The various changes and change management models

To survive in today’s marketplace, a business must constantly examine its performance, strategy, processes and systems to understand what changes need to be made. At the same time, an organization must also understand the implications of a new business change on its employees, given their culture, values, history and capacity for change. Employees ultimately perform the new day-to-day activities and make the new processes and systems come to life in the business. Change management is about managing people in a changing environment so that business changes are successful and the desired business results are realized.

Academic and professional literature propose a set of managerial practices that better support the enactment of organizational change processes (Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999; Buchanan et al., 2005; Casio, 2002; Jones et al., 2004; Kanter, 2001; Kotter, 1996; Meyer and Stensaker, 2006; Nadler, 1998; Whelan-Berry et al., 2003, among others). According to Kanter (2001) those who direct or participate in the change processes often forget these practices, which sometimes might seem obvious principles based on common sense, generating a more inefficient and sometimes chaotic process than necessary. Change preparation CMPs usually include suggestions such as the diagnosis and analysis of the organizational system and its environment, the identification of change needs, and the development of a new organizational vision (Buchanan et al., 2005; Tushman and O’Reilly, 1997; Whelan-Berry et al., 2003). Some authors also suggest to execute during the change preparation stage, the development of a detailed plan of how change will be implemented, including ambitious but realistic objectives, stages to be achieved, and the timing necessary to coordinate the change project (Nguyen Huy, 2001; Whelan-Berry et al., 2003).

2.2 Change Management Models

The current models of change derive from many theoretical and academic frameworks. Three leading theories, Kurt Lewin, John Kotter and Prosci ADKAR model provide helpful conceptual framework for those embarking on transformation efforts.

Lewin’s Model

Lewin’s approach suggests that change involves a move from one static state via a state of activity to another static state. He modeled this via a three-stage process of managing change: unfreezing, changing and re-freezing.

According to Lewin in his book “A Pioneer in Human Relations Research”, the first stage “unfreezing” or opening up and examining the patterns of norms, values and beliefs that hold system together and discussing concerns about change. The second stage “changing” or planning the change process while continuing the ongoing communication within the system. The third and the final stage “refreezing” or integrating the changes to establish equilibrium of the system

Lewin recognised that people like the safety, comfort and feeling of control within their environment, and that they also derive a strong sense of identity from that environment. Lewin regarded this as a ‘frozen’ state and suggested that significant effort may be required to ‘unfreeze’ people in order to get them to change. (Lewin, 1947)

The weaknesses of the model:

It emphasises more on psychological side rather than leadership, management and process improvement side.

It doesn’t address the strategic macro-level of change management

Kotter’s Model

Harvard Business School professor and world-renowned change expert John Kotter introduced his eight-step change process in his 1995 book, “Leading Change.”

Figure: 8 steps of Kotter’s change model

(1) Create Urgency

Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company’s management needs to support the change. Results of analysis and early conclusions should be thoroughly tested with informed third party opinion and a wide cross section of all stakeholders.

(2) Form a guiding coalition

Managing change is not enough – change has to be led. By working as a team, the coalition helps to create more momentum and build the sense of urgency in relation to the need for change. Kotter recognises the importance of the emotional dimension and the energy that is generated by a “mastermind” groups all working together.

(3) Develop a vision and strategy

A drive for change without a clear focus will rapidly fizzle out unless you develop a clear vision of the future that is accompanied with a clear description about how things will be different in the future.

(4) Communicating the vision

Communication is everything, and Kotter maintains that as change leader you need to use every means at your disposal to constantly communicate the new vision and key strategies that support that vision.

(5) Enabling action and removal of obstacles

This is the stage where your change initiative moves beyond the planning and the talking, and into practical action as you put supportive structures in place and empower and encourage your people to take risks in pursuit of the vision.

(6) Generating short-term wins

Success breeds success. Kotter advises that an early taste of victory in the change process gives people a clear sight of what the realised vision will be like.

(7) Hold the gains and build on change

Kotter argues that many change initiatives fail because victory is declared too early. An early win is not enough.

(8) Anchor changes in the culture

Kotter says that for any change to be sustained, it needs to become embedded in the new “way we do things around here” – that is the culture.

The weaknesses of the model:

It is action based and tactical and does not go far enough in spelling out the specifics of how to achieve clarity of vision and an executable strategy to get from vision to realisation of the benefits of the change initiative.

It is all about organisational change and does not recognise or address the personal transition that accompanies that change.

2.3 The ADKAR Model for Change Management

The ADKAR model reflects the necessary building blocks for individual change and its development was based on analysis of research data from over 900 organizations over a 10-year period.

The ADKAR change model is founded on 2 basic ideas:

It is people who change, not organisations

Successful change occurs when individual change matches the stages of organizational change.

To some extent, the ADKAR model covers the same ground as William Bridges model in that organisational change is linked to personal change. The difference is that the ADKAR model is essentially project focused and tactical in nature, whereas Bridges pays deeper attention to the scale of feelings of loss and disorientation that accompanies major organisational change.

Figure: The ADKAR Model

For organisational change to be successful, the following individual changes need to progress at the same rate of progress as project elements in the business dimension of change.

Awareness – of the need for change.

Desire – to make the change happen.

Knowledge – about how to change.

Ability – to implement new skills and behaviours.

Reinforcement – to retain the change once it has been made.

Prosci describe ADKAR as a goal-oriented change management model that allows change management teams to focus their activities on specific business results.

ADKAR provides a useful framework for change management teams in the planning and execution of their work, as goals or outcomes defined by ADKAR are sequential and cumulative. An individual must attain each element in sequence in order for a change to be implemented and sustained.

We choose this model in our project to analyse JESA staff attitudes towards transformation because it enables us to:

Diagnose employee resistance to change

Help employees transition through the change process

Create an action plan for personal and professional advancement during change

Develop a change management plan for employees

Identify why changes are not working and to take the necessary remedial steps

In summary, it provides a very useful tactical action management framework and checklist.

2.4 Change management metrics

Discussions to date have centred on different models for change and the need to manage change. In line with The Demming Cycle – Plan, Do, Check, Act (van Bon et. al, 2008), it is necessary to check if the processes being utilised for TCM are working. To do this it is necessary to measure the processes implemented in an effort to improve them.

Much of the available literature, dealing with models for managing change, defines the measure of success as being project-related rather than process-related. Prosci (2005) Maturity Model examines where organisations are relative to their management of change but does not review the measurement of the specific change management techniques as applied to particular projects. This study is focused is on putting in place metrics for measurement of the success of the change process throughout the project in an effort to enable accelerated adoption of the change management techniques.

ITIL (Information Technology, Information Library) is the area of continual service improvement which aligns with the change management metrics concept and so is of relevance in analysing systems and measures put in place to see what can be learned from them and apply the learning to metrics proposed in this study. ITIL guides organisations to perform the following steps in order to improve a service:

1. Decide what you should measure

2. Decide what you can measure

3. Gather the data for measurement

4. Process the data

5. Analyse the data

6. Present and use the information found

7. Implement corrective actions.

These steps are equally applicable to improving the change management metrics process by creating a set of valid metrics.

One model presented by Baldwin & Curley (2007) illustrates the measurement of Return On Investment (ROI) in IT. They reference the four components of a typical business case which must be considered for measuring benefits and costs of IT as presented by Tiernan and Pepard (2005).

A set of surveys measured the use of change management processes, change outcomes in organizational results. The use of perceptual data to measure behavioral practices ( Huselid, 1995; Delantey and Huselid, 1996), organizational change processes (Holt et al., 2007) and organizational results (Ketokivi and Schroeder, 2004), has become a frequent measurement method in literature. Weick and Roberts (1993) argue that subjective perceptions about organizational events are crucial, since people behave in accordance with their perceptions, not in accordance with more objective data.

As presented by Raineri (2009) in the Journal of Business research, he created several perceptual measures of organizational change results and organizational performance. Change strategists judged the degree of attainment of the change program objectives and deadlines with two questions, and a corresponding Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (completely).

2.5 Communication and change management

Only few managers obtain expected effects when they communicate strategic change to their employees. Kotter (1995) argues that transmitting vision to employees and using every communication channel possible are central elements in the success of a change. More recent research from Larkin and Larkin (1996) precise more efficient ways to present change to employees, and describe the appropriate communication channels to use. Even if managers are receptive at meetings, and understand values, vision, and mission, this process is not efficient with employees. With employees you need to communicate facts, and to present value through action, not through words. In general, half of employees believe that management cheats and lies, that is why talking about values suggests that fraud is near. Employees adhere to values only if they are convinced that those values will enable them to reach their personal goals (Larkin & Larkin 1996).

Larkin and Larkin (1996) suggest that groundless rumors can undermine chances of success, so it is important to choose appropriate media and to begin to communicate at an early stage in the change process to avoid misunderstandings.

2.6 Training and change management

The most powerful change management strategies combine organizational change management techniques with individual change management tools to create a robust,closed-loop process.

Individual change management is the process of providing tools and training to employees to enable them to manage their personal transition through change. This includes training for managers and supervisors to equip them with the tools they need to assist their employees through the change process. (Prosci,2003)

The major gap in individual change management according to Prosci experts is knowledge about the change itself and the required new skills, then the appropriate solution is to develop the training plans to correct this knowledge gap. Project teams that can maintain a results-orientation are in a better position to develop and implement corrective action based on the root cause of employee resistance.

The process for using individual change management tools begins with training for managers and supervisors. These front-line coaches are a critical component of individual change management. In many cases, these managers and supervisors will be the “trainers” for their groups when it is not feasible for your company to train every employee about change management. (Prosci, 2003)

2.7 Teamwork and change management

A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks. As organizations seek to become more flexible in the face of rapid environmental change and more responsive to the needs of customers, they are experimenting with new, team-based structures. (Jackson & Ruderman, 1996). A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks. A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize his or her strengths and minimize his or her weaknesses.

Aside from any required technical proficiency, a wide variety of social skills are desirable for successful teamwork, including:

Listening and questioning

Respecting and Persuading

Sharing and Helping

Participating and communicating

For a team to work effectively in the context of change it is essential that team members acquire communication skills and use effective communication channels between one another e.g. using email, viral communication, group meetings and so on. This will enable team members of the group to work together and achieve the team’s purpose and goals. (Meredith, 1993)

2.8 Career and job satisfaction and change management

i) Performance appraisal system:

As espoused by Anthony, Perrewe and Kacmar (1996, pp. 374-5), a performance appraisal system must be well defined, corporately supported and monitored. It must also be widely communicated and focused towards achieving corporate objectives. Fischer, Schoenfeldt and Shaw (1997, p.454), conclude that performance appraisal should be used as an employee development tool to identify areas of skill and ability deficiency to improve the focus for training and development, as the possession of appropriate skills and abilities are key elements in improving individual performance.

A number of authors have demonstrated that good communication between managers and their immediate subordinates serves to enhance employee satisfaction, commitment and performance (Savery & Syme 1996, p. 20; Larkin & Larkin 1996, Fisher et al., 1997, p. 494; Ramsay 1991, p. 10).

Changing an existing performance appraisal system will not be a straightforward process as there are a number of obstacles that need to be overcome. These include the ability to provide the training and development requirement as identified during the appraisal process. In addition, there are presently a number of staff, many of whom are doctors, who do not undertake this type of performance appraisal process.

When considering altering the preexisting performance appraisal system within the environment of Meadowvale Health and bearing in mind the change management issues outlined above, the mechanism suggested would involve:

-Education and communication to explain the rationale behind the change process and the benefits in training and development;

-Participation and involvement during the development of the new performance appraisal system to encourage ownership;

-Negotiation and agreement on the final mechanism of appraisal and of the areas to be appraised to ensure alignment with the corporate direction; and

-Facilitation and support during the implementation phase of the new system of the employees and line managers involved.

ii) Reward and recognition system

Initial consideration of reward and recognition systems could lead to the belief that they consist only to provide extrinsic motivation. Herzberg (1987, p. 118) considers that reward and recognition can provide for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. However, growth gained from getting intrinsic rewards out of interesting and challenging work provides the greatest influence. Motivation is an important issue in any organisation because it is involved in energising or initiating human behavior, directing and channeling that behavior and sustaining and maintaining it (Steers & Porter 1987). There is no doubt that extrinsic incentives can boost performance. In a practical sense, decreased intrinsic motivation will be a concern if the extrinsic incentive is withdrawn, as the increased level of performance is unlikely to be sustained. Hamner (1987b).

Some merit pay schemes may encourage poor work practices as individual employees attempt to maximise their personal gains to the detriment of the entire organisation (Hickey & Ichter1997, p. 40).

Rewards and recognition that the employee views as positive should improve job satisfaction and performance (Dunford 1992, pp. 84-5). What types of reward or recognition are best to increase intrinsic motivation and enhance individual performance and job satisfaction, as required by Meadowvale Health? Kovach (1987), Popp and Fox (1985) and Hede (1990) conducted surveys and provide answers to this question. They found that employees sought achievement, responsibility and growth as the highest priority for incentives in their work. A reward and recognition system that addresses these areas should produce the desired outcome.

Goal setting can provide a number of these employee rewards as individual employees can negotiate desired outcomes with management (Dunford 1992, p. 82). The employee who plays an integral part in the development of these goals is more likely to perceive the outcome as being achievable and to be committed to achieving them (Robbins et al.. 1998, p. 213).

Management involvement will ensure the goals are consistent with corporate objectives and that they provide challenging opportunities for the employee to use their current skills and abilities and to encourage the development of new ones.

2.9 IT tools and change management

Information technology has become strongly established as a supporting tool for many professional tasks in recent years (Miresco, 1995). Computerized decision support systems can be used by project participants to help make more informed decisions regarding the management of variations in projects by providing access to useful, organized and timely information (Bedard, 2000).

It is commonly evident that information technology provides enormous facilities among organizations, individuals and community. Nowadays, an organization considers IT/IS as a necessity to develop businesses, improve processes and satisfy customer’s needs.

IT/IS, however, not only has the potential to change the way an organization works but also the very nature of its business (Galliers and Baets, 1998). Through the use of IT/IS to support the introduction of electronic markets, buying and selling can be carried out in a fraction of the time, disrupting the conventional marketing and distribution channels (Malone 1989). Indeed, IT/IS have changed the way of doing commerce from the real world to the virtual one with extremely developed details and improved processes.

According to many researchers Information Technology Strategic Planning is the appropriate way to achieve organisation strategic purposes within the context of change. Strategic planning is the process of determining a company’s long-term goals and then identifying the best approach for achieving those goals (Wikipedia).

A study completed in 1999 revealed that less than 40% of US businesses included IT senior management in the strategic planning process.

A Conceptual framework for IS strategic planning is necessary and so important for providing an accurate and valuable IT/IS planning for organisation. Based on Somendra and Cheng (1995) work, there are some basic steps to conceptualise IT/IS planning such as:

• Study Internal Business Environment. The internal business environment is comprised of mission of the organization, its objectives, strategies and plans, business activities, the organizational environment, core competencies, its critical success factors and the internal value chain.

• Study external business environment. This helps an organization focus attention on the forces and pressure groups it encounters. These external forces exert a very strong influence on the business strategy of an organization.

• Study internal IS/IT environment. This is mainly comprised of the current and planned applications portfolio that supports the business.

Those steps can be modified according to the business context in which the organization works, each steps could be revised and improved in order to have the ultimate formulation for realizing the IS strategic planning.

Organization’s performance will depend significantly on its IS potential, it is recognised that IS/IT now plays an integral role in the majority of business operations.

However, there was an implication that any organization could achieve its business strategy by excellence in developing its strategy excellence in the sense of judicious assessment of the impact of IS/IT and precise alignment of IS/IT strategies with business strategies.

How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose (Gates 1999).

2.10 Project management and change management

At the 8th conference of the International Research Network of Organising by Projects (IRNOP) Geraldi, et al., (2007) documented the motion: “This house believes that we no longer need the discipline of Project Management”. The PM body of knowledge as a discipline is challenged. In a static world it is accepted that these principles are valid but in the real ever-changing dynamic environment where everything changes it is argued that project management as a knowledge field should include more than just traditional disciplines.

They conclude by saying that “looking for the answer is a sign of the field being immature and that part of the maturity of project management research is to accept the complexity present in real life and to accept several perspectives to studying such a reality” (Geraldi, J. et. al, 2008). The change management metrics is a sub element of project management but the principles discussed here in relation to application of standards by experienced practitioners is equally applicable.

In the area of change management as a tool to deliver project success, there are several approaches which can be employed, that being said, the underlying concepts remain closely connected in all change management models.

2.7 Change Management Best Practices

In the Change Management Best Practices study, Prosci (2005) analysed 411 companies worldwide in order to review their specific change management practices and determine industry best practices. Prosci then combined this study with similar ones from 2003, 2000 & 1998 and published the results. Prosci‟s objective in conducting the study was to understand what methods and tools work best in the area of managing change.

Prosci (2005) identified the following five key success factors in order of importance:

1. Active and visible sponsorship.

2. Use of change management process and tools.

3. Effective communication.

4. Employee involvement in the change process.

5. Effective project leadership and planning.

Based on Prosci findings in 2007, participants evaluated what they would do differently on their next change management process. The findings focused on four areas:

Better engagement of senior leaders as change sponsors

Improved change management planning and more effective application of change management tools

Dedicated resources for managing the people side of change

Earlier and more personal communications with employees

1. Better engagement of senior leaders as change sponsors

Consistent with the 2007 findings, participants stated they would engage senior leaders earlier and more proactively to:

Ensure buy-in and alignment around the project

Obtain sponsorship at the right level in the organization

Enable senior leaders to participate actively as effective sponsors

Study participants would have created a sponsorship plan and provided more education and coaching for their business leaders around being an effective change sponsor. They cited the need for a strong sponsorship coalition that was aligned around the vision and objectives of the project. They also stated the need for earlier and more frequent meetings with sponsors. Finally, participants cited the need to engage sponsors in the process of managing resistance with stakeholders. Early resistance management would help the project team create a consistent message and build commitment for the change. 

2. Improved change management planning and more effective application of change management tools

Participants cited several areas that needed improvement in their application of change management, including:

Start earlier and improve change management planning

Conduct better assessments of the change and of the attributes of each impacted group (improved situational assessments)

Apply a standardized change management process on all projects

Increase the involvement of employees in the process from the very beginning

Align change management plans with project management plans

Participants also indicated a greater need for change management training for project team members.

3. Dedicated resources for managing the people side of change

Participants indicated that on their next project they would dedicate change management resources and a budget specifically allocated for change management activities. They also recommended careful selection of the change management team, which would become involved with the project sooner.

4. Earlier and more personal communications with employees

Participants identified communications as an area for improvement on their next project. Specifically, participants stated that they would use more frequent face-to-face communications and less email. They also stated the need to build awareness around why the change was happening and to create the right level of urgency for the change.

Additional suggestions from project teams included more active engagement of mid-level managers, more training available for employees and faster resolution of resistance.

2.8 Conclusion

This literature review is intended as an introductory guide to facilitate understanding in the area of Change Management and from this to demonstrate the need for the investigation in the transformation plan at JESA.

The body of research outlined in this literature review highlights the need of change in today organisations in order to survive in the context of globalization and competitiveness and analyses the areas investigated in the transformation plan at JESA with the change management practices. This supports the need for further research and the proposal that this thesis aims to address. From analysing the available literature it can be concluded that:

There is no universal common Change management model of companies. However each company has its own characteristics (culture, values, mission…) which the change model depends strongly on.

The set of change management metrics cannot be provided universally to determine the success or failure of change management process

The areas investigated in the scope of this project related to change management practices highlights many organisations practices relevant to their context and objectives

So, it is the intent to put forward such a structured set of action plans and metrics in this thesis.