Driving Change and Developing Organizations: Models and Sources of Change

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Driving change and develop organization
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Introduction
The research and practice of organizational change is aimed at improving and developing
organizations for purposes of enhancing the responsiveness to external environment changes
(Armenakis and Harris 2009 p. 131). The practice and research is carried out through better
management of people, structures, systems, communications, and competence. The approaches
and methods of the discipline are being practiced in both the government and businesses. In
addition, due to the increasingly changing environments, companies are being confronted
constantly with the need of implementing changes in culture, process, structure, and strategy.
Various factors have contributed to the effectiveness of the implementation of changes to
organizations. Organizational changes have intense implications for the development and
management of people, whether incremental or revolutionary, planned and strategic, or
unplanned and discontinuous. Any kind of change results in the need for change in culture,
learning, creativity, and innovation, all of which are legitimate and lie within the boundaries of
development and personal interest. Organizational professionals working in development and
personnel could be central performers in change management in different matters including
structures of reward, learning, and development, people resourcing and developing new relations
of employees in strategic contexts. Senior level professionals for personnel and development
should demonstrate their contributions in assisting the people in the organization.

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Three Models for Diagnosing and Implementation of Change in Organizations
Lewin’s Change Management Model
Understanding the need for a change is critical in beginning a successful process of
change. According to Shirey (2013 p. 70) change motivation should be generated before the
occurrence of change. Lewin’s change management theory shows that a manager should be
assisted in re-examining various important assumptions about themselves and their relationship
with others, which is the unfreezing stage which is the beginning of change. The stage involves
the preparation of the organization in accepting the necessity of change, including the breaking
down of the status quos which exist in the company before bringing new ways of operations. To
succeed, a compelling message which shows the dissatisfaction with the current ways in which
things are done should be developed. For the successful preparation of the organization, the
manager should start at its core by challenging the behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs which
define the organization.
In the second stage of change, people start solving the uncertainty created in the
unfreezing stage and start finding a new way of doing things. They start believing and acting
differently in support of the new direction. The transition between unfreeze and change stage
takes time as people participate and embrace the new direction taken by the organization. The
refreeze stage occurs when people are taking up the change and embracing the new working
ways. The stage is characterized by job descriptions which are consistent, stable charts of
organizations, and other factors. The refreeze stage assists the organization and the people in
institutionalizing and internalizing the change.

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McKinsey 7-S Model
A model is a tool for the analysis of the organizational design of a firm by looking at
seven elements including staff, skills, style, values which are shared, structure, systems, and
strategy, for the identification of their effective alignment and allowance of the achievement of
the organizational objectives and effectiveness. Developed in the 1980s by the consultants of
McKinsey namely Julien Philips, Robert Waterman, and Tom Peters, the model is used widely
by practitioners and academics and remains to be a renowned tool for planning. The model
aimed at presenting and emphasizing on human resources, as opposed to the traditional tangibles
of mass production of infrastructure, equipment, and capital, as a key to an increased
performance of the organization. The model’s goals are for the interconnection of all the seven
areas and that if one area changes, other areas should also change for the effective performance
of the firm (Palatkova 2011 p. 48).
Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model
John Kotter, a change management and leadership guru, and a professor at the Harvard
Business School in his book, “Leading Change” introduced the eight-step process of change
model. The eight steps are the of urgency creation, powerful coalition formation, change vision
creation, vision communication, obstacles removal, short-term wins creation, building on the
change, and change anchoring in corporate culture. To change organizations successfully,
managers have to work extra hard. By building the proper foundation and planning carefully, it
can be easy to implement change through the improvement of the chances of success. However,
managers may be too impatient by expecting the best results in a short period of time, hence
resulting to a failure of their plans for change (Weiner 2009 p. 67). To succeed, managers must