Research and evaluation of change management planning and implementation

Introduction
A change management plan to implement a new process in the workforce to allow for a business to provide more personalized service is needed in the retail industry (Aloysius, Hoehle, Goodarzi & Venkatesh, 2018). Brick and mortar stores must do something to differentiate themselves from e-commerce businesses, which can provide more convenience to shoppers who prefer not to have to leave their homes. In other words, brick and mortar retailers need to give consumers a reason to come in—and that reason is personalized service. This has been demonstrated successfully by companies like Best Buy, which introduced the Geek Squad to provide a service-oriented approach to consumers so as to get them physically into the store (Meyer, Shankar & Berry, 2018). This paper will discuss the topic of implementing a service-oriented approach to consumers for brick and mortar retailers as a change management plan, using examples such as Best Buy for guidance along with the Kotter 8-Step process to guide the change management plan.
The State of the Change Management Field
The purpose of change management is defined as: “to assist the organization in achieving its goals which cannot be attained with the existing organizational structure, functioning and client servicing, and to minimize the adverse effects of any changes made” (Vedenik & Leber, 2015, p. 585). There are many different old models and theories that have been used to implement change management in the past. These include organizational development theory, socio-technical systems theory, business process re-engineering theory, and processual and contextual accounts of change (Buchanan, Claydon & Doyle, 1999). However, the best change management approach for an individual company will depend on that individual company’s needs. In other words, an audit of the company will have to be performed before anything can be implemented. As Vedenik and Leber (2015) point out, “managing change is of key importance if companies or organizations want to remain competitive” (p. 584)—and part of the key to managing change effectively is to know what a company must do to compete and to differentiate itself (Trout & Rivkin, 2006).
With that said, it is possible that a generic model of change management can be adequate for managing change in a company no matter what it is engaged in. A generic model like Kotter’s 8-step model is such a one. This idea is supported by Pfeffer (2013) who indicates that there is a kind of universality to the concept of management.
Current Theories and Areas of Debate
The current theories and areas of debate on change management all boil down to two main approaches to managing change: first is the procedural model of change and second is the self modeling approach. Kotter’s 8-step model for change management is the most popular example of the procedural concept and can be applied in virtually any organization because it provides a basic, fundamental way for managers to approach both the business and the problem of change and shows how context can play a part in managing the change. This can all be seen in the 8 steps of the Kotter change model, which are:
1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Create a guiding coalition
3. Create a vision for change
4. Communicate the vision
5. Remove obstacles
6. Create short-term wins
7. Consolidate improvements, and
8. Anchor the changes
Kotter’s 8 steps are a helpful for when there is a lot of time available for planning and conceiving the appropriate course of action (Kotter, 2007). However, as Kotter (2012) also notes, there are limits to the degree that a company can spend time in the planning and conceptualizing stage and the reason for that is simply this: the Digital Age has ushered in an era of fast-moving parts, and companies cannot afford to spend endless hours in meetings. In some cases, leaders have to act fast, based on limited data—and that is where the self-model of change comes into play. Researchers debate over which is best, but the truth is that it all comes down to the need, time, and context of the individual company.
The self-model of change focuses on the role that the leader plays in managing the change. It stipulates that to effectively manage change, a leader has to have an innovative orientation and an ability to lead; a common leadership style associated with this model is transformational leadership (Warrick, 2011). In this model, the leader has to be able to communicate effectively and get workers to buy into the vision proposed for the change. The leader is generally required to be charismatic to promote acceptance of the change. This model is especially useful in situations where a change is required urgently and waiting on higher-ups to process information and make a decision after multiple rounds of board meetings is too slow.
For the purposes of this paper, Kotter’s 8-Step model is the preferred model for change management, as it provides a general approach that can be implemented in any retail brick and mortar store (Vedenik & Leber, 2015). By focusing on customers and becoming customer-centric, retailers will need to identify potential obstacles and address them.
The Impact on the Industry
The impact of using the Kotter 8-Step plan for introducing customer-oriented process changes in retail could be so great that it could transform the brick and mortar business industry completely. This change is especially needed because the Digital Age has arrived and given consumers the ability to shop from home. To get them into the stores, companies need to offer something that cannot be obtained online—and that is customer service. And to get employees on board with providing excellent customer service, the Kotter 8-step procedural change model is perfect. As Tobias (2015) shows, however, “the brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail. The failure of leaders to challenge themselves to change, and then model the behavior they seek in others, may be a large contributor to these failures” (p. 35). This implies that a combination of leadership change and procedural change is needed. By embarking on a new direction in the industry, the retail brick and mortar based businesses can enter into a service-oriented approach to business to help stem the tide of losing out to e-commerce.
Background
Managing change is necessary because without change, companies grow old and stale (Walker, 2018). This was the problem Best Buy was running into in the 2000s. After slumping at the start of the 21st century facing the rise of e-commerce and web giant Amazon, Best Buy has rounded the bend and recreated itself to be appealing to consumers in the 21st century. After focusing on pricing strategy in the 1990s, Best Buy found itself losing ground to online competitors and to Walmart as prices began dropping everywhere. Understanding that the brick and mortar retailer could still offer something that Amazon and Walmart could not—expert specialized assistance and service—it revamped its strategy to be service-oriented rather than product-oriented.
Best Buy applied the customer-centric model to its retail stores, allowed managers to apply the results only approach with its sales reps, and increased its online presence so as to stay relevant in the Age of the Internet. Best Buy’s chances of staying relevant in the future years are good, so long as its Geek Squad and staff members stay abreast of the latest trends in technology and continue to offer great customer service.
Change is an action an organization engages in to introduce a new concept, method, culture, or initiative (Walker, 2018). It aims at altering the manner in which the organization operates so that it can be more effective, efficient and productive overall. Change is important in organizations because no industry or field is ever static or stagnant. New approaches are always being developed. New technology, for instance, can make old processes outdated or irrelevant. New research into how a workplace culture can be tweaked to boost morale and increase worker motivation is constantly being conducted. New ideas about how to address old issues are constantly being needed (Franken, Edwards & Lambert, 2009).
In order to know whether a change is needed in an organization, an internal audit has to be conducted. This is a process by which the organization’s processes, aims, goals, staff, production, culture, and all other aspects of the organization or evaluated to see if there are any weaknesses or areas that are acting more as obstacles to the organization’s objectives than facilitators. The internal audit can be outsourced or conducted in-house using any method of review. The important point is that no change should be implemented without there being a clear indication that a change is required. Change without justification will never be sold to workers: employees need to know why a change is occurring and the reason has to be justifiable and rationale—otherwise workers will resist it and will not support it, as Kotter made evident in his 8-step model for organizational change (Applebaum, Habashy, Malo & Shafiq, 2012).
Implementing the Plan
Implementing the plan requires managers to first create a sense of urgency by showing to stakeholders that this change is necessary. This will not be hard for businesses in retail as the brick and mortars are dying and everyone knows it. Thus, the urgency should already be felt. Next, the manager has to establish a guiding coalition (Kotter, 2007). This means a team of stakeholders has to be involved in organizing the change. To help them, a vision of what the business is going to become has to be produced. This will focus on providing services to customers that the employees did not do before. The employees will have to undergo new training, which could lead to resistance among workers. However, by communicating the vision and removing obstacles to change, the manager can effectively create a positive culture that will embrace the change for the right reasons. Obstacles, such as resistance (like negative attitudes from workers), have to be removed. The best way to do this is through education, support and the use of managers’ emotional and social intelligence. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators—such as recognition and bonuses—can also be employed to help break down resistance and overcome obstacles. Christensen, Marx and Stevenson (2006) poinit out that “employers can choose from lots of tools when they want to encourage employees to work together toward a new corporate goal” (p. 72). The manager should also focus on celebrating short-term achievements to help keep morale high. With each successive achievement, the business can consolidate improvements and build its brand out in a new direction. Finally, the manager must anchor the changes so that they are essentially institutionalized—i.e., they become the common way of doing things in the business. They are the standard processes that workers will learn when they are hired. The old ways will be gone.
Future Directions
The Digital Age is not going away and that means change is required on a global scale. Specific areas of research that would be beneficial for this topic would include ways to blend service with an e-commerce division to help facilitate a technological inclusion in the change. Consumers demand e-commerce as it is convenient—but they also do not want to sacrifice service—so those two really do need to go together. Franken, Edwards and Lambert (2009) point out, “business leaders are under constant pressure from stakeholders to comply with their demands while maintaining the organization's competitiveness in increasingly complex markets. Likewise, managing the motivation of workers will be essential to managing change in the future, as the next generation of workers—the Millennials—have their own values and ideas about what it means to work for a company (Christensen, Marx & Stevenson, 2006). So understanding this group will be necessary in the future to ensure that change can be effectively managed when they are the employees. Still, more information is required for understanding how to motivate this group: “One of the rarest managerial skills is the ability to understand which tools will work in a given situation and which will misfire. Cooperation tools fall into four major categories: power, management, leadership, and culture” (Christensen et al., 2006, p. 78). Research that is still required is on how to get stakeholders to agree on what is wanted, what is needed, and how to achieve that goal. In decision making in the retail space, there are not a lot of options left, but stakeholders can be divisive.
Another area where research is needed, however, is on finding new ways to implement change. There is no concrete consensus as of yet on how or which direction it should go; and, as Pfeffer (2013) reiterates, people have not changed so why is a new change management model required? The fact is that in the 21st century, people have changed. Millennials are a new generation. They are tech-savvy and more inclined to use tech to communicate than to do so in face-to-face settings, which sets problems particularly in the retail space for bricks and mortars that are wanting to transition to being more service-oriented.
Potential Impact of the Topic
Implementing a change management plan based on Kotter’s 8-step process in the retail space to help the industry transition from being product-focused to being service-focused could have a huge impact on the future of research in the field in the next 3-5 years, especially as more and more pressure is brought on brick and mortar retailers following the wave of bankruptcies since Amazon began dominating the industry. As Campbell (2014) shows, retailers have to take stock now because change has come to the industry requiring them to change too or perish—like Circuit City did, like Blockbuster did, like Sears is doing, and like Best Buy almost did. Change has come—an external change—that requires internal change. Research will have to look at whether the plan is actually feasible—whether the change management process is adequate in helping companies to overcome barriers, or whether the change itself is even feasible or achievable.
Processes and Strategies to Recommend
McGregor (2004) notes that change management is synonymous with quality management and that “quality and change are similar concepts because they both imply movement and are not finite states,” (p. 3). In order to change a company’s culture and make it more effective in supporting organizational aims, growing pains must be experienced. However, these pains should not be avoided. There are effective methods available to help organizational leaders deal successfully with them (Victor, Franckeiss, 2002). Every organization makes the claim that it offers something new to the world, something the world needs, something it does not already have, and something that will improve the lives of those who partake of the service that the organization offers or the product that the organization sells. To maintain this positive dimension within the company, the company has to strengthen its corporate culture and keep stakeholders happy with what it is doing.
The internal audit is the first place to begin to manage this type of change effectively. The audit helps to show what is going on with the company. It reveals whether there are problems with its workplace culture or whether groups within the organization are bringing negative vibes into the workplace. It helps to identify areas for improvement and potential barriers to change. In order to implement an adequate and effective change management process to help strengthen or develop the right or preferred culture, a solid assessment must be conducted that will essentially show how to align goals with strategies, how to shape principles and apply them, and how to implement training tools to guide employees Kissack and Callahan (2010).
The pre-assessment communications phase is helpful in laying out the groundwork for the evaluation and obtaining a sense of where the organization currently is culturally speaking and where it wants to be. The assessment window is that timeframe that allows for culture to be evaluated in both one-on-one formats and in group assessments. The more time allotted, the more data can be obtained. The data analysis period is relatively short, as information is evaluated in terms of already defined parameters supplied by the audit. The post-assessment communications period is that pivotal time in which the outcomes of the evaluation are made clear to management and a “where-do-we-go-from-here” strategy provided.
On the global scale, differences in culture also have to be considered—as does the existence of the digital divide. The digital divide is that which occurs when one part of society has access to new technology than another part does not have. For example, the developed world uses computers, Internet, cell phones to communicate/share information, work, and recreate. The developing world has less access to these tools, and thus takes less part in the way the world is shaped in political, economic and social terms—as those with digital technology are more influential in spreading ideas and shaping the course of events (Krebeck, 2010; Deursen & Dijk, 2014). A company that seeks to implement change in the retail industry to become more service-oriented will face fewer barriers in the developing world as the digital divide is more likely to be pronounced in the developing world. Thus, for brick and mortar retailers, the obvious frontier for establishing themselves is in the developing world where a lack of infrastructure for deliveries makes the threat of e-commerce less significant. The digital divide can work in the favor of companies seeking to shift their brick and mortar stores to markets that can support them.
Still, culture has to be considered. Culture, no matter where one is will be an important factor for a business. Mattel failed in China because it failed to take into consideration the country’s culture. Its brick and mortar retail design was perfect for Westerners but the concept did not translate well into Asia. Thus, the company’s performance bombed (Lyles, 2008). Culture is therefore very important to consider in any change management process (Kotter, 2007).
Steps to effecting a quality change should depend on the following points that a change manager should take special heed in following:
1. Define the current state
2. Define the future state
3. Determine key implementers
4. Adjust, review, and reward
5. Compare progress to model metrics
These are all steps that are favored in the Kotter 8-step model and they help to ensure that the most critical aspects of effective change are covered. To ensure that these steps are covered, however, leadership has to be involved.
In fact, to implement change, the most important consideration to be made is that effective leadership is required. Leadership will make or break a business, no matter what part of the world it is operating in. Leaders have the potential to stimulate and to harm (Schyns & Schilling, 2013). Transformational leadership is especially powerful and in change management it plays a vital role as it allows the manager to effectively communicate the vision, inspire and motivate workers to embrace the vision, and provide individual support for workers to accept the change (Warrick, 2011). However, in order for transformational leadership skills to provide the manager with the tools needed to communicate, support, and empower workers to embrace change, the leader must know the type of workers of whom change is expected. That means the leader must be familiar with them, understand what motivates them, and be prepared to provide these motivators by describing the change in visionary terms so that workers can see it, feel it, and understand it (Gerhart & Fang, 2015). The transformational leader has to be able to provide justification for the change and appeal to workers’ logic and their need for reasoning.
Conclusion
Change is needed in the retail industry to enable bricks and mortars to compete with e-commerce. A service-oriented approach can be implemented using Kotter’s 8-step model. However, more research is needed in the field to help managers better understand what motivates the new generation of workers, which is unlike any generation to have come before, as they are all primarily digital natives. The transformational leader can supply the emotional support that workers need in difficult periods of transition by using social and emotional intelligence skills. Focusing on improving and strengthening the corporate culture is also important and change managers have to involve stakeholders in the process of change to ensure success.
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