Advanced Organizational Behavior

Change can not be avoided because of the competition that is there today in the world of business. Businesses cannot survive without changing their strategies, products, policies, etc. according to the time and situation. However, changing anything about an organization requires a lot of planning.

This is why it is necessary that a systemized method is followed when a change is being implemented as this decreases the chances of making faulty decisions. This paper aims to present a change model that I believe is ideal for every type of organization and will surely produce the positive outcomes of change.

Discussion

A change model is a systemized process of implementing change in a business. Change is very crucial for every type of organization because this facilitates the organization into making better decisions.

Therefore, we need a step-by-step process which leaves no room for errors or misjudgments in the entire sensitive process of implementing change. There is not a fixed ‘change model’ since the nature of changes that take place also differ. This is the reason why different change models are use by organizations and they handle it differently.

The change model developed in this paper consists of nine steps. This model has been selected as my change agent because this model takes into consideration each and every step of the change process from accepting the need for change to document the process and conclusions. It is very detailed and discusses every aspect of the change process which leaves a very low chance of making faulty judgments at any stage.

The management and leadership can support the change model discussed by trusting the team selected for the change process with all necessary decision making. It could delegate the team members with maximum work. The input on the part of management could include ensuring that the team does not ignore any values of the organization in the entire change process by monitoring every step.

The input on part of the employees and the staff which would support the change model involves them to be ready to accept the changes in operations that would be the result of the change process. It can be supportive during the entire change process by being less resistant to change and innovation. They must be motivated and must trust the process carried out by the change process team. The eight steps change model is as following.

Accepting that there is a Need for Change

The first step to effectively implement a change is to always accept the fact that there is a need for change. This step involves creating awareness of the need for change among anyone and everyone related to the change that is occurring (Change Management Learning Center, 2008). This step helps build the energy needed to do something. It makes an organization realize the need to take action and motivates it to be strong.

This strength and motivation is very necessary as change is a big step and every member of the organization must be able to handle it. Usually various groups within an organization are not willing to accept change because this means switching from the everyday routine. This step also makes all those who are not willing to accept change ready for implementation of change.

This step is the fuel needed to ignite the process of implementing change (Koberg and Bagnall, 2003). There is not much action involved in the step of accepting that there is a need for change. The organization must inform everyone related to this about the need to change and that something needs to be done about it. The organization at this point must ask itself what change is needed and why?

Creating a Guiding Coalition

Once the need for change has been accepted, the organization must move to the next step of creating a team that will guide the entire organization towards achieving this goal (Kotter, 1996).

There must a team that is responsible for this as such a team would plan the process of change and ensure that the organization is moving towards its goals and everything is going as it was planned initially. The organization must ensure that the people selected for the team are ideal for the situation.

These people must be committed to the change process and must have the right skills necessary for the process. This team will develop the entire change process from planning to evaluation therefore whatever the team members decide will determine the fate of the company. The team members must have the skills to carry out this process in the most efficient and careful manner.

Defining the Need

Once the need for change has been realized within the organization and a team has been selected which be responsible for implementing the change within the organization, the need for change must be defined. This process is absolutely necessary because in order to effectively deal with a situation, one needs to have full knowledge about what exactly one is dealing with.

Without knowing this, the team responsible for implementing the change will never be able to approach the change with the most effective strategy. Consequently, the third step is defining the problem. This step involves identifying what needs to be change and why? It must also recognize what will be accomplished once the change is executed and everyone’s role in the entire process.

Generating a Range of Approaches

The next step involves coming up with a range of strategies that can be used to work out change. It is not sensible to concentrate on only one approach as this could lead to flawed judgments. The change process team must consider all the possible approaches before it decides on which one is the most effective as this will increase the probability of the team selecting the most effective strategy. In this step, a range of possible solutions must be generated and all of them will be considered.

Selecting the Appropriate Approach

After all the approaches have been generated, each approach’s pros and cons will be evaluated separately. This evaluation will help the organization prioritize the solutions according to their effectiveness. The organization will consider each one approach and will look into the cost benefit analysis of each one. It will consider how each approach will help them and what will be its drawbacks.

Once this is done, whichever approach seems the most effective will be selected by the team. The criteria necessary for an approach to be appropriate largely depends on the situation, but generally, the approach must be practical, manageable, long term and of course relevant to the situation. The selected approach will then be applied to implement the change process.

Implementing the Approach

This step is the most important step in the entire problem solving process because this is actually where the change is implemented. The fact that implementing change is very sensitive has already been established and this is why this step of implementing the approach is very crucial.

As a result, the change process team needs to be patient during this step which is applying the solution. A sensible approach to implementation could be to plan the approach in extensive detail before hand in order to avoid any kind of mess ups.

Collecting Data Regarding the Implementation Result

The next step is to collect data related to the implementation of the change approach. This data depends on the situation but in a case where the change was made in the marketing strategy, the data would be change in sales as a result of that change.

Another example of data collected at this stage would be if the production process was changed, the data would be regarding the change in productivity as a result of the approach of the result used. This data will be used by the organization in the following steps.