A Critical Analysis of Challenges in Organizational Change Management

This literature review explores the challenges in organizational change management, focusing on theories and frameworks for successful implementation. It examines Kurt Lewin's change management model, McKinsey's 7S framework, and the Bridge's Transition model. The review critiques existing literature, highlighting the strengths and limitations of each model, particularly regarding employee emotional responses and organizational strategy. It also discusses the importance of communication, leadership, and employee skills in navigating change, and emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach to address the complex challenges of organizational change management and achieve business sustainability. The assignment is available on Desklib, which provides solved assignments and study resources.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Organizational change management
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Table of Contents
Introduction and Background..........................................................................................................2
Part A: Literature Review................................................................................................................2
Part B Critique of Literature............................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Topic: Challenges facing in the field of Organizational Change Management
Introduction and Background
The purpose of organizational Change management is to provide a definite Framework
that needs to be followed in order to implement new protocol within the workplace. Changes in
the organizational structure and culture are few common events within corporate sector. The
main purpose of organizational Change management is to deal with the human resources during
the process of implementing new organizational protocol.
With the evolving rate of global economy, it is highly essential to modify the workplace
pattern that will help in the purpose of business sustainability. The current study will analyze the
existing literature that highlights upon the theories and frameworks that are used for the purpose
of successful implementation of change management. The existing theories will also be critically
evaluated that will to identify the gaps of the current research work. This will therefore help to
highlight upon the points for the future research work.
Part A: Literature Review
One of the major challenges that are encountered by the modern day corporate world is to
implement the change management in the practice. All the organizations therefore need to
grapple with the practices of change management that are implemented by the process of
conventional models. According to Valipour et al. (2017), one of the essential process of the
change management is to ensure that the initiate for the same is taken from the top most levels of
management. This will help to induce the urgency that needs to be developed along with the
workers at every levelwithin the organization. In the given context, it is essential to deal with the
issues related to communication in the work place, which according to Van der Voet (2014), is

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one of the best management tools that are required for the purpose of change management. It will
therefore be possible to implement the change centric mind set of the workers that is an
important motivational factor within the given situation.
Cummings et al. (2016), have mentioned about the Kurt Lewin’s change management
model that are implemented in three step process. This is one of the fundamental approaches of
change management that is being implemented to bring about change within the psychology of
the workers. This is one of the most important approaches, where in the initial stage of
unfreezing, the organization attempts to bring about changes within the mental setup and
thinking process of the stakeholders.
The primary activity that are Implemented within state is to ensure that all the employees
understand the importance of employment exchange under the given circumstances. It is also
important to ensure that all the employees get proper benefit and change process are being
implemented. For example, with change process being implemented it will help in the path of
career development of every employee.
The following step involves the actual change process that is implemented in fact to deal
with the existing situation. As the stakeholders get proper information, in the initial stage it will
easily be possible for them to get accustomed with the change practice. Hossan (2015), has
highlighted up on the importance of leadership within organization that determine the quality of
change control process. The findings of Bartunek and Woodman (2015), has highlighted upon
the application of advanced communication tool which includes, internal social media software
that can help in the process providing company information and guidelines related to the Change
management process. Every organization need to hardware internal intranet software that can
help in the process of maintaining communication within the system. The IT and operation

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department of the organization has to play significant role in the deciding upon the effective
communication that will be used within the internal and external stakeholders for passing
essential information related to change Management process.
Hanafizadeh and Ravasan (2011), have highlighted as change process are being initiated
and successfully implemented the organization get back to its normal stage as the overall
turbulence period of Change management is over. This is called the stage of refreeze as most of
the employees are able to adjust themselves with the change management. In the given stage, it is
also essential to ensure that the employees are able to feel the importance of implementing the
change management plan. It is therefore essential to monitor and evaluate the actual outcome of
the organizational change management process. The initial objectives need to be measured in the
terms of progress that occurs within the life stage of each employee.
One of the major purposes of implementing Change management is to ensure that there is
essential sustainability within the business. The organizational change for corporate
sustainability can help to ensure that there are enough changes that are being implemented in
practice. In the year 1980 the McKinsey Company implemented the 7S frameworks that are
aimed to implement corporate sustainability in business. According to Singh (2013), the main
purpose of the McKinsey’s 7S model is to improve the quality of the human resource by
enhancing the skills of the worker. This is can be achieved by incorporating the elements
ofmultidisciplinary action within the employees that will even include the elements of multiple
corporate cultural communication. Following are the seven stages of model:
Strategy: The initial strategy is determined depending upon the organizational goal that is
needed to gain significant competitive advantage. This initial stage involves the process of future
planning that is needed to improve upon the working and communication skill within the

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employees. It is however essential to ensure that the planning process is implemented in step by
step pathways that are needed to overcome the initial challenges of the organizational change
management process.
Structure: The second element constitutes the structural changes that can occur with the
process of change management. It is therefore essential to ensure that all the employees
understand your new role within the organization as changed is being implemented.
System: This will help to ensure that most of the important planning is implemented on
the everyday basis. Each stage of the cycle has to be monitored.
Shared values: It is important to ensure that the organizational values are being shared
with all the stakeholders. This is also one of the important matters to note that with improved
shared values ensure that the importance of change management isrealized among all groups
Style: The style of leadership also has to be enhanced and modified that will improve
upon the values of sustainability within the organization. Essential information is to be provided
within the employees that can improve the organizational values.
Staff:The workforce within an organization is the major elements of change and the
success rate of the change management is dependent upon the capability and skills of the
employees. It is therefore essential to incorporate the elements of multidiscipline within the
employees.
Skills: As mentioned earlier, the level of competency decides upon the level of skills
within the employees. The effective levels of implementing change will depend upon the ability
to understand the significance of change.
All the success rate of the above mentioned change management theory is dependent
upon the ability to implement the communication networking theory (Binder 2016).

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The Bridge’s Transition model is popularly used during organisational Change
management that helps to deal with them emotional issues encountered by the employees during
the time of transition (Doppelt 2017). Primary stage of the model deal with the emotional issues
that are encountered during the period of transition which includes, fear anxiety and stress. This
is mainly due to the uncertainty associated with change implementation within an organisation.
Cameron and Green (2015), have emphasized that it is essential to accept the emotional
turbulence that occur during transition period, which is the major form of resistance in
organisational Change management. Proper form of motivation with effective leadership
qualities is the basic skills that can be implemented by the management to deal with this type of
resistance. The second stage of the model is called the neutral zone, where the employees feel
demotivated and sceptic due to lower level of performance within the new organisational system.
Collecting proper feedback from the employees about the issues they are facing while
implementing the change process is essential for the management to understand the emotional
issues at personal level.
The third and final stage of this model includes the new beginning stage, where the
employee or fully able to accept the change and understand its importance. As the employee is
able to development skills during this period, it is possible for them to overcome all type of
emotional and psychological challenges that was previously considered as resistance of
organisational Change management. It will therefore be possible to achieve sustainability within
the workplace, by incorporating the element of multidisciplinary skills within the employees.

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Part B Critique of Literature
The previous section has successfully discussed about the essential theoretical framework
that are implicated in practice to deal with the challenge of organisational Change management.
Most of the information has been added from the existing literature, which has discussed about
the characteristics of theoretical models related to change management plan. It can be effectively
said that all the existing theories related to organisational Change management mainly focuses
upon the issues faced by the employees while they are going through the transition period. The
existing literature has effectively described all forms of emotional and mental challenges that are
encountered by the employees, which are also considered as measure resistance during the
transition period.
The Bridge’s Transition model can be mentioned in the given context, and the strength of
the same is considered the fact related to understanding the issues faced by every employee at
their personal level. As mentioned by Balla et al. (2016), with the implementation of this model
it is effectively possible to improve the communication skills of the employees. It is also possible
to collect essential information about the performance level of every employees, as the
management focus of the matter of collecting essential feedbacks. Multidisciplinary nature of the
Human Resource Department can also be enhanced, as they are directly able to communicate and
approach with employee issues. It is also important to consider the fact that, human resource
manager at able to deal with issue of cultural diversity or in other words different type of
problems and countered multicultural people within an organisation during the change period can
easily be identified. On the other hand Hornstein (2015), have argued with the fact that with the
implementation of bridge’s transition model there is high risk as the focus of the management
may shift from the actual managerial issues that are encountered in Change management process

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as they are focused on emotional problems faced by the employees. High amount of time that
needs to be invested is also one of the major drawbacks of this model as the organisation aims to
focus upon the need of every employee at personal level.
The major strength of the McKinsey 7S is the fact that it helps to emphasize upon the
organisational strategy which can vary depending upon Vision and Mission of every business
firm while they are implementing change. As over of structural changes been imposed with the
help of this model, it is possible for the employees to get the guidance of innovative and
advanced form of leadership, which can help them to maintain sustainability. Benn et al. (2014),
have added that with the implementation of this model it is also possible to improve the level of
coordination between various departments within an organisation. However the major limitation
is due to the fact that less focus is given to understand the gaps that exist within the current
Change management plan. Moreover the 7S is also regarded as one of them static model in
organisational Change management; and there is less chance of modifying the same in order to
fit with organisational needs.
De Massis et al. (2018), have argued about implementation process of applying lewin's
Change management model as it do not consider every level of human resource management
issues that can be encountered during the transition period. In spite of the fact that the element
of the lewin's Change management model helps to mentally prepare the employee for accepting
the new organisational system, it do not focus upon providing accurate information to the
Employees.

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Reference
Balla, E., Reiche, S. and Kohnke, O., 2016. Organizational Change Management. In A Handbook
of Business Transformation Management Methodology (pp. 197-226). Routledge.
Bartunek, J.M. and Woodman, R.W., 2015. Beyond Lewin: Toward a temporal approximation of
organization development and change.
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge.
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
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.
De Massis, A., Wang, H. and Chua, J.H., 2018. Counterpoint: How heterogeneity among family
firms influences organizational change. Journal of Change Management, pp.1-8.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Hanafizadeh, P. and Ravasan, A.Z., 2011. A McKinsey 7S model-based framework for ERP
readiness assessment. International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems (IJEIS), 7(4),
pp.23-63.
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.

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Hossan, C., 2015. Applicability of Lewin’s change management theory in Australian local
government. International Journal of business and Management, 10(6), p.53.
Singh, A., 2013. A study of role of McKinsey's 7S framework in achieving organizational
excellence. Organization Development Journal, 31(3), p.39.
Valipour, M., Sefidkouhi, M.A.G. and Raeini, M., 2017. Selecting the best model to estimate
potential evapotranspiration with respect to climate change and magnitudes of extreme events.
Agricultural Water Management, 180, pp.50-60.
Van der Voet, J., 2014. The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public
organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European
Management Journal, 32(3), pp.373-382.

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