Identified Moving Operations at Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The moving operation that was identified is related to the Commonwealth bank of Australia which is one of the best known banks for its organizational culture of innovation and openness. The company had decided to change the location of its first branch from CBD or the central business district of Melbourne to Melton that is about 45kms away from the previous location but has sufficient connectivity and people can easily travel to the new location decided by the company (Lewis 2019). However the decision of the company is not so easy to undertake because of various reasons such as employees resistance to change due to the fear of losing position in the organization, or related to the organizations performance in the new location, fear of the employees related to travelling to the new location, fear of the employees about the change itself because not all people easily accept change and not all are open to change (Bertram, Blase and Fixsen 2015).

Further there can be issues related to conflicts between the change management team and the other people of the organization who may feel that they are being directed and forced to carry out certain activities by the change management team, there can be problems related to selection of an appropriate change leader who can actually help to carry out the change in the organization through implementation of the Kurt Lewin’s model of change (Cameron and Green 2019). One of the most important considerations in this respect is the designing of an effective communication strategy such that the reasons for change, the importance of carrying out change and various other information can easily be communicated to the employees of the organization. For this purpose, the change leader also has a major role to play because he the one who will help the people to prepare for change, explain the reason for the change to the employees, help in creation of proper climate and culture of change and openness in the organization and various others. He will have to develop and make use of a strategy to carry out change in the organization. Before undergoing change in the organization it is necessary to carry out an organizational analysis which will help in identification of the present problems. The second important factor that needs to be considered is identification of all those factors that are necessary for conducting change in the organization.

Red Flag Issues and Solutions

According to Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), one of the most important steps is the selection of the change management strategy for carrying out the change in the organization and it is also necessary to monitor the change process continuously and provide feedbacks as well. The choice of the strategies made by the organizational change leaders implicitly and explicitly by taking into consideration the speed of efforts, the preplanning, involvement of the people and the emphasis of all these factors on various other approaches. One of the best change strategies are those which are not only fit for some of the external situational factors but also are internally consistent. The strategies decided by the managers are considered as existing on continuum (James and Frank 2015). And when the continuum approaches the end, there is a requirement of implementation of the change, carrying out of various plans of action and that is also related to lesser involvement of the people in the change process apart from the initiator of the change process or the change agent. Therefore this strategy focuses majorly on overcoming the resistance than reducing the resistance to change and therefore carry out the change effectively in the organization. On the other side of the continuum is a strategy that depends upon a change process that is much slower, a plan that is less clearer, and it also requires more involvement of people apart from those who initiate the change. This strategy will help the leader by reducing the resistance of people to the minimum.

The two ends of the continuum requires two different styles of a change leader. For instance on the extreme left, the change process tends to be faster, there is little involvement of the people and the main focus is to overcome all resistances, the change leaders style is more coercive. On the other end of the continuum, where the plan for change process is not so clear, there is a high involvement of the people and the main focus is to minimize any resistance to change, the change leaders style should be more of a participative leadership style. Therefore it needs to be ensured that the strategy for organizational change needs to be on wither of the continuum ends, and there cannot be a strategy that tries to focus on both the parts because if a change leader tries to combine both then the change process as a whole may fail (Kaminskthe change leader2011).

Importance of Effective Communication Plan

However the selection of the strategy for change is dependent upon some of the major factors such as the kind and the amount of change that is being expected by the change leaders that is if garter amount of resistance to change is expected within the organization, then the change leader will find it more difficult to carry out any change in the organization and as a result their aim will first be on minimization of the resistance to change. Second important factor is the power of the change leaders. That is if the leader has ultimate power in the organization they can even make use of coercion to carry out the change process faster in the organization and on the other hand the strategy chosen for the change process will be more of a participative nature in case they lack much power. The third important factors is the dependence of the change leaders upon others of the organization, if he depends more on others than they will need to adopt a participative change strategy and vice versa. The final factor that needs to be considered is the stake of the people involved.

Some of the red flag issues that had been identified during the moving of operations in order to carry out the change management and implementation process properly are- the creation of a communication plan, appointment of a change leader, resistance to changes due to various reasons, not giving due respect to the change management team while carrying out the change in the organization and various others.  An effective communication plan is one of the necessary red flag issues that need to be considered because without the existence of the same there may not be proper communication about the change taking place or any other information properly which may even increase the resistance to change. However an effective communication plan not only includes the communication strategy between the employees but also includes effective communication throughout the organization.

Resistance to change refers to the inability of the people to undergo change because of a variety of reasons such as fear of uncertainty, fear of losing power and various others.  If a change management team has been appointed for the purpose of carrying out the change it is necessary for the organization to give them sufficient power such that they can carry out their activities properly and various others. In order to overcome all the issues that have been identified it is necessary to appoint an effective change leader either from within the organization or from outside who may or may not take the help of the change management team and will be responsible for carrying out the Kurt lewin model of change management within the organization. The change agent or leader will first be required to show the employees the necessity of carrying out the change in the organization and the ways in which the change will be beneficial to them.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Therefore it is necessary for the change leader to have effective communication plan with the help of which they will be able to address all the queries of the employees and workers properly related to change and the change agent should be able to show the employees the bigger picture. This will help them in understanding how their contribution will ultimately help the organization to easily carry out change in the organisation. Further the change leader will be responsible for helping and providing support to the organization employees through the change process because this is the stage where the employees may have to unlearn many of their assumptions, values, beliefs and others. This is stage where the employees get to learn about some new information and facts that challenges their previous values, beliefs and assumptions and various others and it is necessary to help the employees at this stage such that they can be open to all the new information that they are getting. He will also help to freeze the new behaviours, beliefs and other process with the help of reinforcement strategies. Some of these reinforcement strategies can be rewards and various others.

A change leader can help in implementation of a long term change in the organization and this long term change can actually help an organization in gaining competitive advantage over other similar organization. The company’s change leader is therefore required to assist the organisation with its present change scenario and overcome resistance to change because the new business is located at a greater distance than the older one and therefore people will have to change their schedules accordingly, they are also suffering from the fear of uncertainty in the new location.

This is so because the organization was earning good profits in the CBD area s that is the hub for businesses and now the employees are afraid that they might be losing on the profit that they were previously earning and there are several similar issues (Morin et al. 2016). For instance the company already faces an issue of giving too much of importance to the customers which leads to overlooking the needs of the employees and therefore there are certain issues also related to lack of proper communication in the organization. In such a scenario, the change leader will help to implement the change through 6 major steps- he will prepare the people of the organization for change through proper communication with them; the next step involves explanation of change, the third step involves acknowledging the loss that will be suffered by the organization in case it fails to undergo the change, the next step requires the change leader to carry out the change by creation of a climate in the organization that supports the change and the change leader is required to create a plan for carrying out the change and finally the change management strategy needs to be implemented and sustained in order to have a long term organizational change.

Role of Change Leader

 The change leader first tries to prepare the employees of the organization for the change by creation of a sense of urgency in them. Next he tries to explain the major reasons for carrying out the change in the organization, The change leader tries to understand the reason for resistance to change such as what the losses that may have to be faced by them in case the change takes place, then the leader tries to create a climate for change in the organization with the help of the early adapters of change (Lines et al. 2015). He will create a plan for implementation and measurement of change in the organization. After implementation of the change, the change leader will continuously make improvements to new behaviours and processes learnt as a reason of undergoing change in the organisation and therefore will try to change the culture of the organization and make it a flexible one.

THE CHANGE LEADERas a change leader will try to carry out change in the organization by firstly creating a sense of urgency among the employees of the organization such that the status quo can of the employees can be changed. This is in fact the first step of the Kurt Lewin models of change that is unfreezing which requires creating a misbalance in the present status quo of the employees by creating a  sense of urgency in them (Hayes 2018). This is so because it will help them to understand the necessity for change and how not undergoing any change will ultimately have a negative impact on them from the long term perspective. This step will actually help the organisation in occupying a more profitable position in the market.

For instance the decision of the company under study to shift its business operations from Melbourne central business district to Melton can actually be helpful and profitable for the company. This is so because the company can save much of its expenses by shifting to the new location as it is an economically convenient location. The payment for taking the building in the new location on lease is much cost effective than in the previous location, similarly there are various other cost benefits that can actually help in improving the overall profitability of the company (Levasseur 2001). Further the company had some customers in the previous location and by establishing its business in the new location it can also occupy the market there. Therefore THE CHANGE LEADER will try to create urgency in an organization by way of following the activities of the benchmarking companies and how the benchmarking companies have become successful by easily adapting to the changes in the market (Nawaz and Khan 2016). THE CHANGE LEADER will create a communication strategy such that THE CHANGE LEADER can properly communicate with the employees of the organization about the various advantages of undertaking the change and by showing them the bigger picture. Through communication THE CHANGE LEADER will try to understand their reason for resistance to change.

Reward Strategies for Reinforcement

For carrying out the change in the organization, THE CHANGE LEADER will be the one taking the initiative such that THE CHANGE LEADER will try to lead by example. For instance THE CHANGE LEADER will show a change in my attitude, activities, THE CHANGE LEADER will be more open to new information and in this way it can be ensured that the employees will follow the same (Kadu and Stolee 2015). THE CHANGE LEADER will try to personally discuss about the change with those who are rigidly resisting the change and are not trying to coordinate at all and for this purpose THE CHANGE LEADER may even have to rake some important decisions such as eliminating a few employees who are not at all ready for undergoing the change. THE CHANGE LEADER will even try to persuade people through rewarding their initiatives towards change by way of changing their attitudes and various other attributes (By, Hughes and Ford 2016). THE CHANGE LEADER can also make use of a tracking system for seeing the changes in the performance after creating the sense of urgency in them. Communication throughout the entire change management process has an important role to play because that will only help me in creating a climate of innovation, This is so because by having such a  climate the employees will be motivated to communicate all their feedbacks, or ideas and various other information openly that will further be considered by me.

References 

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