Mba 520 Change Management Plan

Introduction

In this paper the reader will learn what the major implications of change are at Intersect Investments, as well as how the employees are reacting to the change. It will discuss the different reasons why Intersect’s employees are being resistant to this change and provide options to move them from being resistant to being committed to the change. This paper will describe in detail how Lewin’s Model of Change will help Intersect Investments make the transition to a customer intimacy model. It will also address the leadership styles, including transformational leadership and charismatic leadership, which will lead to the success of the change implementation, as well as measures to monitor the progress of the change. Lastly, it will discuss several future leadership challenges that Intersect Investments might face in the next several years.

Major Implications of Change at Intersect Investments

Intersect Investments’ CEO, Frank Jeffers, recently identified a new vision for the

company. He stated that Intersect Investments will “provide a broad set of products and services to consumer and small business customers using a model of customer intimacy that will build long-term relationships based on trust and value to the customer” (Scenario: Intersect Investments, p. 1). This type of a change is going to alter the current organizational culture at Intersect Investments. According to McShane and Von Glinow (2005), organizational culture is “the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs governing the way employees within an organization think about and act on problems” (Chap. 16, p. 2). In order for Jeffers’ vision to become a success, the organization’s culture must change, and the employees attitudes and beliefs must change with it.

Intersect Investments’ management team is currently facing a great deal of resistance from employees. They have had several meetings in which they have given reasons why they do not believe the switch to a customer intimacy model is the best plan for the company. One reason is that they are currently increasing revenues by increasing the number of sales calls they make per day. They are having a hard time understanding how they will continue to increase revenues if they spend more time on the phone with each customer, thereby cutting back the total number of calls they are able to make per day. One of the sales team leaders, Lyn, is very resistant to make this change, and at a recent meeting she stated,

I’ve had a 14 percent increase in my sales goals and only a five percent increase in my sales headcount. IвЂ?m more concerned with figuring out how my people can spend less time at each call so they can see the same type of productivity improvement. More calls equals more sales; how can I expect them to spend extra time with each customer trying to build a “trusted advisor” relationship (Scenario: Intersect Investments, p. 6)?

These concerns are prevalent within the different departments. Another concern among employees is that they believe making this switch will lower revenues, at least in the beginning, which will lead to layoffs (Scenario: Intersect Investments, p. 9). This has many employees concerned because it is forcing them to question their position at Intersect Investments, which also effects their levels of commitment to the company. .When an employee feels their job is in jeopardy, they will likely begin searching for other job opportunities so that they do not end up in a situation where they lose their current job and have nothing to fall back on. This is contributing to the high employees turnover rates that Intersect has been experiencing recently.

The concerns of Intersect’s employees are causing them to be very resistant to the implementation of the new customer intimacy plan. Kinicki and Kreitner (2004) define resistance to change as “an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine” (Ch. 11, p. 15), and they go on to state that “no matter how technically or administratively perfect a proposed change may be, people make or break it” (Ch. 11, p. 15). Intersect Investments must get their employees on board with the customer intimacy model if they wish to be successful. No matter how detailed and specific their plan is, if the employees are resisting the change, it will not be effective. Intersect needs to dissolve the resistance to change and replace it with a commitment to change among their employees. According to Kinicki and Kreitner (2004), a commitment to change is a mind-set “that binds an individual to a course of action deemed necessary for the successful implementation of a change initiative” (Ch. 11, p. 17). If Intersect can convince their employees that this change is a necessary action that will be beneficial to both the company and the employee, and instill this commitment to change, they will have a higher probability of success.

Another implication of the change facing Intersect Investments is the employee turnover rate, which was mentioned briefly above. According to Annie Sorento, director of sales operations, the top three reasons that employees are leaving are that “they don’t understand our direction, they don’t believe upper management has the ability to pull off the new strategy and they are not getting the information they need to do their jobs” (Scenario: Intersect Investments, p. 8). The reality of this is that the employees do not feel as though the management team is capable of making these changes a success. This is very bad for a company to have such a lack of faith from their employees in the management team and it is something that must be resolved quickly.

Change Model for Intersect Investments

Intersect Investments is undergoing a great deal of internal change at this time. One form of internal forces for change is managerial decisions, which plays a big role in this organization. According to Kinicki and Kreitner (2004), “managerial decisions are a powerful force for change” (Ch. 11, p. 7). CEO Jeffers decided that Intersect Investments needs to implement a change to a customer intimacy model for the company to create more trust among their clients, thereby increasing the amount of money their customers will invest with them. This idea has not been accepted wholeheartedly by the employees at this time, so the management team needs to focus on pushing this change to the employees,