Change Management Impact Essay

A communication plan is one of the vital changes in a management plan for an organization. Communication is one of the most critical aspects that Cooper Motors Corporation (CMC) uses to achieve its goals and objectives as a company. Communication is deemed as a mechanism that uses two ways where information is solicited, and feedback is provided with an aim to act on it. One of the goals associated with change management and communication effort is to align executive leadership and also build commitment. Also, it also helps in managing changes and by enabling transformations in an organization in support to the complex processes involved in the recommendations approval implementation.

Purpose for the Change

CMC carried a communication plan as a change management plan in its procurement department. The change involved all the personnel in their procurement department where a team was selected to perform the task. The need carries to this change was to enable the personnel to communicate effectively with other departments within the organization to help in the continuing verification of the business benefits in support by the steering committee from the executives and the team in the procurement department (Sheffield, 2017). The other need to carry out this change was to enable communication and reinforcement for long-term benefits to employees by the managers and also assist in the measure of the impact of other identified change activities. It also was to help the signing off of processes that were newly developed, assist in monitoring expectations and help in the development of metrics to communicate progress. It had a huge blow to the human resource function for they had to not only fund the program but also at the end had to pay for additional personnel.

The Change Implementation Methods

The people involved in the team had to possess good communication and critical skills, they also needed thorough understanding about the functions involved in the company. In addition, the needed to possess skills in leadership.

The change implementation plan had four steps namely analyzing of data sources and quality, assessing the data enrichment reporting spend requirements, conduction of selected processes, and solution implementation on spending reporting. Thus the change implementation methods included the use of transformational approach that facilitated in empowering individuals to opportunities to enable contribution in shared values, mission and as well as the objectives of the program (Sheffield, 2017). The change also was to be open and consultative to help in supporting transparent approach and also engage everyone with the project. The change was also implementing the use of consistent messages to enhance credibility and professionalism of the project being carried out by the team. It also implemented the use of central co-ordination to ensure the approach was consistent and it managed expectations which encouraged the audience to believe in what to say and also the need to be realistic as we’ll as being not overly optimistic. The change implementation methods also involved listening and acting on feedback. This encouraged support into needs by the audience, this enables the approach to meet the ever-changing audience needs.

Credibility was also another method din the implementation of the change as it true that a communication approach that is credible drives the community in a belief that it’s possible to achieve the end goal. It also implemented a visible management support by involving an active management team with the commitment to give credibility to the communication. It also implemented the use face-to-face communication that facilitated audience involvement as well and providing viable feedback (Sheffield, 2017). The team also avoided information overload as an implementation method for the change. This is because too much information could lead to confusion and is deemed irritating. It could also lead to inaccuracy and high time consumption.

Budget Concerns

The budget was a major concern within the organization. This called for the need of sponsors to help fund the program as well as input from the company itself. Communications and sponsorship occur simultaneously and are highly interwoven. Therefore, leadership skills were highly appreciated at this stage of the program to help in a proactive way to support and communicate the transformations benefits (Kneer, 2013). Communications aims at delivering messages that are key at an appropriate time by exploiting the use of effective vehicles to collect feedback with aim to address the concern. On the other hand, sponsorship forms the network contained of leaders and champions helping to drive the change and basing on the feedback available from the communications channels, increased sponsorship may be a crucial additive in selected areas.

Timeline

The timeline for this program was five months to fully completed, and the results are presented to the executives and to the procurement department for further actions to be taken regarding the objectives of the program. This was to minimize the money to be spent during the process of the program. The short time frame also facilitated the faster communication between different individuals within the organization by enhancing accuracy and spending the shortest time possible not to interrupt with the daily process of working with individuals within the organization.

Measurement of Success/Metrics

Measuring the success of the communication plan as an organizational change can be done in various ways. Progress and adherence to the plan can be used to measure the success. Where many people are giving a high progress and adherence rate shows that’s the plan is already successful. The speed of execution is also vital in the measurement of success; high execution speed illustrates the high rate of success (Kneer, 2013).  Communication effectiveness is also a key metric. Where communication is deemed most effective, then the plan has already been successful. Communication deliveries can also be used in measuring success in such a program. Where the deliveries are in large quantities, then the program is a success to its organization. Use of Project KPI (key performance indicator) can also be used to measure the success of a program.

I would recommend that human resources department should outsource a team from the private procurement firms to review the impact of the change on the human resources function. This would produce the best outcomes regarding the change since there will be no biases on any outcome. Three additional personnel would be required to work, and the way of recruitment would be, the private procurement firm should provide the most competitive personnel based on merits and achievements.  Regarding organizational alignment, change management effort, and the program leadership should be closely aligned in support of the implementation team.

References

Kneer, C. (2013). Change management. Place of publication not identified: Grin Verlag.

Sheffield, U. (2017). Develop a Change Plan/Communications Plan – 1. Planning Change – Toolkit – Change Management – Policies, Procedures & Related Guidance – HR – The University of Sheffield. [Online] Sheffield.ac.uk. Available at: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hr/guidance/change/toolkit/planning_change/plan.