Applying Change Models in Business (Essay Sample)

Applying Change Models
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Lewin’s Change Management Model for the Short-Term Change
The proposed short-term change for the Sea treasures company is creating an Internet Website to sell the large inventory of aquarium decorator items. Making this change to the organization would be successful if the process of Lewin’s Change Model is followed well. Looking at the current state of the company, the three steps involved in Lewin’s Change Model would perfectly suit in the implementation of this change. The stages in this model include unfreezing, change and freezing.
For unfreezing, the Sea Treasures Company that have been in existence for over 50 years will need to be prepared for the new changes that involve modern technology. This would include breaking down the old status quo that had been in existence in the company for all those years. Creating a website is a technological change that would affect some of the ways operations of the company were conducted. This would directly affect some of the employees directly. Because of this some resistance may be faced from the employees. The unfreezing step of Lewin’s Change Model becomes a necessary step at this point for making the employees understand why there is a need to have the change. The current state of the company where the customer base is shrinking, sales are slow, and it is faced with reducing staff and closing stores is a base explanation to all members why they need to accept the change.
After the uncertainty created in the unfreezing stage, the Lewin’s Change Management Model will lead to the change stage. Here at change stage the people will begin to come to terms with the new changes and start working with the new way of marketing the aquarium decorator items using the website. They will start to believe and do things in a way that supports the use of the website in marketing. The transition from the unfreeze stage to change stage will not happen overnight: the employees will take a time to embrace the website. The staff of the company need to understand how the change of coming up with the website will benefit them so that they can accept it and contribute to making it successful. Time and communication would be key in the transition period. The staff will need time to adapt to the changes. Proper communication of what has changed and what needs to be done since the introduction of the website is also necessary. The staff needs to be fully involved in the process and to feel part of the company.
When the changes are in the process of taking shape and the staff is embracing the website and its services, the company will be ready to move to the last stage of Lewin’s Change Management Model which is refreeze. The company will come up with a stable organizational chart and consistent job description. Here the staff will be allocated specific jobs in the new plan. Those supposed to operate the website, those supposed to deal with customers’ requests after they come in, and those supposed to deliver the aquarium decorator items. The changes should be used all the time and be incorporated into the everyday working schedule.
Application of Lewin’s Change Management Model if well applied as seen would bring a perfect transition when changing to start using a website in the Sea Treasures Company. However, the change will have different effects on the stakeholders of the company including employees, managers and executives of the company. For employees of a company that has been in existence for many years, introducing any change would mean changing from doing what they had been doing for a long time. A website would mean operating from the office waiting for customers to contact which may defer from the tradition of interacting with people outside. It may be boring to some employees. Managers at the company will have a hard time putting all the changes in place and having to ensure the employees adapt to the new changes. Managers will have to do some training to the employees. The executives of the company will have to spend more despite the current state of the company. They will have to buy more equipment to facilitate the website operating. They will as well have to spend resources on training staff on the operation of the website or as well hire new staff.
The McKinsey 7-S Model for the Long-Term Change
When it comes to the question of how well an organization may be positioned on achieving its objectives, McKinsey 7-S Model works well in answering this question. Some of the situations the 7-S can be used include, improving the performance of a company, examining the effects of future changes within a company, aligning departments and processes during a merger or acquisition, determining how best to implement a proposed strategy. With this understanding, the Sea Treasures Company will be in the best position applying this model when trying to expand its website to sell live sea creatures such tropical fish and small sea turtles online.
Going step by step, the 7-S Model starts with strategy, the company will have to come up with a proper strategy in which it will interact with customers online and ship the products to them. The strategy has to be one that outsmarts competitors so that that the sales and revenues of the company can rise again. Second is the structure of the organization, the information has to be able to flow in a proper way for the change to be effective. Structure inv...