Running head: CASE STUDY IN CHANGE RESEARCH PROJECT 1
Case Study in Change Research Project
Jasmine McCray
Liberty University
By submitting this assignment, I attest this submission represents my own work, and not that of
another student, scholar, or internet source. I understand I am responsible for knowing and
correctly utilizing referencing and bibliographical guidelines.
CASE STUDY IN CHANGE RESEARCH PROJECT 2
Abstract
Within different forms of organizational change, you will find examples to use and avoid in your
organization. Understanding organizational change will require a manger to review tried and true
processes such as Kotter, Lewin, or ADKAR’s processes to implementing changes. This article
will review the best practices for change in transformational, transitional, or developmental
organizational changes. Focusing on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted business’ way
of conducting everyday management and how best practices can help navigate this
unprecedented time. We will also discuss three businesses that implement a major organizational
change and how that impacted its standing in the industry, good or bad. Working towards
gathering the best examples available, this article will review how a manager can bring a change
to an organization successfully.
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Introduction
Consumer trends and technology continue to evolve, and businesses have to keep up in
order to remain competitive. In a time where businesses are struggling to keep the doors open
due to COVID-19, companies have to adapt to the needs of the world while finding ways to cut
cost. Companies unable to do this have seen major losses in revenue and had to make cuts to stay
alive; in some cases, this still was not enough for business to stay open. This is not a new concept
for businesses, but with consumers being more conscious of how they spend earnings, business
have to become creative in approaching organizational changes. The core values of
organizational change have stayed the same; these changes should be developmental,
transitional, or transformational in order to have a meaningful impact on the company.
Understanding the best practices within organizational change will assist businesses with
weathering this unprecedented time.
Best Practices in Organizational Change
Developmental Changes
A developmental change is meant to improve or correct a current process to make them
more effective for the company; this may include a strategy, process, or reporting structure and
should be a continuous improvement. Organizations make these changes to make itself more
competitive in the industry, receive greater output and/or quality from current workforce, and
increase profits. With the ultimate goal of linking the business process change and a successful
organizational performance, managers must use best practices such as understanding the
business’ needs, consider the learning culture of the organization, and gain support from senior
management in implementing change. A developmental change can arise from previously
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implementing controls showing a process has an area for improvement or needs an additional
step. For instance, making a change in the information a support team provides to closes cases,
so the details tell a reportable story about the types of cases received and why. This change will
assist the business with understanding where other processes are failing and give root cause to
the reason why. This information assists with the best practice of understanding the business’
needs; with the proper information, management is able to prioritize and improve processes
instead of wasting efforts on what they think is the most important issue at the time. This idea is
known as capturing tribal or functional knowledge and focuses on documenting the results and
processes used in each improvement for others to use, this allows each idea and improvement to
be built on to spread to different process in the organization (Allen, 2013). In order for this
continuous improvement to work, managers must ensure that they address or prevent any
obstacles when possible.
One of the biggest issues with organizational change is the resistance from people (Wang
et al., 2019). We find that people are nervous about change especially in the workplace, believing
that the change may end in a loss of a position for them. Kotter (2012) teaches the best ways to
combat this type of fear is to communicate the change vision and empower employees to act.
These steps in the Kotter’s eight-stage process to change will allow employees to feel they are a
part of change momentum instead of a barrier or casualty of it. In addition to allowing input from
employees about the vision of the process change, having their participation in testing or
updating process will bring a deeper connection to the individual that they can hopefully share
with others. When suggestions are given by employees, management should eagerly welcome
the opinions to keep employees involved and increase adaptation of the process improvement
amongst the staff. Developmental changes are meant to happen regularly so recognizing and
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rewarding small wins, participation, and remaining positive during changes are important to keep
employees engaged in the improvements and maintain a positive morale/culture in the company.
Transitional Changes A transitional change can be one that an organization has to make in order
to solve a problem, this can be a merger, acquisition, or automation of a process (Rodda et al.,
2017). During this change, employees are on high alert because their jobs are at risk, processes
are changing, and company cultures are integrating. As with developmental changes, it is
important to communicate the vision but establishing the sense of urgency will be the driving
force behind garnering the support needed for success. Kotter (2012) explains establishing a
sense of urgency as making a bold change to gain the attention to the problem. Announcing that
the company is merging or being acquired while bring the attention needed but to follow this
managers must be prepared to show how the organization got in the problem and how, with the
help of employees, they will remedy it. Nickerson (2016) recommends the best practices for a
merger and acquisition:
A key step in an M&A transaction is the due diligence process, which involves the review
and analysis by the parties to the transaction of the following key business activities:
finance and accounting, information technology, operations, regulatory compliance, and
health and safety. (p.6)
In most situations, a company would want to bring attention to the problem before major
damage is created but if you do not have that opportunity it is important to build on the
momentum and urgency of the present situation.
The ADKAR model is another tool to assist with driving the connection between how
current performance has created the issue the company is currently in. ADKAR stands for
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awareness of the need for change, desire to support the change, knowledge of how to change,
ability to demonstrate skills and behaviors, and reinforcement to make the change stick. Boca
(2013) explains how the ADKAR model brings attention to issues:
The power of the ADKAR model is that it creates focus on the first element that is the
root cause of failure. When organization approach changes using this model, it can
immediately identify where the process is breaking down and which elements are being
overlooked. (p. 246)
This is significant to the success of a merger because the behaviors that caused the need
for a bailout will not be welcome and the company has to be open to changing or allowing space
for a new concept. With the added pressure of COVID-19, employees need to see management
supporting the change and clear communication on how to adapt. Employees and leaders are
constantly having to adapt to instant changes during this time, items that would take years to
implement before are changing in days or weeks now. Building a team to assist with driving
changes such as internal communications, training, and creating/managing controls will build a
sense of normalcy throughout this process. Kotter refers to this team as the guiding coalition; this
team should be the face of the transition, finding new ways to communicate to team members,
setting expectations, and realizing wins. They will have to task of identifying who or what is
holding back the success of the transition, so that the issue can be removed before causing
further damage.
Transformational Changes Transformational changes are not as final as a transitional change
but does require an organization to radically alter everything, combining aspects of the
transitional and developmental changes. This can include moving completely away from core
values, operations or process, and the culture of the organization to make a change. Adapting to
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changes will assist with moving forward and finding your footing within this new realm. Fondara
(2016) states,
Adaptation transforms the quality and structure of the relationships between firms as it is
an investment in a specific relationship. It requires an effort which may lead to
improvements in the effectiveness of a relationship as well as negative consequences
associated with increasing costs and dependency. It is not only interaction at the level of
activities and resources which undergo transformation, but also the firms that are
involved. (p. 188)
Recently, with schools beginning distance learning, we have seen the school district make major
changes. The transformational changes include introducing new technologies to assist with
teaching virtually such as Zoom or Kahoot, altering how length of time students are working
with teachers, and introducing use of technology as the main form of communication. These
small changes require hours upon hours of training and prep in order to implement. Teachers
everywhere are learning to control a class without students present physically and parents are
learning to be more active in the daily lessons while balancing work from home. Student,
teachers, and parents are having to depend on the school district create the best situation during
this unprecedented time and what this will mean for the future. Counties that have decided to
allow their students back in school are trying to gain a semblance of the old ways, in certain
situations this is not working. Counties that have decided to go completely virtual are trying to
embrace this new change. Romans 12:2 states, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of
God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (English Standard Version). This verse speaks to
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addressing the changes of the world, noting it is important to focus on God, that will always lead
you on the correct path.
Organization transformations can be driven by internal issues as well; discovering that a
culture of an organization is toxic or making a change in leadership would ultimately change the
company. These sorts of changes require time, both correct timing in implementation and
allowing enough time for change to settle in. Timing it right is a great best practice because
sudden changes are resisted more by employees, presenting the change when it is ready and
rolling out in segments will allow employees time to adjust, when available (Dasser, 2019).
Giving it time will allow your employees time to adjust and allow you time to course correct if
necessary. With changes to the entire organization, the original change may not the same in the
end, but with time to perfect the vision or alter the route when necessary, the goal will be met.
Case Studies in Organizational Change
Microsoft When Microsoft first entered the market, they were a leader in the software industry
from the late 80s but ultimately lost its holding to other more dominant companies. Partners and
developers blamed the loss on issues within the company, noting the hostile work environment
making it harder to get anything done because of the unhealthy competitive environment
(Nadella and Euchner, 2018). Microsoft required an organizational change to turn around the
entire company, that change came in the new CEO, Satya Nadella, when he took over in 2014.
Nadella’s story with Microsoft is similar to the story of Judah in 2 Kings. Merida (2015)
discusses how the people of Judah were on their way into exile until a new King, Hezekiah, takes
over in the third year of Hoshea. Hezekiah changes behavior and leads the people into
restoration. Nadella began an entire reorg of the company and tackled the unhealthy
organization head on by pushing a cohesive work partnership. He also changed the focus strategy
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of the company from one that was centered around Windows, the proprietary operating system,
to a cloud and mobile based foundation. Much of this was due to his ability to help employees do
what they can’t. Grenny (2013) describes this process as investing in the employee and strategies
that help abilities, so employees have the chance to put training into action. Satya predecessors
put so much attention in the Window’s model that the Satya’s message to move away from this
strategy may have been missed by many employees; they did not think it was possible to move
past Windows. The company created a new AI and Research Group through the reorg and was
able to re-establish itself. Wright (2017) stated, “Prior to the restructuring, employees had been
lacking a positive sense of purpose, with the result being low morale and weakened employee
engagement” (p. 10). By the end of 2018, Microsoft won the title as the most valuable public
company in the world, a long way from the broken company they were seen as before. Satya
embraced best practices as communicating the vision, bringing the right resources together to
succeed, and using your influence to ensure the company moves past previous behaviors and
believes in the new path.
Google/Alphabet Google is a household name that has been around since the early 2000s, in
2015 the company grew to the point to break apart into another company, Alphabet. The co-
founder, Larry Page, reorganized Google because the research and development teams were
exploring a diverse group of projects while still inundated with focusing on Google; this held
them back from giving the proper time to profitable projects outside of Google. The decision was
made to bring Google under a new corporate structure, Alphabet, with Google as the subsidiary;
other projects not directly related to Google are now new subsidiaries under Alphabet with its
own CEOs and goals. This move by Google followed a few best practices, the first being make
the change desirable or showing the urgency and communicating the vision so it is relevant to
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team members. With the knowledge that the new subsidiaries had employees who could focus on
what is important to them would make Alphabet and Google better in the long-term.
Acknowledging that maintaining every project under Google would harm the company
more than help and expressing that to employees with a clear vision for more opportunities in
this new direction helped create 10x company growth (Mrdalj, 2019). Four years after Google
segmented into Alphabet and since then the company has seen some positives and failures. The
CEO, Larry Page, and cofounder Sergey Brin have stepped down from Alphabet, a few of the
divisions either failed or was absorbed back into Google, and Alphabet has begun to lose its hold
over the market, turning into a more conventional company. Though mistakes were made when
dividing the two companies, Alphabet is still able to instill the same best practices to make
successful. Alphabet has seen how certain division failed and had the opportunity to use best
practices as using tribal knowledge or the ADKAR model to make changes to the way its
subsidiaries are managed in the future. Making the change to have a new CEO is already a
catalyst, now Alphabet has the opportunity to maximize this moment to bring the change in the
companies that are continuing to not meet expectations.
America Online (AOL)-Time Warner Merger When merger go well, companies are praised for
its abilities to know when a change is necessary and merge with another company to increase
revenue and create cost savings. Top management praises the dedicated team that made the
integration possible, the communications that assisted employees in the adjustment, and the
combination of two organizational cultures that found its match. Using the best merger and
acquisitions practices are the framework for success with combing two companies with different
operations, cultures, and goals; if management does not define a united vision and communicate
it early it will fail.
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The merger of AOL and Time Warner had all the makings of a great merger with a
successful future ahead; Warner had already merged with Time in the 90s and would have
knowledge of the process. When AOL merged with Time Warner ten years later the number of
underlining issues caused this merger to fail. Timing was the first issue, AOL significantly
reduced its value losing 99 billion in 2002 once the dotcom bubble burst (Robichaux, 2016). The
company merged with Time Warner because it needs to expand its offerings to include a
broadband connection, the market was moving away from dial-up services; they failed to
capitalize on the AOL dial up customers they were losing.
Another issue the merger had was combining cultures, executives believed the hard work
was done once the paperwork was signed and failed to consider the process was still in its
earliest stages. In order for a merger to be successful a guided coalition must be formed with the
right people putting out clear communications often. Following steps such as Plan, Do, Study,
Act (PDSA) have helped other Mergers in the past, by planning a process, testing it out,
reviewing the results for areas of opportunity, then acting on what is learned. AOL-Time Werner
missed many of these steps, specifically ‘study’. If they were studying the market, it would have
made clear that internet search-based advertising was on the rise and where they could
potentially find a place in the market (Elstein, 2018). In 2019, there were more than one billion
U.S. dollars valued in mergers and acquisitions, the combination of two companies can be very
profitable if done successful.
Conclusion
These examples of best practices in theory and in real life show that it is important to be
willing to make a change, make the change deliberate, act on in promptly, but plan carefully,
communicate, and give things time to settle. Organizational change is a long continuous journey
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that has the power to bring great change if enacted successfully. Not every change will be
accepted without resistance but following basics steps found in numerous organizational change
strategies will assist with making as smooth as possible. With many companies making changes
due to COVID-19 that are far outside of its norm, it is important to understand transformation
will not happen quickly but celebrating small wins and managing organizational change
effectively will have a direct impact on the ability to recover and/or thrive during these times.
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