Change Management For The Future Of Crystel

Running Head: Change Management

Change Management for the Future of CrysTel

Danielle A. Adams

MMPBL 520/Transformational Leadership

Mrs. Stephanie Hopson

University of Phoenix

Introduction

This paper will identify the major implications of the change at CrysTel, along with the implications of not changing, including human behavior implications. Also a change management plan that will keep CrysTel moving forward in an ever changing climate will be presented. Included in the change management plan will be a plan for mitigating resistance to change. A leadership style for successful implementation of the changes and management/leadership practices will be identified that will contribute to the continuing success of the change.

Why Change (Impacts)

Flexibility in an organization is important because the lack of could prevent change. In an ever changing global market place, where technology and organizational culture as well as the human culture of an organization are ever expanding, organizational flexibility determines the sustainability of change. The impact of inflexibility could mean the downfall of the company. An organizations' ability to adapt to change is dependent upon the way change is managed and the leadership's ability to lead change. With rapid and frequent advances in the telecommunications industry, CrysTel is likely to face technological and administrative changes regularly. The company has 2500 employees, and their product profile includes data cables, wireless solutions, and network development. To hold its position as an industry leader, CrysTel is planning to implement a range of emerging telecommunications technologies to increase the product offerings. Having to create and offer new technologies on a regular basis means there will be changes that impact the entire organization regularly. In an evaluation of the company, it was deemed that the marketing and sales and delivery departments are the most likely to resist change. (CrysTel simulation, 2007) This conclusion was determined by a climate survey and an employee satisfaction survey. The HR department, R&D, and Operations departments exhibit behaviors that indicate their resistance to change would be less. In addition to bringing the marketing, and sales and delivery departments on line, the entire company must be able to move forward. One thing in CrysTel's favor is that they are not waiting until they are in a crisis situation to implement changes.

Making organizational changes requires changing mindsets. (Lawson and Price, 2003) In any company this is a formidable task. There will be those who will be on board from the beginning, some who will want to wait and see how it all pans out, and some who will not be able to handle the changes and walk away. The ability to cope with change depends on an individuals' personality. Individual personalities also have an impact on a company's ability to change its goals, and culture. In any organization there are leaders, followers and some who will do what they want. There are those who wish to excel, and those who skim by to collect a paycheck. It is usually the ones who skim by to collect a paycheck that will be the first to walk away. The success of a change management plan is dependent upon the leadership's ability to communicate the why, and the how of the change, motivate the employees, mitigate resistance to change, and continually improve. It will be critical that the employees have an active role in the implementation of the changes. It is a mistake to assume that leadership exists only at the top. (Barton and Hsieh, 1995)

CrysTel

As previously mentioned, CrysTel has two departments that upon evaluation show the tendency to be resistant to change. These departments must be turned around even before the company begins its change implementation. The marketing, and sales and delivery departments have exhibited signs that indicate changes in mindset are needed. To achieve this, activities are implemented to change the mindset, and therefore the activities of the departments. In the marketing department, key reasons for poor performance have been identified as lack of mentoring, lack of communication due to geographic diversity, and lack of poorly defined roles and goals. In the sales and delivery department, the sales managers are responsible for establishing roles and performance goals but employees have no input, and there is no outlet for conflict resolution. These issues have affected the departments' morale as exhibited in the climate survey. These departments rated leadership, communication, and job security lowest on the survey. All of the departments have one thing in common; they feel that there is a lack of recognition when they do achieve set targets. To address these issues, several actions were implemented in each department. In the marketing department, a training calendar was created and mentors assigned, constant communication with employees was encourage to create urgency be assigning specific objectives, encouraged open contact with customers which made employees feel that they were being trusted with the responsibility of handling customer issues, and they began to hold regular meetings to resolve conflicts. In the sales and delivery department a program to increase communication between coworkers and help senior managers resolve conflicts regularly rather than waiting until the annual review was implemented. In hand with this, it was decided and implemented that employees be involved in problem solving activities that would allow them to take ownership of their assigned tasks. This also involves allowing more creative thinking in the problem solving process which increases their confidence in their expertise. The leadership was encouraged to exhibit more participative leadership behaviors. Measures of success included reduction in turnover, another climate survey, constant monitoring of performance goals and other metrics.

Models for Change

Identifying Models for Change

Once the marketing and sales and delivery department are turned around, focus can be placed on implementing a change plan for the entire company. The