Assignment 5: Change Management Plan

Diagnosing Change 8

Diagnosing Change

Eric Brown

Dr. Waldo

HRM 560

January 22, 2017

Diagnosing Change

Describe the company in terms of industry, size, number of employees, and history.

Google is an American Multinational Technology Company that specifies on offering products and services that are related to the internet. Some of the services which are provided by Google Company comprise cloud computing, software provision, online advertisement technologies, and internet search. Google Company was founded by two students from the Stanford University; Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. The company has it’s headquarter in Menio Park, California. They were pursuing PhD. Google’s main aim is to collect world information and make it accessible and useful worldwide. The company is no doubt one of the most popular and admired companies across the globe. Google is a very big company and operates beyond YouTube, Google Search and Gmail. It has a hand in many advanced technologies. As of 2014, the company had 53,600 full time employees (Weber, 2015).

Analyze in detail the current HR practice, policy, process, or procedure that you believe should be changed.

After looking at the company’s internal data, it was determined that great management is essential for the top performance and retention. Apart from superior technical knowledge, regular one-on-one coaching that comprise expressing interest in the employee as well frequent personalised feedback should be incorporated in the company’s human resource practices. Google’s PiLab is basically a unique subgroup which does applied experiments within the company to identify the most effective approaches to manage people and uphold a productive environment. This should however include the type of rewards which can help ensure that the employees are motivated and happy. Diversity has been a big issue in Google Corporation. The company should therefore consider changing their diversity programs. They can use analytics to solve the various diversity problems being faced. Consequently, the people analytics can conduct analytics to identify the root cause of weak diversity recruiting, promotion, and retention. It should develop an extra ordinary focus on the increasing collaboration among the employees from different departments. The workplace should be designed in a manner that maximises learning, collaboration and even fun. Employee learning is a very essential change that the company should consider incorporating.

Formulate three (3) valid reasons for the proposed change based on current change management theories.

As Google continues to evolve and the changing demands of the consumers continue to create the need for new products and services, the company is forced to make changes in order to stay competitive. There are various reasons why the company should create a working environment that encourages employee learning through coaching programs and ensuring that employee diversity is incorporated and encouraged. One of the reasons why this change is vital is the need to enhance new and innovative ideas. The company needs innovative ideas to keep up with the technological requirements of their consumers (Edgar, 2004).The employees should continue to learn more on matters computer and operate various computer systems.

Secondly, creating an environment that encourages employee learning will also ensure that the company achieves the desire for growth. Google is one of the companies that are focused on growth. The company has a global face and there is need to keep up growing by providing better services to its consumers. Training of employees and creating an environment that encourages diversity encourages growth as new ideas are brought in to help in improving the operations of the company. Continuous employee learning will also ensure that the needs of the consumers are well understood and achieved. The employees will also learn about the changing market needs and work towards achieving the goals of the organization (Edgar, 2004).

The third reason for this change is the need to improve the organizational processes. Google normally implements new products and services to become more efficient and productive. Continuous employee leaning is basically essential in helping to familiarise with the new processes to improve services and reducing the operating costs. As a result, Google will realise a high level of service delivery and quality of their products.

Appraise the diagnostic tools that you can use to determine an organization’s readiness for change. Propose two (2) diagnostic tools which you can utilize to determine if the organization is ready for change. Defend why you believe the diagnostic tools selected are the best choice for diagnosing change in the organization.

There are various communication strategies that can be used to implement the change management plan for Google Corporation. The diagnostic tools that can be used in determining the readiness of Google Company for change include not overemphasizing the change, extent of communicating the need for the change, and buying in from the employees or staff. These tools entail the aspect of listening as a communication skill, selling the change upward and also aligning the language to complement with the desired change. Listening is a critical communication skill that requires learning within an organization. This entails discriminative listening, therapeutic listening, comprehensive listening, appreciative listening and critical listening. These modes of listening will allow the employees value the importance of continuous learning and professional growth.

Google should not give the employees too much information about the change in the need to enhance employee growth (Anderson, 2001).This will avoid information overload but the change should be kept transparent and the employees must be aware of the need for learning and coaching programs. By practising these types of listening modes, learning and coaching of the staff will be made easier thus developing an environment that encourages change.

Readiness for change can also be determined by the way in which the organization has organized its resources to implement the change. Funds should be set aside to help in the training and continuous learning of the employees (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). Selling upward change is very critical. The staff should be involved in the change process to help generate new ideas.

The organization should also be capable of aligning the language of the change to its mission and vision. The managers should show an image that reflect the purpose of the change and serve as an example to other employees.

Using one (1) of the diagnostic tools you selected, assess the organization’s readiness for change.

a. Provide results of the diagnostic analysis

b. Explain the results

The purpose of assessing change readiness is to analyse the extent of preparedness of the resources, conditions and attitudes. Using the aspect of organizing resources for the change, all the key stakeholders should know the full range of system components which needs to be assessed (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009). It is essential to know whether whole system and all the elements within it are ready for the change. Google can adapt its resources to the local needs of the employees and context before it is implemented. The company has set aside funds for employee learning and coaching programs and the Research and Development department that ensures new innovative ideas flow for efficiency of their operations.

Interpret whether or not the organization is ready for change. Substantiate your conclusion by referencing current change management theories.

Readiness for change requires being properly prepared. Google Inc. is actually ready for this HR resource change practice. This is attributed to the fact that the company has the right conditions as well as resources in place to support the change process. It also has a clear vision and objectives that matches the intended change. The company is focused on creativity and innovation thus continuous learning is very critical for the company. Additionally, the organization has the right attitude and motivation to engage with the change and make it successful.

References

Anderson, D. & Anderson, L. (2001). Beyond Change Management: Advanced Strategies for Today’s Transformational Leaders. San Francisco.

Edgar H. Schein (2004). Organizational Culture & Leadership (3rd Ed.). San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G., (2009). Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Weber, S. (2015). Organizational Behaviour - Google corporate culture in Perspective. Scholarly Paper. Verlag fur Academische.