Change Management Plan

Running head: KOTTER CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL 1

KOTTER CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL 6

Kotter Change Management Model

Avery Clementin

HRM 560 Organizational Change

Dr. Allan Beck

May 13, 2016

Managing change

In the current business situations, implementing change is the only way that can help an organization to remain competitive in the market. Staying relevant is an objective that every organization is striving to achieve. Although the implementing change in an organization tends to appear as an easy task, organizations struggle to make these changes thus leading to a lot of time and resources wasted. John Kotter developed a significant change management model that can help and guide an organization into making the best possible business decisions regarding change. The fluctuating economic conditions and technological advancements provide the need for firms to ensure that they embrace these new advancements to stay relevant. This paper will provide an in-depth analysis into how Walmart Corporation can incorporate these basic change management strategies as developed by John Kotter.

Walmart is an American multinational corporation, and it runs a chain of department stores, hypermarkets and grocery stores in approximately 28 countries globally. The large systems structure of Walmart provides a daunting task when there is need to implement any given change. However, the corporation management has devised various mechanisms that they can follow to have a successful change about Kotter’s change management model. Walmart is the most powerful company in the world with slightly over 2 million employees (Fishman, 2006).

Kotter’s change management model.

John Kotter developed a now famous management model that organizations can use to realize positive change in all aspects of operations within the firm. The model consists of well elaborated eight steps that can help an organization or company in coming up with the best change strategy that every stakeholder can be a position to uphold its occurrence. Nevertheless, a successful change program in an organization involves perfect communication and interaction between parties involved. Failure to this will bring about unmatched revolt both within and outside the organization thus halting the change program suggested (Paton and McCalman, 2008).

Establishment of urgency

The first step that a business organization should consider in implementing change is the establishment of urgency. The business group starts implementing change successfully when various individuals in the management realize the sense of change to improve on service or product delivery. Kotter provides an in-depth analysis on various companies insisting that almost 50% of organizations do not develop the much-needed urge that can prompt action. That being the most challenging phase of managing change, so many organizations fail at this stage. The change process can be a success or pass through the first step if 75% of management members see the need for change and push forward for the same. Because of its presence in many countries, Walmart corporation management board first analyses the economic conditions and changing market share to approve or reject any changes to its operational system. Although it is possible to implement a single change program that can be reflected in all its subsidiary firms. Change that involves incorporation of new technologies is an act of urgency that needs to be addressed (Paton and McCalman, 2008).

Creation of a guiding coalition

Creating a guiding coalition is the next possible change management step that a company can effectively follow to remain on course. A guiding coalition specifically refers to the team selected in ensuring that the suggested change is achieved. This team works efficiently together in planning and developing the much-needed tools that can be helpful in the change process. A high urgency by an organization for change helps in creating the best possible team that will ensure that the said change is successfully implemented. In Walmart, the management selects particular project managers to spearhead a change process. The chosen team is then equipped with the necessary elements in ensuring that the process is a success. Developing a less concerned team to facilitate change is likely to derail the organization from achieving the specific objectives hence influencing company operations in the process. If the change to be effected is to cut across all the departmental stores and grocery stores, the management selects a team that is tasked with ensuring that the predetermined change is implemented. The team is chosen from across all the stores to help in sensitizing the concerned parties about the incoming changes (Harrington, 2006).

Developing vision and strategy

Once a team has been build, a vision and strategy are developed. Vision helps in clarifying the best possible direction that can be taken to achieve change. The vision and strategy should be easily understood by the team to have successful change implementation process. If there is not a sensible vision, any change is very much invalid since there is nothing to strive for as an organization. Walmart Corporation takes into account the long-term benefits associated with change. Thus, the team created to ensure the change is successfully integrated into the organization's operations develops the vision and strategy related to the change (Harrington, 2006).

Communicating the vision

Communicating the change vision to all related parties should be a priority. Every member or employee of the organization should be well aware of the intended changes that are being planned by within the organization. All communication channels should be used for everyone to be familiar with the change and be in a position to comprehend any particular impact to the business organization. In any organization, communication is the only way that a policy or change strategy can be understood and allowed to be incorporated into the system. Communicating the vision that is propagated by change is essential in bringing all parties involved on the same progress level. Walmart Corporation takes this step very seriously because poor vision communication will automatically mean that the change has no significance to the organization (Kotter, 1996).

Empowering broad-based action

In order to eliminate any potential obstacles in the change implementation process, there is the need for the organization to empower employees for broad-based action. Involving employees in any change process is an important aspect since they can easily frustrate the implementation process because they play a vital role in ensuring that the desired change is effective. The Walmart Corporation has developed an important communication strategy where all employees in all subsidiary organizations can be accessed and notified on any particular issue that the company management wishes to carry out (Kotter, 1996).

Generating short-term wins

Generating short-term wins is necessary for motivating the change implementation team. Any change in an organization takes the time to be on course for success. Many individual may try to shy away from change and only decide to participate when there are positive signs regarding the direction taken by the organization as a result of the said change. Having these short-term wins is very vital in boosting morale among the implementation team and entire business organization (Kotter and Cohen, 2012).

Consolidating gains and implementing more change

Since the organization is now on the right path, merging gain and producing more change is very essential. Many agencies start declaring success at a very early stage forgetting that the change has not embedded well within the organization systems. Change is a process and may take years to reach its full potential (Samson and Bevington, 2012).

Anchoring new approaches into culture

Anchoring new approaches in the Walmart’s culture is the final objective of any change process. Many organizations, however, do not reach this far end step in change implementation. For a change to be successful in an organization, it must be fruitfully implanted in the business operations having analyzed and realized its potential pros and cons. Walmart has a strong policy that rates every change process adopted by the firm. The preliminary findings provide the best possible way in knowing if the long-term impact of the change will be positive or negative (Sharma, 200).

References

Fishman, C. (2006). The Wal-Mart effect: How the world's most powerful company really works, and how it's transforming the American economy. New York: The Penguin Press.

Harrington, H. J. (2006). Change management excellence: The art of excelling in change management. Chico, Calif: Paton Press.

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.

Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2012). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations.

Paton, R. A., & McCalman, J. (2008). Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. London: Sage Publications.

Samson, D., & Bevington, T. (2012). Implementing strategic change: Managing processes and interfaces to develop a highly productive organization. London: Kogan Page.

Sharma, R. R. (2007). Change management: Concepts and applications. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

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