The SWOT analysis for Bazem Technology Company reveals that the company is characterized with poor communication amongst the workers, department heads, and leaders. The miscommunication is believed to emerge from the existing conflicts among different teams within the organization. Poor communication negatively influences operations within an organization and lags productivity. Senior management within an organization use communication to create awareness about the goals and objectives and coarse employees to works towards pursuing its mission. Consequently, it is essential for Bazem Technology to change this aspect in the organization and facilitates the management to implement structures that will improve communication and achieve the intended objectives. The change might require Bazem Technology Company to alter its corporate culture to accommodate the new changes. A change process involves several steps that includes identification of the areas that need improvement, stakeholder engagement, plan, resource allocation, execute a plan, monitoring, and follow-up. Planning is an essential phase since it involves identification of possible solutions in the company and implementing them. The change expected at Bazem Technology Company will involve several phases including change assessment, development of a change plan, execution, track and monitor adoption, as well as alter management exit aimed at enhancing effective communication within the organization.
Phase 1: Change Assessments
It is essential to have a definite project scope to facilitate the acquisition of the goals that the projects intends to achieve. According to Kumar et al. (2015), the project scope enables the management to understand all the goals that should be achieved throughout the project cycle without making mistakes. The scope of the project intended at addressing issues experienced at Bazem Technology Company involves improving communication in the company. The activities involved include a training program intended at achieving communication skills among the employees. Furthermore, the management must also enhance its structures such that the employees can communicate openly and effectively amongst themselves. It is essential that the management equips the organizational leaders with relevant skills that will help in solving conflicts within the company. Moreover, the organization must also make structural changes that will help in facilitating effective communication.
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Moreover, it is essential to determine various stakeholders that will be involved in the execution of the project. Stakeholder management plays an essential role in successful completion of a project because it helps in eliminating possible conflicts that might delay the project (Thizy et al., 2019). Moreover, Bazem Technology Company demonstrates that it is difficult for employees to work as a team because they cannot communicate or solve their existing conflicts. The stakeholders targeted in the intended change within the company include the management, subordinate employees, and the board of directors. The management should understand the importance of implementing some changes aimed at improving communication within the organization. They are also responsible to communicate the intended changes amongst their employees. Alternatively, the employees should know the intention to improve communication within the organization and the purpose it will serve. Furthermore, the employees should be made to understand what is expected from them as the change is being implemented. Making the communication earlier is essential because it enables the employees to understand in advance on what is expected from them. The board of directors is also engaged as they are required to approve the budget that will be involved in the execution change within the company. It is essential to note that stakeholder engagement creates an opportunity for the management to acquire some opinion from the workforce on what they think can help improve productivity within the company.
The management must also assess the readiness of the organization before implementing the perceived changes within the company. According to Kabukye et al. (2020), the management should evaluate three factors that act as key determinants on whether the change will be successful. These factors include situational factors, resource availability, and task demands. In this case, lack of effective communication at Bazem Technology Company deters the performance of the organization as the employees cannot work as a team. Hence, it is essential for the management to identify a suitable solution to the challenges in communication structures within the organization aimed at facilitating its productivity. Similarly, the organization intends at implementing changes that are easily financed aimed at eliminating an incidence where budget will be a constraint. Finally, the task demands involves the practices that will be involved aimed at ensuring that the entire workforce understands what entails effective communication. The activities involved in the project are achievable across all the ranks of employees and they will have access to a program that will equip them with the much needed communication skills. Finally, the various stakeholders must be ready to embrace the changes arising from the changes that will be integrated within the company’s corporate culture and support them.
The management must also ensure that it assesses the impact of the intended changes in the operations that will take place within an organization. According to Fløvik et al. (2019), the management should determine the transition requirements and the impact the change will have on the organization. For instance, among the consideration to be made include the likely negative effect on the employees such as salary cuts, job loss, and likely loss of benefits. Making the evaluation and determining these factors is essential since it will enable the management to have a realistic perception about the organization. Bazem Technology Company likely impacts after the implementation of the change are positive because they will facilitate career growth. The management will learn on better ways to handle conflicts while the employees will be equipped with communication skills. Nevertheless, the management will incur an additional expense as it will have to introduce a training program for the employees aimed at coaching and mentoring the employees to better as they execute their roles and responsibilities in the company.
Phase 2: Develop Change Plans
In the second phase, the change plan creates a realistic roadmap that will help in achieving the career goals by creating possible milestones, budget, and timeline that the management will observe while integrating change within an organization. For instance, the management will assign responsibilities among the employees to enhance accountability of the intended change within the company (Han & Hong, 2016). The company’s management comprising of the general manager and other departmental leaders will take charge of the change process where they will ensure that they determine the concept of the training program and even determine the impacts that the transition will have on the company. The HR manager will have the responsibility of communicating with the employees and ensuring that they understand what the intended changes within the company means to them. It is essential to ensure that the employees understand the changes within the company to minimize likely conflicts and objections towards the program.
Phase 1 demonstrates that the company will integrate training programs within operations within the organization aimed at understanding the probable changes. Consequently, the management will ensure that it understands it has advertised for an agency or a coach that will help equip the employees with communication skills. The training will take place in shifts such that the operation within the company will not be disrupted. Hence, some employees will attend the program in the morning while others in the evening on a rotational basis. Moreover, it will be essential to note that the training will be availed free for all the employees and the participants will be issued with a certificate of participation upon completion. The measure aims at motivating the employees to have some interest to be part of the training. The training will also focus on introducing conflict resolution skills since this is a likely challenge within the organization’s communication system.
The management intends to have fruitful engagement between the management and the employees aimed at eliminating the occurrence of resistance among the involved parties. However, it is expected that some employees might be opposed to some of the proposed changes. Consequently, the management must ensure to exclusively engage the entire workforce, listen to their worries and offer possible solutions. The measure is essential because it will help to reassure the employees that they will not be negatively influenced by the perceived organizational change (van Marrewijk, 2018). Instead, the employees will be assured that the training offered will facilitate career growth while the structural changes will enhance job satisfaction. The engagement will help in eliminating opposition and have all the players involved in integrating the perceived changes within the company.
Below is a Gantt chart that demonstrates a timeline on the various stages involved in executing a plan intended to achieve organizational change. It is essential that the management ensures that it sticks within the stipulated plan aimed at achieving the intended objectives. Sticking with the schedule is paramount because it ensures that the management will work within the stipulated budget.
Figure 1 : A Gantt chart demonstrating the Timeline for the Project
Phase 3: Execute Change Plans
The third phase of a change plan is critical because it involves putting down the actual information that will be needed in integrating the plan into the organization. For example, the change plan suggests that the management will engage the various stakeholders to make them understand what the intended changes aim to achieve. The plan suggests that the communication between the management and the employees be executed using memos and departmental meetings aimed to make them understand the goals and objectives to be achieved through the communication (Thomson, 2016). The memo’s will be detailed and use a language that all the employees within the organization understands. On the other hand, the departmental meetings will be useful because they will help to respond to concerns and any questions that the employees might have relating to the intended changes. The organization’s blackboard will also be a useful resource since any announcements concerning the intended changes will be published there.
Moreover, the training agents must also engage with the management to determine the expectations that the plan will help achieve. The engagement is essential because it will enable the trainers to determine the content that will best fit the needs of the organization. The trainers will prepare the guide and avail it for review before the program is executed (Kapur, 2018). Similarly, the management will also determine the most appropriate delivery method that will maximize the understanding of the various stakeholders about the intended messages. Moreover, it will be essential to determine the strategy that will assess the performance or effectiveness of the program. In this case, the organization prefers that the assessment should be more practical and will be given alongside the weekly feedback on employee performance.
It is essential to note that even after integrating the change within the company, stakeholder engagement is essential. The engagement at this level will purpose in determining the challenges experienced and providing probable solutions. Moreover, the management will also ensure that it asks for review from the employees to determine what they feel about the program. Such a measure will enhance commitment and accountability among the different stakeholders and facilitate acquisition of the intended goals and objectives. It will be essential for the management to utilize the engagement to identify any existing resistance and challenge the employees to achieve a preferred solution. Furthermore, it will be possible to review some aspects of the plan that seems challenging to achieve or unsuitable and replace them with other suitable strategies. Finally, the engagement will help in identification of possible issues with the organizational plans and implement possible solutions to it aimed at achieving the intended goals.
Phase 4: Track and Monitor Adoption
The fourth phase focuses on activities that will take place after the change is already implemented to review how well the plan helps in achieving the intended organizational goals. The monitoring is essential because it helps the management determine whether the project was effective and the desirable goals achieved. Bazem Technology Company will use an employee survey to determine whether the training program is effective and measure the changes felt. The survey will comprise questions that targets to determine whether the employees can sense any changes and also evaluate whether there are some form of resistance among the employees (de Waal, 2014). The management will respond to the concerns and issues raised through the surveys promptly to avoid further complications or delays in completing the change.
Similarly, the management will schedule for several meetings with different stakeholders involved in implementing the perceived changes within the organization. The meetings will target at assessing the progress being made in addressing the existing communication breakdown within the organization (Al-Daoud et al., 2016). Each stakeholder assigned a specific role in the changes expected within the organization will be required to make a presentation on the achievements made. The employees will also report whether they find the information shared with them during the training programs relevant in their work. Depending on the time taken since the changes were implemented, the management will also assess whether the activities results in any perceived benefits within the organization. The meetings will help in addressing possible concerns among stakeholders and determine what the most appropriate change will be in the organization.
It is essential for Bazem Technology Company to celebrate every milestone that the entire workforce achieves intended at achieving organizational change. Nevertheless, it will also be essential to ensure that the company has a post change system that will ensure that the achieved change is retained and the employees will not be attempted to fall back into their old practices. In this case, the company will prepare a FAQ, which will attempt to answer the concerns of their employees. Moreover, the management will continue with the coaching sessions as a motivation strategy aimed to help the leaners achieve the intended objectives.
Phase 5: Change Management Exit
In this phase, the purpose is to demonstrate that the intended change is fully integrated in the organization and it is extremely effective. In this case, the goal of the change management plan aimed at integrating was to improve the effectiveness of communication among the members of the society such that they achieve the intended goals. The activities involved in this phase involves a reflection on the lesson learned from the problems that the company experienced. It is essential for the management to have a documentation on this factor because it will inform future activities within the organization (Smith, 2018). It will be easier to document a report on this factor because it will be the basis or the motivating factors that led the management to implement the said changes in the organization. Another vital component is the transition plan that requires the management to assign permanent responsibilities among its employees such that they will be able to perceive the dangers and act accordingly (Trebilcock, 2019). It will also involve transfer of ownership of the change from the group assigned to lead the change and become part of the corporate culture. Every stakeholder within the organization will be expected to integrate the changes and adopt them for their daily activities. Finally, it will be essential for the management to organize a celebration for all the stakeholders whereby they will recognizing all individuals that performed exceedingly well in implementing the intended change within the firm.
Conclusion
Change is inevitable for Bazem Technology Company since it has been experiencing poor communication amongst the employees and the managers, which result from poor conflict resolution and poor communication structures. The management intends to solve the issue by implementing a training program and introducing new structures that will facilitate direct and interactive communication among all the stakeholders. Change involves a wide range of activities conducted in a specific order to enhance acquisition of best results. The change management plan above demonstrates that the management will assess the change and determine its scope, impact on various stakeholders, and engage them to achieve the desirable results. The initial phase is very essential because it determines the expected deliverables of the project. Similarly, the next phase helps in developing the change plan whereby the management determines the possible solutions to the existing problem and determine the approaches that will help in addressing the problem. Furthermore, the management will also engage in the execution phase where all the planned activities will take place. For instance, employees will receive memos notifying them of the impending changes and what is expected from them. The third phase is the most active stage in project planning. The fourth stage involves reviewing the performance of the implemented change and determine its effectiveness. Finally, during the exit phase, the management will have to write a report documenting lessons learned from the change process and also assign different individuals with specific responsibilities. Following such an elaborate plan is essential because it enables a company to avoid making mistakes and misusing resources as it pursues changes within the company.
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