Images Analysis Paper
HR 587: Managing Organizational Change

Introduction Winston Churchill, (British Orator, Author, and Prime Minister during World War II) stated, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it’s in the right direction.” I have unfortunately found that some of the “change” I have experienced within my current and previous employment, has often led the organization in a direction that was not beneficial to the organization and its’ employees. This concept, however, is what we experience as being a strategic change initiative. A change initiative is something that will occur within an organization when a particular situation and/or routine needs to be improved. It requires cross-functional support, and the results can negatively or positively affect the organization. The planning and results of change are often determined by the six key images concepts. These images include the director, navigator, caretaker, coach, interpreter, and nurturer, and the role of these images are crucial when implementing change. The director tends to be in control and is viewed as one who had the idea of acquiring a particular result. They are the visionaries and driving force behind the change that is needed to occur. The navigator is one who can steer a particular change in a direction when occurrences happen that are unforeseen, and produce a result. The caretaker image is one that will continue to lead and support their organization, despite the uncontrollable factors that may continue to exist causing a change initiative to fail. The coach image is valuable in shaping behaviors and leading the organization to acquire a harmonious set of values and skills, which will lead to a positive result. The interpreter will contribute to helping the organization understand why a particular change is occurring and how it is beneficial to the organization, in short, they create meaning.
The nurturing image creates an environment to realign the organization in a positive manner after the effect of the change has occurred. The roles of these images are crucial when a strategic change initiative occurs because it breaks down the change into phases, which can help towards a positive result, even if the change in the organization was not something everyone agreed upon. By incorporating these images, it allows the organization to all work towards and understand the common goal.
Application Analysis At my current place of employment, we recently had undergone a strategic change initiative in the company’s decision to lessen the amount of the employee’s ability to receive undergraduate tuition reimbursement. This implementation caused frustration amongst the employees for various reasons: some employees where well into their undergraduate studies and could not afford to fund the remainder of their tuition cost, and others were more intrigued to work for the company because of their tuition reimbursement benefit. When first informed of the tuition reimbursement drop, we were contacted via email. It was a director image because it was very controlled and the director believed that by significantly dropping the cost of tuition reimbursement it will contribute to acquiring additional revenue for the organization. The navigator image that took place in helping towards this goal was the idea to not entirely drop tuition reimbursement, but to lessen it to $5000.00 a year. However, this still created a burden for many employees who were well into their undergraduate degree. The management team did a great job within the caretaking, coaching, and interpreting, and nurturing images. They informed us and supported us to continue to pursue our education, and they were supportive with understanding the organizations frustrations and opened to listen to any concerns. In addition, they effectively explained why this change was taking place and did everything in its’ power to re-align the organization in a positive manner, that supported employees to continue to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement and to not discontinue their studies.
Lessons Learned Through understanding the images concepts, it was easier to see how the management team was able to decide on a particular change and successfully implement this change without having the organization go into disarray. Prior to this assignment, I was not aware of how such images play a crucial part in implementing a strategic change initiative. When I first received the email from my supervisor about them implementing this change, I was a bit taken back that none of the employees had any idea ahead of time about this change; it was fairly a quick process. Nonetheless, as mentioned above, the management team did a fantastic job of incorporating the images in a way of creating a climate within the organization for us to understand why this change was occurring and they continued to encourage us to pursue our educational endeavors.
To reiterate Winston Churchill, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it’s in the right direction,” and although our organization may not have initially seen the cut of tuition reimbursement going in the right direction, our organization was successful at allowing to understand this change.

References
Churchill, Winston: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/change/
Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. Managing Organizational Change (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill (2008).