Reference no: EM132168746
Assignment
Primary Task 500-800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments.
As director of change management for Heavy WorX, this is your first role as a member of an executive team and as a leader who is tasked to bring needed change to an organization.
Your peers welcome you to the team but express apprehension with regard to new initiatives or programs, citing that the company has already seen its share of changes and with little positive outcome. Despite the impending challenge, you are excited about your new position because you have the opportunity to be a critical part of the company's future.
Using credible resources, conduct in-depth research to gain a high-level understanding of the principles, methods, and tools that are used in organizational development (OD) and to understand the steps, processes, or planned change models that are used by OD practitioners.
To inform your peers about your role and how you will successfully initiate any large-scale changes, discuss the following:
What are your roles and responsibilities during a planned change initiative as both a leader and OD practitioner within Heavy WorX?
What are the disadvantages and advantages of leading and managing change as an internal OD practitioner as opposed to an external OD consultant?
Of all the typical ethical dilemmas that may surface for an OD practitioner, which do you think is the most challenging, and how would you address it?
Type: Individual Project
Deliverable Length: 10-12 PowerPoint slides with 200-250 words of speaker notes per slide
Assignment Description
One of the most difficult tasks that leaders can face is initiating organizational change. As a leader, you need to be sensitive to the ever-changing internal climate and external environment. For example, changes in the market, products, and competition may all be factors that lead to a need for change.
Applying organizational development (OD) techniques to management problems is an essential skill because the primary task of leadership is to manage change; however, before a change can be implemented, the organization must anticipate the need.
To date, the executive team has been reactive to the situations affecting their department and is unfamiliar with a systems approach to OD. Based on what you already know about the climate and external factors affecting Heavy WorX, what conditions or organizational needs exist that may provide the impetus for a large-scale organizational development or planned change program?
Develop a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate to the executive leadership team some potential problems at Heavy WorX that could be changed using OD principles.
Define and describe what it means to use a systems-based approach to change, such as social-technical systems theory, and discuss the benefits of such an approach.
What OD steps or planned change models would you follow at Heavy WorX?
How will you modify these steps or phases to tailor them to the specific needs of Heavy WorX?
PHASE 2 DB
Unit: Diagnosing Issues
Deliverable Length: 600 words
Assignment Description
500-800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Your earlier presentation to the executive leadership team at Heavy WorX has initiated interest in a system approach for increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and morale of the organization. The senior leadership team advocates for you to implement a successful planned change program. Before implementing the program, you need to anticipate the potential for resistance to change throughout the organization.
Based on your readings, research, and experience, discuss the following:
What resistance to change might occur with individuals, groups, and organization as a whole?
What strategies or techniques can an organizational development practitioner use to reduce resistance to change?
How could these methods be used in the context of Heavy WorX?
Type: Individual Project
Unit: Diagnosing Issues
Deliverable Length: 1200 - 1500 Words
Assignment Description
As an experienced leader, you know that the company needs to be proactive, be perceptive, and respond quickly to the ever-changing internal climate and external environment. You currently have an initial assessment of the climate and the external factors affecting Heavy WorX.
It seems necessary to inform senior leaders that organizational development (OD) relies on valid diagnostic information about current problems and possible opportunities for improvement.
How can you convince senior leadership that you need to gather diagnostic information about the current climate and the company's situation? Complete the following for this assignment:
Identify and describe 5 diagnostic models or data-gathering techniques that could potentially be used at Heavy WorX, and include a comparison and contrast between the models and techniques.
Choose 3 diagnostic models or data-gathering techniques to use to diagnose the problem at Heavy WorX, and describe why they are recommended.
Describe how the data will be analyzed and used to create a diagnosis of the problems at Heavy WorX.
How will you determine the root cause of the problems at Heavy WorX?
Explain your role in diagnosis, and discuss the support and resources you might need.
PHASE 3
Unit: Leading and Managing Change
Deliverable Length: 600 words
Assignment Description
Primary Task 500-800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments.
One of the most challenging aspects of leading change is providing feedback to key stakeholders. Many times, their reaction can be unpredictable, defensive, dismissive, or critical.
You are preparing a presentation for senior leaders about the data discovered during organizational diagnosis. What are some feedback strategies that could be used to ensure that key stakeholders understand the results of the organizational diagnosis and are prepared to support the change?
Please address the following in your post:
Would you recommend an e-mail, individual meetings, a key stakeholder group meeting, or a different strategy to communicate the results? Why?
What aspects of the key stakeholders' roles do you need to be aware of when communicating the results?
What is your plan to address the possible reactions of key stakeholders to the results?
How will you facilitate the creation of an action plan with the key stakeholders, using the results of organizational diagnosis?
Unit: Leading and Managing Change
Deliverable Length: 1,000-1,200 words
Assignment Description
The essential outcomes of the diagnostic process are to identify the preliminary root causes for specific problems, analyze the data, and present them to senior leaders in a meaningful way so that effective solutions can be identified.
Once feedback has been provided to senior leaders, the OD practitioner can begin to develop a strategy for an action plan. At this point, senior leaders may want to know the return on investment (ROI) of an action plan.
In this assignment, you will choose an existing organization to benchmark and complete a ROI case analysis. A case analysis describes the organization, the problem or issue the organization is attempting to address, the perspectives on or alternative solutions for the problem or issue, and your informed recommendation for the potential solution to the problem or issue.
Your case analysis should include references gathered from professional and academic sources to justify your reasoning. In your 1,000-1,200-word paper, please include the following information:
What existing organization did you choose for the case analysis, and why did you choose it?
What problem or issue is the organization attempting to address?
Did the organization receive a positive return on investment (ROI) for its change plan? Why or why not?
What other organizations are attempting to address the problem or issue, and how do their perspectives on or alternative solutions for the problem or issue differ in terms of return on investment (ROI)?
What is your recommendation for the potential solution to the problem or issue at Heavy WorX? Considering your findings, what might be the potential return on investment (ROI) at Heavy WorX for this solution?
PHASE 4
Unit: Strategies
Deliverable Length: 600 words
Assignment Description
Primary Task 500-800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments.
Organizational development offers a wide range of approaches to a variety of problems. Since it is a broad-based approach to change, it is important to choose interventions that best suit the needs of the organization.
OD professionals may use different configurations of models and interventions that are tailored based upon diagnostic information, ROI, and other factors.
What interventions would you recommend to senior leaders considering the diagnosis of Heavy WorX?
How will you communicate and carry out the interventions?
What is the potential for resistance to change for each intervention, and how will you address it?
Type: Individual Project
Unit: Strategies
Deliverable Length: 1,000 word Executive Summary
Assignment Description
The change process is now complete, and you are beginning to gather compelling evidence to demonstrate the organization's results to senior leaders. To evaluate a change, you need to revisit diagnostic models and decide upon measures that will describe data about the change process.
You want to report what happened during the change process, if the change was indeed effective, and what unanticipated conditions, both positive and negative, have occurred. Senior leaders have asked that you prepare an executive summary outlining the results of your evaluation. In 1,000 words, prepare an executive summary that includes the following:
Describe the interventions, programs, or initiatives that were conducted during the change process, any unanticipated conditions, positive or negative, that arose, and how they were addressed.
Give a brief overview of the assessments that were used to gather the data and evaluate the change.
Summarize the state of the organization after the change process. Did it achieve its intended return on investment (ROI)? Why or why not?
PHASE 5
Unit: Organizational Leadership
Assignment Description
Summative Discussion Board
Review and reflect on the knowledge you have gained from this course. Based on your review and reflection, write at least 3 paragraphs on the following:
For this assignment, complete the following:
Critique 3 ideas, concepts, or topics from this course, and reflect on how they relate to the course objectives and your career aspirations. What were the most compelling topics learned in this course?
How did participating in discussions help your understanding of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be clarified?
What approaches could have yielded additional valuable information?
The main post should include at least 1 reference to research sources, and all sources should be cited using APA format.
Unit: Organizational Leadership
Deliverable Length: 15 PowerPoint slides with 150 words speaker notes per slide
Acquisition and Globalization Plan
Heavy WorX has agreed to be acquired as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Stellar Goal Group, forming a large multinational corporation operating in 20 different countries. Since Heavy WorX previously only had domestic operations, it will need to participate in a comprehensive change management plan as part of the acquisition.
Because of your success with change management programs at Heavy WorX, you have been appointed the vice president of change management, overseeing all change management initiatives associated with the acquisition and the globalization of Heavy WorX.
The CEO and Board of Directors have asked you to prepare a presentation of your acquisition and globalization plan. In 15-20 slides, please address the following:
In your opening remarks, describe change management, OD, any why it is necessary to create an acquisition and globalization plan.
Create a diagram that demonstrates your vision of how Heavy WorX and the Stellar Goal Group can merge and globalize their organizational cultures.
Describe the roles of the CEO, Board of Directors, VP of Change Management, OD consultants, managers, and employees in the change process.
Identify the potential problems that may arise and the anticipated resistance to change that might be experienced during the change process.
Describe what change models will be used and how they will be tailored for the change process.
Describe your assessment and feedback plan. Your plan should include a description of the methods and data analysis techniques that you would use to conduct the diagnosis and how you will provide feedback to the key stakeholders.
Benchmark at least 3 other organizations and describe the potential return on investment (ROI) that might be achieved in the acquisition globalization of Heavy WorX.
Make specific recommendations for the interventions that the organization should implement, how they will be communicated, and how they will be evaluated.
Create a diagram that describes a 1-year time line for completing the project that includes each step in the change process.
In your closing remarks, describe how you will use your qualities as a change leader to implement the acquisition and globalization plan.