Organizational Change Management and Development

This study material provides an in-depth understanding of organizational change management and development. It covers the background of the Coca-Cola company, factors contributing to organizational change, diagnosis using change management models, justification for change intervention, barriers to implementation, and ethical issues. The content is relevant for students studying organizational behavior, management, or related subjects.

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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Name
Institution
Date

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Table of Contents
Background of the Coca-Cola company..........................................................................................2
Problem factor for organizational change........................................................................................3
Factors that contribute to organizational change.............................................................................3
External pressures........................................................................................................................3
Technology and equipment......................................................................................................3
Market situation........................................................................................................................4
Social and political changes.....................................................................................................4
Internal pressures.........................................................................................................................4
Changes in the managerial position..........................................................................................4
Deficiencies in the existing company.......................................................................................4
Diagnosis of the problems and opportunities using the change management models....................5
Adkar Change Model...................................................................................................................5
Kurt Lewin’s change management model...................................................................................7
Justification for change intervention...............................................................................................9
Barriers an organization may face when implementing changes..................................................10
Ethical issues that change intervention may create.......................................................................11

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Background of the Coca-Cola company
Coca-Cola came to existence in the year 1892 and it has its headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia. The company is an American multinational corporation that deals with the manufacture,
retail, and marketer of beverages that have no alcohol content. The Coca-Cola company is
commonly recognized for its flagship product known as coca cola. The company deals with other
products such as citrus beverages and soft drinks. The company is located in more than 200
countries dealing with more than 2800 products. The drink Coca-Cola originated in the year
1886 and its name becomes the trademark and was registered in the U.S patent in the year 1893.
The emotional bond between consumers and the company grew more powerful in the last quarter
of the 20th century. The product is known worldwide there was a need for organizational change
so as to reach the consumer in all parts of the world.
Problem factor for organizational change
Organization change is necessary for the business to prosper and to survive in the market
due to the changing needs and technology. There are a number of great companies which
innovated and becomes leaders in the market but end up failing after some time due to failure to
transform so as to adapt the market. Therefore, coca cola needs to implement appropriate
organizational change they will enable it to retain the loyalty of its consumers through meeting
their needs. Organizational change can either be a change in technology, management structure,
consumers or the elements (Smither, Houston and McIntire, 2016). Coca-cola company need to
apply the generic strategy that is known as cost leadership by reducing the production cost so as
to lower the cost, this will give them an advantage over their competitors.

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Factors that contribute to organizational change
External pressures
This is the pressures that arise from outside the organization that forces the Coca-Cola
company to change its operations so as to compete effectively with its competitors. Some of the
external pressure includes:
Technology and equipment
For the company to achieve the need of the consumers it needs to be updated on the
current technology that can be used in manufacturing and marketing their products. This
technology will also help them to lower their production cost thus lowering the price of their
products encouraging more consumers.
Market situation
The rapidly changing goals, desires and the need of the consumers and suppliers in the
market need to be meet for the companies like Coca-Cola to survive in the market. Therefore,
market changes within the organization need to be implemented so as to be productive.
Social and political changes
Political and social changes occurring in any country are beyond organizational control.
Therefore, the Coca-Cola company should adapt to these changes by implementing strategies
that comply with the government policies (Mialon, Swinburn, Allender and Sacks, 2016).
Internal pressures
This is the forces of organizational change that emerge from within the organization.
Coca-cola company need to analyze its internal operations so as to identify the weak areas

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requiring modification (Jackson, 2015). The following are some of the areas of the pressure that
causes an organization to change.
Changes in the managerial position
Change of the executives in an organization occurs frequently especially when the
executives fail to deriver. Coca-cola company need to ensure that their executives are working
on deadlines and meet the expected results in the required duration of time. Failure to that it
might be necessary for change in that company.
Deficiencies in the existing company
With time a company might find a fault in the company that restricts it to prosper
therefore, it will be necessary for it to remove the faults through change that will lower the faults.
The coca cola company should regularly analyze whether there are deficiencies that limit its
success.
Diagnosis of the problems and opportunities using the change management models
After identifying an opportunity or a problem an organization it is necessary for change
to occur to utilize the opportunity or to do away with the problem. Therefore, organization need
to be keen on the model to use when changing their strategies (Wirtz, Pistoia, Ullrich and Göttel,
2016). In the situation where the company want to change the technology being used so as to
take that opportunity to gain an advantage over its competitors, it can apply several models to
change whenever necessary.
Adkar Change Model
This model focuses on five goals which include: awareness to ensure that employees
have the knowledge on the change as a necessity. Craving to make assistance employees have

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the desire for transformation, Acquaintance to ensure employees have the knowhow, Ability to
ensure they are capable of performing, and Reinforcement to boost and sustain. Adkar model can
be applied to plan effectively on both an individual and organizational level (Shah, 2014).
Therefore, it is applicable to the Coca-Cola company to use in order to change its operation. This
model consists of:
Awareness – in this step the company needs to create awareness to the consumers and the
employees for the changes they would Like to implement. It is necessary to make the consumers
and the employees understand clearly the changes and how they will benefit from that change.
Creating awareness ensures that the changes are accepted in an organization.
Desire- for the company to get total commitment by employees and consumers for the
change they would like to implement they need to inspire for the desire to change (Shah, 2014).
To gain the desire the Coca-Cola company need to promote the benefits for organization change
that are relevant to the people (Wirtz, Pistoia, Ullrich and Göttel, 2016). It should give examples
of what will happen after the change and compare it with the current position.
Knowledge- in this step the company should ensure that everyone knows how the change
will be conducted and the roles they need to play to fulfill their specific performance in the
process of changing. For this step to be effective the change need to be broken down into steps
and analyze what every employee need to know in order to complete the process (Shah, 2014).
Ability- this step consists of the capability to conduct something that you know, knowing
something doesn’t mean that you are good at it, therefore, this step is different from the
knowledge step. Therefore, the company needs to check the ability of each employee before
allocating of tasks so as to allocate them depending on their capability (Shah, 2014).

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Reinforcement – this step majorly deals with support the changes by implementing
incentives and rewards to make sure that the changes are properly supported (Shah, 2014). The
company should use this step to identify the mistake at early stages so as to make the necessary
changes before fully implementing the change.
This change model focuses mostly on employees, especially where they are given a set of goals
to meet. It is a flexible model which can be applied in almost every condition of transforming in
AWARENESS
-For change
-For situations of
change
DESIRE
- to accept the changes
--To take part in the
change
KNOWLEDGE
-The knowhow for
change
-On how to conduct the
activities
REINFORCEMENT
-To retain and boost
-Create competence
ABILITY
-The capability
-To understand the
change

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an organization. This model is great for deploying changes that are incremental since they are
less disruptive compared to the large changes.
Kurt Lewin’s change model
It is splinted into three stages which include: unfreeze, make the change and refreeze.
This model is highly preferred by many organizations since it does away with the mistakes from
the current operations. The company needs to embrace this model to avoid the deficiencies that
are in the current operations (Cummings, Bridgman, and Brown, 2016). In case an organization
needs to change the technology, management, and structure this model is efficient. The following
are the stages that Lewin ‘s model consists of:
Unfreeze – after a company identifies the need for change, the initial stage is to unfreeze
the existing situation that they would like to change. Change can either be in technology, levels
of management or any other necessary change. Unfreeze means doing away with it with what
currently is being done (Bradley, 2016). Before unfreezing the company will need to inform
everyone what is wrong with the current process, why there is a need to change, the benefits after
changing and the suggested changes that need to be done.
Make the changes- after creating awareness for the changes the deployment is done and
the team is made to adapt to the changes. The company needs to make its changes at this stage
before moving to the next stage. The company will be needed to provide extra knowledge
through educating and training its team to equip them with the skills they require to adapt
(Cummings, Bridgman, and Brown, 2016). In case a company is switching to new technology
then the employees need to be trained on how to use it. If the company is switching to a new
marketing policy the employees need to be equipped with necessary information.

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Refreeze- after the changes have been deployed, measured and tweaked based on the
feedback there is a need to refreeze. The company needs to ensure that the necessary changes
have been deployed before refreezing. Regular reviews need to be done to check whether the
changes are followed (Cummings, Bridgman, and Brown, 2016).
Justification for change intervention
Changes in an organization are inevitable therefore, it must occur if the organization
needs to prosper. Due to the changes in the demand, policies, technology, and other factors the
organization need to change in order to cope up with these changes (Smither, Houston, and
McIntire, 2016). The organization should analyze how these changes will affect the employees
what they are responsible for and what they are required to know in order to succeed. In Coca-
Cola company due to changes in preferences and tastes by consumers it needs to keep changing
UNFREEZE
CHANGE
REFREEZE
Prepare your
employees for the new
change Conduct the change
you need to
implement
Implement the new
changes you have
made

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to make their product sell more. The following are some of the justification for change
intervention:
Motivation and assessment, with a proper plan for change management the organization
will have a clear vision and goals that will motivate employees. In Coca-Cola company the
change that occurs due to the market situation enable employees to understand the market better,
therefore, motivating them towards work so as to achieve the set goals (Cummings, Bridgman,
and Brown, 2016). Employees will be motivated when working in a company that operates and
flexible with the changing needs.
Reducing risks and inefficiency in an organization, in situations where there are
deficiencies in an organization it is better for an organization to change so as to reduce the costs
that may arise. Coca-Cola company need to be updated on the current technologies in marketing,
production, and distribution of their products so as to reduce the risks and inefficiencies that may
arise due to poor technology (Bradley, 2016). This will as well boost the morale of the
employees thus, increasing the level of output. In the case of poor management, the company
needs to implement new change to the executives so as to reduce the chances of risks and
inefficiencies.
Organization change helps in reduction of costs, by adapting to the changing environment
in the market the company has higher chances of reducing the costs that are unnecessary by
avoiding costly projects and methods of production that do not contribute to the ultimate goals
(Bradley, 2016). Change intervention also ensures that an organization boosts its return on
investment by having the right conceptual staff to manage your people and processes. This
ensures that positive returns from investments are experienced in an organization.

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Barriers an organization may face when implementing changes
For a business to become more efficient, reduce costs and increase revenues it requires
changes but these changes are not easily made due to a number of barriers that prevent it from
adopting them (Boswell, and Rodrigues, 2016). Below are some of the barriers:
Broken communication, poor communication hinders organization effective change.
Therefore, every stakeholder in an organization should be provided with appropriate information
and special consideration should be made to all the participants in the change because they are
significant players to enhancing a successful outcome (Jackson, 2015). The company needs to
create awareness to everyone about the change they would like to implement so as to get the
feedback.
Undue complexity of the organizational change, this is commonly experienced by large
organizations where the change usually becomes complicated. Therefore, proper understanding
about the change is necessary to ensure effective management. To avoid the change being
complex the company need to educate their employees about the proposed changes to give them
a clear understanding (Bradley, 2016). Change can also be implemented portion by portion
instead of implementing it once. Coca-cola company need to be very keen on the changes to
ensure that they are not complex for the employees.
Ineffective leadership for the organization change, the change to be implemented requires
leaders to be effective so as to guide others on how to achieve the set goals. Therefore, if the
leadership is ineffective a barrier for change is created (Smither, Houston, and McIntire, 2016).
If the leadership is effective the workforce will also be significant in providing support in the
process of organizational revolution (Mialon, Swinburn, Allender and Sacks, 2016). Change

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need to be managed to ensure that the appropriate input is provided so as to obtain the necessary
output.
Lack of support by the management and the employees, for the change to be conducted
effectively the management and employees need to support it (Jackson, 2015). If the employees
do not embrace the new changes then it will be very difficult for this change to occurs. There has
to be support from the employees if change is to be effectively implemented (Lozano, Nummert,
and Ceulemans, 2016)
Ethical issues that change intervention may create
No matter the type of change that occurs in an organization there will always be ethical
issues that arise during the change process. In an organizational change is not voluntary therefore
the conformity of the employee is required. The following are some of the ethical issues:
Technology and privacy concern, this arises when a company owner run into ethical
issues of how privacy is maintained by both the employees and the employers (Charles,
Schmidheiny, and Watts, 2017). This ensures that confidentiality of information is maintained to
avoid exposing it to unauthorized parties especially their competitors.
In an attempt to achieve change, employees have to be motivated to put extra effort for
them to accomplish their set targets. They will therefore adapt to the culture of hard work and
teamwork. This facilitates easier achieving of the goals by employees because they have a self-
drive.
Perils of employee’s favoritism, this is a situation where some employees enjoy working
with more than others. Ethical issues can arise if a person in a position is treated in a special way
compared to others in an organization.

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524.
Bradley, G., 2016. Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits
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Charles Jr, O.H., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P., 2017. Walking the talk: The business case for
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Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps:
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cleaner production, 125, pp.168-188.

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