Mastering Change Management by Claudette Pope - Management Essay Example

Human beings are used to adapt to routines in everyday activities. Any attempt to introduce change in the routine is faced with challenges to resist it. Due to this resistance to change, managing change is therefore a difficult task and it is not for the weak at heart. To handle management of change properly, one must have a clear vision and strategy. Before change is implemented, the organizations culture must be fixed first. Misinformation should be avoided when establishing a project. It is essential to inform all the people who will be affected by the change before other less affected people learn about the change. Their feedback concerning the project is also an essential component.

Change does not have to be implemented during the difficult times in an organization but it should also be considered when an organization is thriving. A good project is one that has well defined milestones. Good leaders of change are those who are able to suppress barriers of change while encouraging promoters of change. The intended outcome of change should be well communicated to the stakeholders. After implementation, continual assessment is essential to track the effectiveness of the change. The writer concludes by saying that people will be emotional during implementation of change but embracing the fact that people are different will lead to successful change implementation.

Concepts of Change Applicable to the Article

Throughout the article, the use of Lewin Kurts management theory is evidenced. This theory has three stages whose application in the article will be discussed. The first stage is unfreezing stage. This is where the change leaders identify the change focus or the actual project is mentioned. All the stakeholders are communicated with regard to the project and they are made to believe that the new change will improve the customer or client satisfaction as well as benefiting the organizations productivity (Anastasia, 2015). The other stage of Kurts theory that is seen in the article is the moving stage. Planning and implementation takes place in this stage. The last stage of the theory evident in the article is the refreezing stage where the progress of the implemented change is monitored and possible improvements are done. The writer also says that flexibility and creativity should be encouraged when it comes to solving problems encountered.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Authors Opinion

When people demonstrate their opinion towards a certain issue, there are usually the strengths and weaknesses of their opinion. In the article, both strengths and opinions are evident. A notable strength is that the author is seen to have a good understanding of change management and that if handled properly. It is also evident that the author knows that the organizations culture affects the success of change implementation. A good organization culture is the one that motivates the employees ability to adapt to change. Another strength that is evident in the authors opinion is the he is aware that effective communication throughout the project is paramount for change to be successful (Boone, 2017).

One notable weakness of the author is that he fails to demonstrate some points clearly. Such that there are many sentences whose meaning is not clear. Another weakness in the authors opinion is that he fails to illustrate how the employees can be motivated in various ways to enhance the success of the project. A good example of motivation is introducing a reward scheme during the project implementation where employees who achieve certain goals are rewarded.

Own Point of View on Implementation of Change

In the recent past, technology advancement has caused major shift in business environments. More and more people are making use of technology to deliver better services to their clients. The main challenge with most companies is their approach to introduce change. For change to be successful one would have to involve all the stake holders, the appropriate revenue set aside for the project and proper time to effect the change is allocated. One mistake made by organizations when implementing change is failing to allocate enough time to the project. The people to lead the change should also be selected with caution as the effectiveness of change will be as good as the leader of that change. To increase the possibility of success of a change, approach theories such as Lewin Kurts theory can be applied. The leadership style used should also be a one that does not encourage resistance to change.

Conclusion

In this critical evaluation, it has been found that for companies to grow and keep up with the ever changing business environment; changes have to be effected along the way. Changes have to occur regardless of if the organization is thriving or not. However, it has also been found that change needs to be held with care failure to which it would face a lot of resistance from the employees. Towards the end of the critique, a point of view towards change management is also discussed and a theoretical model of change which would best suit change implementation is suggested.

[No. of words: 845]

References

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