The term ‘change’ essentially refers to a vital and fundamental development. Change has been identified as a strategic dimension as it is the movement of an organisation of the current situation to an anticipated potential situation of the competitiveness. According to Carnall (2018), adapting to change has been the key to survival. Modern organisations can thrive in a dynamic environment as the rapidity of learning and transformation reaches the dynamics of the environment. Due to globalisation, economic crisis, certain technological advancement along with information and availability, increasing rate of critical and aggressive business environment typically requires companies to undergo certain kind of changes (Cameron & Green, 2015). However at these stages resistance plays a critical role in the organisation leveraging towards enhanced stability. Kuipers et al. (2014) have stated that while pressures from both external as well as internal environment to encourage transformation certain degree of resistance has been distinguished as determinant which can stabilize these demands against the necessity for constancy as well as stability. Change management has been identified as the process of defining a direct implementation of change by strategizing and introducing it systematically and further considering the potential of it been registered environment. Carnall (2018) has stated that strategic change employees in the areas where organisations tend to maintain correspondence with the external environment related to varying competitiveness technological as well as usual settings which typically pose challenges to the continuous survival of the business. Thus for organisations to be successful in the prospective years have to strive for organisational success which is the organization’s competence to adapt and survive in the ever changing business environment. The paper will aim to demonstrate a perspective on the theory and practice of organisational change through ADKAR Model by using change management plans, and measures progress. In addition to this, the paper will provide reflection based on the experiences of the change agent while performing change management process at Coles.
A narrow look at the competitive world in recent times has observed that profitability has been not only considered as the only factor which can sustain any company in the face of severe competition. Furthermore these determinants as result have to be taken into account while change is implemented. Kuipers et al. (2014) have indicated that change has to shift its focus from profitability issues related to development expansion, sustainability, knowledge development among others. Retailers in Australian industry primarily operate in a severe competitive environment. Thus with new competition, the market share of the dominant player, Coles have declined to 27.5% by 2017. Such a shift in market share has been primarily caused by factors related to increased operational expenses and stabilized corporate governance along with political instability, weakened marketing strategies, poor market penetration with high demand (Coles.com.au, 2019). Thus according to Hornstein (2015) it is highly evident that for companies like Coles in order to sustain its competitiveness must make certain developments which have been strategic and which will influence the performance of the company at the later stage. Companies like Coles has accounted various options in order to maintain its improvement in the performance which included the necessity to condense expenditures adoption of advanced technologies along with formation of strategic alliances and introduction of improve working procedures along with the change in organisational structures.
Zafar and Naveed (2014) taking into consideration the Adkar model has indicated that essential steps to implement while introducing change in an organisation has to consider the necessity to create awareness on the reasons why the changes occurring. At the second stage it is important to distinguish the desire to support the change while following the third step which guarantees that the employees involved in the change management procedure have obtained significant knowledge abilities behaviour and the understanding of the change procedure (Wheelen et al., 2017). These Adkar elements have to be essentially established in proper series in which a significant proportion of awareness has to be created at an initial phase. As an external change agent of Coles, it is highly essential to create an understanding for the need for change and successfully determine even which will take place of desired change does not occur. Ansari, Reinecke and Spaan (2014) have stated that effective implementation of one of the factors which will ascertain that changes have been made relies to building and trust. Furthermore forming a desire to support and part take in the change primarily depends on the nature of the change along with the reliability of agents leading towards change. Worley and Mohrman (2014) have shed light on Woolworths’ effective implementation of organizational change management whereby the company has urged retailers as well as suppliers to embrace a new approach towards negotiations by strategically replacing power with trust and humility and further sharing instead of relying on hoarding trade data. Woolworths at this juncture has offered adequate knowledge and ideas through efficient training and knowledge development in which employees should be given the competence to handle the change procedure. Moreover, Coles while implementing change process must proficiently focus on mechanisms in order to sustain the position of change, remuneration, incentives and achievements to ensure that change has been maintained as per strategy (Coles.com.au, 2019).
These ADKAR elements have to be established in proper sequence. However, authors have stated that when any of the ADKAR elements shows incompetence then the change starts to fail (McCracken & Morley, 2014). Thus it is highly essential for management of Coles to create agility and the environment to successfully maintain the change and its pace. It is further vital to note that change implementation requires specific amount of time. The Coles external change management team has applied the ADKAR model to its business and further characterized the achievements of the business to the change model. At this stage, Coles newly appointed CEO Steven Cain in collaboration with the external change agent has contributed to a tripling in the share price of the grocery retailer and wholesaler. Additionally, Coles with the application of ADKAR model has successfully increased revenues and reduced debts regardless of the severe competition from Woolworths and Aldi, record price deflation along with subdued consumer assurance (Patrick, 2018). The company has moved from phase to phase focusing primarily on employees and clientele in order to inclusively implement change. These strategies have aided the company to move from a products distribution to providing solutions and successfully return on investment (Wheelen et al., 2017).
Change implementation efforts can fail to attain success because of agents liable for managing the change implementation procedure due to unawareness of agents related to comprehensive interventions available. Hofmann and Hayes (2018) have characterized interventions as a range of intended actions or events planned to aid an organization augment its efficiency. Moreover, Wilson et al. (2014) have observed that there has been a continual growth advanced types of intervention to shift organization from its current state to a desired future state. Coles, while implementing organizational change management procedures to digital transformation has been investing profoundly in the digitization of their business models. According to Lillis and Kendra (2014),as several retailers in the Australian industry have been driven by the shifting consumer expectations, companies like Coles have been investigating in reimagining their business. Coles during the change implementation procedure has encountered challenges for failing to set up communication ground for making them more capable of the underlying reasons for change (Parent & Lovelace, 2015). Thus, communication has been typically distinguished as one of the most vital factors that influence change outcomes in Coles.
According to Hayes Change Management model, it has been asserted that the attributes of communication networks in addition to the impacts of interpersonal relations can have a foremost control on the process as well as outcomes of organizational change (Hofmann & Hayes, 2018). Hornstein (2015) has stated that competent front-line supervisors (FLSs) and administrators primarily evaluate employee resistance challenges and further implement those evaluations in order to guide the development of change intervention strategy. Furthermore, in successfully developing that change management approach, Coles maintain regular contacts with individuals getting supports and further aid clientele along with other team members in order to guarantee that growing employee resistance concerns have been distinguished and have been successfully facilitate the participation of these employees in the change process (Zafar & Naveed, 2014). Belias and Koustelios (2014) have stated that choosing, implementing, and evaluating the impacts of an intervention necessitate change which can be highly critical for individual employees and companies. Thus according to Demerouti, Bakker and Leiter (2014), whether an intervention has been applied for a specific segment of an organization developing digitalization process certain challenges should be anticipated.
At this stage, understanding motivating factors which have the ability to change can be productive while communicating about strategies related to the expected change to digitalization (Hofmann & Hayes, 2018). Coles’ change management agent through Hayes intervention has distinguished the company to force in order to undergo the stages of change; however, knowing whether employees fall along the continuum can be productive for managers, organization leaders, or the external change agents who further would require to provide suitable support along with information at each stage of change management. Meanwhile, Zafar and Naveed, (2014) drawing relevance to Hayes intervention approach focuses on various stages of change model and the way organizations implement ting change might help change agent while an intervention has been introduced and implemented. Thus realizing the stages of change can help organizations like Coles as it aims to create as well as implement strategies to take in hand workforce challenges.
Following Hayes intervention can address employee resistance and the measurement of the size and scope of the challenge, Coles can efficiently gather information which can further be used in order to create a well-informed decision about which of the numerous potential interventions would be most appropriate (Hofmann & Hayes, 2018). Coles, while implementing the transformation to digitalization has encountered challenge in attaining agreement to which intervention to select as lack of communication has led different employees to have diverse information about the change. Thus, McCracken and Morley (2014) have stated that Coles in order to overcome this challenge must ensure that all employees of the change process have been engaged from the initial stage so that every individual employee comprises of inclusive summary of the baseline information. Furthermore, once the baseline information has been strategically summarized and assessed the planning team needs to prioritize the challenges to select one to address first. For example, Coles’ team evaluation has revealed that turnover accounted to over 73% per year whereby around 55% of all new recruits leave in the initial 6 months, further over 50% of new recruits have revealed that their expectations regarding job failed to match their definite experiences, and that 27% of the sites account major interpersonal conflicts between staff members (Patrick, 2018).
However, Eachempati (2017) has revealed that at times Hayes proposed interventions fail to align with challenges revealed in the assessment process such rising resistance to change development. At this juncture, Coles must gather additional information and understanding of change management in order to make certain that the fundamental problem of employee resistance due to varying employee idea and knowledge has been identified prior to the selection of the intervention (Coles.com.au, 2019). Thus companies like Coles aiming for change management must initiate an intervention project after deciding that it sought to apply a peer mentoring course in order to deal with turnover problems due to lack of change management programs.
Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta (2016) have accentuated the significance of a change framework. Even though authors have asserted that simply persuading a particular change management procedure does not primarily guarantee proper achievements. Coles considering the areas of challenges in change management procedure; it has strategically developed a modified version of the Oakland and Tanner framework, which can be used in order to determine the elements of concern for the “inclination and readiness for change” and further “implementing change” (Jaeger, Matyas & Sihn, 2014). The Oakland framework as per Urquhart and Allison (2014), essentially models the way any organization aiming for transformation would sight revolutionization and guarantees essentials are not disregarded. However, through use of Oakland’s figure eight framework external change agent of Coles can provide a distinct view of the cycle of change in an illustrative arrangement and additionally can be modified to integrate additional elements (Patrick, 2018). At this stage, organizations can focus that each factor in the change cycle can be extended out in order to endow with a highly comprehensive narrative. For example, Eachempati (2017) has revealed that ‘planning’ factor will reference the change development strategy towards digitalization which Coles have accepted within their organization at this stage.
Source: (Stouten, Rousseau & De Cremer, 2018)
Furthermore, the “behaviours” constituents at this stage can be developed by the company in order to take account of the employee resistance and communication strategies for addressing their staff, at the same time as the “leadership” element aims to take into account the proposed change approach along with styles that the leaders primarily embrace. These factors however will summarize within Oakland’s figure of eight which further primarily offers the incessant evaluation stages guaranteeing that proposed change has been successfully continued during its lifecycle (Jaeger, Matyas & Sihn, 2014). Moreover, for Coles change management agents the Oakland’s figure of eight significantly offers a typical “clear and detailed picture” outlook whilst contributing the resilience of restricting or developing the fundamentals purposed for the employer and its organizational demands and needs (Belias & Koustelios, 2014).
Meanwhile, while involving certain distinct attributes from the Oaklands framework it could be developed in order to extend other fundamentals for consideration in the change development process. According to Hofmann and Hayes (2018), the actual idea depends on the increased level observation and checklists which have been primarily created for management, supervisors and clientele for suggestion and evaluating situation during the change implementation program. Furthermore, Lillis and Kendra (2014) have stated regardless of the success of using the Oakland’s framework, it has been essential for Coles aiming for change development to evaluate within the production setting in support of employee criticism, feedback and improvement.
Hornstein (2015) has stated that effective change implementation primarily necessitates unvarying scrutinizing which incorporates a repeated realignment of resources with precedence. Thus, setting up of specific organized and recognized procedures of achievement or key performance indicators can essentially help in the measuring the progress of the change development. Coles, while implementing such organizational cultural change has used an organized procedure for evaluation of change progress by the scheduling team and informing company’s employees about change implementation at frequent intervals. Furthermore, Zafar and Naveed (2014) have stated that celebrating minor changes can further aid the company successfully and strategize to motivate change management agents and employers. Coles at this juncture has obtained knowledge that employees show greater degree of recognition differently thus being highly incumbent upon employees and stakeholders to successfully distinguish individual preferences of each other and further to tailor importance accordingly.
Coles in order to measure progress can use formal activities in order to assist its resistant employees to celebrate the development of change process. Thus, proper arrangement of record of achievement has been seen as highly vital and thus can be constant reminder of change implementation actions executed by the organization to leverage as well as maintain successful culture change (Coles.com.au, 2019). At the final stage, Patrick (2018) has stated that successfully measuring change progress and celebrating organizational productivity during the organizational cultural change will successfully facilitate the company to get unified at all the stages of the organizational change structure further exhibiting an integrated characteristic of the framework and further accentuating the desired change implementation across all fundamentals of the framework which have been regarded to be highly essential in achieving success.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that organizational change management has developed into highly fundamental and strategic management ability since the 21st Century for any employer and manager. However strategically planning an intervention in order to seek specific organizational change can bring high criticalities. Moreover, it has been asserted that simple change implementation strategies towards change fails to show adequate level of reliability as changes or organizational transformation approaches require to be competent enough to adopt to the unforeseen and unexpected challenges which occur during change implementation program. Significant proportion of organizational changes have not been seen as an inaccessible context self-sufficient events but tend to create a vital part of a push of overlying, interconnecting and at certain times contradictory or incompatible change initiatives commenced by others for a range of contending reasons. Nonetheless, with the applied changes the ADKAR change model ought to be functional in order to successfully manage the change whereby the model has been most efficiently suitable to aid organizations deal with internal aspects during the change process.
Even though organizational change initiative primarily tends to vary, all change agents performing change management initiatives encounter similar challenges and complexities. Performing the role of change agent at Coles I have understood that playing organizational strategies implies taking advantage of the system of power and linkages in the organization. These issues have led me as an agent to overlook politics in order to strategically implement change initiatives. Furthermore, during change management initiative at Coles, performing the role of a change management initiative, I primarily have to function as a trainer and further have helped clientele in the way to use data to impact the change initiatives. Moreover, critical lack of thorough control for transformational changes has led me to comprise multiple approaches with no comprehensive results on the way Coles has been managing the cultural change initiative. While performing my role as Coles’ change agent I have obtained the understanding and knowledge of collaborating employees to strategize and successfully perform change. Thus, by engaging employees in decision-making from the preliminary stage has helped me as a change leader to reinforce dedication and commitment towards change management.
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