Change Management at AT&T

The assignment analyzes the application of Kotter's 8-Step Change Model within AT&T. It highlights how this model helps the company identify change needs, manage resistance, and successfully implement transformations in response to competitive pressures.

Running Head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT 1
Organization Change Management at AT & T

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Company Overview.........................................................................................................................4
Diagnosis.........................................................................................................................................5
Kotter’s 8-step Approach.................................................................................................................5
Increase urgency..........................................................................................................................6
Building a strong guiding team....................................................................................................7
Develop a strategy and vision......................................................................................................7
Communicate the vision for change.............................................................................................8
Eliminating the barriers and empowering the actions of employees...........................................8
Create short-term wins.................................................................................................................8
Associating the gains and generating more changes....................................................................9
Make the change stick and present new change methods and approaches in organizational
culture...........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................... 10

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Introduction
Change management is a process of renewing the structure, direction and capabilities of
organization to serve the transforming needs and requirements to its internal and external
customers. There are so many authors, who defined the change as a feature that is always
available in organization’s life. In today’s competitive business environment, each and every
organization make changes and these changes take them towards success or failure. It depends
on how the company interprets the change and implements the change plan in the organization.
Sometimes, some large organizations need changes in their processes and systems to get success
in this competitive era.
The organization, which is taken into consideration here, is a telecommunication service
provider, i.e. AT & T. It includes the change plan of AT & T for implementation of change
according to the needs of organization. In this, the report diagnoses the needs for changes in the
organization. After examining the scope for change, it implements the Kotter’s 8 step model to
adopt the changes at AT & T organization. This model will help the organization in
implementing change effectively and successfully.
Company Overview
AT & T is a holding organization that is engaged in providing telecommunications and
Information Technology entertainment services. The organization operates its business in
different segments, like; Entertainment Group, Business Solutions and Consumer Mobility. AT
& T is American Corporation that fulfills the household needs worldwide, like; satellite, phone,
television and telecommunication networking services. With the growth in the economy, the
population is shifting from dial-up connection to internet services. Originally, the company was
established in 1882 as Southern Bell Telephone Company, which is subsidiary of Bell Telephone
Company. Later, it was named as AT & T Corporation (AT&T Inc., 2017).
In the beginning, AT & T operated its business having monopoly in the market and struggled for
acceptance from US market. At that time, it was a business that developed several inventions
over the decades, such as; transistor and communication or networking by using satellites and
many more things. This company came by purchasing firms, such as; Western Union Telegraph

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Company, Western Electric. These organizations have also launched first demonstrations of TV.
AT & T has not only started the business by introducing the use of telephones, but also television
and internet services and many more things to the electronics segment. The company is making
various changes in its working environment (AT&T Inc., 2017).
Here, the organization is adopting Kotter’s 8 step models to diagnose the need of change in the
organization and how it can implement the changes in the perspective organization.
Diagnosis
Before creating a change plan for organization and implementing the changes in the
organization, there is a need to diagnose the scope and needs for change. Here, organization can
adopt Kotter’s 8 step approach to find the needs of change in the business, because the
organization came across different types of mergers and acquisitions to offer different product
and service range to consumers (Aiken & Keller, 2009). It has offered its potential consumers
with one shop for cable services, internet, networking and telephone services.
Kotter’s 8-step Approach
For the leaders and managers of an organization, the change management is an important and
strategic task. There are so many studies, which have shown that there are so many change plans,
which have failed in their change project. So, there is need of an effective diagnosis and
implementation of a significant model, like; Kotter’s 8 step approach. In the year 1996, John
Kotter has introduced a change model that includes 8 different steps (Appelbaum, Habashy,
Malo, & Shafiq, 2012). He has developed these steps by conducting researches on more than 100
organizations, which were implementing the process of change.
In today’s business world, most of the organizations look at the change as a significant
competitive advantage. It is not easy to implement the change without placing an appropriate
plan. After looking at the changes at AT&T Company, it can be understood that the managers at
AT&T have had many situations, where there is a need of planned organizational change. So, the
organization preferred to adopt John Kotter’s 8 step model.
Kotter’s model is made of total 8 steps, which are mentioned below;

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1. Increase urgency
2. Building a strong guiding team
3. Develop a strategy and vision
4. Communicate the vision for change
5. Eliminating the barriers and empowering the actions of employees
6. Create short-term wins
7. Associating the gains and generating more changes
8. Make the change stick and present new change methods and approaches in organizational
culture
For an organization, it is very important to have an effective planning and approach to bring the
changes. For this purpose, AT&T is adopting Kotter’s 8 step of change for implementing the
changes. In order to implement the changes successfully, AT&T should develop a change plan
for the managers to take the business ahead with new processes and systems (Bridges & Bridges,
2017).
Increase urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is very important in gaining the cooperation that is essential to drive
the change efforts. To begin with the change efforts, the organization should create a sense of
urgency for understanding that what requires the changes and how it can influence everyday
functions and responsibilities in the organization. Most of the companies try to avoid this step,
which lead them to become failed in implementation of change. So, it is very important to
understand the need of urgency for creating changes in the organization (Burke, 2017). The large
organization, like; AT&T is trying to overcome different challenges in the process of developing
the business and they are continuing to overcome the challenges because competitors are coming
with different products, like; Google Fiber Network. So, there is need for changes at the
organization to compete with the competitors.
At AT&T, business has the urgency to implement some new, innovative and competitive offers
to the consumers and overcome the issue of competition. The top management of the company
will interact and communicate the issues with the managers and leaders and then they will plan
that what the organization can offer for improving its position in the industry (Chappell, et al,
2016). In the year 1998, the organization has come into a merger with TCI Organization, i.e. one

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of the largest cable organizations and it offered them power to provide more products and
services in comparison to their potential competitors.
Building a strong guiding team
After analyzing the urgency, the second step is to build a strong guiding coalition by gathering a
team with the sufficient capacity to lead the change efforts and motivate the employees to
perform the tasks as a team. Only a single person can work towards making the vision and
mission of change. So, there is a need of forming a right group of employees to build coalition in
leading the changes efforts for the company to get success. The team will include the top-level
managers and other key people of the organization (Cameron & Green, 2015). AT&T is
implementing this step by engaging the Vice Presidents, Team leaders and Managers to look at
that what steps can be taken to apply this organized plan for the telecommunication business. At
AT&T, the top management will conduct meeting with different departments and their staff to
look at the customer’s responses and complaints. The organization will encourage the employees
to read the reviews on their products and services and evaluate what they can do to implement
the changes for the consumers and how they can sustain the growth and success of their business.
Develop a strategy and vision
Creating a clear vision can serve different purposes of an organization. First, it can simplify the
complex decisions in organization. Second, it can motivate the employees to do the tasks in a
right way and third one is it supports to coordinate the actions of different people. In this case,
AT&T is a company that has formed its vision to offer its consumers an idea about who they are
and how they are choosing to perform the business. With the articulation of a vision, the
organization needs to create strategies to achieve that vision. The vision of AT&T is all about IT
solutions, connection, innovation and doing better than all other wireless, telecommunication and
television entertainment organizations (Elliott Powell, 2015).
Under this change plan, the vision of company is “to make the innovative and different systems,
which work together and establish itself as fastest and most reliable network providers in the
world. This vision of company has cultivated to reflect the direction that AT&T desires to take
its business in right direction by dealing with all the obstacles, which will come in its way. By
looking at this vision, the organization will adopt effective strategies, so it can reach to its
desired place. They only want to offer best quality services and to its potential customers.

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Communicate the vision for change
To get the understanding about the direction is very difficult task, especially in the complex
organizations and it involves very much inconsistency. The organization needs to use every
possible vehicle, so that the organization can ensure that employees understand their change
vision and strategy. After creating the vision and related strategies, the company should
communicate the message of vision among its managers and employees. Thus, the
communication is a major factor in the success of business. At AT&T, the managers and leaders
need to communicate its change vision and strategies to employees and other associates (Goetsch
& Davis, 2014). The organization can establish effective communication through meetings,
seminars and virtual forums to offer awareness to each person about the vision of AT&T.
Eliminating the barriers and empowering the actions of employees
Furthermore, Kotter stated that it is very important to overcome different change barriers by
changing processes and systems, which weaken the vision and encourage non-traditional and
risky ideas and actions of employees. It is important for AT&T to understand the issues that
during the change process, there will be many barriers and it is essential to deal with them to
empower the employees to apply its vision (Hayes, 2014). For this, AT&T is using
communication strategy to involve employees and other top-level managers and motivating them
to work for this vision. The actions of employees can be empowered by adopting incentive plans
and motivational meetings. The organization can develop some long term and short term goals,
which will definitely give the organization more than its vision (Kang, Cecelia & Yang, 2011).
Create short-term wins
For long term change efforts, creating short term wins are necessary. According to Kotter,
running the change efforts without consideration to short term performance is very dangerous. In
these short term wins, the organization can evaluate the people and eliminate the managers,
leaders and employees, who are not interested and willing to implement the changes (Kumar &
Singhal, 2012). AT&T is meeting several milestones by changing the workforce or teams, which
implement their own business views. It is also trying to acquire some other businesses, like;
Media One SBC, Direct TV, TCI etc.

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Associating the gains and generating more changes
In the Kotter’s 8 step approach, it is the most critical stage of change when the organization has
attained an early success. After attaining the short term wins, it is significant for AT&T to evaluate
and monitor the systems and processes and search for new and innovative opportunities to continue
the process of change (Matos Marques Simoes & Esposito, 2014). The organization can recruit and
promote the employees, who can successfully implement the vision. In the year 1995, AT&T
declared that company is restructuring in three companies. It enabled the company to branch off into
some other sectors. The organization has achieved a considerable growth and success by this
restructuring.
Make the change stick and present new change methods and approaches in
organizational culture
In this approach, the last step is to make the permanent changes in the processes. It is very
important to incorporate the new ideas and approaches in the corporate culture. This can be
completed by enhancing the performance by productivity and customer related behaviors (Small, et.
al, 2016). These new approaches must grow deep roots in the culture. Culture is made with the
norms and values. For AT&T, it is very important to keep an eye on the process and evaluate
everything to remove the old way of working. For example, AT&T has created the cellular phone
that is an effective way of communication by using electrical amplifiers (Vora, 2013). The
organization had created the ability of calling for long distance from one country to another country
for comparatively smaller price.
Conclusion
Thus, it is hereby concluded that each and every step of Kotter’s 8 Step approach offers the company
ability to divide its goals that can enable them achieving their overall objective. Change management
is an important process for growing the business in today’s competitive era. AT&T is influenced by
its competitors and their inventions. So, the organization is implementing the Kotter’s approach. It is
assisting the organization in diagnosing the needs for change and implementing the change in
process. It is advantageous for AT&T to implement this approach, as it includes every aspect of
organization, which needs changes.

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References
Aiken, C., Keller, S. (2009). The irrational side of change management. McKinsey Quarterly.
Pp.100-109. Retrieved from <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost>.
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J. L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: revisiting
Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), 764-782.
AT&T Inc. (2017). Company Description. Retrieved from
http://money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=T.
Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. (2017). Managing transitions: Making the most of change. Da Capo
Press.
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Chappell, S., Pescud, M., Waterworth, P., Shilton, T., Roche, D., Ledger, M. & Rosenberg, M.
(2016). Exploring the process of implementing healthy workplace initiatives: mapping to
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Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
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Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kang, Cecelia & Yang, J.L. (2011). "How AT&T fumbled its $39 billion bid to acquire T-
Mobile". The Washington Post.

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Kumar, P. & Singhal, M. (2012). Reducing change management complexity: aligning change
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