Assessment 3: Implementing change
Phyl Martin
s4629788
BMO6624 Organisation Change Management
Word count: 2547 words
Victoria University (VU) Online
1. Office move implementation plan
Overview
The company is to relocate its head office facilities from Melbourne’s CBD, 45kms away to
Melton. The announcement was met with huge resistance from staff based in the office and
a team of consultants has been called in to manage the move. They have developed a plan
in order to allay the fears of staff and facilitate the move.
The main areas that must be addressed by this plan are:
Building a leadership team
Communication from the team to all affected by the move
Achieving buy-in from both internal and external stakeholders
Dealing with the financial and non-financial impacts of the move
The intention is to create a blended change model which will draw upon aspects of both
Kotter’s 8 step change model and the Change Acceleration Process Model from General
Electric. Both these models emphasize addressing the need and urgency for change,
creation of a vision, and using a strong leadership team to communicate and achieve buy-in
from affected stakeholders. In her 2009 paper, Brisson-Banks postulates that all change
models handle change in a similar way, that there is not one model that will fit an
organization exactly, and that good results are found from blending change models
according to the organization that is to use it.
Goals tasks and objectives
The primary objective of the plan is to change the narrative currently circulating in the office
around the move. While there were some vocal active resistors to the proposed change
during and after the initial whole office meeting, many people said nothing at the time, but
have been passively resisting the change ever since. It has been difficult to deal with these
passive resistors because management have been unable to engage with them. The first
task for the change leadership team is to begin open communication with all staff in order
to ascertain exactly what the problems are and from there, how they should be dealt with.
Until such time that there is evidence of buy-in from a substantial number of the staff, it will
be difficult to move on with the next steps of implementing the move. Changing the
narrative can be brought about by implementing the first steps of the blended change
model, after creating the leadership team, these are, communicating the urgency for change
and developing the vision that staff can understand. The ultimate goal of the leadership
team is to achieve the office move, which must go ahead, with as many of the existing staff
still in the employment of the company as possible.
Achieving commitment to change
In order to get the head office staff on board with the office move and to achieve
commitment to change, it will be necessary for the leadership team to adopt a
transformational leadership style. Herold et al. (2008) describe transformational leadership
as engaging in behaviors that present a bright future and describe a positive vision of how
things will be post change. This style of leadership has, so far been entirely lacking from the
approach taken by the company to the move, leading to the current dissatisfaction with the
plan. Creating a vision is the third step of the change model that has been developed for the
office move and is arguably one of the most vital. Without employing this step, in
conjunction with a transformational leadership style, no further progress can be made
towards achieving the sought-after commitment to change.
Action plan/timeline
The action plan will follow the steps drawn up in the merged model for the office move.
Step 1: Create a change leadership team
This team will be primarily change leadership consultants but will also consist of a senior
management representative and an office manager from the company.
Step 2: create urgency
The change leadership team must be clear with staff about the reasons for the change, the
timeframe in which it must happen and the fact that it must go ahead.
Step 3: creating a vision
This is the point at which the change leadership team must begin to change hearts and
minds by communicating their vision for the future along with the long-term benefits of the
move.
Step 4: communication for commitment
This step is the most labor intensive, as it will involve open communication with all staff
affected by the move. There will have to be many meetings with staff before they are fully
committed to the move, there may also be unplanned meetings that are called last minute
in order to head off issues that arise.
Step 5: the transition
This is the point at which the office move can take place.
The Timeline for the change action plan is shown in the chart below.
The Gantt chart shows that while the steps of the change model are linear, there is some
overlap of steps. At the same time as meeting with employees to create a sense of urgency,
the change leadership team will be communicating their shared vision, to encourage
employees to look towards the proposed changes and consider their possibilities. While this
step is continuing, the open communication phase will begin. This step is a vital ‘ironing-out’
of issues phase, and for this reason, a good amount of time has been set aside for it before
the final office move begins.
Managing resistance to the move
In order to manage resistance, it is first necessary to understand exactly why the resistance
has developed. Wadell and Sohal (1998) suggest that people are often not resistant to
change, they are resistant to the outcomes of the change and the effects that the changes
may have on them personally. The five-step change model drawn up by the change
management consultants provide the change management team with the opportunity to
manage the resistance to the office move. Chandler (2013) discusses what steps are needed
to facilitate change and manage resistance, these include communication, participation,
support and negotiation. Adding an office manager to the change leadership team allows
the office staff to actively participate in the change and will also promote open, two-way
communication between the team and the staff. Support of the staff will also be vital in
countering resistance, as will an element of negotiation, for example, will it be possible for
some staff to work from home at least some of the week? If the office staff are able to see
that there may be something in it for them, managing resistance will become much easier.
2. Solutions to ‘red flag ‘issues
Solutions to the identified ‘red flag’ issues will have to be found in the step 4 phase of the
change plan. This step involves open communication between the change leadership team
and the office staff and is the point at which negotiation around issues can occur. Heathfield
(2019) points out in her article that truly effective communication is two way and must
result in discussion, it cannot just be a presentation. This is the time that solutions to the
issues must be found if the office move is to be successfully undertaken, management
cannot and should not give ultimatums without even trying to find solutions. The issues for
most office staff are centered around the location of the office. This creates two problems; it
is a very long distance to travel by car and will increase the cost of travel to work
considerably for some. The other issue is that while there is a public transport route
available, it is neither simple, nor direct.
It is recommended that management consider carefully the possible solutions or
workarounds to these issues or they are likely to lose many of the office staff who have
worked at the company for a significant number of years, and along with them, their
knowledge and expertise. The company senior management have been forced into the
office move by a need to cut overheads, they are insistent that the move must go ahead,
and that the location cannot be changed. The change leadership team in negotiation with
the office staff, propose that working from home arrangements should be put in place at
least for part of the week to save staff costs in both time and money on their now much
longer and more difficult journey to work. McQuerry (2021) writes that having employees
working from home has many benefits for employers as well as employees. She goes on to
say that studies show employees being more productive at home, putting in more hours as
they don’t factor in travel time. If enough employees are able to work effectively from
home, it may even be possible for the company to reduce their overheads more, by moving
to an even smaller head office.
3. Change management techniques
Planned change management has developed over many years with the development of
Lewin’s model in 1946, many other models have followed since and assist change managers
in ‘covering all bases’ during change implementation. Change leaders, however, must have
certain abilities and attributes. Caldwell (2003) defines change leaders as
‘those executives or senior managers at the very top of the organisation who envision,
initiate or sponsor strategic change of a far‐reaching or transformational nature.’
They must also have the ability to create the right climate for change by communicating,
planning, supporting and negotiating. In the case of the head office move, senior
management have failed to employ any change leadership techniques thus far and have
instead simply informed their staff that head office will be moving in the near future. It is
now up to a newly formed change leadership team to facilitate the move by implementing a
five-step change management plan that has been specially tailored to the company. It is
based around Kotter’s 8 step model and the GE CAP model and encompasses all the steps
needed to bring the change about.
Change leaders must create a sense of urgency for the change by making clear the
consequences of not changing, as kotter (2014) says, making sure that people are not
content with the status quo. Once it is accepted that the change must happen, the change
leader must fully employ their transformational leadership skills in order to effectively sell
the change to resistant employees. They must create a vision that is both shared and
appealing in order to move forward. Open communication is essential and must involve a
two-way dialogue, this encourages collaboration and negotiation, and it is here that any
remaining resistance to change must be smoothed out. Workers will always want to know
what’s in it for them, they will not be happy if they only see that they will lose out in the
change.
Employees pass through stages during change similar to grief, these stages are explained in
the Kubler-Ross model. It is essential for the change leader to understand and be ready for
these stages, shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision and integration, in
order to be able to provide the appropriate support at the correct time. Elrod and Tippett
(2002) argue that it is the job of a leader to ack as a guide and to navigate a safe course
through change, they must be able to anticipate employees’ reactions at certain stages of
change. The initial phase after the office move announcement was shock, swiftly followed
by denial and frustration and anger. The challenge for the change leadership team is to
become the guides that the employees need to move them through the next stages. They
may need considerable support in the depression phase, some employees may be struggling
with the thought that they may not be able to remain with the company after the move, as
the journey to and from work will be just too onerous. The leadership team can encourage
movement into the experiment phase with open communication and the development of
possible solutions, such as working from home. Providing solutions will enable employees to
reach the decision phase and eventually integration, where they are either fully on board
with the move, in whatever form it will take, or they have decided not to remain at the
company.
4. Creating a sense of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency has been shown by many to be essential when trying to effect
change within an organization. Heffes (2009) argues that one of the biggest errors made
when trying to make changes within an organization was failing to create a big enough
sense of urgency. Without a sense of urgency there is no incentive for the employees to
move on to what will be a challenging situation, when they are quite comfortable where
they are. Employees must be given a reason to change, good or bad, or change will simply
not happen. Some people have described this a creating a burning platform and
encouraging employees to jump for the lifeboats.
A good change leader will be clear about the reasons for and the need to change, it is not
enough to inform employees that the change is happening and expect them to be happy
about it. It is essential to achieve buy-in from the majority of employees, if there are enough
employees who are unhappy about the change, it will not happen, as dissenters will simply
sabotage management’s efforts behind the scenes. A powerful motivator for employees is
the idea of WIIFM or ‘what’s in it for me?’. People make their individual choices by
considering the question, especially in a workplace setting at a time of change
(Sullivan,Sullivan & Buffton 2020). A blended argument by the change Leader will cover all
these areas to achieve buy-in. A combination of the reasons to change, what will be the
outcome if change doesn’t occur and using the WIIFM argument as a motivator will push
employees in the direction they need to go and avoid stagnation and stalling at a time of
change. Seijts and O’Farrell (2003) discuss the notion that ‘organizational change’ is, in fact,
and illusion. They argue that organizations are made up of sometimes thousands of
individuals all behaving in certain ways, and that it is these individuals who must change in
order to change the organization. It therefore follows that change leaders must appeal to
these individuals in order to prevent the stagnation of their change plans. In the case of the
company’s office move, the change leadership team must work with the employees to
address their concerns to avoid stagnation of the project. The public transport route from
the south eastern suburbs is unworkable, additional parking be could offered so that those
employees affected could drive. For those who feel that the distance is too far to travel five
days a week, are working from home arrangements possible? If the senior management are
refusing to move on working from home, they could be persuaded on its benefits if they
could make more cost savings with a smaller head office.
Another way to facilitate change is to look at the culture of the workplace. In his 2019
article, John Mattone discusses the importance of company culture, and how poor culture
can result in a company that is unpleasant to work in, leading to high turnover. Change can
be brought about, but it must happen slowly, ‘Implementing a series of smaller changes in
pursuit of major cultural change will generally be more effective than scrapping everything
and starting over’ (Mattone 2019) This can be achieved with effective and open
communication and developing a collaborative and positive atmosphere in the workplace.
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