Joseph Weiss (2012) tells us that “planned organizational change is a process that moves companies from a present state to a desired future state with the goal of enhancing their effectiveness.” Yet the process of changing can be painful and less than successful. This is the story of the USPFO for California and their poor managing of two simultaneous transformational changes to the organization: transitioning to the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) and splitting and relocating the organization to two distant locales. The strategic plan was ill-fated and resulted in a leadership/employee estrangement and a silent organizational civil war. The USPFO for CA needs to focus on reestablishing trust and team building in order to become a functional organization again.
COMPANY OVERVIEW The USPFO for California has been located at Camp San Luis Obispo since its establishment in 1928. Their mission is to provide financial, logistical and contractual support to the California Army National Guard. The organization falls directly under the authority of The Adjutant General (TAG) who answers to the Governor. There are four main divisions of the USPFO: Comptroller, Logistics, Data Processing, and Contracting. The Comptroller Division encompasses, Technician, Military, and Travel Pay, Budget and Fiscal (accounting), and Vendor Pay. Logistics handles the ordering, issuing, warehousing and transportation of supplies. Data Processing deals with all technology
Businesses are facing a dichotomy between wanting to chalk out an all-time structure and strategy for their organization, and recognizing that their world is in a constant state of flux [3]. For most of the 20th century they were largely focused on the static elements of this dichotomy. However, in the last decade changes have become more frequent and more dramatic, so much so that a whole branch of management is now devoted to the subject of change itself.
Any change in an organization’s mission, strategy, or structure elicits a certain amount of resistance. Some employees adapt to change more readily than others. The creation of new teams in
Organizational change is difficult, although necessary to support growth and excellence in the market place. The concept of change can have negative connotations among employees, especially if change implementations have not been successful in the past. This paper is going to describe the need for change, barriers to change, factors that might influence change, readiness for change, the theoretical change model that relates to the change, and resources that support change implementation.
“We have no choice but to invite people into the process of rethinking, redesigning, restructuring the organization. We ignore people's need to participate at our own peril. If they're involved, they will create a future that already has them in it. We won't have to engage in the impossible and exhausting tasks of "selling" them the solution, getting them "to enroll," or figuring out the incentives that might bribe them into compliant behaviours.” [Wheatley et al, 1996]
Organizational change can derive from small changes to large changes that can affect a business. The Concord Bookshop went through changes as many other companies are faced in today’s recession, fierce competition, innovative technology, and restructuring needs. The important factors a company needs to concentrate include implementing successful interventions to stay in business, increase finances, and motivating employees to change their behaviors. If certain phases of an organizational change do not take place, this could lead to failure. In this paper, I will describe three processes not completed or implemented at the
To avoid these hazards and capitalize on the opportunities the companies of today need to become stronger competitors. To become the 21st century organization that will succeed some of the transformations needed include reengineering, restructuring, quality programs, mergers and acquisitions and strategic and cultural change. Useful change is often associated with a multi-step process that creates power and motivation significant enough to overwhelm all the sources of inertia and driven by high quality leadership and not just management. Kotter states that the eight steps required to produce successful change are; (1) Establishing a sense of urgency; (2)Creating the guiding coalition; (3) Developing a vision and strategy; (4) Communicating the change vision; (5) Empowering broad-based action; (6) Generating short term wins; (7) Consolidating gains and producing more change; (8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture. Kotter goes on to suggest the first four steps in the process serve to defrost a hardened status quo, steps five to seven introduce new practices and the last phase grounds the change in the corporate culture. It’s important to go through all of the steps in sequence however normally one operates in multiple phases at once. To skip a step or get to far ahead without the establishment of a solid base will almost always lead to problems. There are
Applying the Four Frames and Eight Stages to Create a Plan to Manage Organizational Change
describe at least two of the models the leader of the organization might employ. We
The purpose of this book is to make us see that nearly all-operating prescriptions for creating large-scale corporate change are nothing but myths and that changes do not happen from one day to another by a miracle, the change from good to great is the result of a successful plan who
It is most common for businesses to experience some type of organizational changes in today’s society. With changes in the economy to stay competitive in the global marketplace many businesses organizations must change constantly. Business management and employees equally respond and adjust to new challenges that occur within an organization (Dawn, 1999-2013). This paper will show the type of change the Sears and Kmart organization went through, the reason or source of the change, and identify other types and sources of change an organization can experience.
The four mistakes discussed in the article Winning at Change by John P. Kotter are partly (very slightly) and indirectly discussed in Chapter 14. One of the key factors in the chapter is the rational approach to organization change and includes Beer’s model that is used to understand why change initiatives fail.
The strategy for change implementation was haphazard and not well thought-out. A plan for change did not exist nor did it include any of the recommendations that Spector (2012) discussed as effective tools for managing organizational change. Specifically, none of the elements of Kurt Lewin’s three stages of change implementation that Spector discussed as unfreezing, moving, and refreezing organizational norms were directed. Instead, Command Zulu reorganized without fully explaining the reasons to the customers (e.g. inspected units). The lack of understanding resulted in negative relationships for at least a year. Leadership never considered associated risk without a plan for change and what Bruch, Gerber, and Maier (2005) explained as creating a haphazard or improvised plan and failing to determine whether the organization needs change. Command Zulu leaders never once conducted dialogue or diagnosis to determine if the organization was ready for change. Leadership never developed a method of diagnosis that Cummings and Worley (2009) explained as a necessary part of change implementation through data collection for future intervention points. Additionally, command Zulu leadership did not implement change in the correct sequence which Spector (2012) discussed as having the potential of negative results or even failure associated with change not implemented sequentially. Not having a solid plan resulted in negative
Planned changes in organizations occur either to address recognized weaknesses in the organization or to accommodate new strategies of the organization. In some cases, the status quo organizational environment is so intolerable that revolutionary change is needed to quickly move to the new desired end state (Blake & Mouton, 1970, p. 30). Revolutionary change can have dramatic negative impacts on the organization and its members leading to resistance, resentment and sabotage (p. 31). According to Kotter, successful change includes an accepted vision that defines the path the organization’s leaders follow in support of the new strategy (Kotter, 1995, p. 63).
quisitions and with the choice of when, or if, to get new supervisors. Some of the time, auxiliary moves were deferred for a long time after the organization had been purchased. Twelve layers of administration which worked out to one chief for each two representatives had made a high-cost, high-control association whose capacity to develop and change was exceptionally constrained. Yet regardless of the conspicuous requirement for "de-layering" and cost decrease, GE Capital kept every one of the individuals from the administration group set up and permitted them to keep the association in place. A year passed. Expenses stayed high, and execution stayed low. At last, GE Capital 's business leader ventured in and constrained a careful solidification. The astonishment was the staff 's response. Rather than being disturbed, most asked why GE Capital had taken so long. They had seen the requirement for expense decrease from the earliest starting point and had spent a significant part of the year sitting tight for the arrangements to be reported. A vital springboard to fruitful joining is the way in which rebuilding is done. Above all else, the securing organization should be clear about what is occurring and what is arranged. Notwithstanding when the news is terrible, the one thing the staff of recently obtained organizations acknowledges most is reality. Their basic concept was never tell the gained staff that it will be the same old thing when it will never be the same for them
In this dynamic business environment, change is inevitable. Changes can be planned, or unintentional: depending on the driving forces behind. The major forces for change can be derived from the nature of the workforce, technology, economic shocks, competition, social trends, and world politics (Robbins & Judge, 2011). In this post the author will explain the Kotter’s eight –step approaches to managing organizational change and discuss how his company handles the planned changes in term of organization reconstruction.