Change Model Assignment
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Change Model Assignment
Introduction
Change is inevitable in any field or industry. Every organization will undergo change or transition at some point to remain viable. Organizations operate in a dynamic environment that requires them to change or keep adjusting to ensure continuity and maintain relevance to their customers (Raina, 2018). Several changes can occur within the organization. The changes nclude onboarding new employees, inventing a new product, introducing a new department, and others. They may cause significant impact on various organizational operations, business income, or stability. The changes may also have an impact on customers, employees, or shareholders (Raina, 2018). An appropriate change model is needed to ensure effective management of organizational change. In that regard, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the organizational change and change model in detail.
The Organizational Change
The year 2020 was tough for many companies, businesses, organizations, and even individual persons. It was when COVID-19 pandemic was at its climax without any vaccine in place (Wenzhuo, 2020). Businesses experienced losses and were struggling to stay as others were closing down. Kering S.A. was not an exception as it reported a 15.4 percent decline for the first quarter of 2020. The effect was worse than what was predicted by the experts in March. This happened because the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis had gotten worse than expected. Gucci, the organizational brand, is usually the largest income generator of the company. Gucci reported a significant sales decline, by 22.4 percent (Wenzhuo, 2020). Although other similar industries also suffered consequences of COVID-19, Kering was facing challenges on all fronts, from retail to wholesale.
Kering S.A. did not think of taking a negative direction such as closing down but rather decided to shift its production from normal products to producing surgical products at the French workshops of its Balenciaga and Saint Laurent brands (Williams, 2020). The company made this decision to maintain its existence because the sales for the luxurious products it usually manufactures had reduced beyond measure. Therefore, the company would not rely entirely on revenue generated from the sales of its usual products. The mast was in demand as the few companies would not produce enough for both global and local communities. Kering S.A. saw this opportunity and decided to initiate change (Williams, 2020). The company was approved by the French health ministry to produce masks for French hospitals.
The Selected Change Model
The selected model for change management, in this case, will be Lewin’s Change Management Model. The change model developed by Kurt Lewin involves three stages or steps, such as unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Weiss, 2015). This model of change was developed in the 1940s and is widely applied across industries. The first stage of the model is unfreezing. At this point, Kering S.A. has to accept that a change has come and cannot be avoided. The company is required to challenge its beliefs, behaviors, and values that have been known over the years (Weiss, 2015). Unfreezing state involves creating awareness because many people always resist change.
The second stage of Lewin’s model is changing. At this point, people are unfrozen and can now begin to move. It is the point where Kering S.A now must move or transition to the new state of being (Weiss, 2015). This second stage is usually marked by the implementation of the proposed change. In this case, Kering S.A would begin producing masks and supplying them to all French hospitals. The organization accepts the new order as a result of COVID-19. It is at this point that French people begin to learn the new behavior of the organization.
The third and the last stage of Lewin’s change model is refreezing. At this stage, things have settled and the new change has been embraced by everyone in the organization. The refreezing state symbolizes the act of stabilizing, reinforcing, and solidifying the new state after the change (Weiss, 2015). This stage of Lewin’s model of change is important to ensure employees and staff do not revert to their old ways of operations and thinking.
This model of change was selected because it is simple and widely applied all over the world and across industries. Since this was a small change and perhaps temporary, it requires just a simple model to execute (Weiss, 2015). The change leadership roadmap by Linder Ackerman was not selected because it is not applied in this case. This road map is suitable for situations where was a planned change. However, in the case of Kering S.A., the change was not planned, but rather came up suddenly. Therefore, the first step of this change needs the preparation of all staff and employees. The same case applies to Cummings and Worley’s five-phase model of change (Weiss, 2015). The first phase of the model includes motivating change by approaches are developed to overcome change resistance. This phase resembles the unfreezing stage of Lewin’s model.
The Effects of the Change On the Company’s Shareholders, Employees, And Customers, As Well as On Society and The Environment
The change implemented at Kering S.A. had several significant influences on all its stakeholders. The first stakeholder is the community or society that would benefit from the masks. Society required sufficient masks as a measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Shareholders are also important stakeholders who would benefit from this strategy (Williams, 2020). The change was a solution to the loss of their funds. Shareholders often experience the greatest loss at the collapse of a company or when the company experiences a sharp decline in revenue (Wenzhuo, 2020). Production of masks would regenerate the company and inject much revenue, which would then translate to profits for these shareholders.
Additionally, the change would impact the employees positively. For instance, the employees were likely to lose their jobs due to the pandemic, if there were no changes in place against the situation (Wenzhuo, 2020). However, the production of masks opened a new door to all employees as they could now get busy and earn an income. The employees will have to adapt to new operations to ensure the organization achieved its goal. The customers might have panicked but they need not worry because the company did not stop production of the usual production of its luxury conglomerate (Williams, 2020). Currently, the organization is running its operations normally and all customers are satisfied.
Conclusion
Managing organizational change can be very challenging if a proper plan and model are not put in place. Several changes can occur within the organization such as onboarding new employees, inventing a new product, introducing a new department, and others. The selected organizational change is the introduction of a new product. Kering S.A. decided to produce masks as a response to the declining revenue the company was experiencing. The selected model for implementing this change was Lewin’s Change Management Model. This change has a significant positive influence on all its stakeholders. This paper has discussed all the required areas in detail.
References
Raina, R. (2018). Change management and organizational development. SAGE Publications.
Williams, R. (2020). Balenciaga, Saint Laurent to Make Masks in French Workshops. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-22/balenciaga-saint-laurent-to-produce-masks-in-french-workshops
Wenzhuo. (2020). Kering: Struck Harder Than Expected by COVID-19. https://jingdaily.com/kering-stuck-harder-than-expected-by-covid-19/
Weiss, J., W. (2015). Organizational Change, Second Edition. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.