Literature review on the aspects of change and transformation projects

Abstract

This paper is a literature review on the major aspects of change and transformation process.?According to the revised articles (including Lewin, 1947; Kotter 1996), it seems the only constant aspect of today’s world is change. With the occurrence of rapid technology transformation, paired with socioeconomic factors, people and organizations are in the circumstances where adapting to frequently evolving environment is a must.

However, the psychological studies examined for the purpose of this paper show, that change brings resistance, as change subjects (meant by people who are affected or impacted by the change) exhibit preference towards the status quo.?

What is the definition of an organizational change?

There are several ways the change is being defined and described (Lewin, 1947; Kotter 1996), however the most common aspects of the definitions are leading towards describing the change as movement of an organization towards desired future state in order to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness (Gareth, George, 2022).?It is being managed by different approaches, processes, and strategies applied when making a major alteration to the corporate operations. Change is also defined as “the process of transforming the manner in which an individual or organization acts from one set of behaviors to another” (Leonard, McGuire, 2007, p. 44).

The major pain-points of organizational transformation- literature analysis

There are several models describing the change and transformation process and each of them underlines themes, processes and aspects to be mindful of when deploying change activities. Kurt Lewin claims that a motivation for change must occur first, nonetheless. Any change initiative replaces the old behaviors and attitudes as employees become dissatisfied with the status quo (Cameron, Green, 2004, p. 97). Lewin has developed a three-stage model of how to initialize, manage, and stabilize the change process - known by unfreezing, movement and refreezing stages (Leonard, McGuire, 2007, p. 50). According to Lewin, the organization (by metaphorical comparison with the organism) has the tendency of maintaining equilibrium in response to disruption changes. It means that to make the change adoption possible and permanent, the new establishment need to be strongly embedded and intentional?(Cameron, Green, 2004, p. 97).

One of the most popular models of organizational change, and compared with Lewin’s model, has been proposed by John Kotter (1966) and it is still seen as a valid reference for organizational change application (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, Shafiq, 2012, pp. 764 – 782).

According to Kotter there are eight steps that can be identified to enable the organizational transformation (Kotter, 1996). Each of the them can help identify and appoint major pain -points than can be encountered when leading organizational change process and trying to go through the transformation process successfully. To start with, Kotter (1966) underlines a prerequisite is to establish a sense of urgency about the need to achieve change – meaning that people will only change if they see a need to do so. Resistance to change is the reluctance of adapting to change when it is presented (Pohankova, 2010, pp. 1-8). The said behavior can range from expressing resistance publicly to unknowingly resisting change through the negative communications towards the change or general actions demonstrating lack of change support. That first step seems to generate the most pain points, as studies on individuals demonstrate cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of change resistance (Erwin, Garman, 2010, pp.39-46).

The second step that he describes is to create a guiding coalition, which means assembling a group with relevant power energy and influence in the organization to lead the change. Failure to do so may lead to insufficient change acceptance and adoption across the organization. The second step leads directly to the third one, which entails to develop a vision and strategy and ensure there is a shared vision across the organization of what the change is about, why it is needed and how it will be achieved. The remaining steps involve communicating the change vision, empowering broad-based action, generate short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change and anchoring new approaches in the corporate culture (Kotter, 1996). As per Kotter’s theory, failure to perform any of the steps may lead to insufficient change acceptance & adoptions across the organization.

Guidance on to make the transformation process smooth, enjoyable & effective

Within some of the aspects to be considered when leading the organization change are individuals’ considerations of threads and benefits of change, communications, understanding, participation trust in management and the actions performed by change agents (Erwin, Garman, 2010, pp.39-46).

To address these aspects and to make sure the change process is not a painful experience, but rather and enjoyable adventure that enhances sense of success among the individuals, there are several strategies that may be undertaken.

In order to mitigate negative emotional response towards the change and lead towards creating an excitement about the transformation, it might be useful to apply Kübler-Ross Change Curve (1969), to mitigate some possible common cause of resistance to change. Change leaders may need some preparation and coaching when dealing with feelings of loss and grief when status quo is being disrupted, to manage these emotions and move people towards acceptance of the change. The change of perception and attitude might be major enabler for successful transformation.

Moving towards the?aspects of?understanding, participation and trust, a strategy that may be undertaken is rooted in the ADKAR Model (Jeff, 2016), which is an acronym that stands for Awareness of the need of change, Desire to make change happen, Knowledge about how to change, Ability to implement new skills and behaviors and Reinforcement to retain the change once it has been made (Boca, 2014, pp. 246-253). The ADKAR model addresses the fear of failure through understanding how individuals achieve change and helping to diagnose, and identification of root cause of resistance and it switches focus towards the actions and outcomes. The model also emphasizes the importance of successful change leadership as a major aspect of change enablement (Boca, 2014, pp. 246-253).?

Last but not least of the aspects discussed is the communication strategy around the change and transformation.?Some studies have underlined that the key to great change management communication is to create an active conversation, which is embedded into the change communication plan. Involvement of stakeholders affected by the change in the small group discussions, one-on-one meetings, and other methods for gathering feedback can help create the sense of change ownership and minimize resistance (Kotter, 1995). When discussing the change, elaboration on the answer to the question “What’s in it for me?” can make the change benefits visible to the individuals and create an excitement around the change.

In addition to the awareness and knowledge about theory of organizational change, it is useful to have frameworks or models that help to “simplify i.e. combine organizational parts into more manage enable portions and focus on the most important portions related to the organizational change” (Shapiro, 2003, p. 15). Models of organizational change aid in better examination of an organizational change and also give a common language that would help in developing the implementation strategy (Shapiro, 2003, p. 15). A useful organizational model is one that “simplifies and at the same time represents reality i.e. a framework that makes it easy for the employees and employers to understand and organizations and helps them to organize and their realities in ways that promote understanding and action for change” (Burke, 2002, p. 14).

Conclusion

Conclusions that are coming out of review of the change management and transformation focused research prove that

change in the organization is far from being a single act -this is rather a complex process that requires the implementation of many activities and actions, to ensure effective achievement of the organizational changes.

Some studies focus on change communication and stakeholders' engagement (Kotter, 1995) and formalizing organization strategy for change management process (Shapiro, 2003). Other papers focus more on change leadership being the major aspect of change enablement (Boca, 2014).

Even though existing studies can support formulating the organizational strategy towards change, it is within the organization competency to choose the best strategy for the change and transformation process.

References

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

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Erwin, D. and Garman, A. (2010). Resistance to organizational change: linking research and practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31(1), pp.39-56.

Boca, B. (2014). ADKAR Model vs Quality Management Change. Annales of Dunarea de Jos University,?pp. 246-253.

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Shapiro A, (2003), Creating Contagious Commitment: Applying the Tipping Point to Organizational Change, Published: Strategy Perspective, North Carolina.?