Leading Change By Professor John Kotter

Foreword by Spenser Johnson: One the surface, the story of this book appears to be a fable that is relatively easy to grasp, but it does subtly impart an invaluable lesson on change. The book covers John Kotter’s Eight Steps to bring about successful organizational change and can be equally useful for a high-school student as it is for a CEO of a multi-national organization.

I just finished reading the book “Leading Change” by John P Kotter. If you happen to be a part of a church or organization that is wanting to move forward, I highly recommend this read.

Fairest, J. (2014). Leading employees through major organizational change. Ivey Business Journal Online, , 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1556018438?accountid=12085

The book The Heart of Change shows the practical side of the theories that are taught in the course textbook. It presents stories of successes and failures based in the application of concepts discussed in Organizational Behavior and Management and in class. Although we talked about several different concepts the ones that are evident in the examples in The Heart Of Change are the more progressive and individual centered approaches. The leadership characteristics that are important to successful change in an organization are those that are espoused in the transformational theory of management. It makes sense that ideals in line with the transformational management theory

The purpose of this paper is to discuss organizational change and the management of that change. I will talk about the different drivers of change, the factors a leader needs to weigh to implement change effectively, the various resistances a leader may encounter while trying to implement change, and how various leadership styles will effect the realization of change. I will also discuss the knowledge I have gained through the completion of this assignment and how I think it might affect the way I manage change in my workplace.

In the first chapter Leading Change by John P. Kotter brought out the fact that all companies (large and small) go through changes. Some are to remain competitive others are to keep up with the changing marketing tactics. “These efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, rightsizing, restructuring, culturing, change, and turnaround” (Review, 2011, p. 1). Now to add another name, my company calls it PEx (production excellence. It is really not looked at as a good thing. We have a separate PEx group. When a manager has a process that they want to change (or update) they call the PEx team. After many (many many) meetings with core people changes are made. I have been through a few and looking back, it was not enjoyable.

Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.

Competitive imperatives of market forces and customer demands in today’s environment have led to the emergence of less hierarchical and more flexible organisations (Doyle, 2001). In working towards this paradigm shift, a distinction and clarification of the relationship between leadership and management in the change process needs to be addressed. According to Caldwell (2003), change leaders are executives or senior managers at the very top of the organisation who envision, initiate or sponsor strategic change of far-reaching or transformational nature by challenging the status quo, communicating a vision that employees believe in, and empowering them to act. In contrast, change managers are usually middle level managers and functional

The need for effective leadership in organizational change cannot be over-stated. Change is an inevitable variable in organizational development, and without consistent and deliberate leadership, change efforts are likely to fail. The strength of leaders is only as powerful as the ideas they communicate (Benis & Nanus, 1997). A variety of change models have been offered to assist leaders toward effective organization change. Leaders should consider a model which best reflects the culture of the organization in order to anticipate the best possibility for effective change. Though Dr. John Kotter may be considered the leading expect on the topic of leading organizational change (Kotter, 1996), other models studied may be worth consideration. The ADKAR model and Lewins 3-Step model are alternatives to Kotter’s model. This paper offers a comparison and contrast of these two models with critical evaluation on the relative strengths and weakness of each model.

Change happens in all aspects of life. Leaders view change as being good most of the time. An organization can’t move forward without change. This paper will discuss how leaders can use levels of change and the steps of Kotter’s change model to implement change. It will also give a Christian worldview as it pertains to the topics. Leader must learn the language to effectively communicate change. This will give managers an advantage and help demonstrate the vision for the future.

As defined by Katzenbach (1995), change leadership is “the process whereby individuals who lead initiatives that influence dozens to hundreds of others to perform differently—and better—by applying multiple leadership and change approaches.” Leadership alone is defined as setting a direction and developing the strategies necessary to move in that direction – that is, creating and achieving a vision – leadership is thus a process to do with change (Kotter 1999). Change leadership is critically important to the continuing success of organizations everywhere. Tennant Company understands and invests in change leadership by employing a Sr. Organization Development Manager named Annelise Larson, M.B.A. whose efforts includes setting direction, developing strategies, and leading initiatives through organizational change efforts. An interview was conducted with Annelise Larson to discuss and learn about her change leadership abilities. For the purposes of this paper, the interview questions will be shared, a summary will be provided, and five recommendations are made for Annelise Larson as a change leader.

The article can be useful in helping both new and veteran leaders address resistance to change. The author pointed out that leaders must first take a look at their own behaviors in order to promote change among their employees. The change may start with the leaders and spread throughout the school based on the planning and techniques used to deliver the information.

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.

"Businesses are constantly required to adapt to changing environment in order to maintain their position in the market and even more so if they are to truly grow.” (Biedenbacha and Soumlderholma, 2008). Changes are the crucial things in “the present market, the present rate of technological progress and growing and developing worldwide rivalry let us predict a proceeding with requirement change in future. (Armenakis and Harris, 2009). The writer says change never begins of the fact that never ends (Weick and Quinn, 1999). The firm`s constantly attempt to adapt change in environment, they grab the culture and learn to run quick and easily the firm regularly try to evolve perfectly and implement, we can find major changes in short and long run success. "Research suggests that failed organizational change initiatives range from one third to as high as 80% of attempted change efforts." (Fisher, 1994; Beer and Nohria, 2000; Higgs and Rowland, 2000). Many researchers effort failed the learning space and supervise the manager in the field of change management. Then came John kotter, who focused on the change management field, specifically his first article was published in 1995 in Harvard Business Review. The same year he released the book and titled the book "Leading Change"(kotter, 1995), both kotter`s (1995) article and (1996) book are based on kotter`s personal research and experiences in the business filed, the book does not have any

When it comes to organizations, change is constantly occuring. Managers are accountable for preparing the business, in addition to helping the employees cope with the change. The purpose of this paper is to highlight an organization and to diagnose the need for change and present a plan to transform the company, using Kotter 's 8-Step Approach. The following topics will be covered in this paper, company overview, diagnosis, Kotter 's 8-Step Approach, and Conclusion.