change management (Essay Sample)

Name of Writer Date of Submission Change Management Introduction The company is known as Insole and it is a luxury clothing brand. The company was established about a couple of years ago and the focus is to raise sales as well as revenue while lowering costs. The brand has a classical design which focuses on the demographics of 30 to 60. The main operations are in UK, France and Italy. While the company had a decent start, it is falling behind; there are many new competitors on the rise on a regular basis which diminishes the market share of the company. Furthermore, the company does not have e-commerce activity nor does it have innovation efficiency to have new and unique designs. There is a business case for change since Insole must be able to respond to competition and diversify its market segments. It needs to embrace digital tools with the intention of achieving sustained competitive advantage. Moreover, the organizational culture and leadership needs to be transformed while employee engagement needs to be promoted for the retention of a skilled and qualified workforce that can work towards meeting the strategic goals of the change process. Due to these issues, there is a need to have some efficiency changes so that the company is able to become competitive and fulfil its sales and revenue goal while reducing costs. At the current state, the sales and revenue will only decrease with rising costs as the competitors will take over the market. Ergo, it is imperative to have the necessary changes so that the business continues to grow in a positive direction. Optimization Change Plan Transformational change involves the in-depth exploration of the issues, problems, and outcomes that firms need to evaluate when implementing change in the business environment. Primarily, Insole needs transformational change as a response to its strategic problems and weaknesses (Booth, 2015). Action Plan Change initiative Strategies New product design * Hire fashion designers from different countries to create new designs. * Identify trends and tastes of niche markets like businessmen, millennials, and others to develop customized fashion designs. * Conduct analysis of luxury fashion brands and understand their strategies with respect to product design. Market Segmentation * Millennials have highly disposable incomes and brand awareness. * Continue to provide products to the core and loyal segment of Insole are boomers. * In-store and online customers have different needs and requirements. Innovative and transformational leadership and management * Leadership should demonstrate commitment and understanding about the changing external and internal factors impacting the business. * Foster a culture of rewarding innovative and creative employees. * Hire professional managers that can manage departments and motivate the workforce. Open and innovative organizational culture * Address employee concerns with formal and informal feedback mechanisms. * Allow workforce to work with minimum supervision. * Allow managers to act as mentors and coaches for employees. Digital Tools * Use social media tools to provide unique services and ephemeral experiences to customers. * Develop user-friendly and scalable e-commerce website to deliver products to online customers. Employee Engagement * Conduct surveys to identify satisfaction levels of employees. * Encourage participation in key decisions. * Promote innovation and creativity. Model and Justification Kotter’s eight-step change model is selected for Insole because it will define measurable stakeholder aims and create a business case for change. It can be utilized to monitor assumptions, risks, dependencies, costs, and cultural issues (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). Furthermore, the model can use effective communication to inform stakeholders about reasons for the change, benefits of the change process, and details of the change plan. Education Plan, Model and Justification Change involves educating the employees that will be affected by the change process. In other words, Insole’s change management strategy will focus on providing key business reasons for changes and benefits of workplace changes for the workforce. Senior managers and employee advocates can convey the message by meeting the staff face-to-face, explain the goals of the change process, and enlist their involvement and support in the process (Drucker, 2012). Additionally, it is crucial for management to provide mechanisms that allow employees to ask queries about the change process. Change management involves using diverse strategies to understand the attitudes and willingness of employees for change. Informal lunches and meetings are viable tactics to achieve the above outcome (Huczyinski et al, 2013). Another method is to use change readiness assessment survey for the workforce to define the level of preparedness. Such steps are part of the learning plan because they will provide insights to the management about customizing communication methods and media to different groups and concerns. A comprehensive learning plan needs to be implemented so that maximum number of employees will support and embrace the change plan (Huczyinski et al, 2013). Stakeholder Communication Plan Communication plays a significant role in success of change management initiatives because it helps to clarify the goals, outcomes, and benefits of the change plan to the stakeholders. Furthermore, the communication plan is successful when the individuals convey the message clearly and in detail (Uhl & Gollenia, 2016). The person receiving the message should trust the sender, must be willing to understand, and ask questions for clarity. Finally, the delivery method and content should be according to the circumstances of the sender and receiver. Insole’s change management plan will be to use multiple communications media to increase success of the communication plan. PowerPoint presentations, website, blogs, and Twitter are online methods that can be used in the communication plan (Cummings et al, 2016). These methods allow stakeholders to understand the objectives and outcomes of the change plan. Insole should ensure that communications are multi-pronged, targeted, and maintained throughout the life of the project. Consistent and regular communications can be beneficial as short-term goals and concerns can be addressed efficiently by the management. Small and group-wide meetings can be part of the communication plan as they allow departments to coordinate the change process and reduce problems (Cummings et al, 2016). The content in communications must be consistent, simple, and understandable to the stakeholders. In other words, it is imperative that the communication message highlights the features of the change plan like product design, employee engagement, open and innovative culture, and others to the workforce. The message should focus on benefits like enhanced profitability and growth of the firm and link it with the individual growth of the workers. The communication plan is vital for success because it will allow management to implement change efficiently while reducing the impact of problems on the process (Cummings et al, 2016). Outcome Monitoring Metrics Evaluating the change process is important since it allows the firm to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its approach. Furthermore, it allows the firm to identify new strategies that can be used to overcome problems encountered during the change process (Carnall, 2018). Employee surveys can be conducted after ninety days to identify their levels of satisfaction with the change process. Three months is sufficient for Insole’s workforce because they can adjust to the new business environment (Hayes, 2018). However, it is imperative that the management does not conduct surveys immediately after the change process since the workforce might still be adjusting to the change process. Interviews and casual conversations are effective control systems that can be utilized to monitor the change process. The insights gained will provide practical benefits for the firm as it can use the information for future change strategies. The lessons learned ...