Paper-X: Innovation and Change Management

Name :Pooja
Registration- 26779
 

Question No. 1

What are the steps involved in John P. Kotter's change initiative and what OD interventions
would you recommend for your organization to strengthen team-building among the workforce
across departments? 

Ans.

The 8-Step Process for Leading Change was cultivated from over four decades of Dr. Kotter’s
observations of countless leaders and organizations as they were trying to transform or
execute their strategies. He identified and extracted the success factors and combined them
into a methodology — 8-Step Process for Leading Change.

1. Creating an Urgency: This can be done in the following ways:

 Identifying and highlighting the potential threats and the repercussions which
might crop up in the future.

 Examining the opportunities which can be tapped through effective

interventions.

 Initiate honest dialogues and discussions to make people think over the
prevalent issues and give convincing reasons to them.

 Request the involvement and support of the industry people, key stakeholders
and customers on the issue of change.

2. Forming Powerful Guiding Coalitions: This can be achieved in the following ways:

 Identifying the effective change leaders in your organizations and also the key
stakeholders, requesting their involvement and commitment towards the entire
process.

 Form a powerful change coalition who would be working as a team.

 Identify the weak areas in the coalition teams and ensure that the team involves
many influential people from various cross functional departments and working
in different levels in the company.

3. Developing a Vision and a Strategy: This can be achieved by:

  Determining the core values, defining the ultimate vision and the strategies for
realizing a change in an organization.

 Ensure that the change leaders can describe the vision effectively and in a
manner that people can easily understand and follow.

4. Communicating the Vision

 Communicate the change in the vision very often powerfully and convincingly.
Connect the vision with all the crucial aspects like performance reviews, training,
etc.

 Handle the concerns and issues of people honestly and with involvement.

5. Removing Obstacles

 Ensure that the organizational processes and structure are in place and aligned
with the overall organizational vision.

 Continuously check for barriers or people who are resisting change. Implement
proactive actions to remove the obstacles involved in the process of change.

 Reward people for endorsing change and supporting in the process.

6. Creating Short-Term Wins

 By creating short term wins early in the change process, you can give a feel of
victory in the early stages of change.

 Create many short term targets instead of one long-term goal, which are
achievable and less expensive and have lesser possibilities of failure.

 Reward the contributions of people who are involved in meeting the targets.

7. Consolidating Gains

 Achieve continuous improvement by analysing the success stories individually

and improving from those individual experiences.
 8. Anchoring Change in the Corporate Culture

 Discuss the successful stories related to change initiatives on every given

opportunity.

 Ensure that the change becomes an integral part in your organizational culture
and is visible in every organizational aspect.

 Ensure that the support of the existing company leaders as well as the new
leaders continue to extend their support towards the change.

OD interventions for Team Building-

Team building interventions are techniques and activities designed to elevate team trust,
performance, and collaboration. Interventions may include skill-based workshops and team
activities and exercises.

 Activity-based interventions: These involve outdoor or adventure activities that take team

members outside their comfort zones. The team partakes in physical challenges and
obstacles (e.g., rope courses, spelunking expeditions, etc.), which encourages them to focus
on teamwork, problem-solving, trust, and risk-taking.

 Personality-based team building: Personality-based team building aims to help team

members develop their interpersonal skills. Each person takes a personality test (e.g.,
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), and their results are shared with the rest of the team. The
goal is to help the team understand their personalities better, which can help facilitate
better interpersonal relationships.

 Skill-based team building: This type of intervention follows a workshop structure with a

training that instructs team members on particular skills (e.g., leadership, communication,
etc.).
The workshop then proceeds into activities where team members practice what they have
learned. Some interventions conclude with individuals developing action plans to help them
consistently improve upon those skills.

 Problem solving-based team building: Problem solving-based interventions involve team

members working together to solve a specific problem. The problem should be directly tied
to a current roadblock the team is facing. The session should allow employees to explore
 and analyze the conflict and, together, discover a solution. Teams may decide to conduct
this intervention outside of the workplace to reduce daily distraction

Question No. 2

Describe the role of a High-performance work system (HPWS) and what are the stages of
Tuckman's group development and how do high-performance teams help OD interventions
succeed?

Ans.
Role of a High-performance work system (HPWS)
High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) – also known as high performance work practices,
high involvement (HI) or high commitment (HC) practices. The right combination of people,
technology, and organizational structure that makes full use of the organization’s resources and
opportunities in achieving its goals. (Noe et. al., 2009).
HPWS is a combination of all the HR practices in a much efficient and impactful way. HPWS is
now observed as a competitive advantage for the organisation.

HPWS includes three categories of HR practices:

·            Employee skills. (Chi and Lin, 2011)
·            Employee Motivation. (Wright and Mc Mahan, 1992)
·            Employee Empowerment. (Legge, 2005; Way, 2002)

The primary principles behind the HPWS which are the building blocks for managers are
 shared information
 knowledge development,
 performance – reward linkage
 Egalitarianism- In an egalitarian environment where everyone is treated alike, status and
power differences are eliminated.There will be more of collaboration and teamwork.

HPWS helps employees in conceiving, designing, and implementing workplace processes,

and perform better. For example, a study analysing 132 U.S. manufacturing firms found that
companies using HPWS had significantly higher labour productivity than their competitors
 did. The key finding was that when employees have the power to make decisions related to
their performance, they are more productive (Konrad, 2006).

 Bruce Tuckman, an educational psychologist, identified a five-stage development process

that most teams follow to become high performing.

1. Forming stage

The forming stage involves a period of orientation and getting acquainted. Uncertainty is
high during this stage, and people are looking for leadership and authority. A member
who asserts authority or is knowledgeable may be looked to take control. Team
members are asking such questions as “What does the team offer me?” “What is
expected of me?” “Will I fit in?” Most interactions are social as members get to know
each other.

2. Storming stage

The storming stage is the most difficult and critical stage to pass through. It is a period
marked by conflict and competition as individual personalities emerge. Team
performance may actually decrease in this stage because energy is put into
unproductive activities. Members may disagree on team goals, and subgroups and
cliques may form around strong personalities or areas of agreement. To get through this
stage, members must work to overcome obstacles, to accept individual differences, and
to work through conflicting ideas on team tasks and goals. Teams can get bogged down
in this stage. Failure to address conflicts may result in long-term problems.

3. Norming stage

If teams get through the storming stage, conflict is resolved and some degree of unity
emerges. In the norming stage, consensus develops around who the leader or leaders
are, and individual member’s roles. Interpersonal differences begin to be resolved, and a
sense of cohesion and unity emerges. Team performance increases during this stage as
members learn to cooperate and begin to focus on team goals. However, the harmony is
precarious, and if disagreements re-emerge the team can slide back into storming.

4. Performing stage

In the performing stage, consensus and cooperation have been well-established and the
team is mature, organized, and well-functioning. There is a clear and stable structure,
 and members are committed to the team’s mission. Problems and conflicts still emerge,
but they are dealt with constructively. The team is focused on problem solving and
meeting team goals.

5. Adjourning stage

In the adjourning stage, most of the team’s goals have been accomplished. The
emphasis is on wrapping up final tasks and documenting the effort and results. As the
work load is diminished, individual members may be reassigned to other teams, and the
team disbands. There may be regret as the team ends, so a ceremonial
acknowledgement of the work and success of the team can be helpful. If the team is a
standing committee with ongoing responsibility, members may be replaced by new
people and the team can go back to a forming or storming stage and repeat the
development process.

How do high-performance teams help OD interventions succeed?

Work teams are the backbone of contemporary work life. Executive teams run corporations.
Project teams create new products and services. Matrix teams help develop everything from
pharmaceuticals to the delivery of services in consulting firms and charitable agencies.
Marketing and sales teams deliver products and services to customers. High-performance work
teams are essential to the way most organizations organize and carry out their work, resulting
in superior performance, which translates into a significant competitive advantage

What distinguishes high-performance teams from other groups is that a team is more than a
collection of people simply following orders. To function effectively, a high-performance team
also needs:

 A deep sense of purpose and commitment to the team's members and to the mission.
 Relatively more ambitious performance goals than average teams.
 Mutual accountability and a clear understanding of members' responsibilities to the
team and individual obligations.
 A diverse range of expertise that complements other team members' abilities.
 Interdependence and trust between members.