Managing and Leading Change

Introduction

Change management in business organizations is a process where individuals, organizations, teams and groups are all engaged in a shifting work for reaching a desired goal or state which is different from their current state and that can bring in more comfort or success to the business. Change can occur to individuals themselves, the organization structure, the methodologies used by the organization or in any other relevant area of the business. There are many stages and phases involved within the change process as change cannot occur suddenly, there are three main phases which are the first phase of preparing for the change which involves the preparation process, assessment process and strategy development. The second phase which is managing change involves planning for the change and implementing it and the third phase which is reinforcing change that involves collecting data about the change and make needed corrections. The current case of US Cellular Corporation presents how change can be ineffective and it suggests inquiries about reasons behind this as in the company there was a problem of the overload of emails that are sent between customers and co workers and the company's employees as when the CEO decided to make Thursday is free from email work, employees complained of the increased work load and problems. The current assignment is discussing how change management can be performed to improve the business performance through discussing types of change, analyzing the company's change and challenges, discussing leadership and change perspectives and making a plan for change management. (Reiss, 2012)

Analysis

Managing business change requires many things to be considered and this is important when the change is either big or small. At first, the business organization should identify the type of change it is going to involve its individuals in. Identifying the change's type helps in setting a good change plan and how to guide the business's human resources towards achieving the change. Types of change are three main which are the developmental change which is based upon steps that are performed for improving the current procedures and processes of the business in addition to making human resources well acknowledged of the way to implement the change and deal with any difficulties that may appear as a result of that change. Training is very important for the developmental change as employees should be well trained to achieve it. Another type of change is the transitional change which occurs to replace a current process within the business with new one or with new group of processes, this type of change is difficult when it is to be implemented and in most cases, it leads employees to feel discomfort with it. This type of change needs an assessment for the benefits and losses that may occur as a consequence for the change in addition to learn about employees' opinions about it during implicating it and providing employees with the required training. There is also the transformational change which is made to turn the business totally from a certain framework to another new one. Market changes can be a factor that leads to performing this type of change. (UAB, 2015) US CEO decided to make a change within the company in order to relieve workloads from the employees as each user of the emails used to send 150 messages and more daily. The change he suggested was to make Thursdays free from using emails at all and called them "No email Thursday" rule as this rule meant that on Thursdays employees have to meet and phone customers or answer them face to face and not on emails, this change was a transitional change as it occurred to replace a practice with another within the work program and it was difficult for employees who really felt uncomfortable with it as some of them told the CEO that the work was easier before and now they and there are challenges both the CEO and the employees face regarding the new change followed. The changes made in the US Cellular Corporate were all in the way work goes and this is very relevant to the employees themselves, their work and the way they perform it. The CEO had to discuss the changes with his employees before implementing them, he should have asked them if the change would help them or not and how far. The current situation of being puzzled whether to continue the ban on emails on Thursdays or not should reach a solution such as training employees for this situation by training them on organizing the day and meeting a limited number of customers this day, for example, as it is impossible to meet the same number of people who used to send emails. It is the fault of the CEO from the beginning as he should have trained employees on how to prepare themselves for this day and how to react with the public as he should have expected this reaction before, another important thing is that the impression of one employee is not enough so the CEO has to make an open discussion with other employees and recognize their opinions in order to make the right corrections for that situation. (Riley, 2012)

Leadership is very connected with change perspectives as leadership is the main drive for changes as managing a change is the responsibility of managers who should ensure business stability and the best results consequence from change implementations. Leaders are responsible to make effective acts that lead to the right changes. A manager   or a leader should have a model for change to follow when implementing a change so, for example a three steps or a four steps model should be followed by the leader to ensure correct results. A leader can choose a four steps model that begins with identifying the current situation well, its constraints and all possible alternatives and then try to learn reasons behind employees dissatisfaction with the current status, after that the leader has to choose the most suitable alternative and discuss it with employees and train them on performing it and how to face the challenges that may appear as a result of implementation. Implementation plan is important after choosing the right alternative as it can set stages of implementation and how to face the challenges.(Myers, 2012).  Navigating change is very challenging for managers and leaders as the shift can cause perplexity in the work routine and employees can find difficulty in following the new changes as the change process may affect the employees' emotional response.  The CEO could not predict this because the nature of people's reactions is not usually predictable, yet some expectations and discussions could have solved the current problem or even suggested some solutions for it.  Leaders should manage change through finding out the suitable perspective to deal with change and is relevant issues, the leader should consider change from two perspectives, from that of employees and that of the organization as change affect them both. The barriers to implementing the change should be declared and discussed and the discussion should include all employees who are going to implement the change in order to know what can help face the barriers and get the best results for both individuals and the organization as change should be done for making both of them more satisfied. (Kadir, 2014).

The current situation of the US Cellular Corporation can be solved if the CEO understood his role in change management as his role should be more effective as a leader than what is found in that case. The CEO should be more close from his employees, understanding their needs, desires, complaints, wishes and requirements.  A CEO should realize if the changes he is going to do are suitable for the work environment or not and I they would meet employee satisfaction or not. A good suggestion for the current situation is that the CEO should hold a meeting with all employees in order to discuss the change with them and set the challenges and barriers they confront while implementing the change and recognize the real reasons behind the dissatisfaction of some employees who think the esrealize that employees' training will be effective as perhaps they lost the skills needed for that task of meeting and phoning customers and co workers facto face so some training will be useful. Another important action to be done is organizing the work hours and dividing employees on new teams for that day in a way that really results in relieving the workload and leading to their job satisfaction in order to work less hours than they used to do before and meeting a reduced number of customers and co workers as this number should be limited for urgent cases only. Another solution is to assign two or three employees only to check emails at that day because some urgent emails are sent because the people sent them could find difficulties in reaching employees face to face. (Harrington, 2006)

 The following table sets a communication plan for continuous change management on employee and managerial performance at US Cellular Corporation.

KAC (Key Areas of Concern)	Objectives	Activities	Responsible Person	Time Frame
A meeting	-To know employees satisfaction level with the change. -To learn about employees complaints	Dividing the employees into groups and each group has a pioneer to talk representing the group.	-The CEO. -The leader of each group.	-The meeting time is four hours divided on two sessions with a 15 minutes break between the two sessions.
Implementation Plan	-To set stages of performing the change. -To make change easier.	-The employees provide a report for the manager about the way they prefer to implement change with. -The manger prepares the plan with the help of some employees.	-The CEO. -Employees.	One Week for receiving reports and preparing the plan.
Training Employees	-To make employees more able to master skills of meeting customers face to face.	-The CEO divides employees on groups to receive training inside the organization.	-The CEO.	Two Weks.
Evaluation	-To assess results. -To make correction.	The CEO makes a meeting with employees after implementing the training course to assess the situation.	-The CEO.	Two hours meeting.

Table 1 A communication Plan

The table1 shows how the CEO can prepare a communication plan in order to make better relationships with his employees so as to recognize their reactions and feelings towards the change and if they are able to do it or not. The CEO can hold meetings for recognizing and discussing employees' opinions and suggestions regarding the situation. An implementation plan should be made in order to divide time and employees and set stages for change implementation. Training should be provided for employees and then evaluation should be made to measure success and employees' satisfaction about the new trend in change implementation. (Paul, 2008)

Conclusion

Change in business organizations is very important as it can lead to more comfort within the work environment and raise employee retention so it should meet the goals it is made for or it will work against work success. Change management needs high effectiveness leadership at the CEO of any organization should master communication with his employees and learn if the change is suitable and helping for them or not. This can help the CEO make the right corrections or follow the proper procedures to deal with the change and make the proper implementing plan and communication plan to reach the organizational goals behind the change. Any CEO should learn that change needs to be done according to main stages and these stages are important for ensuring the success of the change. Another important thing is to identify the type of the change before implementing it. Leadership should be basd on understanding the change perspectives and how change is processed by the employees who may need training to do the desired change.  This situation is suitable for US Cellular Corporation situation.