Change Management Models: XYZ Inc. Case essay

Introduction

The aspect of technology has made the world an enormous global village with the help of the Internet connections. The global level of connectivity has managed to allow possible changes in one region to be duplicated and have more far-reaching effects to other regions across the globe (Drucker, 1999). Organizations that are deemed flexible enough to adapt to the ever-changing environmental conditions are highly likely to succeed. It is crucial that organizations are able to devise ways of managing possible changes in order to survive and design a competitive advantage. Therefore, most of the organizations are in a continuous process of planning and implementing some sort of change concerning management strategies in the course of their respective operations (Drucker, 1999). An organization should be able to plan change strategies for adoption, as well as a model in order to ensure an effective adaptation. XYZ Inc. is not exceptional in relation to the aforementioned facts. Thus, the aim of this paper is to examine the change models that should be adopted for both short and long-term period, as well as establish a discussion of the immediate effects that the aforementioned change models would have on the employees, management team, and the top executives.

 

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Short-Term Change Model

XYZ Inc.’s short-term goal of expanding internationally to the Shanghai market for the purpose of selling watches, jewelries, and hand bags can be fully met by adopting the Kotter’s Eight Step Change Model. The model was created by John Kotter for the purposes of portraying change as a purposeful campaign. The success of this model is ascertained whenever employees are convinced to accept change immediately after the leaders urgently introduce it (Aiken & Keller, 2009). There are eight simple steps that XYZ Inc. can adopt to successfully implement its short-term goal of opening a store in Shanghai, China.

The first step concerns increasing the urgency for change. It involves the organization embarking on a journey of analyzing the market as well as any possible competitive realities within the market that can inhibit its performance. The company would also develop a significant catalyst for change.

The second step involves building a team that should be committed to envisioning the change. This powerful coalition of both employees and managers should be delegated with enough authority needed for leading the firm to the change. They are also tasked with the responsibility of formulating strategies that are aimed at achieving the vision at hand.

The third step involves the creation of vision that would help to provide necessary direction for catapulting efforts to adopt change. For this case, XYZ Inc. can go ahead to establish what they would like to achieve after a certain period of time in regards to sales revenues or even market share (Aiken & Keller, 2009).

The fourth step involves the communication of the need organizational change to the stakeholders, especially employees. At this stage happen selecting and adopting of a channel, as well as a vehicle of communication that would communicate to the employees the new vision and strategies. For this case, the vision involves notifying the employees of the need to expand into the international market. Immediate strategies might need the transfer of some of the employees into the new market to control operations for some time. It is important that the coalition is led by the voluntary example in order to adopt the change at hand in a positive manner (Aiken & Keller, 2009).

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The fifth phase involves empowering the entire personnel to act based on the vision. It might go beyond eliminating obstacles that threaten the adoption of change. Significantly, it might require immediate alterations of systems that are deemed to curtail the proposed vision and strategies (Aiken & Keller, 2009). Given that entry into the Shanghai market is marred with uncertainties, it will be fair if the necessary encouragement is directed towards non-conventional ideas and actions.

The sixth step is concerned with the planning and creating short-term victories for the needed change. It is expected that XYZ will provide a formidable plan for identifying performance improvement of the change as a whole. Employees that are perceived to be fully committed to achieving the expansion vision should be recognized and even rewarded as a way of motivating them and others to accept the idea (Aiken & Keller, 2009).

The seventh step is based on consolidating any necessary improvements by encouraging persistence throughout the change. At this stage, XYZ Inc. should be involved with the process of hiring and promoting as well as training existing employees that are necessary for the implementation of the vision.

The eighth step is focused on making the change permanent. It means that the organization is expected to consolidate appropriate channels in order to ensure success of the entire project (Aiken & Keller, 2009).

Long-Term Change Model

The large goals of XYZ Inc. are concerned with the opening of even more stores in Brazil, Russia, India, as well as China. This is an expected large-scale change project, which requires major transformations. For the long-term goals, XYZ Inc. can go ahead to adopt the Lewin’s Change Management Model. This model was developed in the 1950’s after it was realized that the majority of employees tended to prefer working within certain safety zones.  

The model proposes three stages for the entire change to be enacted. Firstly, they include the unfreeze phase, which is characterized by most of the personnel within organization exhibiting significant efforts to resist the proposed level of change. For purposes of overcoming this phase, which might last for a long period of time, the management team initiates such motivations as rewarding employees that are ready to adopt the change (Marquis & Tilcsik, 2013). At this phase, XYZ can opt to reward employees that are willing to relocate to the international markets by providing attractive compensation and allowance packages.

The second phase involves the transition process. This is the immediate step that an organization finds itself in after initiating the proposed change. It can take long for it to become effective. Thus, XYZ Inc. should provide enough leadership and reassurance that is necessary for bringing about the successful expansion process.

The third phase of this change model involves the refreezing phase. It occurs immediately after change has been accepted, and the vision involving expansion into the BRIC countries has been successfully implemented. The organization becomes stable again as the personnel refreezes and starts operating under new changed specifications (Marquis and Tilcsik, 2013).

To sum up, it can be seen that the XYZ Inc. should adopt Kotter’s Eight Step Change Model for its short-term goals, because it involves a series of eight simple steps that are easy to follow within a period of less than 12 months. Lewin’s Change Management Model should be used for a longer project, since it provides a formidable platform for enhancing major changes within an organization. It is also important to note that while the majority of personnel might embrace the proposed change, the rest might resist it. Thus, immediate enlightenment should be availed promptly to overcome the challenge.