Course Project: Change for Motivation

Running head: Change Management 1

Change Management 6

Change Management

Nicholas Calhoun

Organization Behavior & Communication

South University

April 10, 2019

Introduction

Change management involves the techniques and process applied by organization’s management in preparing employees and helping them to adapt to changes made in the organization structure, systems and processes (Currie et al., 2017). Change management process differs on different grounds such as the business, employees and the change itself. The main goal of change management is to ensure that the proposed change is put into place and ensuring all employees are committed towards the change. Change management results from psychology as a change in an organization directly affects all employees due to their differences such as gender and age.

Change proposal and benefits to the Coca-Cola Company

Coca-Cola Company remains the most popular manufacturer as well as a distributor of soft drinks. The company operates in most parts across the world. In the modern business world, many organizations are utilizing a new approach for their products towards reaching the target market and also ensuring that they survive from new globalization challenge. For this, the Coca-Cola Company needs to come up with a new change process to sustain its world market as well as facing the stiff rivalries. Today’s state of Coca-Cola stores across the world is excellent and it remains one of the leading distributors of soft drinks in most parts of the world. Nevertheless, compared to other companies in the soft drink industry the workforce performance and inventory is not similar. In this case, the company aims at increasing market efficiency and workforce productiveness through a proposed change management program to maintain standards as well as remaining competitive in the world market. By applying this change, the company is likely to experience a rise in its output. This change will ensure that the Coca-Cola Company meet as well as satisfy its customers’ needs.

Effect of the proposed Changes on various groups of employees

The proposed change is likely to affect various groups of employees in the company. The proposed change is based on workforce development and not on company services. These groups of employees include internal and external employees. The main group is the top management of the company. Top management decides on the proposed changes, implement direct strategies as well as carry the responsibility of the change outcomes. The other group of employees who are likely to be affected by the proposed change is the middle managers in the company (Kiitam et al., 2016). This group is affected by the proposed change in a minimal way. It comprises those implementing the tasks involved by the proposed change. Also, the employees are likely to be affected by the proposed change. Employees serve as the movers in the change process. These three groups constitute internal stakeholders of the company since they are part of the organization and they participate directly to the change process. Also, the external stakeholders who are likely to be affected by the proposed change include bottler’s associates, investors, and customers (Harvey et al., 2017). The external stakeholders’ are affected by the change indirectly, but they are likely to impact the success of the change.

Conflicts and change

There is various form of conflicts that are associated with a change in the organization. In most cases, conflicts might occur before, during, and after the change. Change can cause conflict between employees and business relationship. According to Kiitam et al. (2016), organizational change is the main root cause of conflict. In this case, such proposed changes are likely to cause tension between opposing forces and the change. As Coco-Cola proposes a change on workforce and inventory development, tension is likely to surface. In such a situation, the company may lose its competitive position in the market. Before the implementation of the change, the employees are likely to develop anxiety. Moreover, during the change, there is likely to be an interpersonal conflict between employees. After the change, there is likely to be stress among employees.

Practices to prevent or resolve those conflicts

In change management, conflict among employees in the organization is expected. Nevertheless, overcoming the conflict is vital to implement the expected change in management strategies. There are simultaneous pushing as well as resisting forces for and also against change that competes for energy within the company. In this case, when evaluating the resisting forces, the best strategy to deal with conflicts related to organizational change is reducing the resisting forces. Dealing with the change that causes conflict may cause stress. Changes cause stress, but has positive results. Also, motivating employees to remain engaged is another best practice to prevent conflicts. Currie et al. (2017) engagement mean a positive commitment to work, which enables employees to prioritize work. This can be done by providing incentives to the employees. Incentives play a great role to motivate employees to stay engaged. In this case, this will allow employees to become part of the proposed change.

Also, communicating the change process at tactical as well as strategic level can be used as a practice to prevent conflict from occurring. Communication is a vital part of ensuring an effective change process in any organization. In this case, by communicating about the proposed change, it will help to reduce fear and stress that may cause conflict due to resistance. The top management in Coco-Cola should allow its workforce to communicate reservations they might have about the proposed change. This would provide the management with the opportunity towards finding solutions that would make the change to become effective. Therefore, to overcome conflict in Coca-Cola, the employees should be informed about the change before its implementation.

In addition, negotiation is also an important practice that would help to prevent conflict due to change. In this case, Coca-Cola should negotiate with its employees about the proposed change. Also, the top management should discuss the incentives that the employees will receive once they accept the changes.

Channels of communication

Communication channels refer to the means through which individuals in an organization communicate their concerns about changes. Communication channels such as face-to-face communication, mobile channels, broadcast media as well as written communication. In this case, the most effective channel of communication would be face-to-face communication. This channel would allow employees to interact with top management and express their opinions about the change. Therefore, due to the complexity of the message about the proposed change, various communication channels would help in facilitating interaction to employees towards ensuring clarity.

Conclusion

Change management refers to the formulation as well as assimilation of change in a systematic process. The main objective of change management is to introduce innovative means as well as systems that will result in an increase in productivity for the organization. Therefore, if the Coca-Cola Company use change management efficiently, it can lead to positive results. However, the change management process differs based on the business, employees and the change itself.

References

Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B., & Teague, P. (2017). The management of workplace conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), 492-509.

Harvey, W. S., Morris, T., & Müller Santos, M. (2017). Reputation and identity conflict in management consulting. Human Relations, 70(1), 92-118.

Kiitam, A., McLay, A., & Pilli, T. (2016). Managing conflict in organizational change. International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 9(2), 114-134.