Application of Change Models

MasterЎ¦s Project in Change Management

Application of Change Models

By: Carl V. Gibson

Organizational Leadership and Change Management LDR/515

Mentor: Mr. Bruce W. Webb

University of Phoenix

Date: May 21, 2007

The SkyMall and In Flight Meals Program are not geared for any real short-term or small-scale program changes. However, they are in the long-term and large-scale changes. It is the objective to get the customers and passengers use to using both ventures. In the long run they both will show a profit and passengers can turn in the frequent flier miles to purchase items in the SkyMall saving American Airlines from having to give them a ticket to travel. In our book it states Ў§Finally, winning a negotiation at your counterpartЎ¦s expense is likely to be only a short-term gain. Leaders should attempt to work out a resolution by looking at long-term rather than short-term goals, and they should try to build a working relationship that will endure and be mutually trusting and beneficial beyond the present negotiation.ЎЁ (Hughes−Ginnett−Curphy, 2002) For this reason I also did not want any short-term goals.

The sales department is the short-term or small-scale or long-term and large-scale should be initiated by employee participation in problem solving and the encouragement of creative thinking will address the departments relatedness needs. As with the marketing department, increased training and mentoring sessions as well as empowering decision making, and implementing a conflict resolution process will satisfy the departmentЎ¦s growth needs. Rewards and recognition will address the existence needs of the department.

The need to incorporate transactional leaders in the marketing and sales departments, who will assist in implementing change, will result in the behavioral alignment employees with the organizationЎ¦s new goals. By arranging rewards, feedback, motivation techniques and other conditions that support better customer service, will motivate the marketing and sales departments. This will lead to the success of the SkyMall and In Flight Meals Program for American Airlines.

A company like American Airlines must anchor the change process into their everyday culture; this assures that they will have less resistance to the change by their employees. If employees already have buy-in to the culture that they work in, than they are more likely to have buy-in to any change that goes along with that culture. It will also ensure that the projects will be successful in the long-term instead of just the short-term.

In the selection of the appropriate change model I looked at LewinЎ¦s Change Model.

By doing this I have determined that organizational change can occur at any one of the three levels changing the individual, changing various organizational structures and systems, or directly changing the organizational climate or interpersonal style. Depending on the organizational level of change intended towards the employees you will need to get feedback on how employees feel about certain management practices. On the climate or interpersonal level, you should expect to see behavior patterns that indicate greater interpersonal trust and openness and fewer dysfunctional patterns towards the change model. American Airlines may also want to ensure that the new behaviors have become the operating norms at work, and the reward system actually reinforces employeeЎ¦s behaviors, or that a new, more participative management style predominates.

Ў§Managing change Unfortunately, the change process is not smooth even if one is attentive to LewinЎ¦s model of change. Changing behavior at both individual and organizational levels means inhibiting habitual responses and producing new responses that feel awkward and unfamiliar to those involved. It is all too easy to slip back to the familiar and comfortable.ЎЁ (Hughes−Ginnett−Curphy, 2002)

The plan to address the human critical is critical to the success of both the SkyMall and In Flight Meals Program. Therefore the critical success factors approach is defined and explored as a means of determining the information needs of organizations, rather than of individuals. With the SkyMall and In Flight Meals Program the conclusion is that the use is appropriate and productive, enabling the identification of all types of information that may aid the organization in its strategic policy making to achieve competitive advantage.

With both the sales departments of SkyMall