Change Management Plan And Defense

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Change Management Plan Paper and Defense

Introduction

CrysTel is a telecommunications company providing products, which include data cables,

wireless solutions, and network development. Like most companies in the industry,

CrysTel is confronted with much competition and is constantly challenged to remain

innovative. Although the company has enjoyed much success, CrysTel also realized the

need for change. No matter the extent of the change being implemented, change is never

easy as there are many factors and personalities to consider. Nevertheless, change is vital

to today business environment. If a company seeks to expand and compete globally, the

company needs to analyze and adopt the best overall plan for change on an enterprise

level. In addition, the company needs to consider a reliable change management plan that

will address and help to overcome workplace resistance when employees are presented

with a new way of doing things. Before the company can incorporate such changes, it is

best to examine all facets of the business to determine what is most appropriate. In the case

of CrysTel, the company must develop a successful change management plan that aims to

attain three distinct goals: optimize flexibility, promote innovation, and sustain change.

This paper will briefly summarize four key areas that leaders and managers must

understand in order to successfully make a change. This paper will discuss CrysTel need to

develop a corporate culture that can support constant change. The paper will present the

implications of organizational change and associated impact on employee behavior. Next,

the paper will confer the proposed change model and the potential impact that human

variables and resistance to change will have on the process. Furthermore, the paper will

describe the recommendations made to monitor and measure progress relative to the

proposed leadership style and strategies. Finally, the paper will analyze three future

leadership challenges that CrysTel might face in the next decade.

The Major Implications of Change at CrysTel

Change is never an easy task but CrysTel realizes that in order to compete globally and be

considered as a leading force in the industry, it must exhaust all its resources and talents to

remain innovative. Also, CrysTel realizes the need to thoroughly assess the company

behavioral parameters such as leadership, communication, and motivation. In most cases,

employees resist changes as they have been accustomed to doing things in a particular

manner. The company is then challenged to motivate its employees to buy into and support

the changes. This is very important because in order for the implemented change to be

successful, the leaders and managers must ensure all members of the organization are

aligned to the mission and vision statement. CrysTel organizational hierarchy consists of

several departments, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. The company is

challenged with bringing these departments together as some departments lack effective

communication. For instance, CrysTel marketing department is weak in communication,

does not empower its teams, has been unsuccessful in leading by example, and has failed

to develop its less experienced workers. Similarly, the sales and delivery department does

not subscribe to a participative leadership style, rarely engages in risk-taking and in

mentoring its teams, and is not proactive in the conflict resolution process. These two

departments are expected to put up the most resistance to change. According to Kinicki &

Kreitner, “Resistance can be as subtle as passive resignation and as overt as deliberate

sabotage. Managers need to learn to recognize the manifestations of resistance both in

themselves and in others if they want to be more effective in creating and supporting

change”“ (2005).

According to the simulation, the marketing department does not have defined job roles and

specific performance objectives. Also, there is a lack of training and mentoring in this

department, thus resulting in poor performance. Without effective emphasis on group

thinking and working towards a goal as a team, employees succumb to work towards

individual goals rather than focusing on team efforts. Considering individual goals is

important but to be an effective department, team goals must also be considered as this has

much impact not just on the department but for the organization as a whole. This will

foster a positive and productive working climate. With this, it is highly likely that

employees attain job satisfaction, thereby, improved job performance. In fact, there is a

positive relationship between job satisfaction and job performance as “happy workers

make more productive workers”“ (McShane & Von Glinow, 2004). Additionally, along

with the job satisfaction-performance relationship, there is a strong correlation between job

satisfaction and customer satisfaction”“ (McShane, 2004).

Although the human resources department displays effective communication, establishing

open communication and providing a continuous feedback system, the marketing

department however, suffers most from performance feedback at CrysTel. They do not

have a strong mentoring process in place and there is an issue with delegating

responsibilities. “Because feedback is intimately related to the goal-setting process, it

involves the same behavioral outcomes: direction, effort, and persistence”“ (Kinicki &

Kreitner, 2005).

While the technology development personnel are encouraged to approach a conflict

resolution committee to address unresolved conflicts, the sales and delivery department are

only allowed to address conflicts or issues during the semi-annual performance review.

Hence, this results in a lower score than the other departments in this area on the climate

survey. Because this department fails to clearly define roles and responsibilities, they

confront overlapping efforts. Inadequate communication and teamwork make conflict

resolution difficult. This is an integral part of any business as “Problem solving is the only

style that represents a purely win*ƒ²*ƒ”€šwin orientation”“ (McShane & Von Glinow,