Due to a combination of space constraints and financial issues, your department or school has been told by senior management to relocate to another building seven kilometres from your existing site within the next three months. Your management have in turn been asked to draw up a plan for managing the move, which will affect all staff (academic, technical, secretarial, administrative), all students (undergraduate, postgraduate), and all equipment (classroom aids, computing). The new building will provide more space and student facilities, but offices for academic staff are smaller, the building is on a different bus route, and car parking facilities are limited. Senior management have reassured staff that email will allow regular contact to be maintained with colleagues in other departments and schools which are not being moved.
You have been asked to help management with their planning. Your brief is as follows:
1. Conduct a stakeholder analysis, identifying how each stakeholder or stakeholder group should be approached to ensure that this move goes ahead smoothly.
2. Assess the readiness for change analysis, identifying any ‘groundwork’ that may have to be done to ensure the move goes ahead smoothly.
3. Determine your change implementation strategy. Is a participative approach appropriate, or is dictatorial transformation required? Justify your recommendation by pointing to the advantages and limitations of the various options you have explored.
4. With reference to the basic rules of change described in this chapter, draw up a creative and practical action plan for implementing this change effectively.