US LLC Change Implementation

US LLC Change Implementation

The change readiness and needs assessment audit showed that the change should focus on four areas. Some regions are appraisal, job-role stagnation, and promotion or recognition of employees. The proposed changes in this area include developing a performance management system, job rotation, employee benefits, and performance rating. The second area is disinterest or apathy regarding the organization’s vision, values, and mission. The recommended changes in the area include an onboarding program and employee involvement in decision-making. The third area is a lack of trust in managers, especially senior leaders. The recommended changes in the area include organizational structure and communication channels. The fourth area was the organization’s attitude to inclusion and diversity. The changes that can be implemented in this area include cultural awareness, diversity, and inclusion. This report provides a breakdown of the change implementation process and the stakeholders involved.

Stakeholders

According to Bienkowski & McGowan (2021), a stakeholder is a group impacted by the change. Stakeholders respond to the change based on the anticipated changes in their position in an organization and the extent to which the planned intervention goals align with their goals. They can influence the change process by failing to provide necessary resources or influencing managerial decision-making. Therefore, it is essential to encourage stakeholder participation in the change implementation process to enhance the success of a change. Employees and managers from the company’s Singapore headquarters and the United States branch are the critical stakeholders in the change process.

Stakeholder Role

Employees are vital in gaining acceptance, buy-in, and support for change across departments. They will influence change acceptance based on how they discuss the change among themselves. For example, discussing the benefits of the change will increase acceptance and support among all employees in different departments. Employees will also influence buy-in by giving feedback about the change and recommending improvement areas to ensure they benefit. Managers will play a vital role in gaining buy-in by sharing all information about the change with employees, including the benefits, any negative impact on employees, and the need for the change in the U.S. branch. Managers will also influence acceptance and support for change by allowing everyone impacted to participate in decision-making in the change implementation process.

Stakeholder Impact

Employees will improve the change initiatives’ likelihood of success by acting as opinion leaders. They will share employees’ concerns about the change to enable leaders and managers to understand the causes of resistance. They will also share an opinion on how the change can be structured to accommodate their and the company’s needs. Managers will act as connectors and counselors. In counseling, they will talk to employees who may be resisting the change and reason with them by explaining the importance of the change and discussing with them the concerns that could be causing resistance. The connector’s role will include serving as the bridge between leaders and employees by sharing information about the change and providing the resources employees may need to implement the change. Managers will also serve as connectors by gathering employee feedback about the change and sharing the information with leaders to evaluate the success of the change and any adjustments that should be made.

TABLE 1: Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder	Role	Impact
Employees                 Managers	They influence change acceptance based on how they discuss the change among themselves.       They influence buy-in by giving feedback about the change and recommending improvement areas to ensure they benefit.     She is gaining buy-in by sharing all information about the change with employees, including the benefits, any negative impact on employees, and the need for the change in the U.S. branch.     They influence acceptance and support for change by allowing everyone impacted by the change to participate in decision-making in the change implementation process.	I am sharing employees’ concerns about the change, which enables leaders and managers to understand the causes of resistance.   They share opinions on how the change can be structured to accommodate their and the company’s needs.     Serving as the bridge between leaders and employees by sharing information about the change and providing the resources employees may need to implement the change.   It is gathering employee feedback about the change and sharing the information with leaders to evaluate the success of the change and any adjustments that should be made.

Strategic Alignment

Strategic goals are the specific non-financial and financial results and objectives an organization aims to achieve over a particular period. The company’s strategic goals include improving talent and learning, growth and expansion, enhancing marketing and visibility, and acquiring new customers.

The change management plan focuses on improving communication between the Singapore headquarters and the U.S. branch, improving communication between leaders, managers, and employees, increasing interest in the company’s vision, mission, and values, and increasing employee motivation. Therefore, the plan aligns with strategic goals that require employee engagement and effective communication, such as the provision of a regular flow of information to employees and stakeholders, the provision of effective work systems that meet the needs of frontline employees and leaders, and supporting and promoting the United States business’ efforts to develop, expand and sustain operations.

Organizational Strategy

The company’s vision is to leverage people, technology, and resources to help customers transform all business operations and facilitate innovation. The company works towards realizing the mission through employees. The mission is to create unprecedented service, value, and opportunity for employees, customers, and partners. The company’s efforts toward meeting this mission include focusing on teamwork, innovation, and excellence, creating a team of dedicated professionals, and upholding commitment. The company also focuses on empowering employees to offer services that exceed customer expectations and improve the community, giving customers the best customer experience, overcoming challenges, building customer confidence and demanding the best for the company, pursuing excellence in everything the company does, and being a leader in innovative information technology services and strategies. The company’s values include unity, excellence, and service.

Branch Operations

The U.S. branch operations include receiving and shipping products, marketing the company’s products, contracting suppliers and distributors, customer relationship management, information technology development, research and development, quality assurance, and I.T. support.

Aligning Branch Operations with Organizational Strategy

The change management plan will facilitate the practical completion of operations in the U.S. ranch by supporting the exchange of information and resources between the Singapore headquarters and the U.S. branch. Clear communication will also ensure that employees in the two branches understand the company’s mission, values, and vision and what the company expects from them to meet strategic goals. Effective communication will also ensure that employees in the two branches collaborate in realizing a shared vision, thus providing effective work systems that meet the needs of frontline employees and leaders.

Trends

One of the trends that could influence employees at the United States branch is collaborative digital workspaces. The need to maintain collaboration between the employees at the Singapore headquarters and the United States branch may prompt employees at the U.S. branch to create collaborative workplaces for easier and faster exchange of information and ideas. The second trend is the use of video communications. Employees at the U.S. branch may opt to use video communications to improve communication by ensuring that the information from top management and leaders is clear. Video communications will also facilitate immediate feedback, thus improving communication between the U.S. branch and Singapore headquarters.

Improvements to Organizational Systems

An organizational system is a set of resources arranged to enable computational agents or people to interact with them. Improving the corporate systems will ensure successful and sustained behavioral change by impacting the attitude of employees toward the organization. According to Wagner (2020), positive attitudes among employees increase commitment and morale by creating a sense of belonging. Therefore, improvements in the organizational systems should focus on creating a conducive work environment where employees feel valued.

Areas of Change

One of the areas of improvement is communication. The company has many communication issues contributing to reduced employee morale and poor performance. For example, leaders’ messages are inconsistent, especially regarding practices and policies related to human resources. The second area of change is human resource management. The company lacks a proper performance appraisal system, and employees are not trained on the Singaporean SOP. The human resource department is also slow in addressing employee complaints and concerns. Therefore, the company needs to improve its human resource management policies, procedures, and processes to meet the human resources department’s needs in the U.S.. branch.

Impact of Change

The change will increase employee engagement and commitment. For instance, proper communication between leaders and employees will ensure that employees have clarity on what is expected of them, thus focusing their efforts on meeting expectations. Effective communication will also create trust between leaders and employees, thus increasing their morale and commitment to meeting the company’s goals and objectives. Training employees on the Singaporean SOP will also increase commitment because employees will have the knowledge to complete assigned tasks and meet performance expectations. Addressing employee complaints on time will increase employee engagement by giving employees a voice in the organization, thus creating a sense of belonging, which will contribute to developing a positive attitude towards the company.

Recommended Enhancement Strategies

Assbeihat (2016) states that team collaboration is divided into knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Learning focuses on information about a task, such as a team’s mission, objectives, norms, problems, and resources. Skills define the behavior of the team members, such as how every team member relates with each other, leadership roles, performance checks, and communication patterns. Attitudes include the feelings of the team members towards one another. Team collaboration is vital in change implementation because it facilitates the exchange of ideas to resolve problems that could hinder the successful implementation of a change.

Team Collaboration Issues

One of the team collaboration issues is the disengagement of employees at the sales and marketing division and call center due to contradictory communication between the leadership at the Singaporean headquarters and the U.S. branch. The second issue is limited employee engagement because of the top-down management style where high-level managers make strategic decisions and require lower staff to implement them. Employees are also restricted from giving feedback or complaining about the decisions made by top management.

Causes of Collaboration Problems

Poor communication is the leading cause of lack of collaboration between team members across the Singaporean headquarters and the U.S. branch. There is a limited exchange of information among team members in the two branches, thus making it hard to work together toward achieving a shared goal. Another cause is a lack of understanding of the Singaporean SOP. Team members at the Singaporean and U.S. branches cannot collaborate because the employees at the U.S. branch have not been trained on how to use the Singaporean SOP.

Building Teams

Building teams requires leveraging the strengths of each team member and working on eliminating their weaknesses. Therefore, an individual performer can become a team player to improve team collaboration by using their strengths to enhance team performance and cooperation. For example, a separate team player with good persuasion skills can use the skills to convince team members to work together towards achieving the team’s goals and objectives.

Building Trust in Leadership

Trust plays a significant role in fostering collaboration among team members. Therefore, leaders should focus on building trust through their leadership behavior. For example, they may demonstrate integrity and accountability in completing their leadership roles to create transparency and contribute to trust. Leadership behavior, such as maintaining a clear communication channel with employees and engaging them in decision-making, also promotes trust.

Change Management Model

The appropriate change management model for the U.S. branch is the ADKAR model. The model limits resistance to change by creating desire, awareness, knowledge, reinforcement, and ability. The U.S. branch must adopt the recommended changes to meet the company’s strategic goals. Still, poor communication and lack of employee morale could create resistance. Therefore, it is vital to develop the desire for change among employees and create awareness by sharing information about the change, its benefits and impacts, and why it is essential to the company.

Applying Change Model to U.S. Branch

The ADKAR model will be applied in the U.S. branch through two steps. The first step will be educating employees about the change to create awareness. All information about the change will be shared in this step, including its benefits and impact on employees and the company. Employees will be allowed to give feedback about the change and recommend improvements that can be made to align the change with the company’s strategic goals. The second step will be reinforcing the change by giving employees incentives to motivate them to embrace it and rewarding employees who embrace the change based on the company’s expectations.

Change Steps

One of the steps needed to implement the change management model at the company’s U.S. branch is creating awareness of the significance of the change for the company. According to Lewis et al. (2021), communicating the need for change reduces resistance by enlightening employees on why the change has to happen and why it has to occur at the selected time. The second step is fostering the desire to implement the change by explaining the benefits of the change. Fostering desire creates a positive attitude towards a change, thus increasing acceptance and buy-in from those impacted. The third step is providing guidelines on how the change will be implemented. This reduces resistance by creating a sense of responsibility based on employees’ roles and responsibilities in implementing the change. The fourth step is ensuring that all employees can implement the change by equipping them with additional training. This makes employees feel valued, thus reducing resistance to the change. The fifth step is reinforcing the change by correcting employees who make mistakes and rewarding those who meet the company’s expectations.

Mitigating Resistance

Resistance will be mitigated by educating employees about the value of the change to the company based on the benefits the change will bring. The expected benefits include improved communication across the two branches, increased collaboration among employees within one branch and across branches, and facilitating the exchange of information to enhance the company’s performance and profitability. Employees’ concerns about the change will also be addressed by involving all employees in decision-making about it and its implementation.

Dealing with Contingencies

We shall create a risk management team to deal with the impact of planned and unplanned changes and any contingencies that may arise from the change. The team will design mitigation plans to ensure that the unexpected changes and contingencies do not negatively impact the company’s progress toward realizing the proposed change.

Milestones

One of the milestones needed for change implementation to succeed is achieving zero resistance to the change within the first month of the change implementation phase. The second milestone is reducing employee complaints about the change within the first month of the change implementation process. The third milestone is 100% change acceptance among all employees and participation in sharing ideas on improving the change within the first six weeks of the change implementation process.

Metrics

The main metrics that will be used to measure the success of the change management plan will be employee feedback, communication effectiveness, and employee engagement. Employee feedback will be gathered through surveys uploaded on the company’s website to guarantee anonymity. Communication effectiveness will be assessed based on employee feedback on the clarity of information shared by managers and leaders, the time taken to get feedback from managers and leaders, and the transparency in the communication channel.

Conclusion

The main issue in the U.S. branch is poor communication and lack of team collaboration between employees at the branch and the Singaporean headquarters. Therefore, the U.S. branch needs to improve its communication to achieve the company’s strategic goals. However, doing so requires changes at the U.S. branch, including adopting the Singaporean SOP, which could create employee resistance. The most effective strategy to prevent resistance is ensuring that employees at the U.S. branch understand the proposed change, its impact on them and the organization, the need for the change, and its benefits.

References

Assbeihat, J. M. (2016). The Impact of Collaboration among Members on Team’s Performance. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 5(5), 248–259. https://doi.org/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311811209_The_Impact_of_Collaboration_among_Members_on_Team’s_Performance

Bienkowski, P., & McGowan, H. (2021). Involving stakeholders in the change process: 1. Managing Change in Museums and Galleries, 84–85. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003015390-28

Lewis, L., Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2021). Leading organizational change. Wiley Global Education U.S.

Wagner, S. H. (2020). Attitude theory and job attitudes. Essentials of Job Attitudes and Other Workplace Psychological Constructs, 13–42. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429325755-3

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Scenario

Congratulations! You impressed the leadership team as an H.R. consultant hired to resolve communication and employee disengagement issues at the U.S. branch of the Singaporean software solutions organization.

You submitted a change readiness report as Milestone One, highlighting the importance of stakeholders and change implementers. The V.P. and the management team also appreciated your proactive presentation on employee engagement. Next, you submitted a report on the various change management models and justified your recommendation of one of those models.

With each of these submissions, you prepared the V.P. and the leadership team for your recommended change management plan. It is time for you to deliver the change management plan to the V.P. This document is a significant component of your change management kit because it outlines individual and organizational activities that require change implementation. Through the change management plan, you will identify stakeholders of significance, outline strategic goals, and recommend steps and strategies to implement the organizational changes required.

Prompt

Create a report covering the change management plan’s pre-implementation and implementation phases in the course scenario. Refer to the Case for Change Guide to ensure relevant organizational data is considered.

Specifically, it would be best if you addressed the following rubric criteria:

Identify two key stakeholders or sponsor roles from the Singapore headquarters and the U.S. branch for the change process.

• • Refer to the Leaders’ Self-Evaluations document for additional context.

Discuss the significance of each stakeholder’s role in gaining buy-in, acceptance, and support for change across departments.

• • How can each stakeholder improve the change initiatives’ likelihood of success (for example, by acting as opinion leaders, connectors, counselors, and journalists)?

Identify strategic goals that align with the change management plan and provide rationale. Consider the following in your response:

• • Refer to the Vision, Mission, Strategic Goals, U.S. Branch Overview, and Leaders’ Self-Evaluations.
  • Ensure alignment with the change management plan and the organization’s strategic goals (Singaporean headquarters and U.S. branch).
  • Research emerging trends that could influence employees of the U.S. branch.

Explain how improvements to organizational systems can ensure successful and sustained behavioral change.

• • Refer to the Exit Interviews to identify the areas of change.
  • What are the processes, procedures, or policies that need improvement?
  • How will these improvements impact the behavioral change of employees at the U.S. branch?

Recommend at least two enhancement strategies for team collaboration.

• • Refer to the Exit Interviews and Leaders’ Self Evaluations to identify team collaboration problems.
  • What are the reasons for the lack of collaboration between team members across both organization locations?
  • How can an individual performer become a team player to improve team collaboration?
  • How should leadership behavior change to build trust?

Determine a change management model that can be used at the U.S. branch and justify it.

• • Based on your evaluation of the challenges that the U.S. branch is currently facing, choose from the following change management models:

• • • Kotter’s change management model, Lewin’s change management model, or ADKAR’s change management model

• • How would you use this model at the U.S. branch?

Describe the steps needed to implement the change management model at the U.S. branch. Support your response with research.

• • How would you mitigate and remove any roadblocks in the change management process?
  • What are your plans to deal with the impact of planned and unplanned changes and any contingencies?
  • What milestones need to be accomplished for change implementation to succeed?
  • How would you measure the success of your change management plan?