Strayer University Peer Management Discussion Responses

Organizational Change Needed

In today’s environment, organizations will need to change to remain competitive. Considering your organization, identify a change you would like to implement, and respond to the following:

• Briefly describe the change that is needed.
• Why is this change important?
• Explain your rationale for choosing it.
• What are the greatest failure risks that will need to be considered to help ensure the success of this initiative, based on what Kotter says about why organizations fail?

WEEK 1

Discussion

Organizational Change Needed

1. Briefly describe the change that is needed

The change that I have identified and would like to implement in my department or organization is accountability. We have operated, as a team being basically empowered to meet our goals that everyone has signed on for (individual and team-based). This has worked well for 3 of the 4 teammates and while there have been no adverse consequences of 3 of us holding up the 4^th, we cannot continue to operate as such for a few reasons. The first is that when one of us fails to meet deadlines, then it reflects poorly on the rest of the group. The second is that, if we are all not embracing the same sense of urgency then client satisfaction (as well as teammate’s satisfaction) can greatly suffer. The third is that leadership has not aligned measures and rewards.

1. Why is this change important?

This change is important because, as an organization, we all have to hold accountable to the same standards. There is no point in establishing a sense of urgency, developing a vision and strategy, communicating it, you have to hold everyone accountable for the top to the bottom for their actions.

1. Explain your rationale for choosing it

Accountability is a quality of personal responsibility for every decision and action. I believe accountability is a growth tool to who desires to grow and change.

1. JWMIM555. Week 1. Experts of Practice Video. Jack Welch: Why Change?
2. Ron Carucci. December 3, 2018. “To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them.” Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them (hbr.org)
3. JWMIM555. Week 1. Lecture Notes: Why Organizations Need To Change

Greetings Dr. Bodam and classmates,

In today’s environment, organizations will need to change to remain competitive. Considering your organization, identify a change you would like to implement, and respond to the following:

• Briefly describe the change that is needed. I would say that communication between departments, leadership and HR is the major change needed in the organization I work for. I am not talking about basic updates for employees, or opportunities within the organization, I am talking about the communication that needs to happen between departments, leaders and HR with regards to procedures and policies that impact employees.
• Why is this change important? This change is important for the organization to maintain trust and deter complacency from employees. HR creates new policies that impact managers and employees, but fail to send communication to all impacted parties…..you know the old saying “the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing”! This impacts managers when addressing employee performance evaluations for everything from attendance issues to personnel concerns. Some managers know the new policy and are implementing it, some managers don’t know there is a new policy and are going by old policies, and some managers are doing neither.
• Explain your rationale for choosing it. My rationale for choosing this is there isn’t consistent communication between leadership, HR and department managers in the organization I work for. Not to mention, we are currently in the middle of being integrated with a new organization, so communication is really all over the place.
• What are the greatest failure risks that will need to be considered to help ensure the success of this initiative, based on what Kotter says about why organizations fail? The status quo remaining in place, and managers and employees become complacent, without a guiding powerful coalition (Kotter, 1). Unhappy caregivers and managers, loss of good employees and managers from inconsistent follow thru. Per Kotter, “nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication” (1).

Marta Retzler

References:

1. John P. Kotter. 2012. Leading Change.