Introduction
The definition of change according to the Webster dictionary is “to become different or to make someone or something different.” John P Kotter writes that change is always around “changing the behavior of people” (preface XII) Kotter explains that change is a concept that is used by organizations to restructure or improve their business behavior. Companies find it difficult to initiate change due to the lack of motivating employees or leaders. In his book, Kotter proposes an eight stage process that could support organizations that are looking for change.
Discussion
The Eight important stages of change by John P. Kotter
Stage one: Establishing a Sense of Urgency
In this stage Kotter shares business stories of successful companies that increased urgency to spark a change. He explains that there are four behaviors which could prevent change. Behaviors related to “complacency, immobilization, self-protection, you-can’t-make-me-move deviance, and pessimistic attitude that leads to constant hesitation.” (Kotter and Cohen, p17) These four negative elements need to be approached carefully, if they are not, employees wouldn’t have sense of urgency to perform changes. To have a successful introduction to change and for it to be received with urgency, it has to be presented in a way that the leaders of an organization will back it up, as long as they are “part of a larger activity aimed at helping to lower feelings undermining urgency.” (Kotter and Cohen, p22)
It requires a behavioral change to make any transformation successful. For example, the change is more than the structure and the functioning of an organization. It requires a behavioral change to make any transformation successful, and that is never without difficulty. John Kotter’s 8-step change model comprises eight overlapping steps. The first three are all about creating a climate for change. The next on engaging and enabling the organization. And the last, implementing and sustaining change. Kurt Lewin's curiosity in groups directed his research to concentrate on issues that affect behavioral change, and the three stages needed to make the change successful: unfreeze, move, make and
Organizational change is a necessary outcome when considering various scenarios contributing to the resulting vision. Perplexing as it may seem, change initiatives don’t always result in positive outcomes. In fact, many never succeed. As a change agent, one should always have formulated a vision of what change will “look” like for the organization. One would be hard pressed to paint a landscape without having a vision of what the landscape should resemble. Yet, resistance to change usually becomes a significant factor contributing to an initiative’s failure. It is likely an
in our fast paced world, things and environments change rapidly. In order to meet the needs and demands of an ever changing marketplace, organizations also need to change and adapt very quickly. With success hinging on the ability of the institution to analyze, predict and adjust in order to meet the market demands and successfully cope with rapidity of change (IKM, pg 7) "establishing a sense of urgency" as explained by Kotter would be critical (Leading Change, pg 35). To influence anyone or any organization to move towards any type of behavior requires the three critical factors of direction,
Malcolm Gladwell the author of “Small Change” Why the Revolution Will Not Be Retweeted. Educates readers about Civil Rights movement events from the past, and the effects of social media in today’s time. Technology has evolved over the years, giving birth to social media. Social media is wonderful for a lot of things, but is social media an effective resource for activism? In the article, Gladwell starts off by telling the story about four friends. Their names were David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, and Joseph McNeil. The four friends were freshmen of North Carolina A&T a black college located in Greensboro. February 1, 1960 at approximately 4:30pm the four college students went to lunch at Woolworths. Woolworth was located in downtown Greensboro. There scenery inside the diner was a L shaped counter that could set up to 60 people with a stand up snack bar at the end. The bar was for the whites and the snack bar was for the blacks. The four friends set at the counter and Ezell Blair asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. The waitress replied “we don’t serve negroes here”. This statement started a civil rights movement. The four students could of just left and found somewhere else to have lunch, but instead they returned on the next day with Twenty-seven men and four women. They began to protest and preform a sit-in at the diner. On the third day the number of protesters moved up to eighty people. The fourth day the protesters numbered three hundred, including
The concepts outlined in the organizational behavior and management resonates with the eight principles of change management addressed by Kotter. Much of what is inherent in Kotter’s stage process of change management is in equal measure reiterated by Ivancevich and his coauthors in their book Organizational Behavior and Management. Kotter postulates a model for leading and implementing change with each stage reflecting a key principle that relates to the responses of people as well as the approach of change in which people visualize change, own change and then effect change. Similarly, the organizational behavior reflects the interplay with Kotter’s eight principles to accomplish the achievement of goals that are
Scholars have not agreed on which change model is best to implement within an organization. All change theories must consider the diverse population and the type of leadership style of the leader who will lead the change. This paper discusses several foundational theories of change. Next, the essay discusses how effective the change models would be working with a diverse population. Last, the paper explores different leadership styles along with the authors leadership style and how those styles work with the different change theories.
The author will employ a combination of two change theories. Kurt Lewis’ Unfreeze-Change-refreeze theory and John Kotter’s 8 Steps of leading change. A summary of the steps is attached below (Taner, R. 2015).
To have to establish a sense of urgency is crucial when needing to gain cooperation. If complacency is high, transformation usually goes nowhere because very few people are even interested in working on change or becoming the change. If urgency is low, it is difficult to put together a group with enough power and credibility to guide the change effort or to convince key individuals to append the time necessary to create and communicate a change vision. People typically change because they want to avoid something that they believe will happen without the change. Despite that, if there is not a sufficient sense of urgency, they still don’t change because they aren’t pushed out of that comfort zone. One of Kotter’s solutions is to create a crisis. Nothing rallies people to change faster than a major crisis. I like the idea of hitting people or bombard is the word Kotter uses with information about potential opportunities for the organization, as well as the rich reward within those opportunities. Then explaining why those opportunities can’t be realized without change. I also agree with his idea of using consultants to force honest discussions. As change moves from the episodic to the continuous, urgency is very crucial when you need something done as fast as possible. Kotter further differentiates between true and false urgency, noting
Organizational change is difficult, although necessary to support growth and excellence in the market place. The concept of change can have negative connotations among employees, especially if change implementations have not been successful in the past. This paper is going to describe the need for change, barriers to change, factors that might influence change, readiness for change, the theoretical change model that relates to the change, and resources that support change implementation.
Leading and managing change require a solid theoretical foundation. This assignment will research the theoretical elements of change and change management. Addressed will be the following: Organic Evolution of Change, Formulating Strategic Development Approaches, Leadership and Management Skills and Gathering and Analyze Data. As societies continue to evolve and changing demand creates the need for new products and services, businesses often are forced to make changes to stay competitive. The businesses that continue to survive and even thrive are usually the ones that most readily adapt to change. A variety of factors can cause a business to reevaluate its methods of operation. According to literature from the past two
Week 3, the lecture on Managing Change describes organizational changes that occur when a company makes a shift from its current state to some preferred future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to decrease employee resistance and cost to the organization while concurrently expanding the effectiveness of the change effort. Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost constantly if they are to remain competitive. Students of organizational change identify areas of change in order to analyze them. A manager trying to implement a change, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization.
The models of change that I have chosen to describe are the ADKAR model and Kotter’s 8 step change model. The ADKAR model is mainly used to help identify and drive change as well as a tool to understand any gaps that are needed to strengthen along the change process. It is also a useful framework for planning change within an organization, before implementation, and in the execution phase of the change management process. This process begins with five key goals that are the basis of the model; awareness of the need to change, desire to participate and support the change, knowledge of how to change, ability to implement the change on a daily basis, and reinforcement to keep the change in place. Each step in the ADKAR model
Change is a double-edged sword (Fullan, 2001). Change is a word that might inspire or put fear into people. Leadership is challenging when it comes to dealing with change and how individuals react within the organization to the change. Marzano, McNulty, and Waters (2005) discuss two orders of change in their book School Leadership that Works; first and second. Fullan (2001) also adds to the discussion in his book Leading in a Culture of Change, with regard to understanding change. In Change Leadership, Keagan and Wagner (2006) discuss many factors of change and the systematic approach to change. Change affects people in different ways. Leaders need to be able to respond to the individuals throughout the change process.
Change is when a person does not follow their everyday routine. They may want to try something different, or be forced to. Change can be for the good and the bad. Places can deal with change ranging from the weather, to the animals present, or the seasons changing. Also, objects can deal with change too. Objects like an iceberg can start to melt, or a forest fire can kill many trees in an area. As a human, we are the ones deciding on change. We are in a position to make big decisions and possibly even become a leader in order for change to happen. If one person starts to change, others will follow and hopefully, the change benefits all.
Change happens in all aspects of life. Leaders view change as being good most of the time. An organization can’t move forward without change. This paper will discuss how leaders can use levels of change and the steps of Kotter’s change model to implement change. It will also give a Christian worldview as it pertains to the topics. Leader must learn the language to effectively communicate change. This will give managers an advantage and help demonstrate the vision for the future.