Fluent Essays

Please refer to textbook ( the page numbers she uses do not match the online textbook version so please find the correct pages, if help is need please let me know):  Hayes: http://196.43.128.20/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12383/1111/THE\%20theory\%20and\%20practice\%20of\%20change\%20management\%20\%28\%20PDFDrive\%20\%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Norhouse: https://studydaddy.com/attachment/146554/Peter_G._Northouse_Leadership__Theory_and_Practiz-lib.org.pdf Introduction to the Activity Change elicits both mental and emotional resistance to change. Effective change leaders embrace quality communication as a method to help manage the negative mental and emotional perceptions surrounding change. If the features of communication networks is understood and incorporated into a plan for change, there is a higher likelihood of managing these perceptions effectively. Consider the Following: Using the failed change initiative that you discussed in Module 1 Discussion Forum 1, do the following: Evaluate the communication directionality, role, content, and channel. Identify the communication strategy used. Discuss the interpersonal effects on the quality of the communication. At this point, you have identified multiple points of failure in the communication plan used. Now, create a new communication plan using your knowledge from this module. Identify why and how this new plan would have increased the sense of urgency that employees had about the change. Finish your post with a discussion of how this new communication plan would motivate employees to engage in the process of change in a way that would have helped the change be successful. Change Management Name Institution Course Instructor Date A change initiative that failed in a previous working environment that I have worked for was implementation of automation technology. The company was an internet retailer offering a wide range of products and services through its e-commerce website. The automation initiative was triggered by the need to increase efficiency in customer services by automating some of the roles that were previously done by humans such as receiving customers and issuing of invoices as well as inventory management. Doing these tasks manually required a lot of effort and would take up a lot of human resources. The initiative was incremental. It aimed at to continuously keep on evolving to ultimately achieve a complete automation where any business process that can be automated will be automated. As part of increasing efficiency and productivity, the initiative sought to reduce production cost by reducing the cost of labor since some of the automated roles would no longer require human input unless there is a technical failure. However, the typical response to the change initiative was proactive. The initiative was an attempt to make changes into the business operations in order to capitalize on future opportunities as well as to create a competitive advantage. One of the indictors used to assess whether or not the organization was effective in relation to the proposed change was efficiency and productivity. The organization was looking for ways in which it can improve on efficiency and productivity so that it can compete effectively in the industry. Consumer needs and demands are constantly evolving and with technology, they have become more impatient and they want fast and efficient services. Therefore, automation of processes was a promising way to ensure that consumer demands are met. The right infrastructure and financial resources were available to support the implementation of the initiative. Several sources of information were available to assess the current state of the organization before the change was initiated. First the company assessed the organizational culture to evaluate how well it would support the implementation of the initiative that is the compatibility of the initiative with the organizational culture (Hayes, 2018). The company also assessed the impacts the initiative would have on efficiency, productivity, cost of production and organizational structure. The company also assessed whether it had enough financial resources to support the implementation of the change (Hayes, 2018). Important information that would have been assessed was stakeholders’ reaction to the initiative. This would provide substantial information regarding employees and other stakeholders’ perception regarding the implementation of the initiative and how well it would be implemented. According to the Leader-Member Exchange Theory, leaders should develop high quality relationships with their subordinates so that the subordinates are engaged in decision making process and can give their opinions regarding what they think is best for organization (Hayes, 2018). The company to do better if it focused on automating processes to increase efficiency and productivity rather than focusing on cutting human labor. The initiative failed because the leaders did not engage employees, which made nearly all stakeholders not to support the initiative. The initiative failed for a number of reasons. First, all employees apart of leaders in senior most position were afraid they would lose their jobs once the automation process begins and thus they were more resistant to the change. Furthermore, the top management did not have a strong relationship with employees. Their main focus was to capitalize on profits even if it took them to fire all employees and automate all activities. However, the company could not be fully automated and thus it needed human labor input. Employees were reluctant to the change because they knew that the initiative would take their jobs. References Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.