Organizational change management in Best Buy and Hewlett-Packard

Managing Organizational Change Introduction
Change: What It Is
Change is an action an organization engages in to introduce a new concept, method, culture, or initiative. It aims at altering the manner in which the organization operates so that it can be more effective, efficient and productive overall. However, because most people naturally react negatively to change as there is something comfortable about enjoying the status quo, the most challenging aspect of change, according to Walker (2018) is simply managing the irrational fears of workers. Managing this fear is “what change management is about” (Walker, 2018, p. 30).
Why It is Important
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 New technology, for instance, can make old processes outdated or irrelevant.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. Whenever an organization finds that it is falling behind in productivity goals or is simply suffering from some form of ailment, change is likely going to be the solution implemented. Change can wake up a company, so to speak, get it back on track in terms of performance, and enhance the workplace environment so as to keep all stakeholders invested in the vision and mission of the organization. Images of Managing Change Real World Examples
With the rise of the Internet and e-commerce, Best Buy found itself struggling to keep up. All throughout the 1990s, the company had skyrocketed, with stores opening up all over the U.S. It sold CDs, DVDs, TVs, stereo equipment, computers and more. Then everything began to go digital: music and movies were suddenly available online for free and Amazon began eating into the market share. Best Buy had to do something to stay relevant as a brick-and-mortar store in an age when e-commerce offered convenience of one-click shopping to consumers. Best Buy revamped its appeal by focusing more on services rather than products: it introduced the concept of the Geek Squad, altered its in-store structure to make more workers available to wait on customers and answer questions, and it began increasing its Web presence (Shapiro, 2016). Each of these steps involved implementing the organizational change process.
Another company that has implemented organizational change in recent years has been Hewlett-Packard. At the start of the 21st century HP was in terminal decline; its leaders had gotten away from the strategy of innovation that had made the company a success in the decades prior; now, it was falling behind as Apple took the lead in innovation. When Whitman came aboard as CEO, she began to change the way the company managed its affairs: she split it in two so that research and development could receive more focus than it had been in recent years (Hardy, 2014) and this allowed the company to regain some of its competitive edge. Diagnosis of Change 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 Change Change Management Change management is ultimately the most important aspect of implementing change effectively. To this end, there are a variety of options available in terms of method of change management. There is the Lewin change model, which is sometimes called the freeze/unfreeze model, and describes a three-phase process in which change can be effectively managed. The Kotter 8-step model is essentially a more detailed explanation of the same management idea. The steps of the Kotter model include:

Creating a sense of urgency Creating a guiding coalition Creating a vision for change Communicating the vision Removing obstacles Creating short-term wins Consolidating improvements; and Anchoring the changes These steps begin with the need for management to show to workers and executives that there is an immediate need for change. This need has to then be bolstered by a team that will work together to guide the process of change. The process has to have a vision of what the end goal looks like. This vision has to then be communicated to stakeholders so that they know what they are striving to achieve. 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. This is also how short-term wins are celebrated: whenever teams accomplish a goal within the change process, the managers should celebrate it to bolster morale. Finally, once the changes have been accepted, they must be anchored and sold as the new way of conducting business.

Contingency Planning Part of monitoring the change process is the idea of contingency planning. Contingency planning is based on the idea that problems will be encountered and in order to mitigate risk, the organization should have a back-up plan in place. This is the contingency plan: but to develop a good one requires the foresight that comes with adequate risk management. This means that change management will necessarily have to correlate with risk management.

Processual Approach The processual approach to change is based on the idea that change is fluid and unending—i.e., there is no definite goal or point wherein the organization can rest, content with itself and its achievements. According to this idea, organizational change also tends to be rather dramatic, disorganized, complex, complicated and outright messy at times, as a result of numerous factors like organizational politics, informal group movements, cultural obstacles, workplace history, and so on.