Change Management Report: Theories, Analysis, and IBM Case Study

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of change management, providing a comprehensive overview of its core concepts and practical applications. It commences by defining change management and contrasting the 'calm waters' and 'white-water rapids' metaphors to illustrate organizational adaptation. The report then explores Kotter's eight-step change process, a widely recognized framework for leading organizational change, and examines force field analysis as a tool for evaluating the forces influencing a situation. Furthermore, the report provides insights into how managers can instigate change within an organization's culture. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to a case study of IBM, analyzing the company's need for change, the strategies employed by Gerstner to revitalize the company, and the importance of change management in fostering organizational development and employee motivation. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of structured change management processes and the use of analytical frameworks to drive successful organizational transformation, supported by cited references.

CHANGE
MANAGEMENT

Change Management
 Process in which an organization incorporates and manages
the changes within itself.
 Metaphors like calm waters and white-water rapids are used
to describe change management.
 Calm waters metaphor describes the organization as a big
ship floating through calm water, while facing occasional
storms which are the changes.
 White-water rapids metaphor states that the management
should be ready to fight any changes in the organization.

Kotter’s Theory of Change Management
Kotter’s eight steps of change process for leading change
(Sarayreh, Khudair and Barakat 2013) :
 Establish a sense of urgency
 Create a powerful coalition
 Develop a vision for change
 Communicate the vision

 Empower action on the change
 Create short-term wins
 Build organization on the change
 Incorporate the changes in the culture of organization

Force Field Analysis
 It is a framework that helps in analysing the forces that
influence a certain situation (Oakland 2014)
 Two types of forces : driving forces and restraining
forces
 Driving forces helps the change to occur
 Restraining forces stops the change from taking place

 Problems to be noted down in a systematic
manner
 List down the driving forces and restraining
forces in the columns
 Forces are ranked from one(weakest) to
five(strongest)
 Total score is derived
 Scores determine whether the change is
feasible for the organization or not
Process of Force Field Analysis

Steps for a manager to instigate
change in Organization Culture
 Leader must lead the change by acting on it, not just not by words
 Communication and presence on the part of the manager about the change
 Spread the vision into every level of the organization
 Eradicate the ones who are not inclined with the change
 Establish proper training programmes to motivate the employees (Elnaga and
Imran 2013)

Need for change in IBM
 IBM started suffering potential loss from being the second most profitable
IT company
 Revenues decreased and fixed cost increased
 Company started cost cutting and laying off it’s employees
 Gerstner took charge of IBM in 1993 to reinstate the company in the
market once again (Babič 2014)
 Put the views and feedbacks of the customers first
 Took inputs from the executives to save the company
 Re-established IBM as one of the best IT companies

Importance of change and change
management in organization culture
 Help organization to develop in the competitive market
 Change is needed to make the organization overcome the
problems that it has been facing (Cummings and Worley
2014)
 Helps the organization to succeed and upgrade itself
 Change in organization culture enables the employees to
have a good working environment
 Employees feel motivated to follow the vision of the
organization

Conclusion
 Change management is an integral part of an organization
 Proper process should be followed to bring any change in the organization
 Sudden changes can negatively affect the organization
 Proper analysis frameworks should be considered while initiating a change
 Change is necessary for the development of an organization

References
 Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change.
Cengage learning.
 Babič, Š., 2014. Ethical leadership and leader member exchange (LMX)
theory. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary
Study, 2014(1), pp.61-71.
 Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., 2013. The effect of training on employee
performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), pp.137-147.
 Oakland, J.S., 2014. Total quality management and operational excellence: text
with cases. Routledge.
 Sarayreh, B.H., Khudair, H. and Barakat, E.A., 2013. Comparative study: the Kurt
Lewin of change management. International Journal of Computer and Information
Technology, 2(4), pp.626-629