Managing Change

 Theme 4 - Managing Change 

In today’s modern business world is rapidly changing: technology continuously advances, customer preferences shift, new global market policies emerge on a routine starting point, and a lot of organisations must deal with major worldwide catastrophes (NCVO knowhow, n.d.). Organisations who are unable to make changes and seize development potentials are more certain to be surpassed by the other innovative competing companies and may even go out of business. As a result, one of the primary purposes should be to manage for change. 

Managing Change is a structural method strategy to cope with the changeover or transfiguration of a company's objectives, primary benefits, procedures, or technology in a methodical way (Mary K. Pratt, 2019). For a company’s management to change endeavour has the goal of operationalizing approaches and practises for bringing out changes and supporting others in welcoming and transitioning towards it. Managing change in an organisation and change within an organisation’s team communications are becoming critical achievement components for numerous firms since organisational change occurs on a regular basis in dynamic environments (Mary K. Pratt, 2019).  

McKinsey 7S Model

The McKinsey model may assist companies in determining the way to achieve their objectives from where the company’s value now to where the company’s position wants to be. The McKinsey model is especially very beneficial at supporting companies in evaluating how a change in one component might affect the company as a whole. 

The advantages of using McKinsey 7S model in managing change: 

• The model can be used across the board; one of the most appealing aspects of McKinsey’s 7S model is its adaptability. The model may be used to support the organisation to uncover vulnerabilities and potentials in the organisation if the organisation is going through a transformation change. 

• The model requires a comprehensive approach; McKinsey’s approach is special as it emphasises togetherness and stability throughout the company. When it comes to transformation change, the model assists firms in understanding components that firms might not see as related and observing through comprehensively (AGS, 2021).  

• There are also individuals and procedures; Certain managing change strategies place a greater emphasis on individuals, while others place a greater emphasis on procedures. Two of the components that are involved in the McKinsey 7S model, ensuring that both the internal and external aspects of managing change are put into consideration. 

The limitations of using McKinsey 7S model in managing change:

• There is no planning process to stick to; The McKinsey managing change model concept has a major flaw in that it does not provide any stages or a pathway for implementing the plan of managing change in an organisation (Biznews, 2021). The model is further towards a generic strategy for assuring the stability of the segment of an organisation.

• The McKinsey model could be time consuming for managing the process of the change in an organisation; In condition that the organisation had to evaluate each aspect of managing the process of the change within an organisation over every of the McKinsey model elements, the organisation may not have the opportunity to do something else. It might be difficult to utilise the strategy to manage the change only if leaders have a small organisation or a business campaign. 

• The McKinsey model is best as an indicator than a framework; The McKinsey model works best as an indicator at the start and the edge of a strategic plan of managing change to assess the company’s 7S domains are synchronised. For the real change of approach and objective, a different model and methods to manage change beside the McKinsey model is reasonable.  

Kurt Lewin’s Managing Change Model

Kurt Lewin’s managing change model is an effective change model that seeks to determine how change happens in an organisation and what needs to be improved to bring change as frictionless as feasible (Mert Aktas, 2021). This managing change model was created by Kurt Lewin to explain how leaders, managers, and subordinates cope with change in their working situations. Kurt Lewin’s model entails creating the organisation for single or multiple changes, executing the needed changes, and finally sustaining the organisation once the changes take effect (Lewin’s change management model, 2021). 

The benefits of using Kurt Lewin’s managing change model are: 

•  Kurt Lewin’s managing change model is simple to comprehend and apply in business companies. Kurt Lewin’s managing change model, compared to the other managing change models, is very simple to execute. This model merely involves only some simple actions that can be completed in a small period of time. 

• Kurt Lewin’s model employs a practical approach that would not jeopardise the flow of the business plan in an organisation (Lewin’s change management model, 2021). This concept is simple to accomplish and create the necessary changes in any existing organisation. 

The limitations of using Kurt Lewin’s managing change model are:

• Subordinate’s lack of confidence is a fundamental drawback of Kurt Lewin’s model. Whenever subordinates notice the latest change, subordinates often become anxious regarding the skills that the subordinates work within the organisation. This leads the subordinates to wonder whether or not they are capable enough of accomplishing the task efficiently. 

• One more significant drawback is towards the phase of refreezing in Kurt Lewin’s model. The model consumes much longer time to stabilise and adapt to the latest changes. Because the changes keep on occurring in tough situations, companies might only have a short period of time to adapt to the latest changes. 

The Recommendation for leaders and managers when using model to manage the change

On top of the greatest frameworks for managing multiple change projects is Kurt Lewin’s model. Kurt lewin’s model prioritises employees as one of the most important assets, which guarantees that employees engaged have the strong sense of achievement that the employees are a vital factor that defines the positive contribution and accomplishment towards the organisation and are thus more willing to accept new changes without ambivalence or disagreement (Mert Aktas, 2021). 

Real-life industry examples

• Coca-Cola company

The Coca-Cola company has been aggressive in adjusting its approach in the past few years. For instance, The Coca-Cola company has addressed to increased health concerns by producing new beverages such as The Diet Coke and The Coca-Cola Zero. The organisation implemented the product differentiation approach during Asia's stock market crash, in order to successfully cope with shifting customer demands (Profit&, 2019). 

Managing change is one of the important elements of the Coca-Cola company’s altogether goals and objectives because it responds swiftly and performs dynamically in preparation of shifting demands and customer desires (Profit&, 2019). 

Recommendations

By implementing Kurt Lewin’s model towards the Coca-Cola firm, managers can encourage employees during the unfreeze phase through reminding the workers regarding the importance of the changes that have been considered in terms of the company’s advantages. Crew workers who have received training might be better to embrace the transitional phase. 

During the transformation stage, the firm can take actual actions toward implementing the management change. This stage may be accomplished by cultivating powerful connections and providing incentives. 

The refreeze step enables Coca-Cola firm to incorporate newly created changes into the Coca-Cola’s approach, assuring that the employees should not revert to the firm’s old operating procedures. 

In this way, improving and developing management of change is necessary to guarantee that workers and employees can adjust successfully although still providing vital resources. Change can be powerful if it is properly handled, driving individuals to the limit of each relief boundary, developing individuals and enabling them the courage and self esteem to make them understand of doing tasks that each of them do not know in the first place. 

References

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Change management: Definition, best practices & examples. (n.d.). https://blog.smarp.com/change-management-definition-best-practices-examples

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Leadership development more than leadership training | MSU online. (2019, July 12). Michigan State University. https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/leadership/what-is-change-management/

Lewin’s change management model. (2021, February 12). StartupTalky. https://startuptalky.com/lewins-change-management-model/

McKinsey 7S model framework | 2021 | All you need to know. (n.d.). Airiodion (AGS). https://www.airiodion.com/mckinsey-7s-model-framework/

The McKinsey 7S model | A comprehensive guide with templates. (2021, August 30). Creately Blog. https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/mckinsey-7s-model-guide/

Profit&. (n.d.). 7 real-life examples of successful change management in business. Enterprise Profit Maximisation | Research & Insights | Profit&. https://insights.profitand.com/blog/real-life-examples-of-successful-change-management-in-business

Prosci. (n.d.). What is change management and how does it work? Prosci | The Global Leader in Change Management Solutions. https://www.prosci.com/resources/articles/what-is-change-management-and-how-does-it-work

What is change management? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (2019, July 29). SearchCIO. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/change-management

What is managing change? — NCVO knowhow. (n.d.). Home — NCVO Knowhow. https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/your-team/people-management-skills/change/basics-on-managing-change/copy_of_what-is-managing-change#