Theoretical Approaches to Organizational Change: A Comprehensive Essay

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of managing organizational change, exploring the dynamic business environment and the factors influencing it, such as technological advancements, social trends, and economic conditions. The essay emphasizes the importance of planned and managed change, highlighting the application of Kotter's eight-step approach and Kurt Lewin's team formation stages to facilitate organizational adaptation. It examines change at organizational, team, and individual levels, focusing on strategic planning, leadership skills, and resource allocation. The essay discusses different types of organizational changes, including incremental, Big Bang, transformational, and realignment changes, and outlines key aspects of change management plans, such as stakeholder identification, communication strategies, and the integration of change within organizational culture. Furthermore, the essay analyzes the Lewin's three-phase change model and Kotter's 8-step model for transformational change, emphasizing their effectiveness in navigating change barriers and achieving business goals.

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Managing organisational Change
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Introduction
The changes are expected within the dynamic business environment and it can be
planned as well as managed considering the various forces that have influenced the
management of changes within the organisation. There are various factors that are associated
with the management of changes within the business organisations such as the workforce
nature and size along with the technological advancements, social trends, competition, and
political as well as economic conditions. Though changes are inevitable, still it can be
planned according to the ways the leaders have designed the approaches to implement the
change management effectively and for deriving positive business outcomes too. The essay
will include the Kotter’s eight step approach and Kurt Lewin’s team formation stages, which
can also allow the organisational memebrs to adopt the changes and work accordingly
(Pollack and Pollack 2015). Managing changes includes not only making changes to the
business functions and processes, but also the management of changes in staffing policies and
recruitment plans for selecting the right individuals within the workplace and at the same
time, delegating the right tasks to them for improving the business performance and
efficiency.
Body
The changes often are experienced in a planned way and sometimes during
emergency situations and during contingencies. The changes managed within the
organisations are mainly aimed at improving the business functions and processes and
transform the business to achieve the desired business outcomes with ease and effectiveness.
The focus of managing changes at the organisation has been at the organisational level, team
level and individual level too. The changes managed within organisations have been possible
with the prioritisation on effectiveness of organisational structure along with the improved

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strategic planning, which has enhanced the ability of organisations to set goals and objectives
(Carnall 2008). This has also facilitated influencing the organisational behaviours and
allowed for making changes to the vision, mission statement and ways of approaching
towards the accomplishment of business goals and objectives efficiently. Not only does the
organisational capability has been improved, but also resulted in resolving issues and
problems, furthermore ensured strategic changes all throughout to acquire shift in thinking as
well (Waddell et al. 2016). Managing organisational change not only involves changing of
strategic plans, recruitment procedures, business functions and processes, but also the change
in leadership skills, which are required to promote collaborative working along with better
communication process management and creative thinking too. The organisational change
management process also included the concepts of re-allocation of resources and
restructuring that have been beneficial for adaptation to certain conditions within the
marketplace, thereby, improved the decision making process efficiency and ensured evolution
of business within the concerned industry (Moxen and Strachan 2017).
According to Kiitam, McLay and Pilli (2016), there are different type of changes that
are managed within the organisations such as the incremental changes, Big Bang change,
transformational change and realignment change as well. It has been found that the
transformation change has occurred when various proactive approaches are undertaken to
determine the needs for implementing changes in the future, which represented the
incremental change managed within the organisation. On the other hand, Schubert, Sydow
and Windeler (2013) argued that the transformation change also enabled reactive
consequences with the change in competitive market conditions and ensured re-alignment of
ways and approaches required by the organisations to evolve in the context and area of
business where it has managed to operate (Schubert, Sydow and Windeler 2013). As stated
by Howells et al. (2014), there are various aspects that are considered while developing a

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change management plan such as firstly, outlining the reasons for which, the changes should
be done and then determining the scope and nature of implementing changes at the
organisation. After understand the need for change, the identification of stakeholders is
essential, which shall assist in making clarification of the benefits and outcomes that are
expected. The milestones are then required to be clearly outlined considering the budgetary
aspects and time needed and lastly, developing a change management communication plan to
understand the roles of stakeholders, their field of interest, communication medium and other
related aspects (Cowling and Mailer 2013). The organisational change management has been
considered as a vital component of organisational strategy regarded as an effective systematic
approach to manage large scale changes and aligning the business functions and processes
with the human capital and organizational culture too. Georgalis et al. (2015) also stated that
the change process is managed with the consideration of proper control over the budgetary
aspects, communication process, both human and financial resources along with the time
schedule, nature and scope of business too.
According to Penava and Šehić (2014), it is always important to involve the various
stakeholders in business and make them informed or acknowledged about the importance of
change and predicting how the change may be suitable for bringing positive business
outcomes. Prior to the development of change management plan, it has also been considered
that the impact of changes considering the implementation of organisational policies, job
roles and structure of the organisation too. With the identification of various stakeholders, it
would be much more convenient for engaging them to share their ideas and opinions
regarding the management of changes at the organisation, furthermore ensure effective
transition and management of changes (Howells et al. 2014). It was often found that this
major change management techniques had resulted in evaluating the individual roles and
responsibilities, which further helped in contributing to the approval of change and acquiring

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guidance from the higher management team within the organisation as well. Parker et al.
(2013) also argued the fact that clarification of the outcomes and benefits to be derived has
been important as well for making each and every individuals understand the advantages that
can be possible with the implementation of changes, furthermore achieve the milestones
within the allocated budget and time frame too.
Providing appropriate training and development sessions and programs is essential for
strengthening the skills and knowledge of the employees to implement changes, furthermore,
manage efficient operations and processes and facilitate the training sessions. Often changes
managed within the organisations are supported by developing effective behaviours and
improving the technical skills required to achieve the desired outcomes and also keep people
informed about the necessity of change management (Husain 2013). For example, often
businesses were found to implement strategic change where the resources are shifted to some
other location on a small scale and even focusing on various processes of production to incur
lesser costs and manage cost reduction procedures too. The business organisation managed
the strategic change when the present strategy implemented has no longer been able to derive
the expected results and for developing a new vision to move in the right direction in the
future too. On the other hand, Grant (2013) demonstrated about the technological changes
that enabled integration of technological components in the control systems to ensure
understanding the overall need for change, furthermore ensure changing a organisational
structure required to match the needs and requirements of people within the marketplace.
There are various models that are relevant to the management of organisational
changes such as the Lewin’s three phase change model, Kotter’s 8 step model for change
management and Beer et al’s 6 stage model of change management. According to Dawson
and Andriopoulos (2014), these models are applied by the organisations to ensure

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management of changes effectively and make the companies unable to get hindered by
barriers and resistances that might affect the business functioning and performance, thereby
might lead to lesser revenue generation and failing to attain competitive advantage.
The Lewin’s three phase change model has been applied to focus on the management
of changes within the organisation considering the stages unfreeze, change and refreeze. The
unfreeze stage enabled making the organisation get prepared to understand the significance of
managing changes and then find out the new ways and approaches to be followed for
implementing changes and transform the business effectively. For example, a business that
faced issues such as decline in sales, lack of growth in revenue and poor satisfaction level
among the customers are identified and then the organisation get prepared to monitoring the
core activities and checking what might have gone wrong (Pollack 2015). This has though
been possible with the engagement of the manager or leader who challenged the values,
beliefs, organisational behaviours and attitudes to support the change management and ensure
managing the risks effectively too. During the unfreeze stage, often companies managed
change in employee behaviours to ensure high level of motivation and enhancing their morale
for ensuring greater participation and engagement all throughout the change management
process.
After the assessment of various issues that the organisation might be facing, the
change process has been implemented to identify new ways and scopes of doing the things
the right way, furthermore, facilitate moving in the new direction that should lead to active
participation and engagement along with better focus on the resolving of issues. During the
change stage of the current model that has been applied, it is always necessary and vital to
make the organisational memebrs knowledgeable and informed about the benefits to be
derive dafter managing the change, furthermore adopt the new way of doing things and move

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in the right direction too (Kempster, Higgs and Wuerz 2014). To implement changes
properly, the involvement of each and every memebrs of the organisation is necessary as well
as the proper management of time and communication process management. The individuals
working at the organisation should be able to communicate with each other and discuss about
the changes by sharing individual views, ideas and opinions while at the same time, take
some time to understand the changes, furthermore ensure best quality management and
transform the entire way of business functioning (Hossan 2015).
The last stage, i.e., during the refreeze stage, the individuals working at the
organization have already managed to adapt to the changes and thus the organisation has
managed to refreeze. All the organisational members are well acknowledged with proper
support and help provided by the managers and leaders, which has also facilitated
incorporating the change management processes in the business activities undertaken. Due to
the changes implemented and managed, the organisation has attained good stability, better
flexibility along with new ways of thinking and working and even leading to the formation of
a motivated and committed workforce. The changes happened during the stage of this model
have also been integrated in the organisational culture supported by great leadership skills,
due to which, organisational transformation has been possible and success is evitable (Bell
and Harrison 2018). Therefore, it could be understood that the organisational change could be
managed as well as planned accordingly to meet the business goals and objectives with ease
and efficiency.
For the purpose of managing transformational change within the organisations, the
Kotter’s 8 step model for change management has been applied and it has also been
considered by many managers as quite effective because of its effectiveness in developing a
sense of urgency and then developing a coalition to guide and provide support for moving

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towards a better future considering the vision and mission statement of the organisation. The
change vision and mission statement are communicated among the organisational members,
which has helped in empowering the actions to be undertaken, furthermore create short term
goals to be achieved. This has made the workers feel interested to achieve the goals and
objectives and at the same time, implementing changes to the culture of the organization for
the creation of flexible working conditions and keeping the workers motivated too (Gorran
Farkas 2013). By applying this model, the managerial roles have been to develop a sense of
urgency and identify the potential issues and threats that might affect the business
performance in the future. This would also help in creating effective scopes and opportunities
with the actual aim of making people think innovatively and in a creative way.
For example, a carwash company has been facing decline in sales due to lesser
numbers of customers attracted, because of which, the revenue generation was also
considered as less and failing to attain competitive advantage in business too. There has been
introduction of another carwash company, due to which, the sales decline has been
experienced and thus there is immediate need to manage changes for the purpose of
generating higher amounts of revenue, furthermore gain competitive advantage in business.
The Kotter’s 8 step change model has been applied by the manager and through assessment
of financial condition, thereby demonstrating the needs for change with the employees, so
that the longevity of the company is possible along with better job security for the employees
(Calegari, Sibley and Turner 2015). The guiding coalition allowed the company to select few
individuals who were delegated with various responsibilities such as the logistics
management, training sessions provided to the staffs and marketing the services of the
company to draw in potential clients. This major step of the model has facilitated team
building and effective collaborative working too (Al-Haddad and Kotnour 2015). During the
next stage, the vision has been created, which represent the changes needed to be done by

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managing the values, beliefs of the organisation along with aligning the organisational
policies with the goals and objectives to be achieved.
The next step of the model enabled communicating the change vision and mission
with the employees to make them understand how the changes could be integrated in the
everyday activities, furthermore allowed the company to apply the change vision according to
the training sessions provided and performance reviews conducted. With the help of these
activities, the challenges faced while managing business were overcome, which not only
assisted the company to execute the change vision effectively, but also created short term
wins consistently. The management of organisational change is not the only thing to be done
for successful business functioning, but there has also been need of building on the change in
a consistent manner for creating enough scopes and opportunities to do the things the right
way (Manchester et al. 2014). Lastly, the changes that were implemented should be
incorporated in the organisational culture for ensuring that the values and beliefs were
managed properly, thereby, form a strategic plan with the involvement of a proper leader,
who could make the change process successful and enable staffs to put efforts committedly
for business transformation.
Another major business model that has enabled changes within the organisation has
been Beer et al.‘s (1990) critical path, aimed at the management and implementation of
changes within the organisations. The commitment and dedication to manage changes were
mobilised with the help of identification of issues and problems in a collaborative manner,
which has clearly defined the problems and at the same time, understood the needs for
change. Here also, like the Kotter’s 8 step change model, an effective guiding coalition has
been formed with the involvement of key stakeholders and then conduct a research consisting
of survey process and observations to analyse performance related data and acquire a shared

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understanding of the business issue or problem. After the identification of issues and
problems, the staffs have remain aligned with the change vision and mission statement as
well as managed better flow and exchange of information without experiencing any major
resistance or barriers that could hinder the management of organisational change (Hussain et
al. 2018). According to Beer et al. (1990), by proposing these changes that should be done,
the cross functional teams would be able to commit to their roles and responsibilities,
furthermore commit to the new change vision and act in cohesion to movie in the right
direction as well. With the fostering of new skills, knowledge and expertise, there would be
management of new roles and responsibilities, furthermore improve the ability of the
organisation to share or exchange information, facilitate higher engagement of employees and
ensure better collaborative working among the employees as well. The organisation should
adopt new organisational policies, laws, rules and regulations and this has been the task of the
manager or leader to implement the changes and make the employees fall in the right place,
furthermore make new arrangements for them to perform committedly by abiding to the
organisational policies, laws and regulations (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown 2016). The
process of revitalisation was found to experience various issues and problems, which should
be overcome with the monitoring of strategies and managing changes through assessment of
behavioural patterns too.
The utilisation of Beer et al.’s critical path model has been a major component of the
change management process, because it has helped the organisation to manage changes
without actually need to enforce the model in it. The major tasks, which were associated with
the organisational change management, had been aligned with the change vision and the new
organisational structure, thus, adopt change procedures to improve the existing organisational
structures, facilitate sharing and exchange of knowledge and information and ensure
improvement of product and service quality along with cost competitiveness within the

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marketplace too (Shirey 2013). The transformation of culture to foster better communication,
collaborative working and promoting positive employee behaviours are also useful attributes
that contribute to the management of organisational change.
Not only the business functions and processes, but also the employees’ behaviours
and attitudes must be changed for improving the business efficiency as well as enable
creativity and innovation all throughout. The actual science behind the development and
growth of organisation is based on the ways the employees’ behaviours are changed with the
help of mentoring sessions, education, team building exercises and career planning. Calder
(2013) argued that it is evident to experience some major barriers or resistances while
implementing changes within the organization and so the staffs must possess good amount of
skills and knowledge to remain inclined with the behaviours, habits and status quod. It is the
duty of the manager or leader of the organisation to limit the resistances by keeping the staffs
of the organisation motivated and encouraged to perform to their potential (Carnall 2018).
The changes could then be perceived on a positive note, which should further create more
scopes and opportunities for the managers and employees of the organisations to deal with
the resistances of change quite comprehensively.
Conclusion
From the analysis of the essay, it could be understood that changes had been evident
and most of the business organisations manage changes to ensure better business functioning
and to overcome issues like sales decline, poor cash flow, lack of ability to draw in potential
customers, etc. The three models including the Kotter’s 8 step model, Lewin’s change model
and Beer et al.’s critical path model for the change management process had been considered
as effective and thus were applied by businesses all over to transform the business and derive
positive business outcomes. The change management also allowed for implementation of new

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organisational policies, laws and standards along with the alignment with a positive culture,
which could also be beneficial for managing change within organisations and enhance the
business performance and ability to function within the competitive business environment
with convenience too. Thus, to some extent, it could be believed that organisation could be
planned as well as managed for ensure that the changes experienced should bring in positive
impacts all throughout, thereby, allow the firms to generate higher revenue through greater
customer acqusitions and remain competitive.

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