Create Urgency
One of the greatest human resource dilemmas Dr. Pepper Snapple Group faces is management systems fail. Employees have lost faith and confidence in the department and do not do what the department and the management at large want them to do (Esterl, 2013). To adequately answer this, the paper will focus on the eight steps of Kotter's change model to implement change to this approach. The first step of the model emphasizes creating urgency. This step stresses the fact that for change to happen, the whole company must be made to want it by realizing the implications of the present situation. It is essential that the HR department, in this case, realizes the dangerous situation the company is in because of lack of confidence by the employees. The action plan in this strep highlights the threats employees' lack of confidence poses to the company. Possible scenarios include reduced employee motivation which would translate to low production rates, high levels of employee turnover, and strained relations between employees and the management staff, strained relations between departments and generally a lack of effective coordination programs between employees and departments ( Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, & Shafiq, 2012). In this case, the right way to start would be establishing a human resource channel that encourages employees to air their grievances and concerns and then addresses each of these issues amicably.
Form A Powerful Coalition
Step two would be forming a powerful coalition. This step emphasizes convincing people that change is necessary by taking on strong leadership and seeking visible support from key people within the organization. After identifying the threats the company faces, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group should then get employee leaders to sit and talk with the management. This is crucial since these employee leaders act as representatives of the employees and adequately air the grievances of the employees. The management, on the other hand, is supposed to listen to these grievances and suggested solutions, and chat a way forward on how to put the necessary resources in place to ensure that these changes and complaints are addressed. It is important to form this kind of a coalition because while the workforce may find it difficult to believe the promises of the management, they are highly likely to accept it if their colleagues who are their leaders give out their word (Kotter, 2012). The leaders are also better placed to understand the situation and the capacity of the management to implement specific changes and play a significant role in suggesting possible solutions and improvise.
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Create A Vision for Change
Creating a vision for change is the third step. When talking about change for the first time, there tends to be many great ideas and solutions floating around. This step in the model links these concepts to an overall vision that people can quickly grasp and remember. The human resource department change plan should focus on determining the values that are central to the change. In this case, these values are corporation and integrity. The workforce needs to master how to work alongside each other and air their grievances in a calm manner. The management, on the other hand, needs to be mindful of the feelings and expectations of the employees. The next step is to develop a short summary that captures the vision for the future of the organization as far as the protection of employee rights is concerned. The last step will be to create a strategy to execute this vision. The department should have a definite plan of achieving and implementing the said changes and concepts (Kotter, 2010). This could be through the establishment of employee welfare groups which encourages employees to meet regularly and air out any issues they might have after which these issues are forwarded to the HR for further considerations on the best way forward.
Communicate The Vision
After creating a vision for change, the organization then communicates this vision to the parties involved. It is not just enough to develop a vision, but it takes the extra mile of a constant reminder of the concept for it to be effected and its effectiveness gauged. The HR should not only rely on special periodic meetings to track the implementation of the vision. But instead, it should develop a strategy that uses the vision daily to make decisions and solve problems. The right plan to adopt is one that addresses the worker's concerns and anxieties openly and honestly. Another way is to apply this vision to all aspects of operations. This ranges from training to performance reviews. A great way to communicate ideas is to implement them in every aspect of the corporate activities. The same models in the vision should be used for problem-solving (Kotter, 2012). It becomes easier to remind the workforce of a department's commitment to change when the change is used practically to answer to other aspects of operations that are related to the move as opposed to casually highlighting them at board meetings.
Remove Obstacles
Removing obstacles is the fifth step in the change model. Like any other aspect, corporate change is bound to face opposition at one point or another. This could range from financial constraints that make it difficult for the department to execute the changes, to the top management that may feel this change comes at the expense of the company's profitability in whatever way. Removing these obstacles empower the parties involved to execute the set vision, thereby resulting in a positive change moving forward. To effectively do this, it is crucial that the plan adopted in this step focuses on identifying and hiring leaders whose primary roles are to deliver the change. Since resistance can come from within a system, it is crucial for the company to hire only the leaders who share in the same vision to lead the change. The second aspect the plan should focus on is ensuring that the organizational structure, job descriptions and performance, and compensation systems are in line with the vision. This is crucial because it is these factors that directly embrace organizational change, or offer resistance (Kotter, 2012). The other important step is recognizing and rewarding people for making the change happen. This keeps the key people involved motivated to continue working towards the set cause.
Create Short-Term Wins
Nothing motivates the workforce more than success. This is why the sixth step in the model is creating short-term wins. Building short-term targets with little room for failure influences the team to work even harder to achieve more significant victories. The change plan looks for reliable targets that can be implemented without much help from Dr. Pepper Snapple Group management. This should include setting up a body that settles disputes between employees amicably (offering peaceful resolutions through mediation). This boosts the confidence and trust the employees have in the mitigation process and are more psyched to contribute to the establishment of a stronger body that will be able to handle much more serious topics such as employee remunerations and appraisals. The plan should not choose targets that are expensive since it is vital to be more prepared to justify the investments in each project (Kotter, 2010). A high target would discourage the management from investing in the organizational change process. This is because the goal of any business is to make a profit by minimizing on expenditure and liabilities as much as possible, and an expensive game change is not the best way to boost organizational profitability.
Build On the Change
The seventh step is building on the win. Most change projects fail because victories are declared early. Successful projects realize that quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done. And rather than being celebrated, these wins should be used as benchmark projects of how to conduct future projects and changes. A perfect change plan looks for improvements from each win. After every win, it is essential to analyze what went right and what needs improving. Each of these wins should be thoroughly scrutinized to establish the factors behind their success, and how these factors can be adjusted on to ensure even more significant gains in the future. To achieve this, it is crucial that the human resource department sets goals to continue building on the momentum already achieved. Since it is true that victory motivates people to work even harder, the department should capitalize on this motivation whenever it realizes a win to learn more about the idea of continuous improvement (Kotter, 2010). The only way to keep ideas fresh is by Dr. Pepper Snapple Group bringing in new change agents and leaders for the change coalition.
Anchor The Changes
The last step for the human resource department at Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, according to Kotter is to anchor the changes in corporate culture. For the organizational change to stick, it should be made to become part of the core of the organization. Since the corporate culture typically determines what gets done, the values behind this vision must show in the daily activities of the company. The game plan focuses on making continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of the organization. This can be done by implementing some policies into the traditional organizational strategies at DPS. For instance, since the organizational change emphasizes on corporation and integrity, these two values should extend to the company's policies on how it interacts with the clients and its partners (Kotter, 2010). It should strive to foster healthy working relationships with its partners while at the same always being mindful of the consumers' opinion and issues through establishing an effective customer care department to diligently handle these issues, if and when the customers raise them.
References
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J. L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development , 31 (8), 764-782.
Esterl, M. (2013). Is this the End of the Soft-Drink Era? The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323783704578245973076636056.html.
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change . Harvard Business Press.
Kotter, J. (2010). Kotter’s 8-step change model. MindTools. Retrieved from http://www . mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm.
