BUS 637 Responses wk 1

RESPOND TO EACH QUESTION WITH AT LEAST 100 WORDS and 1 Reference

Question 1 (Christopher Crenshaw)

Environments which foster intrapreneurship

1. Role-modeling

2. Receptiveness

3. Consistency

To create an intrapreneurship friendly environment I believe that these three factors must be involved: role-modeling, receptiveness, and consistency. Management should be the change they want to see. If they are not, everything they ever preached becomes lies, even the good they have done. Not only should managers be role-models, but other employees as well. When individuals see employees they are fond of or everyone else getting onboard and conforming to the new standards, they will be likely to follow as well. Receptiveness is very important for intrapreneurship because if your proposed change is not accepted by the masses or understood properly, it will never succeed. Lastly, consistency is the last key measure to success. It is comparable to going to the gym. If you want to see change you have to consistently work at it, through the highs and the lows.

Reducing the 70% failure rate

Reducing the 70% failure rate can be achieved by using various change management techniques. First, “Enabling leaders are predominantly positioned in the middle of a company’s hierarchy. They enable entrepreneurial leaders by supporting them directly and removing obstacles that stand in the way of success” (Somers, 2021, p.1). Other ways to reduce this rate are building on capabilities. “Employees are what they think, feel, and believe in” (Dewar & Keller, 2009, p.1). This method not only tells your employees you believe in them to create change, but they should also believe in themselves and strive for greatness. All in all, there are plenty of ways to inhibit intrapreneurship and lower the failure rates of change.

 

QUESTION 2 (Jacquelyne)

It is critical for intrapreneurs to have a growth mindset in which the individual recognizes that even little changes can have significant consequences in all aspects of our lives and businesses. An encouraging environment in which personnel are flexible to change but also aware of potential pitfalls is necessary for successful intrapreneurial operations. While having a growth mindset may be simple for an individual, understanding the need of change for a company as a whole can be challenging. Many companies intentionally attempt to avoid change management, which might make it difficult for intrapreneurs to thrive. According to Gleeson (2017), more than 70% of organizational transformation efforts fail, a figure that is projected to rise over time. The following are three elements that serve as the foundation for a positive intrapreneurial environment:

Innovative Mindset – The intrapreneur should make it a habit to say yes frequently and to try new things in their day-to-day operations.

Healthy Competition - Healthy rivalry among those in charge of carrying out tasks will motivate them to give it their all and contribute to the company's success.

Teamwork - A culture of inclusion and teamwork should be established by the intrapreneur. This networking group has the potential to expand, allowing the various abilities on the teams to be showcased.

In my opinion, I feel that nimble change management is a successful means of lowering the projected 70% failure rate because it allows change agents to set forth rules that allow for creativity while still allowing them to oversee each component of the change from afar. Setting up flexible change management procedures allows change agents to build a system where rules are followed legally and ethically, but where they can be bent as long as nothing unlawful or immoral occurs. It also enables change agents to anticipate consequences and put protections in place to limit or reduce the impact.

QUESTION 3 (Jessica Am)

Assess Kotter’s proposed method as principles used to guide actions. Is Kotter’s method flexible enough to develop effective change management procedures across several cultures or is it specific to the point that there seems to be only one way to manage change? For example, is there only one way to create a sense of urgency?

The 8-Steps Process for Leading Change was created in an attempt to identify and extract success factors in change management and its execution strategies. These leading change strategies include creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, forming a strategic vision and initiatives, enlisting a volunteer army, enabling action by removing barriers, generating short-term wins, sustaining acceleration, and institution change (Kotter, n.d., para.1).

These principles are used as a framework or methodology for leading change. They can be subjective and adapted to fit different cultures, beliefs, and viewpoints to lead to change. It seems only logical that there can be multiple ways and techniques to achieve the desired outcome based on cultural identity. While it will take a true understanding of the audience and what motivates and drives them to accomplish each strategy point with awareness and a delicate approach it can be accomplished.

Estimate the level of effort it might take to transition from a rules-based environment to a principle-informing-rules environment. What are two major obstacles that might be encountered?

Principles motivate us to do what we think is right or wrong while rules require us to do what someone else thinks is right or wrong. Over time moving to a principles-based environment the principles become the new rules. To successfully move to a principles-based approach leadership must be able to allow rules to shift and change while allowing those shifts to take root and grow. However, challenges that may occur are if the organization is not open to creating fluidity and leaders not being willing to re-imagine what their office culture is to look like, as well as general receptiveness from members of the organization (Anand, 2019, pg.43).

Offer a link to a video or an article that provides additional information about principles informing rules, as well as effective change management procedures.

Change Management: Kimberling, E. (2021, January 28). Top 5 Organizational Change Management Strategies | How to Manage Transformational Change. [video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSecHkiwj8s (Links to an external site.)

QUESTION 4 (Heather)

Kotter’s change model is centered around the idea that 75% of the employees must buy into the change, so its essential that organizations focus hard on Step one of his proposed methods to start change off the right way.  Step one is to create a sense of urgency through effective communication to rally others to see why the change must happen based on the shared opportunity.  From there, steps two and three are forming a team or coalition complete with a mission statement, vision and initiatives that roll up to the change.  This makes sense because if its not entirely clear what specifically needs to happen, the tactical, fundamental “things” that need to occur in order to drive the change, then its not going to be tangible to the teams in the organization.  Step five is to remove barriers to change that initiatives can be completed so that wins can be generated and celebrated in step 6.  This step is equally critical in the sense that momentum and passion must be maintained to keep the change motion happening and keep everyone in that mindset.  This leads into step seven which is to sustain that momentum or acceleration so that change can be fully instituted in step eight.

In general, Kotter’s concepts have merit in that there must be urgency, there must be a team of leaders or stakeholders and executors to perform a role in the change plan and that morale and momentum must be considered throughout the process.  In reading through steps however, it feels that a company needs to be set up in just the right way for everyone to effectively follow these steps.  This is assuming that the culture of the company is one that is supportive of its employees as they fit into the role that drives change.  This also assumes that the company leaders provide a safe space for employees to adapt to change and share ideas.  If you consider Hofstede’s cultural value dimensions, specifically individualism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance, Kotter’s change model risks falling apart (Messner, 2021).  If a company falls in a dimension that is more autocratic in nature, then the employees may expect leaders to drive change from the top down and they simply accept the change, without providing any feedback or input upwards.  If individualism is a natural trait, then each person may be thinking of how they drive change independently, which could break down a team environment.  Uncertainty avoidance could derail or significantly slow down change management efforts, as the adjustment may take precedence over business needs.  In these scenarios, different priorities and techniques may be required to move the company through change. Generating a sense of urgency may take different forms, whether its through incentives, leadership opportunities or rewards for initiating change.  A rules-based environment is one where work and employee functions are all highly regulated and organized.  A principle-informing-rules environment is one that allows for more innovation and ideation which is developed by encouraging employees to dig deeper, drill down and work through problems to address assumptions and solve business challenges (Anand, 2019, pg. 64-65).  To transition from rules-based to principle-informing-rules environment would require not only a cultural shift but a look at the functional shift in terms of roles, people, and processes in the organization. Two main obstacles would be limitations in skills and abilities of the team members and the inability to implement change in a methodical manner.  Additionally, if an organization is looking for creativity and ideation to propel their business, rules are apt to put people and enterprising individuals in a box. 

Here is an article that discusses how to set guiding principles in a rules-based environment:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/rajshreeagarwal/2019/04/23/why-leaders-should-push-principles-not-rules/?sh=64a231e570b7