Change Management Plan

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Change Management Plan

Kenneth R. Woods

University of Phoenix

Introduction

CrysTel is a Telecommunication company that faces many challenges relating to managing change within its organization. The forces that prompt the change CrysTel are both external and internal. External forces for change come from the rapid advancement in technology in the telecommunication industry, which dictates to CrysTel the direction and to and need for change in order to stay competitive and profitable. The internal forces for change start with the management and employees within the CrysTel organization.

Major implications of the change at CrysTel will be addressed with an appropriate change model plan developed for human variables and potential resistance to change. The plan will include strategies for managing possible resistance to change. The selection of an appropriate leadership style will also be addressed for successfully implementing the change at CrysTel. The management styles of Morgan Trevannon, Chief Executive Officer, and Mary Jo Moran, vice president of human resources will be part of the plan that addresses the change at CrysTel.

Major Implications

Major implications of the change at CrysTel include influence from the external force of rapid and frequent advances in the telecommunication industry. "External forces for change originate outside the organization. Because these forces have global effects, they may cause an organization to question the essence of what business it is in and the process by which products and services are produced," (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2004, p. 4). The internal forces from inside the CrysTel organization appear to be the leading drive for the need to change. The biggest concentrations of concern come from within the Marketing and Sales and Delivery departments. The Employee Satisfaction Survey and the Climate Survey identified employee and senior communication, empowering teams, risk-taking, resolving conflicts and mentoring sessions as the most help needed behavioral parameters. Since Marketing and Sales are two essential departments in the executing of CrysTel's vision of increased product offerings, Marketing and Sales and Delivery should be receptive to the change needed to realize the vision of the organization. The employees of the Marketing Department believe senior management does not communicate on a regular basis, nor are they encouraged to discus or communicated work-related or personal issues. This perception by the employees can breed discontent and stress which can lead to distrust and loss of production along with other negative affects. The outcome of occupational stress alone has far reaching consequences. "Theorists contend stress has psychological/attitudinal, behavioral, cognitive, and physical health consequences or outcomes," (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2004, p. 27). Empowering teams and mentoring sessions are two additional areas in the behavioral parameter that the Marketing department employees feel management has not adequately developed. In the area of risk-taking, the Marketing department was weakest among all other departments. This is a critical area for the Marketing department since this is where creative and innovative ideas are needed to bring products to the forefront to be selected over the competitor.

The Sales and Delivery department are not without major implications of its own. The behavioral parameters which surfaced from the Employee Satisfaction survey and the climate Survey were leading by example, risk-taking, and resolving conflicts. Employees believe a gap in leadership exists for several reasons. They feel they are not being given lasting job and employee relationship examples to motivate others perform at a higher level. Employees know senior management does not involve them in assessing evaluating the risks before creating innovative designs or unusual decisions. Clearly, the employees in the Sales and Delivery department do not feel ownership of the process and this makes it difficult for them to accept change readily.

Senior management is not without responsibility for the employees conforming to the new vision of the CrysTel organization. The senior management is part of the internal forces of change within the organization and indicators through the Employee Satisfaction and Climate Surveys point out possible major implications of change in the leadership styles of the Marketing and Sales and Delivery departments.

Change Model for CrysTel

The quality of change is dependent upon those who will be effecting the change. Insanity is believing a quality change can happen if the organization, team(s), or individuals are resistant to the desired change. Here the focus is on organizational change and two types of change will be explored: Adaptive and Innovative change. "Adaptive change is the lowest in complexity, cost and uncertainty. It involves reimplementation of a change in the same organizational unit at a later time or imitation of a similar change by a different unit. Innovative changes fall midway on the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty," (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2004). Lewin's Change Model will be used in addressing the organizational change for CrysTel. Working directly from the analysis of the surveys, the leadership will addressed first. The surveys indicate the employees are somewhat unhappy with senior management in several areas. Leadership in the Marketing department appears to be struggling in the area of employee's buy-in when it deals with communication, empowerment, mentoring, and risk-taking. Under the Lewin Change Model the first stage is Unfreezing. "Unfreezing is the focus of creating the motivation to change. In so doing, individuals are encouraged to replace old behaviors and attitudes with those desired by management," (Kinicki and Kreitner, (2004). By using the servant leadership theory, management will be able to increase the employees' perception of management to raise their awareness and gain buy-in. Servant leadership will also be used in the Sales and Delivery department to improve the relationship of the employees and management that is suffering as indicated in the Employee Satisfaction and Climate surveys. "Servant leadership is the belief that leaders serve followers by understanding their needs and facilitating their work performance," (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005). Best said, "If I am leading with a motivation to SERVE my people and my organization, I will behave fundamentally differently than if my motivation is self-serving.

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