Organizational Change (Term Paper Sample)

Organizational Change
Name
Institution
Organizational Change
Introduction
In the business revolution today, there has been a need to change the face of the organization so as to improve the performance and stay put in the competitive market. Leading and managing the change in an organization has been seen to become a qualification in for business experts. Creating a competitive advantage may need the company to know the types of change to consider and the way to apply efficient procedures for dealing with it. A planned organizational change is capable of moving an organization from the current state to the desired expectations with an aim of initiating their efficiency. The primary aim of a purported organizational reform is to improve its abilities and to enhance its values to the stakeholders and shareholders. Companies today have an understanding that they should predict, plan, and employ different types of reforms to be sustainable in the competitive marketplace. The divisions, units, and departments are seen to need different categories of change, training, and improvements to enhance effectiveness and get the expected outcome. Hewitt Associates are one company that saw the need to change its organizational face with an aim of improving its performance. In this study, the discussion will be based on the overview of the company and giving its diagnosis using Kotter’s 8-step approach.
Company Overview
Hewitt Associates have been seen to establish measures that were aimed at providing appropriate solutions to other firms for over 70 years. The organization has been looking forward to finding the solution to the challenge of maintenance for the compensation of their employees. Hewitt has estimated a population of 23000 employees worldwide, and the corporation has been seen to operate in thirty countries. The headquarters to Hewitt Associates is located in Lincolnshire Illinois that is usually known as the “northern suburbs of Chicago.” The management of the company has been proud of developing reliable and liberal values to its customers. They organize skills of a group of different parties that is meant to accommodate their customer’s business environmental requirements as well as offering quality reasons for better operations. Hewitt Associates have been seen to be concerned with ensuring that its operations are under principles for its staff and clients. It is also found to be focused on retaining the customers as the significant option and offers the desired atmosphere for their workers enabling them to do their work that meet the desired heights. It has also focused a lot on team work where the management expects all the employees to operate in unity for better performance (Lundby & Jolton, 2010).
The company, a fortune firm, has promoted the intricacy of their international and local regulatory levels to meet the requirements of the staff and clients. The business has also majored on the need of retaining the legacy in the market share for the retirement reorganization, senior staff, and health change compensation tokens for their clients. The company is as well known to offer software to their clients with the agenda of eliminating the dissatisfaction of participating in questionable occasions for their workers. The human resource enquiry is also considered the key sector for the organization to make sure that the relation with the clients is based on reliability. It is a plan that is meant to ensure that all the data that is transferred to the customers daily for the purpose of working standards is always satisfying. Hewitt company have as well confirmed that they work with all the state requirements to ensure that they are operating under the proper structure of their human resource consulting principles that are again based on the clients’ safety. The structure of the organization is made as one that holds two different human resource solutions that are seen joining forces of the needs of the client to be rendered a successful aspect in the market share. On that note, they have set a human resource out service and consulting departments.
Diagnosis
The causes of implementing change at Hewitt Associates
The employees at the company were seen to feel that they are working for longer hours, but they are not able to accomplish everything. It was found that there are a lot of stress and workload during the working days. The workers had a belief that they were being overworked, and many issues are arising due to low morale. Some of the employees were seen suffering from psychological and physical problems that increased the rates of absenteeism from duty and thus the reduction in the productivity. The company faces a problem where most of the workers are seeking to resign from their work. The firm might experience significant turnover costs and incur extra costs in hiring and training new employees. The organization has as well experiences a considerable growth in its sales, but the indications for gains are not seen. The case where the increase in sales and the profits remain constant is anticipated to increase the workloads for the employees in the sales department. Hewitt Associates are seen losing a lot of money without understanding where the problem is coming from and try to rectify it.
The employees at the company are found to lack the understanding the issue that concerns the direction of the organization. They have raised concern about the identity of the company and are seen blaming the executive for concealing some vital information about the organization. It is noted that the company lacked a proper communication channel. When there is lack of information, the staffs are most likely to become curious. The feedback from the workers is associated with anxiety thus coming from the techniques that are initiated by the managing team on grounds that they are initiating change. Hewitt Associates have been seen to develop new ideas that are expected to enhance the smooth running of their business with billion dollar clients in its customer list. The changes are implemented in the whole company with the support of the client, human resource outsourcing. There are also additional changes that are performed by the senior management staff and the business technology (Armstrong & Brown, 2001).
The main problem that is associated with the change is seen to have an impact on the international organizations including the domestic partners. The company has been forced to alter the strategies within its operation by the external forces including the clients and the press. It has as well used the human resource and the strategies in the organization change management. It is a strategy that is expected to make the company bring out the impact of the change as they will be included in the organization. After implementing the changes, the company can now call the whole working fraternity and address them seeking to determine whether they will be affected by the changes. The associates have as well highlighted the workers on the need for the reforms and the period that they are expected to be employed. They have also given the employees the assurance that they could receive heads up weekly and made sure that they workers could freely hand over their response.
The urge for the reforms is seen as the base for an effective leadership to seek the objectives of the company. The partners are expected to employ new managers with an intention of ensuring that the implementation changes are effective. The newly recruited executive will be made in responsible of the business initiative processing team. He will as well be the supervisor of the reforms that the company intends to make at any time. He will thus be able to evaluate the operations as the challenging issue of the altered business initiative processing group. The plan will allow the business to get responses from various units with a lot of ease.
Kotter's 8-Step Approach
The leadership of Hewitt Associates Company wishes to put down designs about the organizational reforms. The parties affected by the new looks are seen to find some difficulty in adopting them. The company will be seen to initiate information sharing that will make the workers see the different results. The idea of the change in a firm was brought up by a business analyst, John Kotter, who stresses on the change in the leadership. He came up with steps that are found to be driving an organization towards the achievement of the best outcome from the changes. In the company, the model can be seen to be of great benefit as it will allow the firm to avert resistance from the employees and clients creating room for notable changes. The eight steps in the model are as below:
Creation of urgency
In the initial steps, before implementing the change, it is important that the management convinces the employees of the need for change. It is necessary that the whole working individuals in the company should know what they need to achieve. In Hewitt Associates, the immediate need for reforms will provoke the executive to reveal the critical information to reach the workers and partners concerning the form of the company.
Formation of a powerful guiding coalition
Reforms have been known to begin with a few people then it grow further to entail many individuals who believe in new dawn. The employees at Hewitt Company are seen to have various skills and uniting them will allow the company to obtain extra knowledge from their perception of immediate actions. The person promoting the campaign for the reforms should at all times be included in the talks that are meant to bring change to the company. Hewitt Associates can use the strategy through its meetings with the employees that are likely to bring issues like sacking employees.
Create vision
A successful change depends on the aspired prospects t...