MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Case Assignment

A good place to start are the following tutorials and videos. These resources will introduce you to the three change models covered in this module:

http://www.pearsoncustom.com/mct-comprehensive/asset.php?isbn=1269879944&id=12085

Hartzell, S. (2013). Lewin stage model of change: Unfreezing,  changing, refreezing Principles of Management. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kerDFvln7hU

Hartzell, S. (2013). Explaining Kotter’s 8 step change model. Principles of

Management. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ3EGdZ3_pU

After reviewing the tutorial, take a look at the following readings for more detail about the three change models.  Note that you are required to cite these three readings in your assignments.  The videos and tutorials give you a broad overview of the models but you need to read up on them in more detail in order to complete the assignment.

This short book chapter will give you an overview of Action Research as well as an overview of what it is like to be an organizational development consultant:

Lurey, J. & Griffin, M. (2012). Section 2: Chapter 4: Action Research: The anchor of OD practice. Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM Books, pp. 46-52. [Ebrary]

Note that the Lewin model is a very old model.  Here is an updated discussion of this model:

Schein, E. H. (2010). Chapter 17: A conceptual model for managed cultural change.  Jossey-Bass Business and Management: Organizational Culture and Leadership (4th Edition). Hoboken, NJ, USA: Jossey-Bass. [Ebrary]

Finally, read up on Kotter’s model from the classic original article by Kotter himself:

Kotter, J. P. (2007). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 96-103. [EBSCOhost]

Optional Reading:

Those of you in the military should take a look at this article on an application of Kotter’s model in the Army:

Anson, J. H. (2011). Leaders are the critical element in the network: Applying the Kotter Change model in shaping future information systems. Army Communicator, 36(4), 20-27. [EBSCOhost]

For this assignment, first do a thorough review of the required background materials and read up on each author’s discussion about Kotter’s eight step model of change, Lewin’s three step model, and the five steps involved in action research.  All of the authors discuss at least one of these models. There are also some optional videos on some of these models that might help.

When you are done reviewing these models of organizational change, take a look at the scenarios described in Questions 1-3.  For each of these scenarios, explain which of the three models of change would be most appropriate for this situation. Finally, Question 4 is a summary question that you should also answer using the required readings. Explain your reasoning for each of your answers to the four assignment questions, and use at least one of the required readings to support each answer. You are required to cite at least one of the required videos or tutorials and two of required readings in your paper.

1.     Ten years ago the CEO of a company attempted to implement a major restructuring of her company. However, this restructuring ended up being delayed repeatedly due to opposition from both the employee union as well as by several senior managers. Now that ten years have passed, it has become clear to the CEO that the change should have been implemented as now the company is facing many of the problems that she predicted ten years ago. Furthermore, the CEO believes the company will go out of business unless the restructuring is done. Also, in the past ten years she has made peace with many union leaders and senior managers and believes she might be able to get their support for a restructuring if you she is able to convince them of the extreme necessity of making this change.

2.     The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) have a major disagreement. The CFO wants to radically scale back expenditures on marketing and change the focus of the organization away from expensive advertising and instead rely on cheaper relationship marketing techniques. The CMO instead wants to greatly expand advertising, and even wants the company to borrow money to finance a major new advertising campaign.  Both present detailed data to support their point of view, but the CEO cannot tell who is wrong or who is right as the data they present is confusing and contradictory. Furthermore, the CEO does not want to anger the marketing department or the finance department by seeming to favor one side or the other.  However, the CEO does see the need to make major changes in marketing strategy and other areas in order to boost revenues.

3.     A small town newspaper still has a loyal following in the town and in neighboring areas, especially among the older residents. However, the publisher of the paper is concerned that nobody under the age of 30 seems to ever read the paper and instead they get all their news from the internet.  Furthermore, all of the employees at the newspaper have been working there for over 20 years and are very resistant to any type of change. The publisher wants to publish a print version only once a week instead of every day, and instead focus on reporting the news through blogs and social media. He is confident his well-qualified staff will be able do a good job in this new format, but since they have been doing the exact same type of work for the last 20 years he is concerned about rather extreme resistance to making any type of change in the workplace.

4.     Conclude your paper with a discussion about which of the three change models you think is the most useful and which one you think is the least useful. Support your answer with references to the required background materials.