Managing Organizational Change Effectively

This assignment delves into the complexities of managing organizational change. It examines various leadership styles, tools, and techniques used to navigate transitions effectively. Emphasis is placed on understanding resistance to change, fostering collaboration, and implementing strategies for successful adaptation. The assignment encourages critical analysis of real-world examples and application of theoretical concepts to practical scenarios.

Managing and Leading Change

Assessment 1
Every business organisation understand that if they will not make necessary changes in
their enterprise then they may have to cope up with different problems (Swayne, Duncan and
Ginter, 2011). Their are two concept, one is McKinsey 7-s model and second is Kotter's 8 step
change model, which are very popular in current business environment. Prior one talks about
collective agent of changes where seven points are taken i.e. shared vale, strategy, structure,
systems, style, staff and skills. McKinsey 7-S model is known for guiding significant
organisational changes. Kotter's 8 step model focuses on bringing modifications in the company
by following concept of one step at a time. This assignment will explain need of change and how
it can be done by managing things in right way (Allarakhia and Walsh, 2011). Case of Mercer
Medical Centre will be become part of this file because they want to make some alteration in
their organisation. A communication management plan will be made for mentioned institution so
they can successfully implement proposed change. Their are various kind of organisational
changes, they will become significant part of this project. Some theories, which Mercer Medical
Centre, can use for smooth modification of business will get cover before the end of this
assignment.
Technology is rapidly changing and there is no doubt that if an organisation is adopting
new techniques of working in short period of time then they may face critical issues regarding
attaining their goals and even in surviving in business world. This organisation want to update
various system, most of them are related to soft-wares, so they can reduce the workload of
employees and make sure that efficiency of the company enhances. They have many competitors
and one of them is already at the edge of implementing new physician entry order system (POE).
This is not an easy task as most of the physicians do not want to see this change because of the
past failure of this medical centre (Andrade, 2011).
In past, they made several system and one was related to nursing documentation. This
system failed in just two days because views from doctors were not taken prior to launch of this
system. Instead of reducing workload of physicians and nurses, it enhanced their workload. This
fear of uncertainty is crucial the reason that practitioners does not want to see changes and work
on new technology. Making modifications in organisation is important for Mercer Medical
Centre because one of their patient faced severe permanent brain damage because their two
division were not linked i.e. ordering system of emergency department and intensive care unit
1

(Stone, Vargo and Habeeb, 2012). They are fighting a lawsuit because of mistake which they
have committed in past but now are in situation (issue) where they have to make changes in the
organisation, so they do not commit same mistakes again, but doctors does not want these
changes because they have a fear that it will just increase their workload and reduce their pay
(Appelbaum and Shafiq, 2012). This situation is needed to be resolved this organisation.
Every enterprise has to go through major modifications for at-least one time in their
business. Their are various kind of organisational changes. First is transformational change.
Their are various external factors which can force a company for doing and adopting something
new which they have not done in past. Up-gradation and use of latest technology is one of an
example of transformational change. Nowadays, it does not matter that whether a firm want to
work on latest technology or not, they have to buy and adopt it because their competitors will
earn competitive advantages if they will adopt technological changes (Badham, Mead and
Antonacopoulou, 2012).
Organisational-wide change is other kind of ''Change''. This is very different from prior
one because in this type, all the divisions have to adopt change. Restructuring, collaboration etc.
are some examples of organisational-wide change. One of the most important thing about this
change is that it make a huge impact on behaviour of all the employees of company. Personnel
change is another type of ''organisational change'', this is basically related to the work of mass
hiring or firing. The modification through which organisation may want to go is
''transformational change''. They does not want all the department of company to make necessary
amendments, they just want to implement some system which can make better connection two
crucial departments (Brown and Osborne, 2012). But if their view point is deeply analysed then
it can be said that with ''transformational'', they are also going through organisation-wide changes
because most of the employees and division of the medical centre will either directly or
indirectly get impacted through it.
They want to adopt POE (physician order entry) system, this a change which involve
technology and it will mainly assist physician. They want to implement it because it is fast and it
does not required any high level of training for learning ''how to use it''. Work of doctors and
their supporting staff will completely change once this system is executed (Stoltzfus, Stohl and
Seibold, 2011). Most of the changes are done for improving current operation, this alternation in
working is also related to up-gradation of technology because other organisation of same filed
2

have attained remarkable success by implementing POE and it made positive help them in
attaining their vision by doing some strategic changes in their current policies (Bush and
Middlewood, 2013). Making these major modifications is not an easy process but if responsible
people (Kathryn Reed and Barry mark) will step by step explain different advantages of POE to
practitioners and other related staff members then they may get ready to proactively take part in
this transformation. In this form of ''change'', all the concerned people who will get affected by
change, is included in the conversation and planning of how transformation will be done. This
assures smooth adoption of change.
Kotter's 8 step theory can be adopted by Mercer Medical Centre. Instead of focusing on
all the areas in one time and bring all major modification in one short, this theory focuses on
implementing alteration ''step by step''. First part of this theory is related to enhance urgency of
the change. The reason behind adopting this strategy is that if practitioners will not feel that
change is needed to be adopted in short period of time then they take much interest in its
implementation (Choi, 2011). Second step is related to formation of a team whose main task is to
motivate other to adopt change. If most of the people are ready to try something new then, even,
if some employees will resist it, their viewpoint will not matter a lot. One of the most important
thing is creation of a vision for change, if practitioners and nursing staff will have information
about what they will achieve, if they will implement change then it will resolve most of their
confusion and fear of uncertainty and they will focus on the path which is given by managers to
them.
The main reason behind resistance for a change is related to miscommunication between
two sides. Practitioner may not support change because they do not have any idea about its
advantages (Chow, 2014). They still think that, like in past, this new system will also not work
and this will make work more complicated and hard. Communicating the need of change will
resolve most of the differences between these two sides. According to the Kotter's change model,
fifth step is to provide more power to employees so they feel that they are able to make changes
and it is not something which someone is imposing on them. Six step, is very important, it is
related to setting short term goals. Kathryn Reed and Barry mark should set some targets so they
can put a positive pressure of practitioner and attain some success in implementation of major
change. Achieving short targets will ultimately result in long term success (Hardy,Sargent and
Thomas, 2011). Staying persistence is crucial and last step is to make the change permanent
3

(Doppelt, 2017). If all the steps are followed is proper way then convincing practitioners for
using POE system would be a hard task.
Democratic leadership should be used in this situation because without involving
practitioners in decision making process and telling then that ''how their resistance to change can
do more harm to patients''. Prior system got failed because it was made without discusses with
people who are going to use it i.e. practitioners. But this one can become successful if doctors
feel that they are centre of the change (Sikdar and Payyazhi, 2014). Significant part of
democratic leadership is honesty and fairness. By opening all the card in-front of practitioner and
nursing staff, their trust can be gained and they can be make understand that it will be beneficial
for everyone. By ensuring proactive participation from the side of practitioners success in
implementation of POE can be adopted.
A communication management plan is something which price all the information about
how message will be delivered to every concerned person (Edmonds, 2011). Mercer Medical
Centre want to introduce POE in their institution so they can provided better service to the
patient and earn some extra edge over their competitors. Differences between practitioner and
management can be resolved by having constant communication with them.
Communication management plan
Information to be communicated POE system is needed to adopted in the
organisation because it will help practitioners
medical institution and patients also.
Communication objectives  To make practitioners clear and why
change is significant.
 To communicate them the process of
adoption of change.
To whom the information will be
communicated
Practitioners and Nursing staff.
Format and delivery mechanism of the
communication
It will be done by organising a planned
conservation session with every practitioners.
It will be one on one conversion and focus will
be kept on resolving the problems of every
4

practitioner so they actively take part in
adopting POE system.
When to communicate the information It will be communicated before
implementation of POE i.e. at the time of
planning and making strategy for most of the
activities.
Responsible for communicating the
information
Kathryn Reed and Barry mark will have the
responsibility for communicating plans and
telling advantages of adopting POE.
Who will authorise to communicate the
information
CEO will give power to Kathryn Reed and
Barry mark for communicating information.
How change in the communication process be
managed
If their will any major or even minor change in
communication process then it will be
managed by finding the reason behind the
change and connected people swill be directly
communicated so the matter does not spread
and get resolve at the point of its generation .
Flow of communication Top to bottom. Kathryn Reed and Barry mark
will communicate plans of management to
every concerned person.
Escalation process to resolve any
communication-based conflicts or issues
Any kind of conflict will be solved by adopting
negotiation process. Demands of other side
will be listen and if it is reasonable then by
adopting conversation process (negotiation), it
will be resolved.
At the end, it can be concluded that by adopting theories like Kotter's 8 step change
model changes can be managed in a system and effective way (Field, 2012). Practitioners will
resist change because of their poor past experience but by adopting the strategy of one step at a
5

time, this big transformation can easily in introduced in Mercer Medical Centre. One thing which
can be done differently is that involving of practitioner can be enhanced by asking them to make
their own strategy about ''how POE system will come on the organisation''. This work should be
done after communicating them all the benefits of POE system. If they will make plans then the
chances of resistance for change will be very low (Fullan, 2014). This can be considered as a
better or modified version of democratic leadership where all the work will be done by
practitioners and their issues will be solved by management find any flaw in their plan. This is
basically a reverse approach but this will only start if practitioner will understand the
significance POE system.
Assessment 2
Change is law of nature. Article written by Claudette Pope discussed about various why
timely alteration in an organisation is essential and how modifications in the business can be
introduced (Hrebiniak, 2013). Their are basically two types concepts, one why fix something
which is not broken i.e. there is no need to adopt change if there is not noting wrong. But if
changes will not be proactively adopted after analysing their needs then it can create big trouble
for an organisation who is waiting for ''need of change''. This assignment will discuss about
theories relating to managing and leading change. Strength and weakness of the opinion of
author will get discuss under this assignment and own views will also be explained (Warrick,
2011).
Concept given by Kotter i.e. change model is related to this case. Some organisation may
not proactively bring new changes in the company because they may feel that it is not necessary
but once they analyse that something is wrong and it is needed to be fixed then this they have to
adopt right process for accomplishing this task (Iles, 2017). This article discussed about vision,
this is third step in the change model provided by Kotter. Targeting specific group is good
strategy because change is resisted by those who are normally going to get negatively affected by
it or they have fear that they do not know how they will cope up with thus change. Second step
of Kotter change model is related to this concept. An important thing which every organisation
should focus is that they should not skip any step of this model because all of them are important
like resolving giving power to employees and having conversion with each and every worker
because human resource is considered as one of the prime asset which a company have in their
firm.
6

Author discuss some good point and finding & discussing them shows their good view
point of the author (Jabri, 2012). One of the prime strength of author opinion is that it talked
about some crucial elements like spreading negative issues as soon as possible, resolving all the
problems of the employees because without them company cannot attain their goals. Another
strength of author's opinion is that it focused on trust and honesty. If their will be no trust
between two parties that resistance change is normal things. If employees have faith in their
seniors than they will not ask much question and easily support the change because they know
that their senior will not accept something which is not good for his/her subordinates
(Mendenhall and Stahl, 2017). But there are some weaknesses in the opinion of author which is
related to involvement of employees in the decision making once top level management make
some crucial call. Instead of adopting top to bottom approach, a reverse method i.e. bottom to up
would be most suitable at the time of reducing incidents relating resistance. If senior members of
company will make strategies with involving employees from starting then they may fail face
more hurdles in upcoming time. But if they will ask them about what changes can be brought and
what is your opinion about a particular change from initial stage then it will be beneficial for
both sides.
Some people may argue that argue that Kotter's 8 step model consumes more but they
should also analyses it various benefits (Mariani and Vitouladiti, 2014). Change can impact
complete organisation or an specific department but it problem is break is some parts and then it
every small elements is solved than a big change can be brought in smooth way without facing
much issues. Kotter model is suitable in most of the case because it concentrate of actual
change,which people resist, it only focuses on preparation and its acceptance. Proper
communication between management and employee is one of the point which can resolve most
of the problems. Author discussed many good point and finding weaknesses in author's option is
difficult. Prime strength of Kotter model is that covers significant issue of imposing change
(Leonard, 2011). When things are done in steps and gradually then attaining success is much
easier. Instead of focusing on target, concentrating on process is equally important.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that every organisation should convey
complete information to their employee so their trust can be gained and any hidden agenda is
avoided. Companies should make more than one plan because if one does not work then they can
other can be adopted. This not a new strategy but it is very effective.
7

8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allarakhia, M. and Walsh, S., 2011. Managing knowledge assets under conditions of radical
change: The case of the pharmaceutical industry. Technovation. 31(2). pp.105-117.
Andrade, M.S., 2011. Managing change—Engaging faculty in assessment
opportunities. Innovative Higher Education. 36(4). pp.217-233.
Appelbaum, S.H. and Shafiq, H., 2012. Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change
model. Journal of Management Development. 31(8). pp.764-782.
Badham, R., Mead, A. and Antonacopoulou, E., 2012. A dramaturgical approach to the practice
of managing change. The routledge companion to organizational change, p.187.
Brown, K. and Osborne, S.P., 2012. Managing change and innovation in public service
organizations. Routledge.
Bush, T. and Middlewood, D., 2013. Leading and managing people in education. Sage.
Choi, M., 2011. Employees' attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review. Human
Resource Management. 50(4). pp.479-500.
Chow, A., 2014. Leading change and the challenges of managing a learning organisation in
Hong Kong. Journal of Management Research. 6(2). p.22.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Edmonds, J., 2011. Managing successful change. Industrial and commercial training. 43(6).
pp.349-353.
Field, C.B. ed., 2012. Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate
change adaptation: special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change.
Cambridge University Press.
Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Hrebiniak, L.G., 2013. Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. FT Press.
Iles, V., 2017. Leading and managing change. ABC of Clinical Leadership, p.24.
Jabri, M., 2012. Managing organizational change. Palgrave Macmillan.
Leonard, D.A., 2011. Core capabilities and core rigidities: A paradox in managing new product
development. In Managing Knowledge Assets, Creativity And Innovation (pp. 11-27).
Mariani, M.M. and Vitouladiti, O., 2014. Managing change in tourism destinations: Key issues
and current trends. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 2(4). pp.269-272.
Mendenhall, M.E. and Stahl, G.K. eds., 2017. Global leadership: Research, practice, and
development. Routledge.
Sikdar, A. and Payyazhi, J., 2014. A process model of managing organizational change during
business process redesign. Business Process Management Journal. 20(6). pp.971-998.
Stoltzfus, K., Stohl, C. and Seibold, D.R., 2011. Managing organizational change: Paradoxical
problems, solutions, and consequences. Journal of organizational change
management. 24(3). pp.349-367.
Stone, B., Vargo, J. and Habeeb, D., 2012. Managing climate change in cities: will climate action
plans work?. Landscape and Urban Planning. 107(3). pp.263-271.
Swayne, L.E., Duncan, W.J. and Ginter, P.M., 2012. Strategic management of health care
organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
9