Change Management Plan And Defense

Change Management Plan Paper and Defense

Introduction

CrysTel is a telecommunications company providing products, which include data cables, wireless solutions, and network development. Like most companies in the industry, CrysTel is confronted with much competition and is constantly challenged to remain innovative. Although the company has enjoyed much success, CrysTel also realized the need for change. No matter the extent of the change being implemented, change is never easy as there are many factors and personalities to consider. Nevertheless, change is vital to today’s business environment. If a company seeks to expand and compete globally, the company needs to analyze and adopt the best overall plan for change on an enterprise level. In addition, the company needs to consider a reliable change management plan that will address and help to overcome workplace resistance when employees are presented with a new way of doing things. Before the company can incorporate such changes, it is best to examine all facets of the business to determine what is most appropriate. In the case of CrysTel, the company must develop a successful change management plan that aims to attain three distinct goals: optimize flexibility, promote innovation, and sustain change.

This paper will briefly summarize four key areas that leaders and managers must understand in order to successfully make a change. This paper will discuss CrysTel’s need to develop a corporate culture that can support constant change. The paper will present the implications of organizational change and associated impact on employee behavior. Next, the paper will confer the proposed change model and the potential impact that human variables and resistance to change will have on the process. Furthermore, the paper will describe the recommendations made to monitor and measure progress relative to the proposed leadership style and strategies. Finally, the paper will analyze three future leadership challenges that CrysTel might face in the next decade.

The Major Implications of Change at CrysTel

Change is never an easy task but CrysTel realizes that in order to compete globally and be considered as a leading force in the industry, it must exhaust all its resources and talents to remain innovative. Also, CrysTel realizes the need to thoroughly assess the company’s behavioral parameters such as leadership, communication, and motivation. In most cases, employees resist changes as they have been accustomed to doing things in a particular manner. The company is then challenged to motivate its employees to buy into and support the changes. This is very important because in order for the implemented change to be successful, the leaders and managers must ensure all members of the organization are aligned to the mission and vision statement. CrysTel’s organizational hierarchy consists of several departments, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. The company is challenged with bringing these departments together as some departments lack effective communication. For instance, CrysTel’s marketing department is weak in communication, does not empower its teams, has been unsuccessful in leading by example, and has failed to develop its less experienced workers. Similarly, the sales and delivery department does not subscribe to a participative leadership style, rarely engages in risk-taking and in mentoring its teams, and is not proactive in the conflict resolution process. These two departments are expected to put up the most resistance to change. According to Kinicki & Kreitner, “Resistance can be as subtle as passive resignation and as overt as deliberate sabotage. Managers need to learn to recognize the manifestations of resistance both in themselves and in others if they want to be more effective in creating and supporting change” (2005).

According to the simulation, the marketing department does not have defined job roles and specific performance objectives. Also, there is a lack of training and mentoring in this department, thus resulting in poor performance. Without effective emphasis on group thinking and working towards a goal as a team, employees succumb to work towards individual goals rather than focusing on team efforts. Considering individual goals is important but to be an effective department, team goals must also be considered as this has much impact not just on the department but for the organization as a whole. This will foster a positive and productive working climate. With this, it is highly likely that employees attain job satisfaction, thereby, improved job performance. In fact, there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and job performance as “happy workers make more productive workers” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2004). Additionally, along with the job satisfaction-performance relationship, there is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction” (McShane, 2004).

Although the human resources department displays effective communication, establishing open communication and providing a continuous feedback system, the marketing department however, suffers most from performance feedback at CrysTel. They do not have a strong mentoring process in place and there is an issue with delegating responsibilities. “Because feedback is intimately related to the goal-setting process, it involves the same behavioral outcomes: direction, effort, and persistence” (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2005).

While the technology development personnel are encouraged to approach a conflict resolution committee to address unresolved conflicts, the sales and delivery department are only allowed to address conflicts or issues during the semi-annual performance review. Hence, this results in a lower score than the other departments in this area on the climate survey. Because this department fails to clearly define roles and responsibilities, they confront overlapping efforts. Inadequate communication and teamwork make conflict resolution difficult. This is an integral part of any business as “Problem solving is the only style that represents a purely winвЂ"win orientation” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2004). Moreover, “Problem solving tries to find a mutually beneficial solution for both parties. Information sharing is an important feature of this style because both parties collaborate to identify common ground and potential solutions that satisfy both (or all) of them” (McShane, 2004).

CrysTel’s marketing department struggles