Discussion and 6-10 page paper

Kotter’s Change Management Model

Monieke Woods

Dr. Beck

HRM 560

May 13, 2017

Kotter’s Change Management Model

Transformational organizational change has become a mandatory phenomenon for all organizations that wish to survive the wave of change sweeping across industries and markets in the 21st Century. More often than not, whereas the agenda to initiate and embrace change is often prioritized, the manner in which it is managed often results in chaos and resistance. This paper seeks to explore a model that has proven quite instrumental in change management in the 21st Century as it harmonizes all the necessary ingredients and outlines eight key stages for successful transformational change within organizations (Hayes, 2014).

Essentially, successful transformational change requires commitment, sense of urgency, vision clarity, stakeholder engagement, excellent communication, execution plan and strong leadership. Below is an analysis of Kotter’s 8 stages of change as a harmonization of these ingredients and subsequent application to the situation facing Ford Motors Company.

Application of Kotter’s Change Model to Ford Motors

Ford Motors being one of the forces in automobile industry is faced with a situation in which transformational change is required if the company is to maintain competitive advantage. For quite some time Ford has been over dependent on two types of automobiles which are trucks and SUVS when competitors are diversifying and penetrating the market further. Moreover, it has become a concern for shareholders seeing how Ford Motors is over dependent on the North American market while competitors are penetrating other markets and building a reputation that will soon give them an advantage over Ford Motors. Below is the application of step by step model of change management as prescribed by Kotter to the situation facing Ford Motors.

First and foremost, the eight stages will be divided into three categories under broad titles for this paper to create clarity. The categories are as follows

Creation of a Suitable Climate for Change

Resistance and lack of interest in change are often the most conspicuous impediments to change initiatives in organizations. To eliminate resistance and lack of interest, the following stages will come in handy (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, Shafiq, 2012).

1. Establishment of a Sense of Emergency

Ford Motors requires to create momentum for change by vividly painting an eye-catching and compelling situation that depicts the underlying crisis. In this case, since Ford Motors is facing diminishing reputation which might as well result in loss of competitive advantage, this stage is significant in that by elaborating the crisis at hand, the employees will see the need for change and develop a sense of urgency to find solutions to the problem.

To sufficiently create the much-needed sense of urgency, the change agent must identify the crisis at hand and clearly indicate the negative effects looming if something is not done. In addition, the source of this crisis must be clearly defined so that it influences behavioral alignment of the organization’s stakeholders. Ford Motors must identify the failure to diversify its products and market base as the source of the crisis and outline loss of competitive advantage to competitors so as to inspire urgency and need for change (Kotter, 2010).

2. Coalition Creation

Ideally, with a shared sense of urgency right people with the right mindset are brought together. However, this group of people must be organized into teams known as guiding teams to establish a sense of direction. These groups must comprise of people with commitment and trust so as to be able engage openly and honestly. Ford Motors must therefore ensure that the sense of urgency created appeals to the emotions of the stakeholders to help inspire coalitions built upon trust, commitment and honesty (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, Shafiq, 2012).

To achieve this stage, Ford must make sure that the crises identified touches on a number of sectors so as to be able to bring the right people together. The crises must be able to touch on the emotions of the employees so as to inspire change oriented action and a clear line of direction. The first stage and second stage must happen in that respective order.

3. Vision and Strategy Development

With step one majorly revolving around the creation of a compelling and conspicuous situation to be addressed, step 3 involves making the future appear probable. Ford Motors must ensure that having vividly painted the need for transformational change, a clear vision that indicates where the company intends to be is developed. In addition, a clear blueprint to be followed in order to arrive at the vison must be outline. This blueprint is referred to as strategy.

To successfully execute this stage, Ford Motors must address three key questions whose responses will result to the creation of a clear vision and strategy. These questions are: what is the vision for the future? what needs to be done differently? and what needs to be executed so as to achieve the targeted vision. These questions will help make the future probable and give clear directives and the path to be followed thereby increasing optimism (Kotter, 2010).

Engagement and Enabling the Stakeholders

This category involves stages that are built around showing the stakeholders the reality of the situation in a manner that identifies with them and touches their emotions thereby influencing and inspiring change based action. The stages are as follows

4. Communication of the Vision for Buy-in

Ford Motors must ensure that the vision is communicated to the stakeholders so that they can share in the vision and act towards its realization. For a company like Ford Motors with a deeply rooted tradition, to achieve change and set it in motion, clear and concise communication that is inspirational is needed to achieve transformational change. The people must share in the vision for it to be successful (Hayes, 2014).

To effectively execute this stage, there are a number of aspects to be avoided such as under-communication, pushing information too much and failing to walk the talk. To effectively to communicate the information in a manner that will inspire others, the change leader must communicate through actions. The communication channels must also be cleaned up so as to make the significant information stand out. There should be no gap between words and action and the information must be simple, concise and clear (Hayes, 2014).

5. Empowering Change-oriented Action

This stage is majorly about boosting confidence amongst the people and eliminating the barriers that may serve as an impediment to action. Ford Motors must be keen on this since such companies with very deep rooted traditions may have institutions in place that may discourage risk takers and thereby stalling change (Hayes, 2014).

To ensure this stage is successful, all de-empowering bosses must be reassigned to areas that will make them see the essence of change in traditions. Incentives must be put in place to inspire risk-taking, boost confidence and optimism and compel people to act towards the achievement of the vison. Recognition and rewarding of achievement also would serve as a great empowerment tool.

6. Generation of Short-run Wins

Ford Motors needs this stage for the change initiative to succeed. This stage creates optimism that indeed the vision can be achieved and indicates that the strategies being used are effective. In addition, short run wins take away power from cynics who may be out to convince others to resist the change initiative. Moreover, short run wins create fresh momentum and energy hence more focus.

To achieve, Ford Motors must avoid carrying out too many projects at a go. This is to help avoid the possible chaos that might arise from the negativity that develops when no fruits are witnessed. The change agent must therefore look for easily achievable benefits and use them as stepping stone to motivate behavioral change steered upon the achievement of the overall vision. These early benefits must be as conspicuous as possible for they are instrumental in bringing the nay Sayers on board. In the case of Ford Motors for instance, increasing sales in one region that had not been penetrated like Asia and producing new models that customers react positively to would serve as a quick benefit (Kotter, 2010).

Implementation and Sustenance of the Initiated Change

Once Ford Motors has undertaken all the 6 stages, the next two stages will involve keeping the momentum alive and embedding the changes in the traditions and converting the new desired behavior into organizational culture.

7. Gains Consolidations and Production of More Change

This stage is critical as it would help Ford Motors not relapse into over depending on two models and the North American market. The change momentum must be maintained by creation of structures that encourage risk taking, innovation and creativity. The idea is never let go the momentum and using this momentum to create more benefits and re-energizing this momentum for more change. Ford Motors must diversify the market base and automobiles models and keep doing so to maintain competitive edge by creation of stronger reputation and expansion into new emerging markets such as Africa (Raineri, 2011).

8. Anchoring the New Approaches into Organizational Culture

The whole essence of change is to convert change agency into organizational culture. For survival and prosperity, Ford Motors must embrace change and anchor it in its culture by constantly creating new models and acquiring new markets. To ensure that the desired change is embedded into the culture of Ford Motors, tangible results must be achieved and the benefits must be tied to specific desired behavioral change to emphasize on the positive (Raineri, 2011).

In addition, the acquired new culture must be reinforced through training and coaching programs and achievements must be recognized and conformists rewarded. The focus should be on achieving the desired behavioral change and persistence is key to this stage.

References

Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J. L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), 764-782.

Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kotter, J. (2010). Kotter’s 8-step change model. Mind Tools. Retrieved from http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newPPM_82.

Raineri, A. B. (2011). Change management practices: Impact on perceived change results. Journal of Business Research, 64(3), 266-272.