Change Management Plan

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Building a Culture for Sustaining Change at CrysTel

Student Name

University of Phoenix

Introduction

A reliable change management plan is often required to overcome workplace resistance when employees are presented with a new way of doing things. Change management is a strategy designed to transition from the status quo to some new ideal way of doing business. CrysTel, a growing telecommunications company, finds itself in a very dynamic industry that along with frequent advances in technology will dictate that it adapt to rapid and persistent changes. Developing a successful change management plan for CrysTel will have three distinct goals: optimize flexibility, promote innovation, and sustain change. Change management at CrysTel will involve identifying the strengths and weaknesses of departments within the company and applying behavioral techniques that will aid in supporting the change. The change management plan will also need to consider the viewpoints of the leaders who are responsible for carrying out the change and the department workers who are being affected by the change. Finally, this plan will involve deliberate planning and implementation and above all else soliciting the involvement of those being most affected by the change and rallying their support.

Overall Analysis

The Major Implications of Change at CrysTel

It is quite challenging to reap positive benefits from major organizational changes. "In fact, only about one-third of all organizational changes are worth the effort. Most die, go way over budget and time, or get implemented in a weak watered down version" (Maurer, 2002). The reason that most changes in the workplace fail is not because the change does not provide positives for the organization, but rather because employees resist it. A successful change management plan demands that employees at every level of the organizational hierarchy be committed to the new way of doing things (Maurer, 2002).

Behavioral parameters such as leadership, communication, and motivation will determine the flexibility of a department. This flexibility will indicate whether a department is prepared to cope with change or not. CrysTel's organizational hierarchy consists of several departments each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. The challenge lies in that none of these departments readily communicate with another. The CrysTel Marketing department is weak in communication, does not empower its teams, fails to lead by example, and does not engage in the mentoring of less experienced workers. Similarly, the Sales and Delivery department does not subscribe to a participative leadership style, rarely engages in risk-taking, rarely mentors its teams, and does not proactively resolve conflicts. These two departments are expected to put up the most resistance to change. "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" (Krietner, 2003).

The Marketing department suffers from poorly defined job roles and specific performance objectives. Further, there is a lack of training and mentoring in this department resulting in poor performance. Employees in this department seem to work towards individual goals rather that focusing on team efforts. Job strain, and thus job dissatisfaction, result from having a great deal of demands on one's time and energies, but little authority to control one's own work or make one's own decisions (Keeping talent at home, 2006). There is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and job performance, i.e. happy workers make more productive workers (McShane, 2004). Along with the job satisfaction-performance relationship, there is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and customer satisfaction (McShane, 2004).

CrysTel Human Resources personnel communicate frequently among themselves and with employees to provide a continuous feedback system. Regular feedback and proactive counseling help to effectively close information gaps between employees. The Marketing department suffers most from performance feedback at CrysTel. They do not have a strong mentoring process in place and there is an issue with delegation of responsibility here. "360 Degree Feedback provides accurate performance feedback to staff members who receive feedback from a boss, coworkers, and direct reporting staff. Done appropriately, it can boost performance and provide recognition and motivation" (Debare, 1997). "Because feedback is intimately related to the goal-setting process, it involves the same behavioral outcomes: direction, effort, and persistence" (Kreitner, 2003).

Employees of Technology Development department at CrysTel are encouraged to approach a conflict resolution committee to address unresolved conflicts. Conversely, the Sales and Delivery department only allows conflicts or issues to be raised only during the semi-annual performance review. This was indicative of a lower score than the other departments in this area on the climate survey. Multifunctional roles carried out by members of this department causes overlapping efforts and undefined responsibilities. Inadequate communication and teamwork make conflict resolution difficult. "Problem solving is the only style that represents a purely win-win orientation" (McShane, 2004). "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).

The Marketing department struggles with interdepartmental communication and teamwork because it has several teams working in different parts of the country. The Sales and Delivery department consists of a multi-team structure with several reporting heads at the senior level. Tasks are even harder to perform because employees are required to report to so many different authorities. Teams do not coordinate well and the climate survey suggests that the leadership in this department is not at all satisfactory. These findings make this department terribly weak at leading by example. Additionally, there is low risk-taking carried out in this department.