Organisational Change Management Importance

Introduction

In this era of rapid technological advancement and market globalisation, organisational change management is integral to business success. Organisational change management refers to the strategic process of making organisations and their employees market-oriented and business-like which implies they become performance-oriented, cost-oriented, efficiency-oriented, customer-oriented, and audit-oriented (Lozano et al. 2015). Strategic business and change management has become a global phenomenon requiring all organisations, whether small or large, to identify and implement different change initiatives to improve their competitiveness, market share, and profitability (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

This report considers two organisational change initiatives – social media marketing and product differentiation – that the organisation should implement in order to remain competitive. The objectives for social media marketing are stimulating sales, lowering marketing costs, increasing brand awareness, and creating user interactivity. On the other hand, the objectives for product differentiation are promoting brand loyalty, insulating against lower prices, and protecting from competitive rivalry. These two change initiatives can be categorised as incremental changes as they do not replace the existing approaches to marketing and product but complement them in order to reach more customers and better meet the changing needs of consumers. The report is divided into 4 tasks. Task one identifies the change initiatives to be implemented and the most appropriate change models required to successfully manage the change. Task two provides the vision for change and its deliverables showing how they are aligned to the vision, mission and the corporate goals of the organisation. Task three analyses the gap between the future and the present in order to effectively manage the change. Task four identifies the key stakeholders in each change initiative while outlining the steps taken to secure the commitment and engagement of these stakeholders.

Task 1: Key Changes and Change Models

The emergence and acceptance of social media as an integral part of daily lives in the greatest part of the population has significantly affected consumer purchase patterns (Madsen and Slåtten 2015). This has dramatically changed the seller/buyer dynamics in the retail network resulting in adoption of social media and e-commerce as major options to choose from. On the other hand, Karimi et al. (2015) opine that in this digital era, consumers use internet to preview organisations perusing through their websites and other third-party sites that feature organisations and their products. The emergence of social media has completely changed the behaviour of consumers in that prior to the internet age, they relied on physical stores to get information. In the presence of social media, some organisations provide virtual tours to their stores thus providing shoppers with important information that facilitate the decision-making process (Erkan and Evans 2016). Additionally, some shoppers use organisational websites to understand previous customer experiences through displaying feedback in form of reviews, which further supports the shopper decision-making process (Chan and Yazdanifard 2014). According to Lim (2015), these reviews not only help customers in decision making but also inform store managers to identify the potential future problems thus offer optimal solutions to maintain and attract new customers. Therefore, social media has been key to helping organisations improve their customer experience and drive shopping satisfaction.

In light of the above information, it is paramount for the organisation in this case to develop a website and open other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram while also advertising on other third-party social sites. In addition, the organisation should remain active in managing these social sites to make sure that customers’ concerns and questions are addressed as soon as possible. It would be advisable for the organisation to hire a social media manager in order to make sure that the social sites are competently managed. This will result to increased organisation-consumer interaction, helping the organisation to maintain its customers in this hypercompetitive business environment. If the organisation does not adapt to social media marketing, it will be left behind and fail to achieve the desired results. In fact, survival for the fittest is the business environment is all about adapting to a changing environment and adjusting to new ways to doing business (Doppelt 2017). Agility is the only way business organisations can remain relevant in this era. According to Cook (2015), the competitive advantage is built through dynamic capabilities which lays emphasis on changing the character of the environment or embracing strategic management to appropriately adapt, integrate, and reconfigure the internal and external organisational resources, skills, and functional competences towards the changing business environment. Nonetheless, organisations have limited control over the business environment thus it is easier to embrace the key role of strategic change management. In this case, the organisation cannot change consumers use of social media thus can only integrate, adapt and reconfigure its marketing activities to reach potential consumers in social sites.

Product differentiation on the other hand focuses on how an organisation positions its products given that the characteristics of the products sold significantly affect consumers’ willingness to pay for them (Barigozzi and Ma 2018). The basic principle of differentiation holds that organisations differentiate their products in order to soften price competition but it is also held that differentiating from competitors reduces competition (Zanchettin and Mukherjee 2017). Product differentiation generate value to consumers while creating more profit for firms in that they are able to serve new markets, and enlarge the existing ones. Therefore, it is ideal for the organisation in this case to consider product differentiation in order to remain competitive. The organisation should consider both branding differentiation and marketing differentiation. Branding differentiation will relate to making its products different from those of competitors through regular innovation. On the other hand, marketing differentiation will entail using different advertising media and content to reach consumers. In order to achieve brand differentiation, the organisation will have to conduct a market analysis in order to identify the extent to which the product offered in the market reflect the needs of consumers. The results of the market analysis will help the organisation develop its products to meet the expectations of consumers; product development will make the organisation’s product different from those of competitors. Given that the new products will be a better reflection of consumer needs, the organisation can compete of price basis given that consumers will be willing to pay more for the products. On the other hand, marketing differentiation will entail using content and media different from that used by competitors. Given that the organisation should already be considering social media marketing, it is advisable that it extensively uses user-generated content to market its products given that many organisations use their own-generated content to market their products (Kim and Johnson 2016).

Georgalis et al. (2015) note that change is perceived differently and how individuals perceive and approach change determines how effective the organisation is bale to manage the change. This implies that the organisation should invest in creating a positive perception and approach to these changes so that all the employees are willing to adapt to the change. To attain this, Kotter’s 8 stage model of change management would be essential in guiding the organisation through the change. The 8-stage process can be defined as a vision for the change process in that it describes the steps that the organisation should take to achieve the identified changes. These 8 stages include establishing a sense of urgency, creating a guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering broad-based change, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change, and anchoring new approaches in the culture (Galli 2018). The efficacy of Kotter’s change management process has been broadly supported in the literature (Tang 2019), which implies it is an effective guide to implementing these changes.

Task 2: The Vision for Change and its Deliverables

The organisation has been in operation for more than 30 years thus one of its key strengths is the knowledge of the market it serves. In addition, the organisation has a strong market position although the long-term contextual changes have threatened this key strength. Technological changes and social media marketing in particular have dramatically affected the consumer decision-making process (Ashman et al. 2015) meaning that is the organisation does not integrate and adapt to this change, it risks losing its customers hence losing its market share and profitability. On the other hand, product homogeneity lowers the power of an organisation to compete (Baye and Kovenock 2017) which implies that product differentiation will increase the organisation’s competitive advantage. The vision for these changes is to help the organisation maintain a competitive advantage, the market share, and its profitability despite the stiff competition and rapid technological changes facing it. The objectives for social media marketing are stimulating sales, lowering marketing costs, increasing brand awareness, and creating user interactivity. According to Leung et al. (2015), Facebook is the largest social media platform thus if the organisation creates a fun page around its products, it will be able to significantly increase brand awareness. According to Mariani et al. (2016), fun pages allow an organisation to present the services and products it offers in response to consumers’ needs thus creating some form of organisation-consumer interaction. Through this interaction, the organisation will be able to understand the needs of its market while addressing their concerns resulting in customer satisfaction. Seller-buyer interaction helps stimulate sales given that the seller understands the needs of the buyer and develops his/her products to meet the expressed needs (Lee et al. 2014); this implies that through user interactivity, the organisation will benefit with more sales revenue. Twitter is known for short messages and conversations (Leung et al. 2015) and up to 70% of consumers are present on Twitter (Chang et al. 2015). The organisation should create a Twitter account and use to engage customers in different ways. For example, the organisation can tweet about its products. However, Clark et al. (2016) note that there has been very high volume of tweets which can make it hard for the organisation to gain attention and traction. To overcome this limitation, the organisation should post more visuals messages in the form of pictures and videos since visuals are more effective in capturing user attention as compared to textual messages (Sarlan et al. 2014). Through these tweets, the organisation will be able to reach more potential customers resulting in increased sales. Further, the organisations will be able to keep in touch with its customers thus enhancing the relationship it has with its customers. The organisation should further develop a website on which it should post information about its products and itself. The organisation should remain active in responding to the concerns and questions of its customers in order to establish a positive relationship with consumers. It is good to note that the organisation should never ignore a negative consumer feedback but should respond positively in that this creates a feeling that the organisation is concerned about the emotions of its consumers (Dwivedi et al. 2015). Posting on these social sites will help the organisation lower its marketing and advertising costs in that the only cost is hiring a competent social media manager. Therefore, implementing these changes is essential to helping the organisation achieve its vision for the change.

The objectives for product differentiation are promoting brand loyalty, insulating against lower prices, and protecting from competitive rivalry. As aforementioned, the organisation should differentiate both the brand and marketing activities. Brand differentiation will require the organisation to conduct a market analysis and develop its products to better reflect the needs of the target market. Through brand differentiation, consumers will perceive the organisation’s more valuable than those of the competitors, which will promote brand loyalty. In addition, brand differentiation will drive more value to consumers thus increasing their willingness to pay more for the products. This way, the organisation will be insulated against lower prices that other organisations in the industry are using to drive sales. Insulation against lower prices will result in higher profitability thus ideal for the organisation to realise its vision. Marketing differentiation on the other had should entail using user-generated content of social marketing sites rather than firm-generated content which is common among the rivals. According to Goes et al. (2014), user-generated content on social media marketing platforms is more effective at driving sales in that consumers trust the information provided by fellow consumers more than they trust information posted by the firm. This means that user-generated content will win the organisation more customers thus protecting the organisation from competitive rivalry.

Task 3: The Gaps between the Future and the Present

The organisation has been in operation for more than 30 years which means that it is loyal to traditional marketing and production methods. However, technological advancements and heightened level of competition are forcing the organisation to integrate and adapt to new production and marketing methods. In the future, technology and innovations should be integral part of every organisation is order to remain operation (Coccia 2016). A major gap in this case is the required level of knowledge for the organisation to use social media marketing techniques and agile production methods. Maheshwari and Vohra (2015) note that when employees feel incompetent to complete their new tasks, they are more likely to resist change. Therefore, it is paramount for the organisation to develop training programmes aimed at equipping employees in the marketing and production department with skills required to handle the change. During the development of the training programmes, managers should associate employees’ training motivations with their career goals. According to Doppelt (2017), training should be aimed at developing employees thus there is the need to ensure that individual training plans are aligned to employees’ career paths. However, the training plans should also be in line with the organisational objectives and in this case promoting employee productivity in order to realise an increase in market share. In order to identify employee career paths, managers should conduct needs analysis; first the managers should communicate the vision for change and the new responsibilities to individual employees and second, allow employee to evaluate themselves and identify rooms for development. The type of training offered should be meant at bridging the gaps (Stavros et al. 2016). Zafar et al. (2015) note that training enhances employee motivation as certification following training enriches their CVs. This implies that employees will be highly motivated to attain organisational goals following training, which will potentially promote organisational performance.

During the implementation of the change, it is imperative that the organisation considers the perspectives of the employees in relation to the training sessions. According to Solis (2017), employees are motivated to learn when they are involved in the preparation process, allowed to participate during change and given flexible workweeks during the training period. On the other hand, Park et al. (2018) note that employees consider financial rewards important during the training period as it compensates them for the extra hours they have to work after each training session. Therefore, the organisation should consider rewarding employees financially during training if there are extra tasks to be completed. In addition, it is important for the organisation to involve employees during the preparation process in order to gain a better understanding of how employees perceive the training programme and their willingness to learn. This will ensure that employees do not attend training sessions because it is mandatory but because they want to learn (El Baroudi et al. 2018).

A second way through which the organisation can overcome resistance to change is forming leaders to support the transformation. According to Harb and Sidani (2019), leadership style is a critical element in organisational change in that it is the leaders that influences the introduction, acceptance, and adoption of new ideas. Transformational leadership has been widely adopted in the process of change implementation as it increases employee awareness of the need to achieve the collective objectives. Abbasi (2017) define transformational leadership as a leader’s ability to transform the energies deployed by the followers in order to increase their motivation to achieving the desired objectives at the individual and organisational level. A transformational leader is able to motivate his/her followers to go beyond their personal interests and work for the common good of the organisation (Deschamps et al. 2016). Therefore, if the organisation adopts the transformational style of leadership, it will be able to overcome barriers influenced by employees’ personal interest thus realising a work environment where employees are willing to forsake their personal interests for those of the organisation. For example, the incumbent marketing director will not feel threatened when the organisation is incorporating social media marketing because he/she understands that social media marketing is more effective at driving sales and maintain a positive relationship with employees as compared to traditional marketing strategies. Chou (2014) posits that nothing can transform an organisation faster and prepare if for the future better that competent transformational leaders.

A third way the organisation can overcome resistance to change is by adopting effective communication. Doppelt (2017) state that communication and organisational change are inextricably linked processes, which implies that the organisation cannot implement the change without effective communication. Lewis (2019) writes that during change management, communication is more than informing employees about the change and should seek to answer their questions and address their concerns in order to reduce anxiety and keep them motivated to achieve the required outcomes. When implementing the social media marketing initiative, it is possible that employees in the marketing department will have concerns relating to job security and at this point, it is essential for the organisation to communicate that the change comes to complement the existing marketing strategies but not to replace them. Effective communication during change management has been established to be a tool to build trust, create awareness for the need of change, generate desire for employee to participate in the change, and generate desire to support the change (Hayes 2018). It is also advisable that the organisation promotes communication at all levels and encourage upwards communication so that employees are confident to ask questions about the change, which will clear any doubts they have and get them to support implementation of the change.

When implementing the changes, the organisation should develop a communication strategy that matches the stages of the change process and provides employees with all the appropriate information they require to keep moving. During the initial days, communication should be aimed at preparing employees for the change (Behnia and Mueller 2014). As such, the organisation should communicate what the change is and its objectives. Additionally, the organisation should address the concerns of employees and provide them the support they need to gain confidence in the change (Behnia and Mueller 2014). During the implementation period, the organisation should acknowledge that there is high level or uncertainty given that the employees are not yet sure of what is happening (Behnia and Mueller 2014). At this stage, it is advisable that the organisation continues communicating but focus on providing detailed and accurate information of what is happening to all employees while clarifying the roles of individual employees (Lewis 2019). After the change has been implemented, the organisation should focus communication on responding to the concerns of employees while supporting them to ensure they do not go back to the old ways (Behnia and Mueller 2014).

Task 4: Key stakeholders and strategies to promote buy-in

The key stakeholders in the implementation of social media marketing are employees in the marketing department, the organisational leaders, consumers, and the general internet users. Employees in the marketing department are the most affected in that they will have to integrate the new marketing strategy in their marketing practices. Organisational leaders will have a crucial role to play in preparing departmental employees for the change and supporting them through the change. They are the ones to develop, communicate and support the change vision to ensure that employees support it. Consumers will also be affected by the change initiative in that they will have to use the internet to receive advertising messages rather than relying on what they are traditionally used to. Finally, the organisation will have to ensure that the content they post on the social media sites is acceptable to the general internet users; the information should not be misleading and should follow the social media marketing ethics (Fiore et al. 2016).

The key stakeholder in the implementation of the agile production methods are employees in the production department, suppliers, leaders and managers, consumers, and the society in which the organisation operates. Employees in the production department will need to be trained and equipped with agile production skills so they can confidently run with the change. Suppliers will also have to be informed on how the change affects them in terms of the quality of materials required and even supported to improve the quality of their materials (Kim and Chai 2017). Leaders and managers will also have to undergo training on agile production methods so they can understand the vision of the change and influence the entire organisation to embrace the change. Consumers will also be affected in that their needs will now inform product development. This implies that they will be required to provide information on what they require and how the products offered by the organisation can be developed to meet their needs. Finally, the organisation will have to ensure that the production methods effectively use resources within the society while ensuring minimal or no waste and pollution (Pelantova and Vitvarova 2015).

Effective communication is the first strategy the organisation will have to use to secure buy-in of employees. In this case, the organisation will have to develop a communication strategy which identifies the change, its vision and objectives, explains why the change is important, and explains how the change will affect individual employees (Doppelt 2017). The change management team should be confident in the change in order to influence the employees into supporting implementation of the change. Effective communication in this case should be open and honest in order to build trust (Lewis 2019). The team should also encourage open upwards communication so that all employees are free to ask questions about the change while expressing their concerns.

Training will be an ideal strategy to help develop employees and increase their confidence in handling their new tasks. The organisation should organise a training session with all the affected employees to help them understand their new roles and equip them with the skills they require to complete these roles. Given that the organisation has not had such changes before, it will be required to hire an external trainer who is competent in social media marketing as well as another one competent in agile production methods.

In order to convince employees that the change is attainable, Hayes (2018) suggests that setting short-term goals is very effective. After the training, the organisation should have employees attempt their new roles and review performance on weekly basis, which should help build employees’ confidence in the change. The performance reviews will also be effective at helping the management identify areas of improvement thus organise more training sessions to fully equip employees.

Employee involvement will also be necessary in creating employee commitment and engagement. According to Sharif and Scandura (2014), employee involvement is positively associated to commitment to change. In the same vein, Hussain et al. (2018) state that employee involvement is positively correlated to individual readiness for change. Similarly, Goetsch and Davis (2014) note that the more employees are involved in the change process, the more likely it is that they will go an extra mile to support successful implementation of organisational change. Therefore, the organisation should involve employees right from developing the objectives of the change until the change is successfully implemented.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Integration of social media marketing and agile production methods is the sure way to remain competitive in that these changes will stimulate sales, lower marketing costs, increase brand awareness, create user interactivity, promote brand loyalty, insulate against lower prices, and protect the organisation from competitive rivalry. To successfully implement these changes, the following recommendations are essential:

Adopt Kotter’s eight stage model in the implementation process

Train and develop employees to build their confidence in handling their new tasks following the change

Develop a clear communication strategy to help built employees’ trust in the change and their willingness to support the change

Involve employees throughout the change management process in order to drive their commitment to the change

Adopt transformational leadership style in order to help the organisation faster move to the desired state

The organisation should set short-term goals and conduct weekly performance reviews in order to convince employees that the new goals are attainable

Following the results of the reviews, the organisation should organise subsequent training sessions to fully equip employees with skills to competently handle their new roles

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