Reflective Journal on Change Management: Insights and Experiences

This reflective journal explores the complexities of change management, drawing upon the author's coursework, research, and personal experiences. The journal begins by examining the capabilities of change agents, highlighting their crucial role in initiating, facilitating, and integrating change strategies within organizations. It then delves into the importance of teamwork and individual contributions, recounting the author's experiences in a group assignment focused on change management in B&A Bank. The journal further discusses the ethical impacts of change on stakeholders, emphasizing the need for effective communication, trust-building, and adherence to ethical principles. Finally, it addresses the challenges of managing cultural diversity in the workplace, sharing the author's experiences and insights on navigating cross-cultural communication and collaboration. Throughout the journal, the author reflects on their learning journey, identifying areas for improvement and outlining a development plan to become a more competent change leader.

Student Name
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION(S)
MANAGING CHANGE

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Introduction
Strategic change is one way through which organizations succeed and can survive by
making necessary adjustments in strategic directions, acquiring resources and capabilities to
cope with a fast-paced environment. Therefore, to thrive, change agents need to understand
and make effective and fast business frameworks to address issues in changing business
environment. While going through the literature, I found that many researchers and business
scholars have begun exploring different phenomenon related to change within firms by
analyzing different change approach, starting from a discourse perspective until the results
achieved.
My course learning revealed to me that when several professional groups collaborate
within a change intervention, they give diversified meaning to change that further results in
resistance towards change. Here, I can say that the manner change agents develop and
implement change program has great implications for bringing effectiveness along with
issues that arise due to resistance shown towards change. This reflective journal will reflect
upon my capabilities through the study made on change management and how individual
contribution proves significant in teamwork. This journal will shed light on the ethical
impacts of change on stakeholders and share my past experiences while I worked in my
previous workplace that underwent major organizational change. This journal will conclude
after revealing my development plan to become a competent change leader.
Change agent capabilities
Earlier, my views about change agents were that they are internal managers or a group
of people who are appointed to monitor and manage the entire change process. But, now after
my course unit and additional research made on change management, I am aware that they

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are the most crucial factors in the change process. Change agents are the ones who take the
initiative, facilitates, integrates change strategies and support change processes from the start
till the results are accomplished. One example that I would like to share to here is about
change management in Shell company which had undergone a major change under its newly
hired chairman, Jeroen Van Der Veer in 2004. The change agent i.e. the chairman took an
initiative for bringing change in the company and named the intervention as Downstream-
One. The change in Shell management was all over the news at that time. I admire the
strategy undertaken by Jeroen regarding IT initiative to globalize the 80 Shell unites to
improvise its international strategies from common invoicing to the centralized distribution
system. Now we know Shell as a healthier company than it was when the transformation had
begun.
After my course unit, now I am aware that success or failure behind any change
highly depends on workability and capabilities of change agents. This I can say after
observing the change in Walmart going under the leadership of Doug McMillon. According
to the change leader of the company, Walmart required more speed than bureaucracy to stay
fast and therefore, new positions were created in the firm to satisfy industry demands. Even,
the collaborative teamwork seen within the company management reflects that the change
process implemented can provide Walmart with sustainable development in future.
While going through the literature, I found a very enlightening article where the
author revealed about organizations who implement successful change with the help of
change agent having three significant capabilities: following the change process and
procedures closely, giving suitable time for adjusting change in particular environment, and
measuring results in terms of efforts provided by every people involved in change. Even my
class unit reveals a similar understanding about change agents and so, I will consider
improving my change management capabilities to act competently and in accord with the

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present dynamic business world. For example, in Lewin's three-step change model, I learnt
that every organization cannot use this strategy, especially in larger firms since this strategy
may not be able to communicate change appropriately due to focussing directly upon
identified issue. I also learnt that the change process is usually driven by strategic
considerations which may include integrating the working environment or improving
business processes. Now I understand why global company change leaders have to face
various issues related to employee’s resistance to change.
The change in management failure in McDonald's is known to everyone. The
company mistakenly made a billion-dollar loss by neglecting giving significance to flexible
leadership. This made McDonald's change leaders face additional issues while implementing
change intervention and juggle to resolve uprising conflicts among its employees. After
analysing my course study and literature related to change agents, I can say that if
McDonald's would have given significant time while determining a change model after
considering the evaluation of cultural force within the company, it would have never
misjudged about change intervention necessities.
From my course module, one topic that excited me the most is resistance to change. I
relished every session especially when I came to know about why employees get resisted due
to miscommunication and due to the existing gap between change agent and employees. This
made me do additional research on the topic from the web where I found that change agent
must be aware of ways through which diversified workforce can be managed effectively with
the help of communicative skills. The next part of this reflective journal herewith will
describe how I performed in teamwork while I worked in my group assignment related to
change management in B&A Bank. The later part will discuss my views on resistance to
change and how I handled arising issues where the change was experienced by me.

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Role of individuals in a teamwork
The course unit taught me that with teamwork capabilities, I can establish a superior
level of emotional stability, reflect the ability to plan and remain self-confident to decide
upon working with others positively. It can help me in creating a positive work environment
even during tough situations like change management by enabling workable agenda, positive
values and creative activities on a joint basis. While going through one of the articles, I
found that some people fail to recognise the significance behind teamwork and how
individual contribution is important to make a team perform effectively which leads to
occupational failures. However, the team I was a part of proved to be very efficient as all of
us carried the assigned work deliberately and responsibly. The assignment was related to
change management and we were asked to make a report on change management in B&A
Bank in Perth. The first few days of our team development went on collaborating group
activities and what role will be performed by whom. Although every one of us belonged to
diversified culture and backgrounds, we showed professionalism in group activity and made
equal contributions to accomplish our shared goal.
During the project report, we found that to help the community, B&A Bank utilised
Lewin's three-step change model for bringing necessary changes in its management.
Moreover, the organizational design and management team placed the bank in a good
position where two companies were merged and created a differentiated banking group
within the Australian banking industry. Since our project was large and critical, we decided to
split our work into smaller tasks so that our targeted research could be addressed
appropriately. At this stage, I was made responsible for gathering reliable data and
information regarding internal and external bank environment. As some of our team members

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were given the task of putting every finding on paper in written format, it was decided that
every data will be communicated to each other’s via online communication and emails to
ensure that every collected data was assembled according to our initial plans. Although the
session went very well between us, I felt that I could have performed better.
Overall, I experienced that despite my team members collaborated and came to know
each other on a professional and personal level, I relatively was quiet, especially during initial
days. Nevertheless, with time, I became comfortable and at the end of the team session, I
contributed my ideas and views to the team discussions. Overall, I found that working in a
team was a very useful experience for me as it allowed me to learn about handling things
during group projects. I learnt a great deal about the business environment within banks, and
how change management is conducted internally. The information gathered on Lewin's three-
step change management further strengthen my course unit learnings on change management.
Ethical impacts of change on stakeholders
While going through the change management history, I found that Lewin's purpose
behind developing a change strategy and organizational development movement was to
resolve social conflicts arising in society. Since then, people have started believing that
change projects are simply a matter of organizational function that deals with working with
the right people and at the right place. However, my experience and course learning have
changed something in me that makes me do more research on critical factors that leads to
change and how ignoring relationships can lead to change failures like faced by Nokia and
Coca Cola change interventions.
I believe that stakeholder's engagement is one term accepted by most of the successful
change leaders and therefore, stakeholder management has gained special prominence in
change management study. Since organizations will cut across several business functions

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during a change program, one key concern is managing people or employees. In my view,
things can be managed and not people. Therefore, we, as a change leader are entitled to
motivate and direct stakeholders such as employees rather than managing them. One
important stakeholder who is impacted is senior management of the firms who might feel
ignored or stressful for losing their position in the firm. Then we have internal partners like
teams and departments in organization or external partners such as trainers and consultants
who need to be made aware of the change programs so that they do not feel neglected. Other
than this, stakeholders such as suppliers and outsourcing companies need to know what is
expected by them and what new roles will be given to remain effective in the change
intervention.
While I worked in my change management team project, my team members agreed on
working ethically for the sake of project completion within the aforementioned deadline.
Accordingly, we shared every information with each other concerning the project, however,
one of my team mates remained silent and showed less contribution as compared to the
others. Our course learning informed us that to maintain ethics in teams, it is important that
every team member contributes equally and justly so that mutual trust is established between
team members. Since then, it became more important for me to learn ways through which
stakeholders can be maintained ethically during implementing change interventions and while
I perform in teams in my future organization. As far as my learnings are concerned, I will use
Kant's approach to change management as it indicates business ethics in suitable way for
contemporary organizations. For example, establishing an effective and two-way
communication process and building significant trust from every organizational stakeholder.
This will also ensure that ethical change principles are conveyed by me while giving respect
to other people freedom of choice.

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Working with a different culture people
One major function of change management in contemporary workplace is managing
diversified culture people where culture can describe anything related to belief, knowledge,
religion, gender, capabilities and behaviour possessed by employees. Earlier, I was unaware
of ways through which cultural diversity can be managed in the workplace which made me
face an adverse situation while I worked in my group assignment on change management.
One of the team members in my group project was an immigrant who belonged to a different
culture than mine. Initially, we both faced many issues especially while communicating with
each other. Moreover, my way of speaking seemed uncomfortable to him as he belonged to a
culture where shaking hands or speaking in an unfriendly manner proved disrespectful.
Though the project got completed, I learnt that working with people belonging to different
cultural background requires thoughtful and improved team cohesion skills. To improve my
way of working, I made a research on ways to manage cultural diversity and found one article
which stated that to develop a correct business-oriented attitude and performance,
implementing correct ethical values helps in making appropriate use of different culture
people. However, such developments need ensuring fairness regarding multiple experiences
observed and individual perspectives held by others.
After my course learnings and additional research made on web, I am sure that
workforce diversity has increased alarmingly due to the social composition of individuals in
workplace. Similar to the developments made in technological and scientific fields, the ability
to work with culturally diversified people have made human resource management of the
firms consider develop ways through which employees can learn to work with individuals
belonging to a different culture. This has been experienced by me during my group project

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even as all of us belonged to diversified culture, location and believes which made us face
few difficulties especially while deciding upon critical matter related to our assignment like
project layout, who will undertake which part and how our team contribution will be
recorded, etc. This incident made me learn about communication deficiency in me as most of
the times, others decided what needed to be done in our group project. Therefore, I will learn
different ways about communicating in the workplace comprising different culture people.
Moreover, my knowledge of working with others also needs to be developed critically. After
completing my course exams, I will learn such tactics by indulging in programs where biases
and personal stereotyping can be revealed so that such incorrect beliefs can be eliminated
from me which I have regarding a few distinct cultures.
Personal development plan
After completing my course unit, I learnt that today’s change leaders need to consider
development tools that support learning activities for improving individual performance and
organizational efficiency during change interventions. I aspire to be an efficient change
leader who inspires people rather than considering economic benefits only. I will, therefore,
keep myself updated with the latest technologies applied in successful businesses. I will make
further research on change management topic and change leader qualities to transfer myself
into a change manager who can help organizations in developing sustainably. I would like to
undertake online classes as previously too; I had worked comfortably within online
platforms. My SMART goal will include being specific about where I am at present and
where can I approach next to improve my identified weakness like communication skills and
working with culturally diverse people during change programs. My measurable goal will
help me ascertaining how much time I will require to gain comprehensive knowledge about
effective change leadership skills. Attainable goals will help me in making a detailed plan
with specific time frame regarding my future developmental classes. Realistic goals will

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show me the path and create desirability to work efficiently until my goals are accomplished
within a specific time.
Since I aspire to become a change leader, my plan will consist of four steps in
which the first step will be evaluating the skills that can assist me while ascertaining my
future career goals as a change leader and which development opportunities I will consider
undertaking. Since I had faced change management issues in my previous workplace, I will
learn new ways that are used by the contemporary workplace to ensure that such issues are
never faced by me in future. Secondly, I will consider taking classes on learning with
working different culture people since every workplace nowadays consists of a culturally
diversified workforce and I am also going to be a part of it. To gain a deeper insight into my
strengths and weaknesses, I will prefer using personal SWOT analysis and a Johari Window
to explore what needs to be learnt for developing my professional outlook. After conducting a
self-evaluation, I will explore possibilities by analysing opportunities that can affect my
learning methods. In this step, I may choose alternative procedures that suits my ability to
learn and develop like professional training classes or cross-cultural management programs.
The third step will include decision-making process where I will make a selection of
programs I would like to use for my development, including development tools and
timeframes. The final step in PDP will include shifting in one level higher after recognising
the achieved gaols throughout the PDP journey.
Conclusion
The success or failures in a change management program depends on its competent
change leader or human resource managers. To have competent teams, change leaders require

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giving team members equal opportunities to develop and achieve success in their positions.
After preparing this reflective journal, I can say that reflective journals are very important for
business studies students like me where we can link the new strategies learnt with previous
experiences or personal weakness and strengths. In my reflective journals, I have mentioned
what I have learnt about change agent capabilities, especially focussing upon ways they
manage resistance to change and how new ways can be implemented successfully by a skilled
and thoughtful change agent. Individual contribution in a teamwork is very significant and if
any of individuals working in a team fails to comprehend significance behind teamwork
performance, the entire teams tend to realise failures. I also learnt that organizational change
can have ethical impacts on stakeholders and thus, application of virtue-based theories during
change interventions is been prescribed in literature. Since I faced issues while working with
a person belonging to the different cultural background during an organizational change in
my previous company, now I am aware that it is a part of the professional work environment
and so, I will cultivate myself to ensure such issues are avoided by me in my future years.
The personal development plan provided in this journal reflects how I will link my
capabilities and development needs to create a successful organizational environment.

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