Due Week 10 and worth 300 pointsIn this assignment, you will combine the previous four (4) assignments into a proposal that you could present to the executive leadership and board members. You will ar

Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change Applied to Google Company

Yesenia Mejias

Managing Organizational Change (HRM 560)

Dr. Patricia Obiefule

May 14, 2018

Introduction

Many organizations have been criticized for treating their employees as machines whereby they control the input and the output. Such organizations are rigid and limit what the employees can do. Google is one of the companies that have been a victim of a rigid structure (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo & Shafiq, 2012). The human resource team appears to control much of what the staff in the company can do. With the increased competition from Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook, among many other tech companies, Google is changing its culture to a flexible one (Gorran Farkas, 2013). Using the Kotter’s eight steps change management framework, the change of Google to a flexible organizational structure will be done.

The Kotter’s eight steps are;

1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency

Less than a decade ago, Google appeared to be enjoying a monopoly. However, companies such Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook have come up so strongly. The companies are competitive because they have high levels of innovation. This is a result of the employees who are empowered to be innovative (Appelbaum et al., 2012). However, when it comes to Google, the employees appear to be controlled to the extent that they can fully utilize their knowledge and capabilities to come up with ideas that will challenge the competition. This has seen some of the staff been less satisfied despite statistics showing the Google is the best employer in the United States. There is a tradition in the organization where employees are much controlled at departmental level (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). It is such traditions that need to be broken so that the employees are flexible and can fully utilize their potential for the best of the organization.

2. Creating Coalition

In relating the coalition that will create a flexible organizational structure, the CEO will be the primary target. The CEO has massive power to influence the change. Therefore, a meeting will be held with the CEO to make him aware of the issue of urgency. The HR manager will also be targeted since he also has the power to influence the change (Graetz & Smith, 2010). The departmental heads are likely to bring some opposition as they may feel that insubordination will arise. Therefore, they will not be part of the coalition team. A few employees will be selected to be part of the team that pushes the change since they have been on the ground and have felt the impacts of a rigid organizational structure.

3. Developing Vision and Strategy

In the future, it is expected that Google will have a flexible culture where the employees can fully utilize their potential to come up with new ideas. The developments will not wholly control what the employees do as it has been in the past. Bottom-up communication will be witnessed whereby the employees come up with ideas and communicate them to the managers (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). The employees will not be there to simply implement the rules from the departmental heads as it has been in the past. It is further assumed that openness will be a highly upheld value in the organization. With openness, it will be easy for employees to share ideas about what can be done in other departments for improvement without having them confined to one department as it has been in the past.

4. Communicating the Vision

As a way of communicating the vision, a forum will be created through an online app that will bring together all the employees. Even the CEO will be part of this so that everyone can share their ideas about what it means to have a flexible organizational culture. This will be the best opportunity to address the people’s concerns and anxieties (Graetz & Smith, 2010). Facts will also be shared to even prove what the organizations that have embraced such a culture have been able to achieve.

5. Empowering Broad-based Action

From the communications as a team, it will be easy to note people who are opposing the change. In the broad-based action, the focus will be removing the obstacles that may hinder implementation of the change (Appelbaum et al., 2012). This will be done by first recognizing the people who have supported the change such as the CEO so that it can be a challenge to the junior managers who will probably be opposing the change. Another proactive measure to remove the obstacles is approaching the critics of the change at a personal level to win their interests (Gorran Farkas, 2013). However, it is expected that with the analysis of the rigid organizational structure and the flexible organizational many will be able to make sense and support the change.

6. Generating Short-term Wins

The short terms win in the change process are;

• Making all the staff aware of the new change within the first three weeks

• Getting support from at least 40 percent of the staff within the first three weeks

• Getting the views of 70 percent of the staff regarding the change within the first three weeks

People who will contribute to the achievement of these short-term wins will get rewarded.

7. Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change

The change has to continuously build on so that it can consolidate more gains and win the confidence of more people. This will be done by bringing in more evidence from varied sources to support a flexible organizational culture. The evidence will further include some of the limitations that have already been realized with the rigid organizational structure so that the people can understand why it is not needed in the organization. After every win in the short-term gains, the analysis will be done to find out what went right and what needs to be improved in future engagements (Graetz & Smith, 2010). If the time allows, third parties such as consultant professionals may be used to convince the management why a flexible organizational culture is a need.

8. Anchoring new Approaches into the Culture

The communication of the change will go to a higher level so that it is talked about in stakeholder meetings. Even the new staff will be given basics about the change (Appelbaum et al., 2012). With time, the leaders of the change who will be seen to be poorly performing will be replaced. This will be crucial to ensure that the same vigor that was there at the start remains up to the end when the change is accepted and implemented.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable in any organization. Kotter's change management model is the best model because it takes the change process through steps so that all the parties can understand why the change is needed. In the case of Google, the change from a rigid organizational structure to a flexible organizational structure will be easy if all the steps are followed to the letter. If more people make sense of it, change resistance will be minimal, and the organization will entirely benefit from this.

References

Appelbaum, S., Habashy, S., Malo, J., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal Of Management Development, 31(8), 764-782. doi: 10.1108/02621711211253231

Gorran Farkas, M. (2013). Building and sustaining a culture of assessment: best practices for change leadership. Reference Services Review, 41(1), 13-31. doi: 10.1108/00907321311300857

Graetz, F., & Smith, A. (2010). Managing Organizational Change: A Philosophies of Change Approach. Journal Of Change Management, 10(2), 135-154. doi: 10.1080/14697011003795602

Pollack, J., & Pollack, R. (2014). Using Kotter's Eight-Stage Process to Manage an Organisational Change Program: Presentation and Practice. Systemic Practice And Action Research, 28(1), 51-66. doi: 10.1007/s11213-014-9317-0