building a detailed strategy without it is a rather useful job. This surely is so, but some minor clarifications need to be made. Vision should not be precise, but at the same time it can not be too general either, otherwise it may turn into a senseless slogan. Clear, achievable, necessary and motivating goals have to be stated, for the entire change process to be successful.

Transformational techniques are variable and have their own stronger and weaker sides. However, apart from minor details, most of them are based on Kotter’s 8-stage change process, which I mostly agree to:

1. Establishing sense of urgency
2. Creating a guiding coalition
3. Developing a vision and strategy
4. Communicating the change vision
5. Empowering employees to for broad-based action
6. Generating short-term wins
7. Consolidating change and producing more change
8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture (Kotter, J.P. 1996)

Change is clearly uncomfortable and is not likely to create a lot of enthusiasm among the employees, so certain resistance is to be expected at all times. There is a number of approaches   of how to deal with the resistance to change inside the organization. The most preferable ones are definitely based on mutual respect, and flow of information form the employee to the manger and vice versa. The total number of techniques is about six and each can be used depending on the current situation (Kotter, J.P. Schlesinger, L.A. 1979).

Overall, I tend to support the contingency theory when speaking about the best change management practices and optimal corporate structure. To me it seems that no one hundred percent correct approach. According to the current situation, various models may work well and no single, integrated pattern suitable for any case actually exists.

Interview Questions and Responses

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. Travis is the old family friend, so communicating with him and gaining all the necessary information was rather convenient and relatively informal. When I told him about the project we have been doing in the class, he was rather exited about sharing his experience concerning the change management, as this field of activities is especially urgent, complicated and motivating. The approximate outline of our interview is presented below:

Question 1: What education concerning change management have you received?

According to my interviewee’s response, change management is a highly practical matter; moreover this aspect of management has not been paid much attention to before. Therefore, Travis has a MBA in project management and an economics degree from a university. He studied some aspects of change management during the MBA program, but this issue was not central, so most knowledge came from practical experience. Travis said that theory is surely extremely important, but it is not always easy to implement the theoretical knowledge to the actual business practices.

Question 2: How do you figure out the change is needed in the organization?

It depends on an exact situation, as there are different indicators for different types of change needed. Sometimes, minor technical problems arise and they usually either do not require a significant change, or a simple slight modernization is enough. However, it can often be seen that the entire system is consistently underperforming. It is especially vivid if the same problem repeats several times. That means that some immediate changes are to be made. This is still a subject to operational control and senior managers do not usually take part in engineering such changes. However, at times the external factors suddenly changes, such as the raw resources prices, or minimal wage increase, or some major technological breakthrough is  about to happen. Such events urge for the improvement of the entire structure of the organization, and that is when the true change managers and leaders are needed. In case of a major transformation, the decisions can not be made fast and thorough planning is required.

Question 3: What is the most important role of the change leader?

Simply saying, it is to identify the area that needs to be changed and to makes sure the change is going to happen and will be effective. This is surely a very simplified set of responsibilities. The change manager should at all costs ensure that the company he/she runs remain competitive and modern, is able to adjust to the changing internal and external conditions. A truly great leader is expected to create a team that is capable of confronting any challenges and adjust to the current realities as fast as possible.

Question 4: What is especially hard in leading the organization through change?

Travis claimed that actually identifying the area that needs improvement can often be rather challenging. It is not always clear what to improve. Staying up to date on all the changes that go on around the organization takes a lot of efforts. Then, actually acknowledging the fact that changes are needed may be rather hard, as destroying the old system without having a clearly planned new one is surely stressful. And finally, persuading the staff that the company has to evolve into something bigger is a highly responsible task – people tend to stick to the old ways and do not always appreciate dynamic changes, even for the better.

Question 5: What is the first step you take before actually changing the corporate structure?

According to the interviewee’s answer, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals starts the change process with first identifying the area that needs to be improved and then carefully planning the change process. Special attention is being paid to the financial matters, as efficiency is the core criteria for the company. Rather often, the costs of implementing the changes actually exceed the potential benefits of the restructuring attempt, which makes the entire efforts unreasonable and economically unjustified.

Question 6: Please describe the model used for implanting changes in Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals.

Travis explained that once the problem was realized and the need for change became clear, it took some time to persuade most of the people that the change was necessary. Then, when the critical mass of people was accumulated, senior management came up with the plan to improve and the rest of the organization tried to stick to it.

Question 7: What change project is your company going through at the moment?

There is a change process that has been going on for several years already. This is due to the acquisition of the firm by the European corporation Bayer. Te entire management system is being realigned; administration procedures are being frequently changed to match the European standards. However, it takes most efforts to integrate the research databases, as the European and American parts of the company have specialized on rather different types of medicine and that creates quite a lot of problems now, as no single direction for the research can be determined. Other changes that can be observed at the moment are caused by the recession and the economic crisis. In order to stay afloat, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals is forced to cut costs to the maximum extent. This is achieved through job cuts, fewer bonuses and less investment in research. Massive financial realignment is also a change process that can nit be ignored.

Question 8: What is the most successful change project you have managed?  

It was concerning the sales department: the company has been receiving returns from the pharmacies, as we often failed to deliver the correct type of medicine ordered. The order reaches clients timely, but it seemed that the wrong medications were frequently sent. The team tried to implement the systematic thinking technology to figure out the root cause of the problem. It turned out that the logistics department was not to blame: wrong packaging was rather frequently used. As a result, the workers failed to organize goods properly at the store. The staff at the warehouse was hired on part-time job and was not motivated at all. New, very distinctive packaging was designed and bonuses started being paid to the warehouse workers. The results could be observed very soon: no claims concerning the order delivery were ever filed again.

Interview Analysis

After going through the interview it can be seen that change management is a rather complicated matter both in theory and in real life. Travis as the change manger tends to really on two change models: ADKAR, which consists of five consecutive blocks (Awareness, Desire, Knowing, Ability and Reinforcements) and PCI – people centered implementation.

The change managers in the organization try their best to engineer the changes so that they benefit the company. Need for the right motivation techniques is also acknowledged, as Travis clearly sees that without the employees who aware of their tasks and are really willing to contribute, the change is not going to happen. However, we can clearly see that the longest change project going on is not really successful. When the merger took place, nobody really knew what the main goal of it was, and simply floated along. As a result, the old system was effectively ruined, while the new one was not yet formed. The process of the merger was well planned, but lacked real ideas and sense of purpose. In other words – there was no clear vision. Systems must also be addressed in order to align processes away from bureaucracy and into change that is consistent with the vision. If the processes and resources are not addressed this can undermine change (Kotter, 1996) This is exactly what happened with Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals – the systems and resources were not realigned to go along with the vision, as there actually was none.

We can also see lack of communication between the leader and his subordinates. Travis surely tries his best to educate the employees and motivate them to go on with the changes, but he seems to fail to appreciate their thoughts and ideas. According to Collins: “Leadership is about vision.  But leadership is equally about creating a climate where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted.  There’s a huge difference between the opportunity to ‘have your say’ and the opportunity to be heard. (Collins, J. 2001, p. 74)

Having analyzed the information provided by Travis Coleman, a change leader in Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, several conclusions can be drawn: the organization is handling the changes rather well, though some areas still need improvement. Awareness of he need for change among the managers and their attempts to motivate the employees are certainly contributing to the success of the transition progress. However, lack of urgency, vision and backward information flow from the staff slows the entire system down.

This practical assignment was rather useful and appealing, as it allowed me to socialize with the real change manager and gave a chance to look for a more practical implementation of the theories and models discussed in class. Moreover, thanks to this task I witnessed the actual problems faced by the change leaders.

Recommendations

I would like to make following recommendations based on the theoretical knowledge acquired during the course:

1. Focus on the vision development and makes sure it fits the main criteria of a good vision (Kotter, J.P. 1996; p72):
   • Imaginable
   • Desirable
   • Feasible
   • Flexible
   • Communicable
2. Be realistic about the difficulties that lie ahead. “You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts.” (Collins, J. 2001, p.70)
3. Always use system thinking to look for the true reasons of the problem and stick to this approach while developing the solution, as systems thinking plays a role in impacting an organization ability to create change. At its broadest level, systems thinking encompasses a large and fairly amorphous body of methods, tools, and principles, all oriented to looking at the interrelatedness of forces, and seeing them as part of a common process (Senge, 1994, p. 89)
4. Use correct methods to overcome the resistance to change. Pick the method that is most suitable for the current situation: (Kotter, Schlesinger, 1979)
   • Education and communication
   • Participation and involvement
   • Facilitation and support
   • Negotiation and agreement
   • Manipulation and Co-optation
   • Explicit and implicit Coercion

I hope that these pieces of advice might be useful, as the practicing managers seldom turn back for the theoretical background, supposing that their practical knowledge is already sufficient. This is often so, but some alternative theories could add new fresh ideas that have not been tried yet.

References

Cox, T. (2001). Creating the Multicultural Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kotter,J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Senge, P. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Doubleday.

Kotter, J.P. Schlesinger, L.A. (1979) retrieved May 14, 2009 from: http://kurs.fek.uu.se/OBdistansv08/fil/Kotter,mfl.etapp2.pdf