...Essayist, poet, philosopher, and transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) penned the “Concord Hymn” as a commemorative hymn sung during the ceremony dedicating the North Bridge Obelisk battle monument in Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1836. The hymn remembers the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the first battle of the American Revolution, marking it forever with the line “… the shot heard round the world” (4). Although written about men who fought and died bravely in 1775, Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” encourages readers to remember all men (and women) who serve and die protecting freedom. In the first stanza, Emerson names the North Bridge “the rude bridge” giving the imagery of a poorly constructed bridge crossing the river (1). The colonial farmers’ flag unfurled there in battle on April 19, 1775. Stanza two moves the reader forward in time, marking that the bridge has long since been swept away, the British defeated, and Americans though victorious, are “silent” and slow to remember (6). The third and fourth stanzas are current time (1836). Stanza three is commemorating the day that they are setting the Obelisk to honor those who fought and gave their lives for freedom. The spirit of freedom in stanza four that dared patriots to fight and die is forever marked in the “shaft” of the North Bridge Obelisk (16). A possible reason the teacher selected the “Concord Hymn” for our memorization piece is that the author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and another author we are...
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...Battle of Lexington & Concord Written by: Kaitlyn Carter In 1764 the Lexington War started with Lexington and the British. The British had a plan to go to Lexington and capture 2 people. The wanted to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock. After they captured them two people they went to Concord to get gun powder. Americans somehow found out about that plan and spread the word. There were two light near the church in North Boston that said the Boston were attacking from sea. Paul Revere went on a horse to warn the people the British were coming. The minutemen fought inspired many Patriot's to take weapons from the British. The British had a surprise victory. Lexington fought the British in 1775 to start off the revolutionary war. "I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the campaign, my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know...
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...announcement. There needs to be strategic renewal where the intent is to regain sustainable competitive advantage. Change in the organization needs to align the internal process that demands new strategies to find new talent and skills of its employees. The goal being lasting changes in employee behavior to support strategic renewal. According to Sector (2010), effective strategic renewal needs behavioral change that targets patterns of employee actions and interactions to meet the company’s strategy and to achieve and sustain outstanding performance. Behavior is said to come from both the person and the organizational context in which the person works. It’s the setting and circumstances of which we work. In looking at the failure of the Concord Bookshop there are some things that were not done effectively to make the change necessary for its success. I think the first major error made is that the...
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...Search thousands of free essays... Search Type in your essay topic: ex. Vietnam War JOIN LOGIN CUSTOM ESSAYS HELP CONTACT Concord Book Paper Essay Below is a free essay on "Concord Book Paper" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. Join Anti Essays to read full essay. Already a Member? Login Now Please upgrade your account to view this essay on Concord Book Paper. Running head: CONCORD BOOKSHOP PAPER Submitted by: jmb529 Concord Bookshop Paper Jonell Benson HCS/587 Ginger Weatherston University of Phoenix Concord Bookshop Paper This paper will discuss the organizational change process from the readings of, “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop.” The variety of change processes gives change leaders and administrators the ability to visualize the internal and external components of change that will go against the status quo and possibly cause a clash between the owners and the workers. The phases in the organizational change model are strategic responsiveness, behavioral change, employee participation and resistance to change. Also included, are the three faces of change and trigger events and change. I will describe two portions of the change process that were not completed or implemented at the Concord Bookshop, which caused failure of the change process. While attempting to implement change, the change leader must first assess the need for change. There was an increase in the amount of competition with...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper Horace Steward III HCS 587 May 12, 2014 Debra Kent Concord Bookshop Paper Concord Bookshop is a small family owned and operated bookstore located in New England. Faced with increasing financial hardship and competition from megastores and online competitors, members of the Concord board made the decision to make major business changes. Hiring of an outside general manager was the spark that ignited the ensuing firestorm, and resulted in eight seasoned employees quitting or planning to resign. Faced with pressure from unhappy employees and local authors, members of the board met to provide an opportunity for employee concerns to be vented. The meeting resulted in board members giving employees an ultimatum and employees leaving with a sense of betrayal. A brief synopsis of the events that occurred at the Concord Bookshop might have been avoided by the adoption and implementation of organizational change process. The phases in the organizational change process are strategic responsiveness, behavioral change, employee participation and resistance to change (Spector, 2010). Strategic responsiveness involves recognizing the need to make changes by an organization as the result of internal or external factors. In the case of Concord, financial pressures caused by competition was a catalyst for change. According to Spector (2010), “Behavioral change directly targets patterns of employee actions and interactions in order to meet the company’s strategy...
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...Organizational Change and the Concord Bookshop Organizational change is a process by which a business makes changes to improve themselves. The world is constantly changing and evolving and businesses need to find a way to keep up. How businesses manage change varies depending on what type of business it is. The model of change developed by Kurt Lewin in the 1950s consists of three stages of change-unfreeze, changing, and refreeze (Medley & Akan, 2008, p. 485). An example of organizational change is the Concord Bookshop. The Concord Bookshop is a 64-year-old bookstore in New England (Spector, 2010). The owners found it necessary to makes changes because of the current market for book sales. The change was not well received by the staff and conflict developed between the owners and the staff. “For strategic renewal to be effective, organizations need to do more than announce a new strategy. Leaders need to align internal processes, structures, and systems with demands of the new strategy” (Spector, 2010, p. 3). Phases of Organizational Change Kurt Lewin’s model of change consisted of three stages of change. The first stage is the called the Unfreeze, the organization accepts change is required. “To prepare the organization successfully, you need to start at its core – you need to challenge the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that currently define it” (Mind Tools, 2010, p. 2). The second phase people accept change will happen. “In order to accept the change...
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...Concord Bookshop Organizational Change Paper Concord Bookshop Paper It is safe to say that change is inevitable and an important part of most organizations. Changes usually occur to improve the productivity in an organization because of a crisis or to prevent any issues that may arise. Problems usually arise when the changes made are not manages appropriately. This is why it is so important to familiarize oneself with the phases of the organizational change process. This paper discusses the different phases and determines which phases were not completed or executed by the concord bookshop and eventually caused the change failure. Phases of the Organizational Process To start the organizational change process there are several steps are taken. The first step is goal recognition. According to Ingram (n.d.) to make a change one must realize a change is inevitable. The need for change can be brought to light in several ways. Audits and employees can help in identifying issues as well as the use of assessment tools such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) or Gap analyses are useful in identifying problems. The second step of the organizational process is planning phase. This is the time when the decision makers can sit down to discuss the steps he or she will need to perform to achieve the desired goal. Research will assess what effects this change will have on the organizations finances, productivity, quality of merchandise, etc. Communication is the...
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...without ensuring proper planning or implementation. Many theoretical models have been established to ensure that organizations have references to use when implementing change in an organization. Below Kurt Lewin’s change model will be explained and used to analyze the change that occurred several years ago at successful independent bookstore called Concord Bookshop. The Concord Bookshop is a 64-year-old independent bookstore in New England that underwent big changes. Kurt Lewin was a psychologist who studied change implementation. Lewin’s change model includes three phases the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing stage. The first stage in Lewin’s model is the unfreezing stage. In this stage the individual or individuals are proposing a process to change and have to provide the individuals affected with an understanding of why this change is necessary. Nancy Borkowski (2005) states that the unfreezing stage is when the, “workers involved in perpetuating resistance acquire an understanding of variances that exist between current practices and behavior and desires activities and behavior” (p.384). This stage did not occur during the Concord Bookshop change process because management did not effectively communicate the need for change. Workers at the bookstore were unhappy with the changes management implemented because they were not involved in the change process. Employees of the bookstore started to resist the changes because management ignored the concerns they voiced. Managements...
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... The Constitution is the founding document for American democracy, and it features many ideas from the time it was written. One set of ideas that are not prominently feature in the constitution are those of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that is based around a focus on ideas and feelings, and the belief that individuals can find truth within themselves. The best know Transcendentalist writers include the likes of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became well known for their strong political opinions (Brodrick). Issues that are extremely important to the Transcendentalists such as slavery and the forcible removal of Native Americans from their land are not addressed, and barely mentioned in the body of the Constitution (Goodman). However, many of the amendments do address Transcendentalist ideas. Although the body of the Constitution does not feature specifically Transcendentalist ideas, several of the amendments do reflect some Transcendentalist values. When reading through the body of the Constitution, it does not specifically reject Transcendentalist views, yet it seems to feature ideas that may be contrary to Transcendentalism. The first example of this is that while Transcendentalists focus on individualism, the Constitution focus on the majority and not giving too much power to one person. This idea of limiting the power given to one individual can be seen in the different checks and balances that were created to prevent someone from...
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...Concord Bookshop Concord Bookshop is a local jewel of the New England (Spector, 2010). It is one of the last independent bookstores that is deeply rooted in the literary culture of its town. Unfortunately, as technology has advanced, it has become easier to order a book online or go to a big chain store to find a book. The competition from the Internet and chain stores has eaten away at the revenue of Concord Bookshop. With decreased revenue the board has decided to implement a management change. This move caused several employees to quit and the local authors to take up the pen and write the board in protest. In reading the story of the Concord Bookshop it is easy to see that a change was needed for the store to be profitable. It is not known if the board’s decision to change management was the correct one, but it is easy to see that the board grossly underestimated the resistance they would receive. The Board decided to change management and the structure of management without warning or input from present management. If the board would have followed Kurt Lewin’s Change Model the change in management and restructuring would have been better received. First, the Board would “unfreeze” the staff and notify them of the decline in revenue and profits. This would have created dissatisfaction with the status quo (Spector, 2010). With this information the Board could have engaged the staff, and asked for recommendation on improving revenue and becoming more efficient....
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...Concord Bookshop Paper The article “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop” is about a small town bookshop that has been in existence for 64 years. Many people of the town enjoyed using the bookshop. The bookshop’s financial situation was considered to be the worst it had ever been, so the board of directors made a drastic decision to hire a new general manager. No changes were going to be made to any current employee. This paper will show the organizational change processes that were not implemented at the Concord Bookshop, which led to the change failure. The phases in an organizational change process are strategic renewal and organization change, behavioral changes, and employee participation and resistance to change. According to Spector (2010), strategic renewal requires organizational change and demands “wide-scale invention, reinvention, and redesign of business processes and organizational structures” (p. 4). For strategic renewal to be successful, organizations need to create new business models. The business model is the organizations approach to generating revenue and making a profit. Changing an existing business model is more difficult than starting a new one because changing an existing model requires organizational changes. These changes usually affect behavior patterns of existing...
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...Concord Bookshop Introduction As the world is changing with Technology, many companies are finding themselves struggling to stay afloat in competitive market. Whenever new business strategy is introduced in a company, a change has to take place. The way changes are introduced and implemented, determines the success of the change. Before change is introduced, there must be need for change and after implementation of change; there is expectation (Vaughn, 2012). Change is not an easy process; it requires team work in planning, organizing and implementation. Organizational change is successful when it is effective and yield growth, but a failure when is unproductive. This paper will discuss the phases in the organizational change process and what lead to the change failure at the Concord Bookshop. Phases of Organizational Change Process Change is trying to do things in a different way for a better result or outcome. (Spector, 2010). Kurt Lewin’s three stage theory of change are Unfreeze, Change and Freeze. The Unfreezing stage is the understanding of the need for change and preparing for it. It requires moving away from the comfort zone of the old norms. The Change stage or Transition is the most difficult time of the change. At this stage reaction to change are displayed, people are frustrated and fearful. Support is need at this stage either in form of training, or in-services and mistakes are expected...
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...Concord Bookshop Creating Change Within Organizations HCS 587 March 30, 2013 Professor David Harrell Concord Bookshop The Concord Bookshop was a 64 year old small establishment that had been well established in New England. The establishment had been having financial difficulties due to larger competitors and Internet purchases. The board decided to hire a new general manager to change the direction of the company to avoid ruin. There are three stages of an organizational change process. When changes in an organization do not complete these stages or leave one of them out it can result in angry employees who are resistant to change. Ultimately this leads to financial ruin of the organization. This paper will describe processes of change that were not completed at the Concord Bookshop which lead to change failure. Phases in Organizational Change Process There are three stages of the organizational change process for implementation to be effective. Kurt Lewin’s Model for Change describes the three vital phases as unfreezing, moving, and refreezing. The first stage, unfreezing, occurs when employees or an organization learns that change is required, which creates dissatisfaction with the way things have always worked. “We must accept disconfirming information and connect it to something we care about” (Spector, 2010, p. 29). This stage creates increased anxiety for the stakeholders of an organization. Open communication is imperative for discussions of change to decrease...
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...Concord Bookstore University of Phoenix Creating Change within Organizations HCS587 David Harrell 16 January, 2012 * The Concord Bookshop is a small town bookstore with a 64-year history and a cultural appeal enjoyed by the citizens of the town. In recent years the economic environment created fierce competition for the bookstore, coupled with a need for innovative technology meant a need for restructuring. The financial status of the bookshop was in grave distress. Fearing financial ruin the board members made a unanimous decision to implement significant changes. However, the board did not take the necessary steps of including the appropriate stakeholders in the change process and obtaining employee support. Several phases of organization change were not executed during the Concord Bookshop discussion, which ultimately led to the failure of the company. Strategic Renewal The board did not consider the employees talent, capabilities or experience as an important component to achieve the future goals of the bookstore (Spector, 2010). The residents of Concord frequented the bookstore, yet the board did not seek customer or employee support for their vision. Appropriate consultation may have saved the bookstore from financial despair. By failing to see the importance of stakeholder input and implementing changes before any valuable dialogue took place led to the gradual destruction of the bookstore. Strategic renewals are required by companies...
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...Concord Paper Deejah Klein HCS 587 December 24, 2012 Introduction Change is inevitable. According to Borkowski (2005), “change is a very complex phenomenon involving the multiplicity of man’s motivations in both micro and macro systems and that man gets satisfied with his equilibrium and is resistant to changing his status quo.” Most organizational efforts will be met by resistance. The Concord Bookshop is initiating a change due to the store’s financial situation. The President of the bookshop announced that a new general manager will be hired. This will not lead to any salary cuts or employee lay off. Employees were not happy with this change and met with board members to express their concerns but the board members had already made up their minds and told employees to decide on how they want to proceed. This approach backfired, which led some of the employees to quit or give their notice (Spector, 2010). This paper discusses the phases in the organizational change process and also discusses the phases that was not completed or implemented at the concord bookshop that led to the change failure. Phases in the Organizational Change Process In 1947, Kurt Lewin developed a three stage process of implementing change which is necessary for effective change within an organization. The three stages are: Unfreezing: Recognizing the need for change is very vital. This is the first phase that involves preparing the organization to accept that change is necessary. The existing...
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