Holmes Institute HI6008 Business Research Project 1 Topic Approval

This assignment is a topic approval for the HI6008 Business Research Project 1, focusing on effective change management techniques in organizations. The document outlines the importance of the topic, emphasizing the need to adapt to rapidly changing business scenarios and the application of MBA skills. It includes a literature review of relevant theories and practices, such as Kotter's 8-step model and Lewin's change management theory. The assignment defines the research problem as the difficulty organizations face in implementing changes effectively and poses the main research question: 'Which change management theories and practices are most applicable in present corporate scenarios for effectively improving the change management functions of organizations and how far are they different from the previously implemented change management systems?' The document also references key academic articles and business reports.

Running head: TOPIC APPROVAL
TOPIC APPROVAL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1. Importance of topic to team
The topic that is chosen for the research is concerning effective change management
techniques in organizations. Organizational change is something which organizations and the
people that are connected with them have to experience quite often. Hence, this becomes an
important topic keeping in mind the rapidly changing business scenarios of the present world.
The MBA skills that are acquired from the course need to be essentially applied in this particular
aspect of management quite frequently. Change management refers to the systematic approaches
through which the necessary changes within organizations are dealt (Bejinariu et al. 2017). It is
concerned with planning, implementing and managing the necessary operational or functional
changes that companies have to make from time to time. Effective change management helps
employees, management and support functions providers of any organization to adapt faster to
the changing corporate situations that affect organizations. The team considers to be an important
topic as this can help to understand the best possible ways through which change can be
managed within organizations. Organizations in the current corporate scenarios are
implementing innovative approaches towards helping their employees better prepared and better
motivated to handle organizational changes. The most effective ways in which change can be
managed will be focused in the main project. This is a topic in which better research is required
as the newer ways of effective change management have not been greatly explored. This topic
was chosen by the team as this can further improve the understanding of all the team members of
the various important aspects of management.

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2. Search for relevant literature
Change management is a function that has become more frequent in business
organizations due to the rapidly changing corporate environment of today. Many previous
literatures on change management have focused towards understanding the relationship between
change management and organizational leadership. Multilevel transformational leadership have
been found to be more effective towards handling organizational changes. Innovative behavior of
members of group was found to be directly related to transformational leadership styles
(Cameron and Green 2015). This in turn improved the change acceptance and change focus of
the members of the groups. The change management theories provided by Kotter are still
considered important by many experts. Kotter provided an 8 step model that helped the team to
understand the context of change management more effectively. The theory is based on creation
of urgency, formation of coalitions, creation of change vision, communication of vision, obstacle
removal, short term wins, building on change and anchoring changes in organizational culture.
The work of Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) helped the team to understand another
important theory, the Lewin’s change management theory. The theory is based on three essential
change management phases of unfreezing, change and refreezing. These older theories can
provide essential insights into the more innovative change management techniques that are
actually based on these. Cameron and Green (2015) through their works have provided essential
insights in to the various types of change management that takes places in the organizations of
today. This particular literature that concerns the subject of change management has been
essentially considered by the team. The most important factor is that the various dimensions of
change management like individual change, team oriented change and organizational change and
change leadership have been much essentially discussed. Most importantly the current

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applications of change management have been significantly discussed. Hornstein (2015) has
considered the relationship between project management and organizational change. This has
helped the team to develop various perspectives through which change management can be
considered. Integration of project management with organizational change is a relatively new
phenomenon and the literatures concerning the same can improve the level of study that can be
done through the research. The search for literatures is done on the basis of the old theories of
change management and the newer emerging theories and practices relating mostly to the older
versions of the theories but in newer ways. Change management is important across all the
significant levels of the organization. Thus, it can well be said to be a holistic process that takes
place across the various organizations (Nohria 2017). The team will develop further upon the
initial findings and focus to improve upon the basic understanding.
Previously organizational change management were entirely people or productivity
oriented. Organizations used to pay more emphasis is the past about finding and understanding
the relationships between systems and their relationships with human change experiences. More
emphasis was on training and understanding change requirements. In essence, change
management used to be a lengthy process. However, new change management functions of
organizations are incorporating better technology to make the change process smoother and more
effective. The implementation of Artificial intelligence is helping to understand the exact factors
that need to be enhanced to manage change. Hence, the multidimensional requirements for
change management are being found more effectively. In the future these processes are likely to
become more efficient as AIs are being tested that can tract the level of competence of the
employees to accept and absorb change. AIs are also being used to properly train the various
organizational levels.

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3. Research problem definition
Recently, it has been noticed that change management is becoming an increasingly
difficult task for organizations. It has been found that change management is not working well
for many organizations. The companies are taking too much time to effectively implement
changes which in turn is resulting in losses that can otherwise be controlled. The research
problem that would be considered is in regards to which of the change management processes
can be the most effective in better guiding organization towards effective change handling. The
study will focus on finding the change management theories and practices that could be the most
effective in guiding the organizations in the present corporate scenarios. It is important to
understand that the larger report will not focus on finding any one effective change oriented
practice. The report will focus towards gather essential implications about the various types of
change management that can be implemented across the various organizations.
4. Main research question
The main research question for the larger report would be: Which change management
theories and practices are most applicable in case of the present corporate scenarios for
effectively improving the change management functions of organizations and how far are they
different from the previously implemented change management systems?
The question has been chosen in order to guide the larger part of the analysis and
evaluation through the research report. It will guide the rest of the study that is to be conducted
on the subject matter. The variables used can determine the effectiveness of the study. The
research question will help the team to perform their functions better for gathering essential

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implications. Through the essential analysis of the question, the future of change management
will also be evaluated.

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References
Bejinariu, A.C., Jitarel, A., Sarca, I. and Mocan, A., 2017. Organizational Change Management–
Concepts Definitions and Approaches Inventory. In Management Challenges in a Network
Economy: Proceedings of the MakeLearn and TIIM International Conference 2017 (pp. 321-
330). ToKnowPress.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps:
Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human relations, 69(1), pp.33-60.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Nohria, N., 2017. Fast forward: The best ideas on managing business change. Business
Review, 9, p.10.