Phyllis Young

Managing Change

Hector Quiroz, Joel Arellano, Carldelle Dye

MGT/426

4/23/15

Elyse Polokoff

Description of the Cycle of Change

The change that should be implemented in the company is the training of employees especially with respect to the frequency of employee training and the criterion for employee training. The change should also touch on the training programs that are developed for employee trainings in the company. Employee training is a key and a central part and determinant aspect of the level of productivity of individuals in a company and their general output. Training employees is of great value and importance and is beneficial to employees as well as the company.

With respect to changes in the company’s training calendar and system, the changes should be implemented over a given time period. The changes should be implemented in such a way that they do not conflict with the current systems and structure of employee training. There should be a smooth transition from the currently adopted and applied system and structure of employee training to the new system and aspects to be adopted and integrated in the company (Fernández-Armesto, 2007).

With respect to change implementation, the company should set a clear timeline for the changes. Every event, aspect or concept that relates to employee training that requires to be adjusted should have its specified time period when it ought to take place. The human resources department also ought to be involved in the changes that are supposed to be implemented with respect to the training of employees. The human resources should be in charge of the highest percentage of the changes that are to be implemented with respect to the training of employees. The human resources, with having a better understanding of the changes that take place in the work environment and understanding the needs of employees much better puts the department at the better position of ensuring that training changes are effectively implemented in the company in the most appropriate and effective manner (Fernández-Armesto, 2007).

Continuous and Discontinuous Change

Change is a constant reality in our lives. Whether we want it or not, change will occur. Employees embracing the change can be the biggest factor in any orgainization. Two forms of change that will take place within an organization are continuous change and discontinuous change. These changes can have some similar and different effects on an organization. We will analyze at the effects of these changes as they would apply to the Gulfstream Company.

While Gulfstream is looking to be the top luxury airplane manufacturer in its current market, it is in some state of change within the organization. Continuous change will allow Gulfstream to see where the company has the most growth potential for them to capitalize on that area of success. Gulfstream must focus on training their employees from the time of hire; which will ultimately contribute to the increase in their customer base. Doing so would allow Gulfstream to surpass their growth expectations. Its research and development department must stay focused on the competition, by doing so Gulfstream can develop materials that will their employees to remain innovative and provide sustainability.

Capital management is an additional crucial point. Gulfstream must minimize its fixed cost at the various sites, as well as the cost of the company as a whole. No one department or division should bear the total responsibility of the manufacturing or other expenses. Gulfstream will need to utilize webinar trainings, computer-based training, desk side trainings, workbooks, and employee-lead trainings to help mitigate cost associated with employee development.

Another crucial focal point is the community support. Gulfstream could use training and development materials to engage and inspire the community on what the company is providing.

Though discontinuous and continuous change may be different in the effect each can have on one another within an organization, the major key components that exist are training and development. In order for any organization to be successful they must have skilled employees that embrace training, technology and innovation. The company must have committed and passionate employees that care about the integrity of their work. By the company investing more into training and development, this could help reduce cost in safety and user errors. Trainings provide guidance to employees that might struggle in certain areas of a procedure or specific protocol. Providing training and development to employees protects the company’s liability to any issues that may arise on the floor.

Specific Change that need to occur

With respect to the cycle of change, the company should pay greater attention to the process and practice of encouraging ad facilitating employee training. The training of employees should be made a priority in the organization since it is a determinant of general organizational performance and the level of output of the employees. The company is the greatest beneficiary of employee training hence the importance of emphasizing on training employees.

The company should ensure that in making adjustment and in the prioritization of employee training, the newly recruited employees undergo training as the first thing after they are recruited to various positions. The training of these employees should not be intensive and in depth but rather general and related to the tasks, duties and responsibilities that they are expected and required to delegate in the company. The training of newly hired employees in the company should take place a month prior to their assignment to new duties and positions in the company. This is expected to acquaint the employees with the culture of the organization and prepare them in order to help them settle quickly in the different posts and positions that they are required and expected to occupy in the company (Baker, 2007).

Employee training also ought to be adjusted in that it should be made a more regular event that it is currently in order to create awareness among employees on the importance and value of the employee training activities conducted. Making the employee training to be regular in the company is expected to help integrate the most recent knowledge and information with regards to job performance and tasks delegation up to date. Regular training would also help make it easy for the employees to delegate tasks without challenges and difficulties. This is because the knowledge they have with respect to delegation of tasks is fresh in the minds of employees making it much easier for them to delegate tasks and more importantly, overcome new work problems and challenges (Baker, 2007).

In implementing the change and making adjustment on employee training, the company needs to come up with criteria with respect to the selection of individuals and organizations that would help integrate important skills and knowledge and skills in employees through the training that is to be conducted on the employees. The employee trainers should be selected on the basis of their track record and previous performance. The trainers should be selected on the basis of being experts in the respective fields. This way, there is a higher probability that the employees would get to absorb above 90% of the skills and knowledge that the training activity aims at achieving (Baker, 2007).

The change with respect to the training of employees in the organization requires that there be formulated a task specific training program rather than the training activities taking generalized approaches. With respect to employee training, the training programs should be well structured in such a way that they meet the employee needs in the respective departments. This makes employee training to appear being an expensive task. However, the returns on investment in employee training are relatively high and the company is the greatest beneficiary of employee training (Baker, 2007).

The adjustment of employee training in the company should ensure that training is an activity that everyone is inclusive of, the top performers and low performers. This should be irrespective of whether training is to be done on the basis of performance evaluation conducted on employees. Ensuring that training is for everyone in the company is essential in ensuring that all employees are updated with respect to the most current skills that would help them perform much better and become more valuable assets in the company (Baker, 2007).

The training of employees should therefore be changed on the basis of various measures and aspects. Effecting and implementation of these changes is expected to make it much easier for employees to delegate their tasks, duties and responsibilities in the company. The employees would be able to perform at the peak of their potential through their continued development. The changes would improve the general performance of the company by ensuring that errors are reduced significantly in the company. The training adjustments are expected to have general positive outcomes (Voituriez, 2006).

Differentiation between two types of Change agents

The course material refers to change agents as Human and Non-Human. The chapter readings define human change agents as people affiliated with the organization or business. Non-human change agents are forces outside of the company that may influence a change within the organization. This also includes the market, economy and in Gulfstream cases the government. The two key change agents that will be used for Gulfstream training and development change include the fence sitters and endorsers. With respect to differentiation between these change agents, the fence sitters are those individuals who will provide active support in a bid to have the proposed changes with respect to adjustments in the training of employees in the company implemented to the point. The endorsers are for the idea that the required changes be effected would have a positive impact with respect to the company. Fence sitters on the other hand are those individuals who are likely to provide support for the initiative to have the training changes implemented provided they are close enough to me. Their support is highly dependent on the aspect whether they are likely and are dependent on the relationships that I would have built with them.

Endorsers in the scenario can be used to pressure the senior management in the company on the importance of having the training of the company revised in a bid to ensure the needs of the employees as well as those of the company are fully addressed. The endorsers would also provide their support for the initiative through the enlightenment of employees on the importance of the readjustment of their training, bringing in greater support for adjustment of training. The endorsers would therefore help pull a big support base for the initiative to have employee training going through an adjustment.

Fence sitters would be used to support the initiative to have employee training undergo an adjustment through convincing them on the importance of having the training adjustment. In enlightening the fence sitters on the training, I would ensure that I clearly outline to them the positives that are associated with the training of employees on the basis of the changes being made to the process and practice. The enlightenment of the fence sitters on the importance of an adjusted training program for the employees is expected to create a positive relationship with them and bringing them on board for purposes of the training adjustments to be integrated and subsequently implemented.

References

Baker, H. (2007). Employee training. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.

Fernández-Armesto, F. (2007). Pathfinders: A global history of exploration. Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

Voituriez, B. (2006). The Gulf Stream. Paris: UNESCO.