student 2 week 5 response

Week 5 Discussion

Dorian Lopez

1. Understanding the Need for Innovation

Employees need to understand that Smithfield has to innovate increase its chances of reacting and adjusting to change while accessing new opportunities. A business has to be innovative and successful exploit new ideas in order to improve its efficiency, processes, introduce new products and services into the market, and increase its profits.

2. Significant "Noise" factors

Negative employee attitudes

The ability of an organization to introduce change such as launching a new product line depends on the attitude of the employees towards the change. If employees accept and approve the launch of the new product line, then it will be easy for Smithfield to introduce the product line because employees will support everything involving the launch.

Resistance from the management

Most of the change in organizations depend on the support of the management to be successful. The leaders in Smithfield are an example that employees emulate and therefore their support for the launch of the new product line will make it easy for everyone else to accept the change.

Poor communication

Margot Smithfield plans to communicate the change and how she communicates the change matters a lot. Positive communication will ensure the employees will support the launch of the new product line. However, negative communication may increase the chances of the employees resisting the launch of the new product line.

3. Obstacles to the Acceptance of Change

Resistance to organizational culture change

The people in the organization may not agree on the right direction of conducting the change especially when the organization’s culture spells certain protocols that employees are used to. It may be difficult for them to shift from their normal practices to new ways of conducting things with the new product line.

Limited understanding of the change

It is difficult for every member of the Smithfield to accept the launch of the new product line if they do not understand what the introduction of the new product line is all about and what the benefits associated with it are. Understanding of the change and its effects is essential in promoting the acceptance of change.

Inadequate resources

The lack of enough resources is a serious barrier to the acceptance of the new change. It the organization does not have enough resources for the launch of the new product line, it will be easy for Smithfield’s management to turn down the launch.

4. An Effective Change Management Technique

The ADKAR model

Since Margot Smith wants to communicate to the employees about the launch of the new product line, I would recommend the ADKAR model. ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. Through this model Margot will ensure employees are aware, inspired, and have the ability to reinforce the changes.

5. Possible Decision-making Oversight

Margot Smith will ensure that she asserts that oversight is essential for effective decision making especially in a team. The decision-making oversight the board is likely to go make is reporting. Regular reporting in the progress of the new product line will provide oversight on the change and give the decision makers the chance to communicate effectively.