Week 7 Develop a Plan to Manage Change and Analyze SC Johnson A Family Company Social Media Policies

Week 7: Mini Lecture

Managing Change

Managers play a very important role during the change process in an organization. They must understand the changes, support employees, communicate effectively, advocate for the change, and reinforce it when it arrives. Ultimately, managers are accountable for adopting, embedding and sustaining new changes. If the leaders are not ready, willing and able to visibly reinforce the change - it will not stick.

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model is designed as a campaign for change that managers can embrace. This is a simplistic model that is not focused on the actual change but on preparing people for and accepting change. The first three steps are all about creating a climate for change. The next steps focus on engaging and enabling the organization. And the final steps emphasize implementing and sustaining change (Normandin, 2012).

Flood & Coetsee (2013) assert that managers are usually able and competent in planning and structuring the change but less so when it comes to the people component of the change: implementing the change and building commitment towards the change. A variety of factors influence employee’s reaction to change. It is even irrational to think that there will be no negative employee reactions to change since the process of change itself involves going from the known to the unknown.

Technology continues to reshape the workplace as one the greatest areas of advancement and change. Technology in the workplace makes it possible for employees to telecommute, work from virtual offices around the world and communicate across the globe. Technology in business has increased efficiency and productivity; enhanced collaboration; improved management of organizational strategies and cost containment; and certainly, heightened the level of security in the business overall. Of the many technological changes, social media has permeated many aspects of daily life, and the workplace is no exception. According to Gonzales (2016) a recent study by a global law firm revealed that although 90% of businesses use social media for business purposes; 70% of those businesses also have created policies restricting employee’s use of social media at work.