Understanding and Coping with Change

Understanding and Coping with Change Change can be difficult for any individual or organization and it can be seen as a threat. An individual that can plan and implement change is better prepared to effectively meet their future stated goals and can move forward in a positive movement when embracing the need for change. “Is change, changing?”(Rowland & Higgs, 2008). A company can then diagnose, plan, and implement changes to see improvements. To understand change and learning to cope with change we will use a company as example, the name of the company is Sunny Side Resort. We will diagnose the need for change and present a plan to transform the organization using Kotter’s 8-step approach. Sunny Side Fulfillment (SSF) is a company that is located in South Beach, Miami. It was founded in 1989 by Traci Sizemore, Chief Executive Officer and Dave Sizemore, President. The vision of the company is building a world-class ecommerce services company with a global reach SSF business model is to service their clients’ needs, from start to finish. Their over view of what they promise is: • “Answer 80% of all calls received within 20 seconds • Call abandon level guaranteed to be less than 4% • 100% call return level with 2 hours • 100% of all orders will be shipped within 72 hours • 95% of all returns will be processed within 24 hours • 98% of inventory received will be available for sale within 48 hours SSF is a growing company and is continuing to change in different ways to meet the demands of each of its eighteen different clients. That is what sets SSF apart from other organizations. They are not just dealing with their own brand but the brands of many different companies. “Organizational structure may be a matter of managerial design, which evolves over time and as internal and external organizational conditions change” (Baack, 2012). Some examples that SSF has and will go through are mergers, expansions, and implementing new IT (information technology) department. It is important to know how to diagnosis what needs to be changed and when. To diagnosis SSF they should use the Thompson’s Model of technology and structure. The straightforward process in the model is presented from the perspective of an external consultant, “inputs are regulated by the buffers (departments) that lead them into the technical core. Outputs are moved into the external environment through various departmental activities….to protect and facilitate the core technology” (Baack, 2012). We will look at Kotter’s 8-step approach and the issue’s that were found during diagnosis. Kotter’s 8-step approach includes the following steps: 1. “Establish a sense of urgency and a compelling reason to make the change 2. Form a powerful guiding coalition to lead the change 3. Creating a new vision with supporting strategies 4. Communicating the vision to all employees 5. Empowering others to act on the vision, including encouraging risk taking and creativity 6. Planning for and rewarding short-term “wins” that move toward the new vision 7. Consolidating improvements, reassessing changes, and making adjustments 8. Reinforcing the changes by showing the relationship to organizations success” (Baack, 2012).
The first step in Kotter’s 8-step approach is to establish a sense of urgency. The urgency in SSF’s case based off the diagnosis would be to examine the major opportunities that were needed. One of the first opportunities was communication. During the process, the consultant found that SSF had a vision that was outdated for a growing company but that vision even though it was outdated was not communicated to the lowest level of the company. The CEO, Traci Sizemore, needs to establish key goals and to find an avenue in which to communicate key goals to all employees. To implement these goals Mrs. Sizemore knows that she must have the full support of her upper management. She should begin a series of meetings that include all of the executives of her company. She should know that if she does not have the support of her executives her key goals will not work. She needs to meet every day with the key executives for two weeks to go over every goal and make change that she has in mind. She needs to communicate to each of her executives that if they cannot support the change that she would accept their resignation immediately. It is not “well, I’ll just play along with this attempt at changing me and wait till it blows over” (Rowland & Higgs, 2008). Mrs. Sizemore should express that one of the major changes that is going to take place is that the company is going to involve the employees and empower them. It is not going to be one direction management any longer. During the diagnosis process, motivation of employees had a very low score. Employees felt they were a number and not a part of the team. Mrs. Sizemore should realize that if she is going to make her new vision become a reality that she needs to have the buy in of all of her employees and make them feel a part of the team. Each Vice President must live the vision and make sure that their employees were going to accept the change. “Leadership is about coping with change while management is about coping with complex issues” (Gleeson, 2014). If they could not accept the new vision then Mrs. Sizemore should ask for them to resign. “Leaders who see change as an ongoing process that occurs naturally around all the time, when compared to leaders who see change as a one off event, a thing to be managed….were more likely to be successful in realizing the desired change outcomes” (Rowland & Higgs, 2008). Our values at SSF are that we are committed to open and honest communication with employees, customers, vendors, clients, and the media. The company is proactive in providing important information. Our greatest value is the skills, judgment, and knowledge of our talented employees. SSF’s priority is to bring and retain talented and ethical employees. The vision that needed to have the employee’s commitment to change-defined as “a force (mind-set) that binds an individual to a course of action deemed necessary for the successful implementation of a change initiative” (Shin, Taylor, & Seo, 2012). The vision needed to be accepted and embraced by the employees and the executive team that Mrs. Sizemore should put in place to help communicate to all employees, but Mrs. Sizemore needs to have a strong message to the entire team by having weekly meetings with her employees, letting them know it was a company vision and philosophy and accepted as part of the culture. By empowering the employee to make decisions based on the customer’s needs was something that the company had never done before. The success of the implementation of change can “play a major role in the success or failure of change in [any] organization” (Shin, Taylor, & Seo, 2012). The success of the organization in any small amount needs to be celebrated as a short-term win. Kotter explains that plans should be set in place to create the success of these short-term wins. When the clients start reporting on a weekly basis that scores for customer satisfaction were up, Mrs. Sizemore needs to celebrate the win with every member of the company. When returns are down they need to celebrate the win with all members of the company. Mrs. Sizemore needs to make each member of the organization feel that they had a hand in what the person in another department had accomplished. The next step in Kotter’s 8-step plan is to consolidate improvements and produce more change. By creating a learning organization, SSF will help provide the foundation for other changes that will take place. Change will become a part of the way the company moves forward and does business and employees will embrace the change. The company needs to make sure that they give the tools to the employees that empower them to do their job for the clients. “Individuals with greater resources are less vulnerable to the loss of resources are better able to acquire more resources for future use than those with lesser resources” (Shin, Taylor, & Seo, 2012). For an organization to continue to evolve they must continue to look and diagnosis changes that could affect their business and act with a sense of urgency. Change for any organization can be hard to overcome, especially with the employees of the organization. However, with a proper diagnosis a company can help give perspective on what should and should not be changed. SSF is a fast growing company but in need of some organizational changes. We set a plan for change by using Kotter’s 8-step plan that CEO, Traci Sizemore, could utilize to implement positive change for her company. The first step is creating an up to date company vision with values. Then we recommended how to form a coalition to support the plan for change. The need for a strong executive coalition is vital in getting change implemented. The need to communicate the new vision and allowing employees the empowerment to act on the vision is a win for the organization and the client. The organization must celebrate short term wins and plan for long term changes. Make sure that a learning organization is being created so it becomes a part of the existence of every employee. If this plan is followed, with some minor changes along the way, SSF will become a stronger more ethical company.

References
Baack, D. (2012). Organizational Behavior. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Gleeson, B. (2014). 5 Steps for Leading Through Adaptive Change. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2014/08/10/5-steps-for-leading-through-adaptive-change/#130069e47bca: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2014/08/10/5-steps-for-leading-through-adaptive-change/#130069e47bca
Shin, J., Taylor, M., & Seo, M. (2012). Resources for Change: the Relationships of Organizational Inducements and Psychological Resilience to Employees' Attitudes and Behaviors toward Organizational change Academy of Management Journal. Academy of Managemt Journal , 55 (3), 727-748.
Rowland, D., & Higgs, M. (2008). Sustaining change. [electronic resource] : leadership that works. Chichester, England ; Hoboken, NJ : Jossey-Bass, c2008.
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