Org Leadership-MOD 3

MODULE 2

MODULE 2 5

Tamalya Lewis

LCO 610

Jane Gibson

Module Paper 1

As explained in Module 1, I worked for a tech company that deals with the development of software and cybersecurity. The company gets numerous request from different clients to develop a software application that will serve a certain purpose. Initially, upon a client's request, the information would be written down on paper and put in files for future retrieval. However, due to numerous complaints from clients that their information was getting leaked, the company suffered a huge loss. The competitors were taking the company's clients, and there was a need to change the filling system. The company recently underwent a successful change effort by getting rid of paperwork, ensuring any information in the organization is stored in the system. The manager led the company in the change process implementing Kotter's steps of a change model. First, he understood it was vital to change the filling system since the client's personal information was landing in the wrong hands. Therefore he built a culture of urgency before the company lost many clients. He went ahead and let the employees know about the organization's issue and the impact it had caused. After painting a clear picture, it generated a conversation where a huge per cent of the employees were in support of the change while most individuals in the lowest hierarchical level did not support it since they claimed the using a new system would be a challenge for those who are not computer literate. The manager also created a suggestion box where all employees were given a chance to write their sentiments regarding the change process.

The manager implemented the second step of the Kotter change model by setting up a powerful coalition (Kotter & Cohen, 2012). A coalition is a group of people with common interests. He understood a powerful coalition could; (1) create an alliance of individuals with different talent and vital skills in the change process. With a team of members from every department, they bring in different skills, challenge each other, making it easy to achieve an objective. (2) It helps pass vital message throughout the organization. Considering the members are from every department, they were requested to hold meetings in the departments and seek support from the other staff. This was an easy way to collect and analyze sentiments from different people. (3) A coalition also helps in making decisions quickly, pooling vital resources, addressing urgent issues and giving immediate feedback to the members.

Third, the manager created a vision for change. A vision is a mental picture illustrating what a person is trying to achieve. The manager briefed his coalition that (1) a vision helps in decision making. When people are aware of what they are working towards, they invest in the right tools and resources (Kotter & Cohen, 2012). (2) It helps attract talent and maintain focus. When the manager informed the employees of the need of adopting an electronic system, those good in the tech field volunteered to work tirelessly to ensure a good system was in place. Considering the company has a stable internet connection and a good database, it was easy for the professionals to design a system that was impossible to bypass. The following security measures were implemented in the system, a strong password that would require every user to log in before assessing the system and antivirus was installed to ensure it was free from virus attacks.

Lastly, the manager communicated the vision to other members using the following channels; an email was sent to every person with the email as well as the strategies in place to ensure the vision is achieved. A memo was also written to every department informing them of their new duties henceforth.

Apart from the manager following Kotter’s steps of the change process, he also portrayed the following characteristics that played a huge role in the transition process. First, he was able to delegate duties among all staffs in the organization (Jones et al., 2019). There were seven teams that were to report directly to their team leader. The teams were supposed to choose a programming language, design a system, test it and debug to ensure it served the intended purpose. Second, the leader would communicate informing other individuals of the milestones that had been achieved as well as what was remaining. Any obstacle that arose was immediately solved. Team members were also motivated by getting free lunch, and a ride home during the days. Lastly, the manager was optimistic of the whole process and encouraged other employees to do their best.

References

Jones, J., Firth, J., Hannibal, C., & Ogunseyin, M. (2019). Factors contributing to organizational change success or failure: a qualitative meta-analysis of 200 reflective case studies. In Evidence-Based Initiatives for Organizational Change and Development (pp. 155-178). IGI Global.

Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2012). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Harvard Business Press.