Tools of Organizational Change and Changes at the Top Essay

Introduction

Organizational change characterizes the process through which change is implemented in an organization through a sequence of strategies, processes, procedures, technologies, and culture. Moreover, it also includes the effect of such changes to the organization. In most cases, effective change that is beneficial for an organization can only be implemented if it is well implemented and coordinated by the organizational leaders. Furthermore, managing change is an imperative undertaking because it ensures that change is well accepted by all the stakeholders of an organization. Today, Cummings and Worley's five dimensions of managing as well as leading change can be employed by the top management personnel as one of the most effective tools for managing change in an organization.

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Part I

Cummings and Worley developed a five-step tool and it can be employed by an individual in leading as well as managing change in an organization. Additionally, the stages in this tool include motivating change, creation of a vision, development of political support, management of the transition and lastly sustaining momentum (Grant, 2011). Additionally, in the first stage, the organization leader can motivate the change by adopting strategies that encourage the personnel to have a readiness for change and overcome resistance to the change. In the second stage, the leader should articulate the vision for change and define the efforts that shall be employed to achieve it.

Moreover, in the third stage, the leader should strive to attain political support for the change, though securing the support of influential members of the organization. Fourth, the organization leader should help the stakeholders to transition to the new state after the change though undertaking functions like coaching and training personnel about the importance of the change (Prastacos, Wang, & Soderquist, 2013). Lastly, the leader should sustain the momentum to change by ensuring that the obstacles that could affect the implementation of change have been managed or eradicated. The Cummings and Worley five-step process is different from other tools like the Ackerman and Anderson's roadmap for change.

The latter method contains eight steps of managing change including preparing to lead change, the creation of organizational vision, commitment and capability, assessing the existing situation and ascertaining design requirements and designing the acceptable state (Weiss, 2015). Moreover, the other steps include analyzing the change's impact, planning, and organizing implementation, implementing the change, celebrating and integrating new states and learning and course corrections. Ultimately, although both tools using the same stages' technique of leading and managing change, they are different in that each stage has a different approach to managing change. Also, the Ackerman and Anderson's roadmap for change tool is more complex in its approach to change that the Cummings and Worley five-step process due to its additional three steps essential for change management.

Part II

The leadership transition from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook had a significant impact on Apple Corporation's stakeholders. Additionally, this is because both leaders had a different approach to the way they headed the corporation in reference to the execution of its operations. Moreover, before Tim Cook took over the leadership of Apple, Steve Jobs had chaired the company for 14 years as the CEO (Lusted, 2012). Subsequently, the change in leadership between the two CEOs was faced with a slight resistance to change by the corporation's stakeholders since they had already been accustomed to Jobs' leadership style for over a decade. Nevertheless, such resistance to change could have been managed by using various leadership management tools such as the Cummings and Worley five-step process and Ackerman and Anderson's roadmap for change.

Ultimately, Tim Cook's leadership of Apple has positively changed the corporation in five primary ways. First, Cook has changed the leadership culture of the corporation by making it more collaborative than before and also less confrontational. Also, the execution of the corporation's operations has significantly improved due to Cook's leadership and the corporation has also significantly improved its ability to compete optimally with competitors in the market (Jones, 2015). Also, the financial management of the corporation has escalated due to Tim Cook's leadership skills with its height of performance being 2015 when the corporation has a 116% increase in revenue after netting $233 billion in net revenue (Jones, 2015). Lastly, due to Cook's leadership skills, the corporation has been able to develop new products that have a great market potential in the future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cummings and Worley's five dimensions of managing, as well as leading change, can be employed by the top management personnel as one of the most effective tools for managing change in an organization. The five steps involved in the Cummings and Worley's change management framework include motivating change, creating a vision, developing political support, managing transition and sustaining the momentum. The Ackerman and Anderson's roadmap for change can also be employed to manage change in an organization. Furthermore, the change in Apple's leadership from Jobs to Cook was faced with a slight resistance to change by the corporation's stakeholders. Moreover, this is because they had already been accustomed to Jobs' leadership style for over a decade. However, such resistance to change could have been managed by using various leadership management tools such as the Cummings and Worley five-step process.

References

Grant, K. (2011). ICIME 2011-Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Information Management and Evaluation: ICIME 2011 Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, 27 - 28 April 2011. Sonning Common: Academic Conferences Limited.

Jones, C. (2015). Six Reasons Tim Cook Is Doing A Great Job As Apple's CEO. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2015/11/22/six-reasons-tim-cook-is-doing-a-great-job-as-apples-ceo/#442587b442fd

Lusted, M. A. (2012). Apple: Company and Its Visionary Founder, Steve Jobs. Minneapolis: ABDO Publishing Company.

Prastacos, G. P., Wang, F., & Soderquist, K. E. (2013). Leadership through the Classics: Learning Management and Leadership from Ancient East and West Philosophy. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.

Weiss, J. W. (2015). Organizational Change, Second Edition. 1-16.