Foundations of Change Management 1
Foundations of Change Management
School of Business, Liberty University
Foundations of Change Management 2
Foundations of Change Management
There are six images that relate to change management and each one defines how a
person is most likely to influence an organizational change. These images are labelled: director,
coach, navigator, interpreter, caretaker, and nurturer (Heinz, 2020). Each one has different
characteristics that define it, but most overlap and there is some difficulty separating one from
another. This overlap tends to allow people to fall into more than one category or have more than
one image as their strength when attempting to create change. There are pros and cons to this that
will be discussed later in the paper.
Six-Images Framework
As stated above, there are six unique images that managers can use to influence change.
Each one acts in a different manner and can affect transformation in different ways. The director
is a person who will make change based on their experiences and skills. They do not deliberate
about decisions and they are firm in their stance about what needs to be done. The coach handles
conflict with a group approach. They attempt to build common ground and ensure everyone has
the same ideas moving forward into the change. The navigator is one who knows what they want
to happen, but also is aware that things may not come together as completely as they hope. There
is a concern for the unknown and what could come from attempting to change things in a
company. The interpreter seeks to find a middle ground between people that are affected by the
change. They work to ensure people with varying views come to understand the issue together
and see that the change will benefit all parties involved. The caretaker acts when outside forces
have a large impact on the change within an organization. They embrace the external influences
and continue to change what needs to be done inside the business. Finally, the nurturer brings
Foundations of Change Management 3
people together and attempts to work with all factors to bring about change. They balance all the
factors affecting change and constantly adapt to the changing environment they are in.
Ratana et al. (2020) suggest that methodologies frequently change regarding this topic,
but there is usually always a good balance between most that will endure. This balance typically
consists of elements from each theory and new topics seem to offer views on how best to use the
most accepted facets of each previous theory. Even with these images, it is best to not only care
about the one most often used by a person, but to look at all of them and determine what
situations would require skills from each image.
Self-Assessment
After taking the self-assessment in the textbook, the highest score was the director image.
This image was significantly higher than the second high score which was the interpreter. It
could be assumed that certain professional influences have already taken shape in the decision-
making styles I have. As someone who works in an environment where job changes are frequent
and often broad in scope and duty, it would be necessary to already have an identified image on
how I would enforce the change I want to see. I believe it would be easy enough for me to utilize
most of the images if the situation required it since most of my scores were close to one another.
There is only one outlier, and I suppose that this would be the more difficult one for me to apply
if needed but would most likely be able to adapt to the situation and push myself to see the
benefits of using such an approach.
JC Penney Case Study
In the case study covering the leadership change in JC Penney in 2011, we see Ron
Johnson become the CEO of the company and almost immediately begin to make changes.
Johnson viewed his appointment as a confirmation to make changes, and the previous CEO, who
Foundations of Change Management 4
was still associated with the company, noted that Johnson never consulted with him about
processes that were already in place within the company (Heinz, 2020). Ron Johnson could
definitely fit the image of director with his no-nonsense approach to re-vitalizing the business. It
could be argued that he rushed to make changes and did not fully comprehend the external
influences that would accompany those choices. He was seemingly unwilling to listen to advisors
that could have pointed him in the right direction and help the company regain some of its lost
revenue without continuing to lose more money. With a background in technology, he attempted
to thrust the company into the modern age with ideas such as roaming check-out personnel and
separate consumer models for the in-person and online experience. These ideas did not produce
the intended results, and ultimately cost the company more than they were able to gain. In the
end, Johnson’s predecessor returned to his role and began more changes to once again try to right
the sinking ship. Some of his new improvements greatly helped the company and his
technological improvements were even greater than those of Johnson, sparking internet buzz that
grew the company’s online presence and consumer awareness (Mahfouz et al., 2017).
If it were that I was a member of the executive staff at the time of Johnson’s changes, I
would try my best to make him understand the possible outcomes of his actions. As discussed
above, each situation can determine the best image to use when initiating change. The same
could be argued for advising those who are trying the create change. If a person like Ron
Johnson is going to transform the company, perhaps he needs someone who will give him a
similar yet different view on his ideas. As a person who seems determined on his course of
action, it would not be well-received to have a drastically different perspective, but someone who
is able to articulate issues and concerns to him may have an opportunity to correct problems
before they even occur.
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The Bible teaches us about change and tells us that “to every thing there is a season, and
a time to every purpose under the heaven” (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Ecclesiastes 3:1).
There is a time for change and everything should be done according to His will. Perhaps Ron
Johnson could have listened to Christian reason and prevented some of mistakes from happening
before he became too headstrong to listen to others.
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References
Heinz, A. (2020). Leading Organizational Change (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill Inc.
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/
(Original work published 1769)
Mahfouz, A. Y., Joonas, K., Williams, D., Jia, R., & Arevalo, M. (2017). A Classic American
Department Store’s Resurgence to Glory: Using Social Media and Online Advertising
Strategies to Generate Revenue. Southern Journal of Business & Ethics, 9, 180–192.
Ratana, S., Raksmey, C., & Danut, D. (2020). Conceptualizing a Framework: A Critical Review
of the Development of Change Management Theories. Studies in Business & Economics,
15(2), 205–214. https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.2478/sbe-2020-0035
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