HRM 587 (Managing Organizational Change)

Week 1

Week 1 DQ 1

1. Post the top three learning points you gleaned from the stories, and include how the stories for change helped you learn these points, or

2. Research one of the four companies and see how or if that company has since changed (yet more) since the time of the book’s publication. How did that recent change fit with or not fit in with the “lessons” that the textbook mentions the company “learned” from their original set of changes? Explain what you find (bring the URL of the research/article you used to help you).

Week 1 DQ 2

Pressures for Change (Graded) 
Organizations change due to many different pressures. In your lecture for Week 1, as well as your reading in Chapter 3, you are introduced to many of these pressures. Think about a time at work, at school, or at home, when you have been subjected to similar pressures (this is “your” example). Did that pressure make you change or “dig in your heels” and refuse to change? What does that say about pressures for change? Does it always lead to change? 

Week 1 Assignment:

 (Course Project Managing Organizational Change Part 1 Topic Selection) (350+ Words)

Week 2

Week 2 DQ 1

The textbook talks about many types of “change.” Here is a list of many of the “types”: first order, second order, anticipatory, reactive, adaptive, tuning, adaptation, reorientation, recreation, midroad, tectonic, incremental, transformational, downsizing, technological, mergers and acquisitions. It is all quite overwhelming, really. Our goal this week is to gain clarity and understanding of the differences among the types of changes. 

Week 2 DQ 2

The Green Mountain Resort case is a perfect one for us to work together as a class on the different images for change and how they are reflected (or could have been reflected) in that case. We will cover multiple facets of this throughout the week but to start, let’s talk about the role that Gunter plays in our case study this week. For our opening posts, pick one or two of the following (or debate with your classmates): 

Week 2 Assignment:

Week 2 Course Project Images Grid.a (Director, Navigator and Interpreter)

Week 2 Course Project Managing Organizational Change Part 2 (Images of Change) (2200+ Words)

Week 3

Week 3 DQ 1

Chapter 5 identifies several diagnostic models. The first five speak of the overall structure of the organization. Select one of these five and research it on the Internet. Discuss why you chose this particular model, with special emphasis on the components included and how they (and the model) fit with your view of the organization you are researching for your project. Speak also to what you see as the model’s strengths and weaknesses

Week 3 DQ 2

The Force Field Analysis Model is one of the most famous in change management. It was originally developed by Kurt Lewin and can be found in Chapter 5 at the end of the chapter (printed page 151). Review this model and relate it to an issue in your organization or your associations outside of work. Define how understanding the “forces for” and the “forces against” inter-relate. What insights did you get from the analysis? 

Week 4

Week 4 DQ 1

(Note: This case is a work of fiction.) Lefty’s BBQ is a U.S. national restaurant chain which serves beef, pork, and chicken barbecue along with Pepsi products, thin-cut French fries or slaw as sides, and offers biscuits or garlic bread as well. The restaurant operates as a drive-up only, with parking lots available at most locations for people to sit and eat in their cars, as well as picnic tables outside in some southern locations. The “average” customer is white male and about 35-45 years old. Many of the workers in the chain are high school part-time, hourly workers who operate the registers, clean-up, and cooking. Managers range from the age of 18+. Lefty’s BBQ senior management has implemented a change plan to introduce alcoholic beverages to its menu (beer and wine only).

Week 4 DQ 2

Addition/Subtraction Company (A/SC) is a textbook publisher for math education, including 1st grade through graduate school levels. The company has been supplying textbooks to public education schools (grade – university level) for 55 years. The company has always prided itself on the loyalty it shows to its employees in that almost all of its authors are full-time employees, and very little of the work done in the organization is farmed out to independent contractors. However, over the last 10 years, the earnings of the company have taken a huge hit, partly because of the No Child Left Behind Act, which caused some of A/SC’s textbooks to fall out of print before they made a profit, and partly because of the increase in costs due to the company’s health insurance premiums when a large number of their employee base (and their families) contracted serious illnesses requiring lengthy and expensive treatments which has impacted the bottom line of the company

Week 4 Assignment:

HRM 587 Week 4 (Barriers to Change) (1400+ Words)

Week 4 Course Project Managing Organizational Change Part 3 (Diagnosing the Change) (5500+ Words)

 Week 5

Week 5 DQ 1

Organizational Development Theory and Practices

JetBlue Airways is a company which has embraced the OD theory and allowed OD’s vision of emotional intelligence, value proposition, positive reinforcement, and change through improvement and culture to drive much of its results over the past years. The airline industry is one in which external influences have had an unbelievable impact on the bottom line of all of the companies that fly

Week 5 DQ 2

nStep Practices (Graded)

Class, you will be the “change agents” for this change. Your professor will be the CEO, issuing dictates, orders, suggestions, support, ideas, and thoughts. However, you, as class members, will need to take each new piece of information and determine how it will fit into your plans for change, as change agents. Keep an eye on the new information as well as how your colleagues are addressing it. Innovation, creativity, and level headedness is key to making this week’s solution succeed. Good luck! 

Week 6

Week 6 DQ 1

Tyco Case Study (Graded)

Review the Case Study on the Tyco company which appears in your textbook at the end of Chapter 11, pp. 345-346. After reading the case, let’s start the discussions with these questions. 
1. How did the turnaround team use Gerard and Teurf’s transformation skills (discussed earlier in Chapter 11) to overcome the frustrations of employees? 
2. What were some of the examples given in the case which led you to think those transformational skills were used? 
3. Of the three types of cultural transformation (behavioral, experiential, and attitudinal), which of these types occurred in the Tyco case, and why do you think so? 

Week 6 DQ 2

Types of Communication Methods (Graded)

Throughout the term, you have been researching two companies and the change plans each underwent. This week, you will be working on the communication plan which you feel one of the companies most likely used (or you will create one you would have recommended it use). This plan will include types/methods of communication, a timeline for that communication, etc. (See the project for more details.) This week, we want to work together and look at types of communication. Also, you will be given an opportunity to share a draft of the “sample” communication you are going to provide for your project, and receive feedback from your classmates. 

Week 6 Assignments:

Course Project Managing Organizational Change Part 4 (Communicating the Change) (3000+ Words)

HRM 587 Week 6 (Case Study Tyco) (900+ Words)

HRM 587 Week 6 (Change Plan Grid)

Week 7

Week 7 DQ 1

Chapter 12 NASA Case Study (Graded)
Read the end-of-chapter case in Chapter 12 of your text and do Internet research on NASA during both disasters, with particular emphasis on the disasters’ effects on the culture. Why do you feel it is so difficult to “sustain” cultural change in a large organization AFTER the immediate effects of a major event like Challenger or Columbia? What role should leadership play in working to “institutionalize” such cultural changes? 

Week 7 DQ 2

Cracking the Code of Change: HBR Article (Graded)
Locate and read the HBR article, “Cracking the Code of Change,” in the Online Library. It can be found through a general search in EBSCOhost, in the Harvard Business Review collection, May-June 2000 issue. 

Week 7 Assignment:

 Course Project Managing Organizational Change Part 5 (Annotated Bibliography) (2350+ Words)