Discussion
Your group will assume the role of Organisational Development Consultants/Change Agents. As a group, discuss and decide on a company to base your assignment on. Once you have agreed on a suitable company you will then write a report applying the change concepts and theories discussed throughout this semester. Before writing the report you will need to agree on a change initiator.
Change is one aspect that human being can never evade on the matter the efforts the will try to employ. It always reaches a point in one’s life, no matter the field that one is, and he or she has just to give in to the strong wave of change. The whole issue of change cannot just be dismissed since it comes handy with its merits despite the challenges it comes with. In the business world, it’s mostly about risking since this is one of the core principles that guide entrepreneurs. At times the decision made may backfire and at this verge change of strategies becomes a desperate need for the organization. Once a certain strategy fails, a need for a better is needed with the immediate effect. However, this is not easy, change is more of an internal thing than an external thing and the external shifting. It involves people changing their way of thinking, leaving their previous habits and getting accustomed to the whole new environment. A human being is somehow wired to resist such shifting hence making t5he whole activity not to be just an issue of a blink of an eye. For a successful execution of a change in such a moment, it requires the one leading the change to be well equipped in the facets of change and the normal reaction of human beings to change so that this activity can translate to a success. Contrary to this, all it leads is frustrations, disappointment and continued failure to the management and the overall organization. The main objective of this research will be help the company make some changes in its technology with the least resistant and make it a part of the company.
Problem statement
Nokia firm had for a long time been known as the other name for the cell phone sector. This brand was birthed in 1865 and had come a long way on a journey of almost a hundred years making their brand better and better. It was in the year 2007 that it hit its peak as best performing brand in the cell phone industries (Unwin, 2017). Few years down the line, the company decided to sell some of its cell phones to the Microsoft Company in the year 2013. It was at this point that the company star4ted realizing its decline that could not be easily repaired. Many people around the world took this as an opportunity to learn from the academic and business related needs. In the year 2002, the company had also introduced the Symbian operating system (Lewis, 2007). This was however thrown down when the apple company introduced their operating system in 2007 and the introduction of the android in the following year which changed everything. It’s clear that this was a season of total technological transformation in the cell phone industry but Nokia could not keep up with it. As we speak Android and the Apple operating system are some of the marketing leaders in this industry. Nokia is believed to have made one of the greatest mistakes of entrusting windows to regain their declining position. Had they launched a brand like Lumia on an Android platform, with its features, it would have responded in a better manner (Williams, 2015). Until today, the company has not been in a position to regain its position making change the most important step they need to take to overcome this problem of lagging behind technology wise.
Problem statement
Lewis change model
Kurt Lewin remains to be an icon in the business world especially when it comes to the management issues. He was a physicist who came to understand the whole issue of change in an organization (Frederick, & Lal, 2009). He came up with one of the cornerstone models that address how to execute change in an organization. It was in the around 1940 when he came up with such a model that is helpful until today through an analogy of how a block of ice changes its shape. This was a three level model of executing change.
Unfreezing
The first stage is called unfreezing. In this stage, you start preparing the company for the change that is yet to come (Wollan, Smith, & Zhou, 2010). This involves breaking the beliefs that the company has been holding dearly. One has to point out to the company the reason as to why they cannot continue operating in the manner they have been doing it. One can openly point out the dangers that the company suffers if it stays in the current conditions. The merits of the change are also communicated to the stakeholder at this very stage. This reduces the barriers for change since everyone is ready and motivated to embrace the new change. This can be termed as the most challenging stage since you provoke the organization to revisit its long-held beliefs and have a different view in a different way of doing things.
Changing
After challenging people’s way of thinking, they are left in a path of looking for the right way. They seem to have embraced the new direction and they start looking for new ways of conducting their activities. However, it is worth noting that people need to understand how they gain from this change. If this is assumed, it might cause some chaos in the process. This stage of transformation may, however, be tough on others especially them that were gaining in one way or the other from the current status quo. To some it may take quite a long time to realize the gain they have in these changes and therefore one should be aware of all these (Steinbock, 2010). The most important facets of these level are taking a good time to help people understand and also proper communication of the vision behind the change.
Refreezing
This is the last stage that ensures that change has been made part of the organization. At this point the organization the organization has some sense of clarity and direction. This changes made should therefore not be just for the sake but be used in the day to day activities of the business. One has to look for those nuggets that make the change lasting and also seeks to see what challenges the change so that he/she can act accordingly.
Lewis change model
My role as OD in the application of the model in the Nokia Company
All the company needs is change and this can be one of the best models for facilitating this change. In the first stage, the company needs to identify the beliefs and cultures it has been holding for long and start by unfreezing them (Dutta, Lanvin, & Paua, 2004). For example, the company has not embraced the technological revolution in the industry of switching into the Android ope4rating systems. The change managers need to help the organization of how they desperately need the change if they need to survive. This is not as easy as seen in the model since it will be challenging the way of thinking and the culture of the business. The company need to show the benefits it could be enjoyed only if it embraced this changes. This starts to melt the rigidity in people bit by bit (Tripathi. & Reddy, 2008). The next step will be to facilitate the change when the stakeholders start looking for the right path to follow after the enlightening moment. They need to be directed into this new stage of change. If the company becomes receptive of the new idea of migrating into the Android, it’s important to help all the stakeholder know how this will benefit them by proper communication and giving them time to think for themselves (Cummings, & Worley, 2015). The truth is that there are a couple that will be directly be hurt by this transformation such as the Microsoft but this should not hinder the progress. The last bit would be to make this change permanent and a core part of the institution. In this case, it would be to make Android OS a part of the Nokia company permanently. This would really help in making the change a long-term thing and also giving it an opportunity to bare some fruits. Definitely, If Nokia was to move to Android today you don’t expect to see the financial and brand improvement by tomorrow, it needs some time.
Ethical dilemmas in the Nokia Company presented by the change and the suitable approaches
The change process may just sound like just another overnight activity which is not the sake. Nokia company faces some ethical dilemmas In which neither of the sides looks desirable. It’s either they continue suffering or embrace the changes and deal with the challenges the hard way. The first dilemma is that if they have to embrace technology and go the Android way, they have to change about 60% of their total personnel to bring in some with the Android knowledge (Biech, 2007). This is close to 200,000 people that will be retrenched which do not seem to be a good thing. On the other hand, the company needs change rest it dies. The other dilemma is on their relationship with the Microsoft Company. Probably, this will have an impact on their relationship since it will be tampering with the Microsoft opportunity. Still Nokia Company cannot continue to suffer and in any case, a radical step is required. However, the state of indecision, the fact is that there is always a solution for everything. On the case of its current employees, it can decide to give them a golden handshake each as they retrench them so that they may not suffer at such (Havelock, & Zlotolow, 1995). On the other case of Microsoft, it’s just a case of proper communication where the company will discuss the issue with Microsoft and cut their connection with the utmost respect. Here the company will be forced to use the GVV framework say what is right.
My role as OD in the application of the model in the Nokia Company
Management of resistance to change and the impact of organizational culture on the change
One of the greatest challenges when it comes to change is the resistance that comes from the stakeholders. This is contributed by a number of reason the major one being the fear of unknown. At this time the company has experienced a number of blows which has made it a dreadful step to try something new (Bateman, 2012). Will it survive this time around? When the stakeholders think that they can fail they can’t help but just block any room for the new change. The other reason would be the unwillingness to let go of the traditions and the culture of the organization. There is always a way people in an organization have been tuned and they can never imagine doing away with such norms and traditions. Due to this, they will at all cost resist any attempt to bring changes into the organization (McArdle, 2006). The best way to deal with this is proper communication. I will involve making this person understand the good that comes with change and the guarantee that it has. This will make the transition easy.
The steps of change implementation and the proper feedback process to be used
In change implementation, the most important thing to understand is that the success of the change is tied in the hands of the stakeholders in that they can take it or reject it (Rtel, & Fujimoto, 2014). The most important step will be to check whether the organization is ready for a change and in our case, the company is more than ready due to the past suffering. Next will be to establish some good correlation in the leadership to create a good path for this. The last one is to make the implementation using the Lewis model discussed above. As observed, the feedback must involve the leadership of the organization and all the stakeholders. This must be done only when you determine that the organization is ready for the change (Roberts, 2015). This can easily be done by properly making the stakeholders know the dangers of the status quo and the merits of embracing this change. Once the stakeholders are convicted of the new direction, implementation becomes easy since them too becomes the carriers of the vision too.
Institutionalization of change and the management of continuous improvement processes
It is one thing to initiate a change and it’s another to make it permanent. One of the greatest tasks of Nokia will be to ensure that Android technology remains as part of the institution (Hardina, 2007). One of the best ways will be to make it a part of the organization’s vision. This will help in reducing a loss of direction. A vision drives an organization and keeps the organization on track even after the succession of leadership. A vision makes people own the goals and therefore this step will be very important. Another step is to make improvements on the changes done and this can only be possible by constant reviews. They help in the evaluation of the progress and also facilitate correction of things before they become worse. Another strategy for improvement will be benchmarking in the already established Android-based organization such as Samsung. This helps the firm to be updated at all times and to satisfy the firms accordingly.
Group and individual performance management and the employee empowerment and interpersonal interventions
As mentioned earlier, it’s very important to conduct some reviews to see where the firm is headed. In this case, the organization need to do some appraisals in the employees and departments to see how well they are working as far as the change is concerned (Kesterson, 2018). This is helpful in determining where help needs to be offered to make the change a success. The other thing will be to ensure that the employees are empowered as a way of motivating them. This can be done by looking into their needs such as offering some stress management programs. It also involves giving them the chance to lead by entrusting them with some leadership- roles. By this, the company will have a set of staffs that are well motivated (Hiatt, 2006). The level of the employee motivation is a great determinant of an organization success or failure. This makes it a center of concern if success is the goal of the organization.
Is Nokia Company a learning organization?
Someone may ask, “Is there hope?” my answer would be a yes. Nokia is a potential company that is well able to back to the position it was in the year 2007. One of the indicators is the big room the company have for innovation. They have been seen trying new things as a sign of innovativeness. A good example will be too when they decided to try windows as their new OS. Though they failed, they depict a good character that makes them a learning organization (Leonard, & McGuire, 2007). The other trait will be the vision that is shared in the organization. The organization is visionary in connecting people all along the globe. This makes its leaders very zealous in thinking of ways to achieve this vision. This organization can, therefore, be termed as a learning organization and the staffs are responsive too.
Conclusion
It is evident that change is not easy especially for an already established organization. However, it is important for continuity of the organization and to continue making it relevant to the fast developing world. Since change is more of an internal change, appropriate tools need to be employed for the continuity of the organization. Nokia Company should not fear to make this changes since it is the only way they can revive their organization.
The following would be the main recommendations for the Nokia Company:
- Understand Lewis model of change and apply it.
- Benchmark from the already established Android-based organizations in the same industries
- Make Android technology a part of its vision and mission.
References
Bateman, N. (2012). The business of nurse management: a toolkit for success. New York: Springer.
Biech, E. (2007). Thriving through change: a leader’s practical guide to change mastery. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.
Cummings, T. & Worley, C. (2015). Organization development & change. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Dutta, S., Lanvin, B. & Paua, F. (2004). The global information technology report, 2003-2004: towards an equitable information society. New York Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Unwin, P. (2017). Reclaiming information and communication technologies for development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Kesterson, R. (2018). The Intersection of Change Management and Lean Six Sigma: the basics for black belts and change agents. Boca Raton: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Hiatt, J. (2006). ADKAR: a model for change in business, government, and our community. Loveland, Colorado: Prosci Learning Center Publications.
Tripathi, P. & Reddy, P. (2008). Principles of management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub.
Saxena, P. (2009). Principles of management: a modern approach. New Delhi: Global India Pub.
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