Organizations cannot be endlessly operated without change. Indeed, organizations increasingly seek to attain greater effectiveness such as; improved financial performance enhanced employee satisfaction, and environmental sustainability (Cummings & Worley, 2013). However, introducing and managing change to achieve the desired organizational goal proves to be challenging. Further, methods previously used in managing change no longer work in the new dynamic world resulting in the innovation of new tools and techniques (Bridges & Bridges, 2016). This paper discusses a personal experience in a technology company during a change process. It further analyses the approach used by the management in implementing it then relates it Bridge's model of change. It concluded by highlighting what facilitated the success of change.
While working in one of the leading technology firms in early 2014, the firm experienced organizational change. The company's core business is; software development, devices and services. It is constituted into three segments namely; personal computing, productivity and business processes and intelligent cloud. Products developed from the segments broaden to yield; operating systems, phones, personal computers, Servers application and a cloud platform that gives its clients internet solutions. Diversity in the range of products has kept the firm competitive among other technology giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Oracle. However, it was discovered that, despite the fact that its brand had earned universal acceptance and lead the market, competitors had started dominating key market segments necessitating change.
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Promotion of the executive vice president of the clouding and enterprise group to be the chief executive officer (CEO) marked the beginning of change. The newly promoted CEO had observed that although the company was full of highly talented and innovative staff members, their productivity was not well coordinated for the company to realize the associated organizational returns. Evidently, major competitors took over the phone market and the software segment. Analysis of the problem indicated that company policies provided an environment that recognized the best performing segment instead of the contribution by individual employees. All the innovation, talent and motivation were directed towards organizational segments competition. The overall effect was inter-segment rivalry and loss of moral and purpose.
The change process was gradual. On the first stage, it involved the creation of awareness of the inter-segment rivalry. Staff members were prepared to realize how productive and innovative they were as analyzed at segment level. Nevertheless, it was evident that despite the excellent performance, the company as a whole reflected lack of productivity and innovation making its products to lose acceptance on the market. As asserted by Bridges & Bridges, (2016), the rivalry had to stop. All the company resources were to be focused on the achieving the new company goal set which was, all the three segments combined: Reinvented productivity, Reinvented cloud and reinvented personal computing. The change brought about motivation to most workers, I included. It instilled a positive sense of direction and purpose boosting morale. Two years later other company subsidiaries that operated independently were merged to form one company with over 5,000 employees. The growth justifies Cummings & Worley, (2013) argument that the overall result of a successful change is organizational growth.
According to Bridges & Bridges, (2016) on the Bridges model of change, change is described in three stages. The first stage is “ending”. It marks the point where members of the organization have to stop practices being changed. Referring to the personal experience above, the inter-segment rivalry had to stop. The second stage is the neutral zone. This stage is full of exploration; the organization gives its staff time to adjust to the new changes introduced. The neutral stage closely relates to the two year period the management took for staff to realize the positive effect of the change introduced. The third and final phase is the new beginning. At this point, the organization would have realized the need to change and settled. Two years after the new CEO the company settled by not only merging the segments but also the company subsidiaries. The organization has since embraced change and formed one team full of energy.
In conclusion, it is clear that the personal experience drew a greater similarity with the Bridges model. Great success was achieved due to the structured implementation and management of change using a pre-planned model. Whereas there has not been a significant increase in the company's revenue, the change managed to re-energize the staff granting employee satisfaction. In the long run, it has lead to organizational growth. Employees enjoy a wider range of resources harnessed from the other segment and subsidiaries.
References
Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. M. (2016). Managing transitions: Making the most of change.
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2013). Organization Development and Change . Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
