The planning of change in an Organization

In this assignment background to organisational change will be discussed as well as the model of change and intervention techniques. Furthermore, needs and factors leading toward change will be discussed for chosen organisation and in the third part process to involve stakeholder in change will be described, in the last model of change will be developed to explain internal and external environment of organisation.

For this task learner has chosen a company named Thomas cook which is Tourism Company. Thomas Cook group is a very vast group which deals in holidays planning, flights, cruises and flights. They organise all kind of holidays for all kind of people from all fields of life. They are one of the largest groups in the world through their mergers and partnerships. Thomas cook was just small firm who organise small tour but through the different changes they have become one the giants in the tourism market. Thomas cook first tour was organised way back in 5th July 1841 which was only 12 miles of train tour and now Thomas cook is second largest tourism group in UK and Ireland with around 19000 employees part of the company. Thomas cook group is not only tour operator but they 27 hotels in different part of the world and at the same time they have launched Thomas cook airline in U.K (Thomas Cook Plc, 2010).

1.1 MODELS OF CHANGE

1.1.1 ADKAR – PROSCI’S FIVE BUILDING BLOCKS

ADKAR model consists of five steps. This is model which involves change which is directly related to the individual and to bring change in any organisation it is important to change individual thoughts.

AWARENESS

This is very important phase of the change in any organisation that how someone creates the awareness in the individual and communicate the information to everyone. Understanding why change is necessary is the first key aspect of the successful change. This step explains explain reasoning and thoughts that underlies a required change. Planned communication is communication is essential. When this step is fully completed then individual will understand why change is necessary (Change management coach, 2011).

DESIRE

Once the awareness among the staff is created for change it will bring desire among them to support and be part of the change. Desire to support can be achieved through giving individual incentives.

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge about change can be achieved through coaching, normal training methods and education of employees. Through this employees can be informed and trained how to change and once the changed happened how to implement.

ABILITY

Ability to implement required skills and behaviours to change is very vital. In those theories which are learned in previous blocks needs to implemented in action. This can take some time so individual need support and couching to achieve objectives.

REINFORCEMENT

This is very important block of this model because once change is happened it is essential to sustain it so employees do not revert back to old structure and style of working and this can be achieved through monitoring and positive feedbacks.

1.1.2 KURT LEWIN (Unfreeze, Change, Freeze)

UNFREEZE:

The most important factor or phase of change is to understand the need of change and the right time for the change. As said earlier it is the difficult phase of change as most of individual do not like to change the way they are working. To change motivation plays very important role if motivation is high it is easy to bring change if the motivation is low then people resist changing.

CHANGE

Once it is understood that change is required then the next part of process is change because during this process people fear about their future and they are very cautious to go toward new way of work or new style of management, furthermore as this is not easy time people need time to adjust to new condition and style of working and they need time and space and guidance to achieve the require goals(Change management coach, 2011).

FREEZE

Last stage of Kurt Levin change model is freeze this is stage is all about maintaining all the changes which were made during previous stages and this can be achieve through monitoring and keep close look on all the matters regarding organisation. If close monitoring is not properly done then there are chances of people going back to old way of working (Change management coach, 2011).

1.1.3 McKINSEY’S MODLE OF 7S

Strategy – Plan for organisation to reach their target and goal is called strategy. It is very important part of this model as it defines the future objectives for organisation.

Structure – Structure is another important part for organisation as it covers all part of the organisation and it is vital for organisation to have strong structure to develop and achieve their goal and objectives.

System – The procedure and way to do organisational routine work which needs to be done on daily basis.

Skills – It is qualities and abilities of an individual or organisation

Staff – Staffs are the people who work for organisation one agenda or objectives

Style – It is very important part for any organisation because style of working directly affects outcome of the organisation.

1.2: RELEVANCE OF THE CHANGE MODEL IN THOMAS COOK IN THE CURRENT ECONOMY

Current economic situation is affecting every business of the world and most of the businesses are suffering and are unable to achieve their objectives. Under the current economic situation it is very important for Thomas Cook to understand the need of the change to keep growing and get further success and if they do not able to understand the need of current economic situation and need of change it will be hard Thomas Cook to sustain the success they achieved. There are lot of change model which can give guidance to organisations to bring change and formulate strategy.

According to current economic situation and current position of Thomas cook ADKAR model of change can bring lot of benefit and improvement in the business of Thomas cook.

It is very important for the management of Thomas Cook to create awareness to their employees about the current situation of economy and awareness should be given to them how change is essential for organisation and employees. Also, desire for something plays vital role and Thomas Cook wants to bring change to it is important for them to tell their employees about benefits and incentive of change so desire can be created in the employees that change will not only bring benefit for organisation but also them. Once desire is being created it is very important for Thomas Cook to arrange some programme for training and education which can help their employees to deal with upcoming changes and challenges. In this stage management of Thomas Cook needs to support the employees to enhance their ability achieve objectives. In the last stage it is essential for Thomas Cook to have very close monitoring of the employees behaviour and working style so that they can revert to old ways of working.

1.3 VALUE OF STRATEGIC INVERVENTION TECHNIQUES

Strategic intervention techniques plays central role in applying change in an organisation. Through strategic intervention techniques awareness and knowledge can be given about change it gives the better understanding of change to a person.

In the case of Thomas Cook, for the planned change to materialize, there is a need for the management to constantly have a teambuilding consensus to encourage individuals to participate in all the activities concerning the operation. Everyone must know that working as a team and fighting the crisis together will help them beat the challenge of the economic downturn.

Thomas Cook must minimize the leadership style of being autocratic; hence, a need to exercise more being participative is essential to motivate employees in performing well. In this way, staffs are given the privilege to bring out their ideas for the accomplishment of an objective.

Human Process Intervention is also advantageous in implementing changes in Thomas Cook as every individual needs coaching and development. Good interpersonal relationship is very essential in every organization. Because Thomas Cook is a large company, team building is needed for the employees to enhance their skills in mingling with one another so as to excel in developing their marketing skills needed in the business. Problem solving must be given focus so that the organization will have an excellent working environment.

As Thomas Cook is a travel and tourist company, external environment will always be taken into consideration. The competition in the market, the present economic situation and the climate in every place will have a great effect in the business. Therefore, to plan for any changes, analysis concerning to external factors of the business must be undergone so as not to waste resources. For instance, fortuitous events like recent massive ashes in Iceland which have caused so much delay in the Europe flights, the threat of terrorist attacks in some countries and the continuous high increase of the cost in travel. These circumstances will have a tremendous effect in the tourism industry because people will tend to stay to their own country for their safety.

Strategic intervention techniques are important for the organization to have guidelines on why they do, what they do, and how they are going to do to fulfil the organization’s objective.

2. ISSUE RELATING TO STRATEGIC CHANGE IN THOMAS COOK:

World is changing rapidly and at the same time demand, need and interest of people are changing with it, world has become a global village so if something happens in one part of the world it affects the other part of the world too. There are current economic issues, political and environmental issues which are the major cause for the change. It is vital for organisation to understand what is happening around them to compete and keep growing, furthermore many organisation doing mergers, acquisition, forming new partnerships in the world which may affect organisations because they are now more linked then compare to past because of globalisation.

2.1 NEEDS FOR CHANGE IN THOMAS COOK

Thomas cook is organisation which deals in tourism and hospitality. During the last few years Thomas cook is unable to meet their targets which were set by them; it is becoming very hard for Thomas cook to maintain the success they had for years. Current economic situation is major issue as most of people are struggling with their finance and it is affecting on their way spending too. Those people who were used to go for holidays often now not going for it as it would put extra pressure on them and on their budget. So compare to the previous year’s Thomas cook is not getting same amount of revenue. Globally tourism has gone down in last couple of years and most of people now do not go for expensive holidays as it is becoming difficult for them.

Furthermore some political changes in the world are directly affecting the business of Thomas Cook, for example current political situation in Egypt is disturbing the planning of Thomas Cook as in last few years they have concentrated heavily on Egypt for their tourism business but the current volatile situation is putting off lot of tourist from traveling to Egypt which is putting more burden on the financial status of Thomas Cook.

2.2 FACTORS DRIVING THE CHANGE IN THOMAS COOK:

Change is the demand of the time for Thomas Cook because there are so many issues which are demanding change. Major factor which faced by most of the organisation in all kind of field is economic meltdown which is putting lot of pressure on organisation budget as most of them are unable to meet their financial target. So Thomas Cook needs to review their strategy to attract more tourists toward them, furthermore political situation of many countries are damaging the business of Thomas Cook, as they have invested a lot in partnership with different hotel in Egypt for tourist but as the political situation of Egypt is very much shaky and dangerous for the tourist because of this many who in the past like to go places like this but now they are avoiding Egypt, so it is important for Thomas cook to address this issue as it is proving quite destructive for the organisation.

It is imperative for Thomas Cook to bring change to address all the issue internally and externally. They need to bring change as current situation in Egypt is affecting them and their investment, so they need to look toward some other market which are more safe and stable politically and economically and where they can attract more tourist for example places like China, Russia they are the places which not only can be hot tourist spots but it can bring lot tourist as well. The change involves a corporate strategy focused on new market, service and new ways of doing business (Tichy, 1983)

2.3 RESOURCE IMPLICATION FOR THOMAS COOK:

Resources are most important factor in the growth of the organisation any organisation, without right resources it is hard for organisation to go further to develop and bring changes according to the demand of market and customers. Thomas Cook has to consider resources which may be hurdle for them to bring change in their organisational policies.

2.3.1 FINANCIAL RESOURCES

Finance is the biggest issue regarding change in the Thomas cook, as Thomas Cook as put lot of investment in Egypt in hotel industry to attract more tourist toward Egypt but as Egypt internal situation is not very good for tourism so it could be very hard for Thomas cook to invest money in some other project. So at this time it can be one big issue for Thomas Cook if they want to bring change in the policies of organisation, further more in last few years because of economic down fall tourism industry is badly affected and with this situation Thomas Cook is already in bad financial situation so financial resources can be main barrier for Thomas Cook if they want to bring change in the organisation (Thomas Cook Plc, 2010).

2.3.2 HUMAN RESOURCES:

To bring change employees have to play vital role in that process but sometime employees do not accept the change as they do not like to change the way they work. First of all as Thomas cook need to give better training to its employees because it is essential for their employees to get further training of marketing to present better but in this case some employees may not like it as some do not like to accept that they are lacking skills and they will not change.

Second thing is as Thomas Cook is struggling with finance so they have to consider releasing some pressure from their budget so for that they need to do downsizing in the organisation but again it will not be easy as employees resist again any step like this.

3. TO LEAD STAKEHOLDER IN DEVOPING A STRATEGY FOR CHANGE:

It is important to bring involvement of the stakeholders in the overall change process as they are the one who are directly affected by the changes in the organisation.

3.1 SYSTEM TO INVOLVE THE STAKEHOLDER IN PLANNING CHANGE

It is very important to understand the how stakeholder should be involved in the change process and this totally depends on the organisation and the way it works. As they are mainly two types of stakeholders’ internal stakeholders and external stakeholders and involvement of them is very important as they are the one who are linked with organisation. Organisation should consider the suggestion and opinion of the stakeholders and give value to what they think and what is their demand regarding change in the organisation.

3.1.1 INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS INVOVLEMENT IN PLANNING

To bring and involve all internal stakeholders in planning the first step is to create awareness about the change and Thomas Cook should provide proper information to its stakeholder about the change and then based on the information it is important to get feedback and suggestion from the stakeholders. Through this process internal stakeholders will be comfortable and will believe they are the part of the organisation and its planning.

For this purpose Thomas Cook should make open forum on their website where all employees can go and provide their feedback and they can discuss with each about the planning and change for Thomas Cook, this way it will be easy for employees to say what they want to say and it can help Thomas Cook to get better understanding of employees opinion.

3.1.2 EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDER INVOLVMENT IN PLANNING:

External stakeholders are customers who are also affected by the change in the organisation so it is crucial for organisation to get customers involvement in the overall change in the Thomas Cook as whatever change will be planned should be for customers benefit and to provide them better services. To involve them in the process Thomas Cook must conduct survey and get feedback about the organisation from customers and they should be ask what they want to see in the Thomas Cook and what are their demands regarding the organisation. Through this organisation can understand what their external stakeholders want and how they can achieve their satisfaction.

3.2 CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY WITH STAKEHOLDERS:

Internal stakeholders are they main player in transforming change in organisation. As currently Thomas Cook is going through tough phase for the reasons which were mentioned earlier so it is important that employees of the Thomas cook should be given more training regarding presentation and marketing of product. This kind of training will help employees to enhance their skills and it will help Thomas cook to get more customers in this tough economic period.

External stakeholders are those who get service from the Thomas cook and customers are most important for any organisation. So it is vital that Thomas Cook should keep very close relationship with its customer and they should inform and give proper awareness to the customer about what is organisation going through and what is happening? As in current economic situation it is hard for customer to afford expensive holidays trips so Thomas cook should get feedback from its customer to understand what is right price and affordability for them in this situation, through this it will be easy for them to get change which will help organisation to get better business.

3.3 EVALUATION OF SYSTEM USED TO INVOLVE STAKEHOLDERS:

It is very important phase for the Thomas Cook to involve the stakeholder in the change management policies and it will affect the performance of the employees. Through involvement system employees will feel more interested toward their work and it will give them the feel of responsibility toward the organisation, furthermore participation in the management decision can bring lot of motivation among the employees and other stakeholders which make them perform better for the Thomas Cook in this difficult phase of economy, furthermore to involve customer in the system it can be more beneficial for company and opinion of stake holder not only support organisation to understand the need and demand but also gives better understanding of issue and problem regarding performance.

3.4 STRATEGY TO MANAGE RESISTANCE

Resistance against change always come, no matter how well prepared and systemized is change, there are always people who will resist against change and bring hurdle against and will take long to accept it, No matter how well designed and planned your change program is, not everyone will be singing its praises (Business Performance, 2011). It is very important for Thomas cook that how they will plan against any sort of resistance and how they will manage it.

It is job of management to provide wide range of incentive to those people who will perform well in new condition and announce bonus and promotion for those people who achieve their targets and objectives for Thomas cook, through this way resistance can be reduced among the employees.

In some way force and authority can be utilized to implement change in the organisation and message should be given clearly to the employees what Thomas cook will not tolerate anything which is against the company polices.

Another way is to explain to all stakeholders how the current situation is not benefiting anyone and tell them if change is not done everybody will suffer and at the same time it is the job of the management to make it crystal clear to everyone that how change will bring improve everyone’s career. Finally it is the job of the management if any resistance come they should find the reason for that and management should be flexible to listen and talk to those people who are unwilling to accept change, further through this management can understand grass root of the resistance and can handle it better way.

4. PLAN TO IMPLEMENT MODELS FOR ONGOING CHANGE

4.1 APPROPRIATE MODEL FOR CHANGE IN THOMAS COOK

Once an organisation is going through a change process it is very critical to use appropriate model of change to keep the process running and on right track because there is possibility of organisation losing their way in the middle of process and it can be a reason for failure of objectives. So for this purpose Kotter’s 8 step model of change will be used during the change process of Thomas Cook, furthermore it is important for Thomas Cook to establish sense of urgency to keep all stakeholders interest in it and it is important to create vision, look for short term goals, empowering people, developing a strong coalition and stick with the change process. If Thomas Cook can implement kotters 8 step model of change it will be able to guide them through this process of the change and organisation can make progress to achieve set targets and objectives.

4.2 PLAN TO IMPLEMENT MODEL FOR CHANGE

It is very important to have right planning and model to bring change in organisation and for this purpose Kotters 8 step of change model will be used to implement change in Thomas cook.

4.2.1 Establish a sense of urgency

Establishing a sense of urgency is necessary in gaining the cooperation whis is essential to drive an important change effort. Most organizations don’t mind this step, in fact almost 50% of the organizations that fail to implement needed change incur mistakes at the start. Organisation may undermined how hard it is to manoeuvre people out of their comfort zones, or misjudge how fruitfully they have previously performed so, or merely patience are not enough to enhance proper urgency .( Kotter international, 2011)

So it is very important for Thomas Cook to understand the need of urgency for establish permanent change in organisation. As current situation of economy is not good and tourist are not coming out to spend, so it is important for vital for Thomas cook to establish sense of urgency in their marketing and should look for different destination for tourist which could bring interest back in tourists.

4.2.2 Creating Powerful Guiding Coalition

No one person, no matter how competent, is capable of single handedly developing the right vision, communicating it to vast numbers of people, eliminating all of the key obstacles, generating short term wins, leading and managing dozens of change projects and anchoring new approaches deep in an organization’s culture.  The right group of people is necessary to form coalition in leading a change for the organization to succeed. That coalition must have the appropriate components, an important degree of being trustworthy, and a shared objective. ( Kotter international, 2011)

Thomas cook should form a strong team of individual from different department who can work together.

4.2.3 Creating the change vision

Clear vision serves three significant purposes.  First, it makes complicated decisions into a simpler one. Next is to encourage individuals to perform in the appropriate direction even though pain has been experienced already on the first step. Subsequently, it aids to synchronize the actions of various people in an outstanding quick and effective means ( Kotter international, 2011). Thomas Cook needs to provide clear path to all its employees about their plan regarding change in the organisation policies.

4.2.4 Communicating the vision

To acquire understanding and commitment to a fresh direction is a difficult task most importantly in complex companies and it entails a lots of inconsistency ( Kotter international, 2011). It is essential for Thomas cook to establish good communication through seminars, meeting and internet forums to provide awareness to everyone about vision of the Thomas Cook.

4.2.5 Empowering others to remove obstacles

When there is a change there will be obstacles so it is vital for Thomas Cook to understand this issue that during change there will be many hurdles and obstacle will occur and to deal with them it is necessary for them to empower employees to implement the vision of the organisation. These people can motivate other to do better to achieve same kind of incentive and promotion in organisation. During the change process Thomas cook needs to give those employees’ promotion and incentive that performed better in this process and gives them authority to lead other in change process.

4.2.6 Short -term wins

For Thomas Cook in the middle of a long-term change effort, short-term wins are essential.  According to Kotter International, running a change effort without attention to short-term performance is extremely risky. Therefore, getting some targets achieved in early phase of change are very crucial and it gives more encouragement to the staff and the member of the staff. Thomas needs to increase their booking quarterly in location like Russia and china.

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 4.2.7 Consolidate Improvement and produce more changes

As stated in Kotter International, resistance is often waiting in the wings to reaffirm itself and even if you are successful in the beginning, you may just power resistors underground where they hang around for an opportunity to exist when it’s not being expected.

This is the most critical phase of change when early success is achieved and sometime organisation tend to relax but it is important to understand that relaxation may lead toward failure so it’s necessary to carry on for further change. After achieving short term objectives it is important for Thomas Cook need to monitor all that process and look for new opportunities to keep on the change process.

4.2.8 Make Change Permanent

New practices must grow deep roots in order to remain firmly planted in the culture.  Culture is composed of norms of behaviour and shared values. These social forces are incredibly strong.  Every individual that joins an organization is inculcated into its culture, generally without even realizing it.

It is important for Thomas cook to keep very close eye on the system and monitor everything to not let employees to go back to old ways of working; through this changes will become permanent in the organisation.

4.3 APPROPRIATE MEASURES TO MONITOR PROGRESS OF CHANGE:

After entering in a change process the main thing is to monitor and measure the progress of the Thomas Cook, Thomas cook need to have system through they can check performance of everyone on short terms and on the basis of this process Thomas Cook will be able to get right judgement of every employee, furthermore after this they can provide further guidance to those who are behind in the process and it can be done through further training and mentoring. On the other hand Thomas cook management must be informed about every step take about the process.

5. CONCLUSION:

Thomas cook is being affected by current economic situation and Egypt political condition so to bring change in the company they need to address few issues regarding finance and to achieve their target they need to look for merger and partnerships in other markets. In the current status quo, ADKAR model is advantageous for the business to as it is focused on individual change. On the other hand, for the implementation of the formulated change to Thomas Cook in line with the needs of the company, Kotter’s 8 steps to successful change is advantageous. Thus, it tackles every aspect of the organization necessary for the desired change.