Assessment
Word limit: 2500 words.
Task
Group Task (2200 words)
You and two others have been hired as external change agents to take over where Dr Ellis has left off. Working in a group of three (use the sign up tool to nominate your group of three and the case study you will be reviewing to ensure there is a balance across all four cases featured on the Stress Busters site) you will be responsible for developing an action plan. Each group member will prepare one part of the change action plan.
Organization chosen: RSPCA. The management of change that can be viewed online at: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/stressbuster/
The plan must address:
1. The role of internal politics, culture and leadership in implementing the changes in the organisation, taking into account the type, depth and scale of the change programme (1000 words)
When implementing change, issues such as overcoming sources of resistance have been highlighted but into day's dynamic business environment, more emphasis is being placed on selling the need for the change, creating the vision for a desired future, gaining political support for the change and managing the transition from the old to the new way of doing things. As Burnes (2009) suggests, being change ready rather than change resistant. And factors such as internal politics, culture and leadership play a large role in implementing change.
2. Recommendations as to how the change should be institutionalized taking into account the features of the organisation. (1000 words)
Institutionalisation of change is making the changes a permanent part of an organisation's functioning so that it becomes the norm. There are factors that influence how the institutionalisation of change, such as characteristics of the organisation, characteristics of the interventions, and the processes utilised to sustain change (Waddell, Cummings & Worley, 2011). This may take months, weeks or even years.
As a team, you will ensure your action plan is an integrated document that is coherent, logically structured, and well supported with peer reviewed journal articles. Therefore the use of an online collaborative sharing tool would ideally suit this task.
3. Conclusion (200 words)
4. References (APA 6th format, peer reviewed journal article, up to 15 references)
Individual Task (300 words)
In practice, change agents will be working with others on change events so this task asks you to reflect on your role as an external change agent (Was it difficult being at arm's length from the organisation? Having different approaches to your team members on each of the intervention, implementation and institutionalisation stages?); and also your experience of collaboration (Working together with other change agents?). What have you learned from this experience?
Change agents will be required to work with a range of people including change champions, management, and change recipients and even external stakeholders.
Avoid describing the process; rather evaluate the process and the outcomes.
Place this reflection after the references, on a separate page.
Objective
By the end of this assessment task, students should be able to:
• demonstrate a perspective on the theory and practice of organisational change, through examination of relevant current research.
• develop action plans, from the study of individual, group and organisational change models, for management of change in organisations.
• assess the role of political, cultural and leadership factors in implementing change, taking into account the type, depth and scale of the change programme.