Hello Dr. Agler and classmates,

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Here is my week-6 DQ response.

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Empowering Your Employees

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Organizational Transformation
(OT), the work of facilitating fundamental change in organizations is
often approached in two contrasting ways: (1) a “push” approach which is
short term, often top down and has a financial benefit; and (2) a
“grow” approach which is longer term and includes a building of capacity
from a human resources perspective. This week we are discussing
empowering your employees. Think about these two different approaches to
organizational transformation and answer these questions:

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• Is your change initiative a “push” or “grow” approach?
• How can senior and local leaders empower employees during change in a “push” approach? How about a “grow” approach”?
• How much will you depend on changes to formal structure as a driver of change for your change initiative?
• What role does learning play in your change initiative?
• When empowering employees, what is the role of personal vision, skill mastery, and intrinsic motivation?

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As indicated by Dr. Agler, changes can have both “Push” and “Grow”
approaches embedded. The change I have proposed begins with a “Push”
approach as the reorg, process changes, margin improvement efforts, and
talent development initiatives will come from the top. Once it is rolled
out, employees at every level will play a key role in bringing about a
change in culture for a sustainable change.

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Kotter lists four S’s as obstacles to empowerment. Structures,
Skills, Systems, and Supervisors (Kotter, 1996). During a “Push”
approach, the leadership has to remove barriers to empowerment.
Identifying the training needed is one of the most critical factors in
the “Push” approach. Conversely, the “Grow” approach requires the
leaders to adjust to the structure to support the change initiative. It
also requires working with the supervisors and tackle the troublesome
supervisors early (Kotter, 1996).

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My change initiative will require an org structure change.
Increasing profitability will focus on liberating higher-margin
consulting and digital offerings business from under the Public and
Commercial sector divisions. The new structure will empower the
consulting practice and the digital offerings practice to pursue sales
leads and will have the support and staff needed to grow.

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Learning is also a critical factor in the change initiative. The
goal is to attract, retain and develop the right talent for growing the
digital business. It will require making the right training courses
available on different platforms.

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A shared sense of purpose brings a shared understanding of the
actions required to achieve the goals. With the knowledge of what needs
to be done, nothing will discourage the employees more than lack of
necessary skills. Companies make the mistake of not recognizing the
training required for the change initiative or looking at the cost of
training and cannot justify the expenses. However, Kotter highlights the
importance of skills training for successful transformations by giving
examples of two European airline companies. Nothing a company does will
matter if the employee does not have the intrinsic motivation to accept
that the change is needed and work towards making the initiative a
success. Those motivated employees make the most significant difference.

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References

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Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Harward Business School Press.