Discussion 5: Use of Change Models (5%)

This assignment relates to the following Course Learning Requirements:

CLR 1: Understand organizational behaviour and its impact on the workplace CLR 4: Appreciate workplace culture and change strategies Objective of this Assignment To give the opportunity for you to interact with your colleagues to explore change theories and strategies.

Scenario

You work in HR in a small but rapidly growing IT-based organization and is obvious that changes must be made both to the initial structure of the organization and to introduce a wide range of artificial intelligence applications for customer service.

Your organization was a start-up, formed 4 years ago by two brothers, one of whom has now left the company. The sole owner of the organization is the CEO. The structure is very "top down" and centralized, with decisions being made by the CEO. As the organization continues to grow and diversify in terms of products, the original centralized structure is not working. The organization currently has 75 employees, but 25 additional employees could be used immediately with another 25 required within the next year.

To be more responsive to customer needs, Artificial Intelligence communication and order taking will be much more efficient and effective.

Discussion Topic

-Explain organizational change

-Describe causes of resistance to change

-Demonstrate how to plan effectively for change

-Explain Lewin's Force Field Theory of Change

-Describe Kotter's eight-stage process for implementing change

-Discuss with your colleagues how elements of the Lewin and Kotter models might be used to start and complete the change process.