Change Management Plan - Assignment

Running Head: Change Management Plan 1
Organizational Change Management Plan
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Change Management Plan 2
Organizational change management
Introduction
The aspect of change within an organization is crucial hence the need to be
approached with the necessary concern. Some of the factors which may result in organizational
change include the introduction of a new leader in the management team or the replacement of
an existing director with a totally new one (Al-Lamki, 2012, p. 550). At the same time, an
organization may choose to reorganize its departments in a bid to expand and hence address the
dynamic nature of the corporate market environment. Transitions within an organization may
come with a number of impacts. While some may be positive, others may lead to drastic
influences on the organization hence the need to incorporate the most appropriate management
strategies. The management strategies happen for varied periods of time depending on the nature
of the transition. In case the change may involve a total overhaul of a department, the
organization may need to put in place long term measures with the core objective of managing
the issues likely to arise from the change (Alvesson and Ka ̈rreman, 2011, p. 46). There are
various models which can be used when managing change in an organization. In this report, the
focus shall majorly be on John Kotter’s model of change. The model comprises 8 steps which
starts with the management creating an environment of urgency before forming a powerful
coalition with like minded people within the organization. The third step is creating a vision for
change which is then followed by communicating this change effectively. Step five involves
removing obstacles before short term wins are created in the next process. Step seven is all about
building on the change and finally anchoring the change on corporate culture (Anderson, 2013,
p. 57)

Change Management Plan 3
Strategic Change Plan
The nature of strategies employed in managing change within an organization is largely
dependent on the nature of change. For this particular case, the expected change is a major one
hence it can be projected to have a myriad effects across the various departments within the
organization most importantly the human resource. It is also a fact worth noting that
organizational change mainly affects the people within the premises before the impacts are
transferred to other aspects like procedures and processes (Anderson and Anderson, 2011, p. 45).
It is therefore important to adequately prepare the people for change before it is actually
implemented. With reference to Kotter’s model, the organization can employ the following
approaches.
Step 1: Increasing the urgency for change
One of the crucial aspects which the company management ought to consider is the need
to bring the members of the organization to clarity in line with the intended change. Before the
major components of the change are highlighted to the organization, there is the need to help the
members understand the presence of a problem, a space or an anomaly in the company’s
operations which would adequately be addressed by the intended change (Ashmos and Huber,
2008, p. 600). This plays a crucial role in helping the people to anticipate the change instead of
resisting it. The organization can achieve this by initiating healthy and interactive discussions
with the employees where their opinions about what needs to be adjusted are received and
addressed. Once the people have seen the need for change, the management can emphasize the
ideas by predicting the potential threats as well as development scenarios which indicate some of
the things that are likely to happen in future. The team can also highlight the current market

Change Management Plan 4
scenario in a bid to identify the areas that can be exploited in order to improve sales and return
on investment (Cox and Blake, 2011). These opinions can be synthesized through constructive
arguments in order to help the members understand the need for change. Additionally, the
support of the company’s clientele as well as the key stakeholders can be incorporated to help
strengthen the arguments on the need for change. For instance, when Shell Company lost its oil
reserves in 2004, its market shares were largely hampered (Bennett, 2013, p. 40). To salvage the
situation, there was an urgent need for the overhaul of some of the processes and a change in
leadership. The need for this change was communicated to the fraternity by indicating to the
subsidiaries the drastic effects that the drop in market share would have on the company. This
sped up the process.
Step 2: Building a team that is committed to change
Once the environment of urgency has been created, the company’s top leadership ought
to commence on the next strategy which involves developing a strong team to spearhead the
change process. This team should specifically be made of individuals who are like minded with
regard to the change objectives. The therefore need to be people who are shown undeniable
interest in helping the organization grow hence are individuals who are committed to change.
While making this team, it is not necessary to follow the company’s hierarchy (Dean, 2009). The
management can therefore come up with team comprising people derived from various spots
across the organization. These people can include the company’s true leaders as well as its key
stakeholders. Both emotional and physical commitment is then requested from the members of
this team before the right team building approaches are implemented to strengthen cohesion and
effectiveness. The team is further monitored in a bid to not any loop holes and hence ensures that
it involves a good mix of people from different levels and departments in the company. This