Importance of Change Management in the Digital Transformation Process (Research Paper Sample)

Organizational Change Management
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TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1)Change Management PAGEREF _Toc120303213 \h 3
2)Challenges faced in Organizational Change Management PAGEREF _Toc120303214 \h 5
3)Reasons why employees fear change PAGEREF _Toc120303215 \h 5
I.Fear of Job Loss or Replacement PAGEREF _Toc120303216 \h 5
II.Fear of the Unknown and Lack of Support PAGEREF _Toc120303217 \h 6
III.Exclusion of Employees PAGEREF _Toc120303218 \h 7
4)Change Management Models PAGEREF _Toc120303219 \h 7
IV.The McKinsey 7-S Change Management Model PAGEREF _Toc120303220 \h 8
V.The ADKAR Change Management Model PAGEREF _Toc120303221 \h 9
5)How the ADKAR change model can alleviate employees’ fear of change PAGEREF _Toc120303222 \h 9
6)How Coca-Cola has integrated the McKinsey 7-S Model PAGEREF _Toc120303223 \h 11
7)Integration of the ADKAR change model with IT PAGEREF _Toc120303224 \h 12
8)Why change management is needed in digital transformation PAGEREF _Toc120303225 \h 13
9)Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc120303226 \h 14
Organizational Change Management
Change is an inevitable concept in life, and hence individuals or organizations must face it at one time or the other. Organizational change is a critical process which involves companies, business or generally organizations, altering their policies, process, structures and even procedures (Lewis, 2019). For further context, organizational change may take the scope of structural, functional, cultural or administrative changes (Lewis, 2019). Understandably, structural changes may happen when organizations get into mergers and functional changes may occur when employees are reorganized into different departments (Lewis, 2019). Cultural changes occur in instances where the normal way of life of people in the organization is altered while administrative changes occur when a concept like outsourcing is introduced (Lewis, 2019). From the instances given, it is evident that organizational change is broad and may take different shapes and forms. It is therefore important that organizations integrate change management. This paper will examine the importance of change management, highlighting various change management models and analyzing some of the possible reasons why employees may fear change, and address how the different change models may help in such situations.
1 Change Management
Change management can loosely take the meaning of managing and containing change processes among people. Davidson (2018) defines change management as the processes, tools and techniques required to manage and accommodate the people involved in change, with the aim of achieving a needed business outcome. Eric Kimberling, the CEO of Third World Consulting Group, defines change management as anything that is required to change people in an organization, the organization’s culture, and the human side of business with the aim of achieving organizational change goals (Third Stage Consulting Group, 2020). Therefore, organizational change majorly revolves around taking into consideration the feelings, emotions, anxieties, concerns and fears of people working within an organization, when change is taking place (Kimberling, 2020). Understandably, whenever change occurs, products, systems and processes would be affected. However, the human side, and largely the people will also be affected in diverse ways. The emotions and feelings experienced by human beings during times of change significantly affect and influence the productivity and efficiency of working (Issah, 2018). Generally, organizational change management can be termed as the people side of transformation in organizations.
Change management is a crucial aspect of any organization as it significantly affects the culture and even working environment of the organization which directly affects the employees. Davidson (2018) highlights that despite Chief Information Officers (CIOs) having knowledge of integral elements of digital transformation, they have recorded close to 90% failure rates. Understandably, digital transformation is a form and example of organizational change. It is largely because; digital transformation can be defined as the process of adaptation to new technology and business models by organization, which is central theme through which digital initiatives must revolve. Davidson (2018) further highlights research that shows that change management is critical in driving successful outcomes alongside the integration of outdated models and techniques that may be misaligned in the current business world. Kimberling (2018) further highlights that digital transformation fails without a formidable organizational change management. Therefore, change management is a huge determinant