Change Management Strategies: Kotter’s 8 Step Model And Grundy’s Three Varieties Of Change

Change Management and its Challenges

Change management is referred to a methodical approach of dealing with the evolution or change of an organisations established objectives generates techniques or expertise (Anderson and Anderson 2010). The purpose of change management is to efficiently employ strategic approaches for influencing and regulating change and further assisting individuals to adapt those changes (Hayes 2018). However such strategies incorporate having a structured procedure for implementing a change along with the mechanism to be responsive to those implementations and further adhering to those. Organisations aiming to implement a change management program often undergo several challenges during the process (Zink, Steimle and Schröder 2008). Furthermore detailed knowledge of companies culture, it is noted that a change management procedure necessitates and accurate evaluation of the procedures applications and employees to be influenced by the change procedure. Effective executions of change management theories lead a company towards the chances of organizational success. Renowned marketing expert John Kotter has introduced the ‘Kotter’s 8 step Change Model’ in order to enhance the competence level of the organization to bring transition and further to increase its potentialities of achieving success. The 8 steps mentioned in the process of Kotter’s 8 step Model of change incorporate creating sense of urgency, establishing significant guiding coalitions, developing a proper vision as well as strategy, communicating the vision, eradicating hindrances and further empowering employee base as responsive and further creating short-term success, effectively strengthening gains and lastly reinforcing transitions by anchoring transitions in the culture (Kotter 2012). It has been noted that effective application of Kotter’s model provides an explicit demonstration and aid on the entire procedure of transition and is considered to be easy to implement. Though the model focuses on creating and forming rate of acceptability for transition rather than actual change procedures it is regarded as a time-consuming process.

The nature of organizational transition can also be explicitly comprehended through Grundy’s three varieties of change whereby the smooth incremental type of transition evolves in a systematic and predictable manner; the ‘bumpy’ incremental change has been characterized ny significant periods of relative tranquillity interrupted by acceleration in the pace of transition. Furthermore, the discontinued process of change has been characterized by rapid alterations in the approach, structure and culture (Simpson 2012).

However by itself organisational change management does not condense the costs or further increase the revenues of the business. Rather it aims to raise the level of team efficiency required for the organisation in order to adapt the transition and further operate in a more efficient manner (Wheelen and Hunger 2011). The objectives of this paper are as follows:

• Evaluate two concepts of change management
• Provide a background of Vodafone Egypt
• Evaluate the factors related to the internal as well as external forces that resulted Vodafone Egypt to implement change management procedures.
• Focus on the factors that are anticipated to pose challenges to the success of change management of the organization.
• Analyse the types of transitions that the CEO of Vodafone Egypt aims to implement by providing productive sets of recommendations that must be used in order to overcome the resistance level of the employees engaged in the organization and further drive success to the desired change management process.

Vodafone has gained image recognition since last few years as the largest mobile network operator in the world operating over 70 Nations within its corporate domain. Reports reveal that over 90% of the company’s shares with an approximate value of around 200 billion US dollars have been located outside its home nation of the United Kingdom (Harlow 2016). However it has been noted that the business Enterprise has formulated an effective strategy to provide mobile network services to both Global and domestic customer base catering the affluent as well as financially emerging nations globally at competitive rates further ensuring suitable and accurate technological services along with consumer driven products. The primary aim of Vodafone lies on achieving utmost success and attaining the recognition of being one of the leading mobile network providers with the increasing competition in the Global market. However in this intensively competitive market domain the organization has been experiencing great degree of competitiveness from its rivals such as Mannesmann (Harlow 2016). However it has been noted that Vodafone had successfully overpowered the competition proposed by its rival and has transformed itself into one of the dominated mobile operating service provider in the European region. It is further to note that the major proportion of revenues of the organization is generated from airtime revenues and has reportedly established associations with significant network equipment providers as well as Nokia, Motorola and LG who are recognized as the leading cell phone manufacturers in the world based on its share in the market (Harlow 2016).

Kotter’s 8 Step Model

At this juncture it is important to identify significant area of concern experienced by Vodafone Egypt which has been creating complexities in the success growth of the company. Egypt being a country where the rate of illiteracy among youth has been estimated at around 9% has a system of Higher Education that reportedly producers more number of graduates in comparison to the rate of employment services particularly in sectors pertaining to engineering and IT. As a result there has been witnessed a significant gap of skilled are technically expertise graduates which is being recognized as a matter of great concern to Vodafone who has been operating in this nation. Thus in order to recruit most efficient talent base in comparison to the local organizations the human resources department of Vodafone Egypt has effectively formed a strategic plan of creating an impressive remuneration structure further offering greater level of opportunity for growth and advancement along with a distinctive career development (Harlow 2016). The company for the experienced deficiency in the supply of well knowledgeable and experienced engineers and managers because of the decisions and dominance of Mobinil, an organisation which led the Vodafone investment and human resource strategy of providing induction to newcomers or young agent employee bass and further enhancing them into the provisions which has been immensely crucial for the success growth and achievement for Vodafone (Harlow 2016).

Vodafone Egypt has been regarded as one of the local organizations in Egypt that has immense interest and value to its employee base. The company has been recognized for its significant investment on its employees and safeguarding the prospective future and development. However, the company had undergone certain level of complexities and risks that has led it to implement change management procedures. As per the information gathered from the interview given by Ian Grey the then CEO of Vodafone Egypt, there was significant rate of awareness of the business challenge in 2002 comprised of less significance in comparison to the rate of complexities of the successful establishment of Vodafone corporate culture to Egypt (Harlow 2016). However, the lack of knowledge and understanding of Egypt’s culture was eventually been identified by Grey who reportedly had limited global work knowledge and experiences. This had further led him to realize that the company would lack the competence to accomplish its goals without a significant corporate program in order to gather the labour pool from Egypt under the regulation of the rest of Vodafone’s global organization and cultural aspect (Hamel 2008).

Internal forces- One of the crucial factors that led the organization to implement change management procedure in order to bring transitions within the company’s organizational structure was the unhurried progress of Click GSM (Harlow 2016). Click GSM, an operating company in Egypt had received considerate degree of recognition for paving its way to Vodafone for the usage and promotion of its brand identity. However, the former company initially managed to attain certain degree of accomplishment with the initial mobile network development as well as recruitment spree. However, the company along with Vodafone Egypt initiated its collaboration revealed certain level of incompetence of developing at rate which was required in order to deliver better-quality and advanced profits expected from the stakeholders (Harlow 2016). At this juncture, it is important to note the volatility and unsteady characteristics of market conditions. Thus, these situations of unsteadiness undergo the process of rapid transition with the rapid change of needs, demands and expectations of customers and employees of the organization. Furthermore, there can be witnessed steady degree of competition in the market further resulted to form strategic approaches in order to develop vital transformation within the organization (Ambrosini and Bowman 2009).

Grundy’s Three Varieties of Change

External Forces- Another significant factor associated with the implementation of change management was related to the predominated cultural structure that was presented within the company that developed certain rate of complexities and risks within the developmental progress of the company (Vega-Jurado et al. 2008).

In order to mitigate the critical complexities and challenges experienced by Vodafone Egypt on its path of success, CEO Ian Grey effectively formulated strategic approaches in order to incorporate the level of allegiance and vigour of the local employee base within the structural system of Vodafone devoid of certain cultural inconsiderateness. Grey initiated this strategic approach in order to effectively comprehend to the organization’s current employee base and further had stated that with the employment of new recruits the CEO of the business enterprise would attain effective authorized induction, supervision as well as precise rules and directives for management. As per his opinion, the buy-in or authoritative policies might pose critical challenges and risks to the process of implementation of change management in Vodafone Egypt and can further create hindrances to establish the organization to supreme Vodafone corporate standards. It is important to note buy-in factor can reveal significant rate of potentialities to hinder the success change whereby often CEO or the one possessing leadership skills and abilities are held liable for the effort given for implementing transition management. It must further be noted the way accountability and critical responsibility factors have been associated with the actions executed within the organization (Capron and Mitchell 2009). Several aspects of leadership involvement, communication, resource commitment, distribution of vision at initial phase or at frequent times tend to signify the level of commitment of leader associated to organizational transition. Thus, the CEO of Vodafone Egypt had drawn his severe concern towards the buy-in factor in the process of success change procedures. Thus it has been stated that rate of leadership responsibility and liability has been considered as a critical factor in order to deal with negotiation situations for change management (Keupp and Gassmann 2009).

Change in cultural management has been identified as one of the significant changes implemented in Vodafone Egypt by its CEO Ian Grey. Furthermore, the operating strategically developed approaches of the organization had been executed at the company, with the effective identification and recognition of tasks and plans which have been developed for the assigned projects. Furthermore, Grey aimed to formulate critical processes which had further been employed in order to develop consistently high standards of action by and to the stakeholder base. Thus in order to implement an effective form of transition in Vodafone Egypt, Ian Grey must implement the Kotter’s 8 step model of change as it will aid the CEO to create the appropriate organizational environment for the expected transition  (Kotter 2012). 

With the effective implementation of Kotter’s 8 Step of Change Management, Ian Grey must introduce new and unique visions as an outset while recruiting new employees in Vodafone Egypt. However it must be taken into consideration by the CEO, which these forms of transitions must be provided with utmost significance in the organization (Kotter 2012). Furthermore, through this execution of model can effectively aid to the employees who have played a crucial role to the process of change must be provided with significant rate of public recognition.

Vodafone Egypt: Addressing Talent Recruitment Challenges

As a result, the CEO of the company initiated the procedures of establishing significant cultural aspects within the organizational structure of Vodafone Egypt by further providing explanations to the strategies selected to be employed and then the association of such strategies to fundamental corporate values and ideologies.

The role of condensing the level of resistance to implement transitions methods with the significance of leadership techniques and competencies have been regarded as essential factors for effective transition (Cameron and Green 2015). Leaders having the appropriate rate of accountability in order to organize a transition must possess the ability to choose and further employ the appropriate method for each employee in direct association with the reasons underlying the factors of resistance towards change (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014). However, it is significant to note that the way in which individual of the employee base evaluates the factors of transition can further produce a greater or lesser degree of condemnation from employee’s side (Choi 2011). Thus effective leadership theory has been regarded as significant that further influence the degree of intensity of resistance to transition within an organization. 

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be perceived that CEO Ian Grey had recognized that associations must be enhanced and developed between the system and employees and further development must be employed in the structural processes with the development rate. However, he identified the demand and need for well-established processes in order to provide a dependable and reliable customer information and further providing strong and justifiable human resource procedures for progress, training, knowledge transfer and growth of the organization.  

References

Ambrosini, V. and Bowman, C., 2009. What are dynamic capabilities and are they a useful construct in strategic management?. International journal of management reviews, 11(1), pp.29-49.

Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A., 2010. Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (Vol. 36). John Wiley & Sons.

Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Capron, L. and Mitchell, W., 2009. Selection capability: How capability gaps and internal social frictions affect internal and external strategic renewal. Organization Science, 20(2), pp.294-312.

Choi, M., 2011. Employees’ attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review. Human Resource Management, 50(4), pp.479-500.

Simpson, P., 2012. Complexity and change management: analyzing church leaders’ narratives. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(2), pp.283-296.

Hamel, G., 2008. The future of management. Human Resource Management International Digest, 16(6).

Harlow, H.D., 2016. Vodafone Egypt (B), managing corporate cultural change and organizational performance. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 6(4), pp.1-17.

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.

Keupp, M.M. and Gassmann, O., 2009. Determinants and archetype users of open innovation. R&d Management, 39(4), pp.331-341.

Kotter, J.P., 2012. Leading change. Harvard business press.

Vega-Jurado, J., Gutiérrez-Gracia, A., Fernández-de-Lucio, I. and Manjarrés-Henríquez, L., 2008. The effect of external and internal factors on firms’ product innovation. Research policy, 37(4), pp.616-632.

Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India.

Conclusion

Zink, K.J., Steimle, U. and Schröder, D., 2008. Comprehensive change management concepts: Development of a participatory approach. Applied ergonomics, 39(4), pp.527-538. 

The major concern in the healthcare management is the proper management of the change and this includes the healthcare professionals. The professionals are thus required to maintain an expertise in the healthcare management (Campbell 2008). Change management or the management of change is a complex process and this involves the implementation of the strategies, tactics and operations and also includes the processes that ensure the change is relevant and worthwhile. It is important to note that the promoting change in healthcare is both fatiguing and demanding. Bringing changes takes a lot of time and involves a commitment of time from the manager. A clear vision of the change process is important so that the process of change can be visualized (Al-Abri 2007).

Change management is a similar story in all types of organizations and it includes the concept of the change management.

The types of changes models are as follows:

• Kotter’s 8 step change model- it is model that improves the organizational capability to change and this also considers the chances of success. the eight major steps mentioned in the model are: creating a sense of urgency; creating a guiding coalition; creating a vision for change; communication of the vision; removal of the obstacles; creation of the short-term wins; consolidation of the improvements; anchoring the changes (Appelbaum et al. 2012).
• Incremental change refers to the small adjustments for the purpose of attaining targeted results. In the world of business, incremental changes do not bring a significant amount of changes in the current and the alternating structures (Lavner, Bradbury and Karney2012).
• Transitional changes are those type of changes that replace the existing processes with the new ones. This is a more challenging type of change and it increases the discomfort of the employees (Gilley, McMillan and Gilley2009).
• Transformational changesare those type of the changes that completely reshape the process, strategy and the business and this results in shifting of the work culture (Ortiz and Jani, 2010).
• Developmental change model improves the current business procedures and it emphasizes on reducing the stress experienced by the employees(Jones 2012).
• Grundy’s model of change is marked by the rapid changes and shifts in either the culture, structure and strategy or in all the three. Smooth incremental- evolves slowly in a predictable and systematic way. Bumpy incremental- can be characterized by the periods of tranquillity which is intermittently punctuated by the pace of change. Discontinuous change can be described as the rapid shifts in the culture, structure and strategy (Graetz and Smith 2010).

Communication change- the change in communication is happening because the change in management includes the change in the leadership styles. The people are going towards the change in communication when there is a potential cultural change. The people will get there by bringing essential changes in the organizational structure (Davies, Papp and Antoni 2015).  

A change management theory called the Lewin’s change management theory is one of the cornerstone theories that highlights the organizational change. The Lewin’s change management includes the three stages that are known as the unfreeze, change and refreeze.

Unfreeze- it is the first stage and it involves preparing the organization in order to accept the changes that are necessary. This involves the breaking up of the existing status quo and building a new way of operating. In order to prepare an organization successfully for the change of management, it is thus necessary to start from the core. A manager thus needs to challenge his behaviours, attitudes, values and beliefs in order to define the change. This is the first part of the change and it includes the creation of a controlled crisis (Manchester et al., 2014).

Change- the uncertainty that is created in the unfreezing stage, the stage of change is where the organization tries to resolve the uncertainty and begins to look for new ways of doing things. This stage focuses on the personal transition in a changing environment. Communication and time are the two vital issues of changes that occur successfully (Šuc et al. 2009).

Refreeze- This stage involves helping people so that the organization can institutionalize and internalize the changes. This means that the changes are properly implemented into the everyday work (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown 2016).

Strength- the author has mentioned that the effective change can be implemented if the old practices are unfrozen, new changes are introduced and in the final stage, the new changes are re-frozen again. The change in management can be brought effectively if the concerned employees are told about the change. This might lead to insecurities, anger, confusion and paranoia among the employees (Al-Abri 2007).

Weakness- The major weakness that can be in the author’s views is that author has mentioned that manager has to challenge the precedent and it requires an account of perseverance of against the established behaviours and the habits (Paton and McCalman 2008).

Positive points- The positive points of the article are that the author has widely discussed the various events and the situations that occur when an organization undergoes a change in management. The article also discusses the various strategies that can be utilized in order to make a change successful.

Negative points-  Even though the discussion lays emphasis on the change management. The vital part of change management that includes the cultural changes has not been mentioned in the article.

The Lewin model of Change that lays emphasis on the three stages like unfreeze, change and refreeze are totally in accordance with what the author has tried to imply with the change management (Carter 2008).

Conclusion

Thus, from the above study, it can be concluded that the change management is a major concern for the healthcare organizations that are undergoing the change management. The author has explicitly mentioned about the Lewin’s change management model in the unfreezing, change and refreezing for the purpose of effective change management. However, the author has failed to address the issues that are being faced by the organizations during a cultural change.

References 

Al-Abri, R., 2007. Managing change in healthcare. Oman medical journal, 22(3), p.9.

Appelbaum, S.H., Habashy, S., Malo, J.L. and Shafiq, H., 2012. Back to the future: revisiting Kotter’s 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), pp.764-782.

Campbell, R.J., 2008. Change management in health care. The healthcare manager, 27(1), pp.23-39.

Carter, E., 2008. Successful change requires more than change management. The Journal for Quality and participation, 31(1), p.20.

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations, 69(1), pp.33-60.

Davies, S., Papp, V.G. and Antoni, C., 2015. Voice and communication change for gender nonconforming individuals: Giving voice to the person inside. International Journal of Transgenderism, 16(3), pp.117-159.

Gilley, A., McMillan, H.S. and Gilley, J.W., 2009. Organizational change and characteristics of leadership effectiveness. Journal of leadership & organizational studies, 16(1), pp.38-47.

Graetz, F. and Smith, A.C., 2010. Managing organizational change: A philosophies of change approach. Journal of change management, 10(2), pp.135-154.

Jones, G., 2012. Why chunking should be considered as an explanation for developmental change before short-term memory capacity and processing speed. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, p.167.

Lavner, J.A., Bradbury, T.N. and Karney, B.R., 2012. Incremental change or initial differences? Testing two models of marital deterioration. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(4), p.606.

Manchester, J., Gray-Miceli, D.L., Metcalf, J.A., Paolini, C.A., Napier, A.H., Coogle, C.L. and Owens, M.G., 2014. Facilitating Lewin’s change model with collaborative evaluation in promoting evidence based practices of health professionals. Evaluation and program planning, 47, pp.82-90.

Ortiz, L. and Jani, J., 2010. Critical race theory: A transformational model for teaching diversity. Journal of Social Work Education, 46(2), pp.175-193.

Paton, R.A. and McCalman, J., 2008. Change management: A guide to effective implementation. Sage.

Ravanfar, M.M., 2015. Analyzing Organizational Structure Based on 7s Model of Mckinsey. Global journal of management and business research: a administration and management [online]. 15(10). pp. 19-25. Available from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9fd1/4d415ed96b1dcafa9d84ddde97ecabe5dbda.pdf. [Accessed on 8th June 2018].

Šuc, J., Prokosch, H.U. and Ganslandt, T., 2009. Applicability of Lewin s change management model in a hospital setting. Methods of Information in Medicine, 48(05), pp.419-428.

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