Political Science

Change Management is a way to monitor change that comes in an organization and it has to be looked upon in order to implement it and derive the desired results from the change that can be brought about in an organization.

Change is about converting and implementing some other state of happening. Change is vital for the survival of the organisations and it is also very necessary to supervise the change and make sure that every thing is under supervision is performing just the way it has to be.

Green Peace International
The organisation that would be looked upon regarding the change management is Green Peace. It is a non governmental organisation made to look upon the environmental issues which are being faced by earth. It is present in more than 41 countries and providing its services to save the environment and earths resources from exploitation (Green Peace, 2009).

Green peace was founded in through oil protests that took place in British, Vancouver and Columbia in 1971 and the first campaign was launched against the nuclear energy devices as they posed a mortal harm to the humanity and earth. The head office of Green Peace is in Amsterdam, Netherlands and has nearly 28 regional offices (Green Peace, 2009).

Drivers of Change
The corporate world of today is well aware of the fact that businesses do not remain static and they are prone to changes in some way or the other. He changes they go through vary from place to place and organization to organization. They encounter situations and have to mould them accordingly hence, changing themselves. All the reasons which compel the organization to go through a change are called drivers of change. These drivers will be further investigated in Green Peace that how the drivers affected the organisation to go through the change.

Competition
Competition is one factor that triggers an organisation to change. If the competitor organisation is going ahead of the organization and is grossing more sales, the company must realise that it should also bring about a change in their strategies to continue further with the business. As the global market place evolves, and organisations aims are changing, so would their strategies. Moreover, these strategies might push up their net incomes. Green peace does not face any hard core competition that would compel to change.

Nature of employees
Being an international organisation does not bring benefits only but can give some harm too. The cultural diversity might seem as a major advantage but in reality in inside an organisation, conspiracies can come up and difficulties can be faced (HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comexecobidossearch-handle-urlrefntt_athr_dp_sr_15FencodingUTF8search-typessindexbooksfield-authorTaylor20CoxCox , 1994). It also happen that cultural diversity and organisational culture is put at stake when the Board of Directors change in nay organisation.

This is the problem being faced in Green Peace. The previous director completed his term of work and now the Board has elected a new director. It is said that the new director will not enforce the culture that already existed in the organisation and will change it. He has also said that some of the employees of the organisation will be laid off and new emergent employees will take their place as costs of the organisation are rising and they will have to find some way to cut them down.

Economic Downturn
The recent recession has given the organisation some economic shocks. The fluctuating oil prices, the credit crunch and less availability of funds have spiked up the costs by large percentages. These issues have made the new director implement a new strategy and he would lay off the senior employees to make others take their place.

Climatic Changes and Political Scenario
The recent conference held at Copenhagen, Denmark was assumed to be a failure with no concrete steps taken forward to assume the responsibility to work for conservation of resources and to reduce the global warming affect. Green Peace being an environmentalist organisation has decided to device a different way to launch their campaign and for that they will need new recruits to come up and give their input.

Resistance to Change
There are two forms of resistance to change. They are Individual resistance and Organisational Resistance. Individual resistance is due to the habits, economic factors, unknown fear and security.
All the senior employees in the organisation would display this sort of resistance. They will not be willing to leave the organisation they have served so long. They will also not stop considering them as a part of it. Economic factors mean that the loss of income they will face. It might be that an employee is single and does not have any one who can look after himher. This is the reason an employee might resist to accept the change. Fear of the unknown will also be encountered as the rest of employees would feel apprehensive to work with the new director or head. It would be the case when the employees will feel that they might be treated the same way in near future. Employees who will move up on the ladder of hierarchy would fear about their job security five year down and would consider themselves job less in next five years.

Organisational resistance come through the groups formed in the organisation. The labour union might become a hurdle for the organisation and they might start up strikes to show their resistance. People might not like the set up and they might not co operate with the management.

All of the analysis done above is the force field analysis which determines the forces that drive to change, i.e., towards a goal and they are the forces of change and all the forces that hinder the change are the change resisters. This way, organisations can learn and understand what they will do to implement the change and how will they overcome the resistance.

Lewins Three Step Model of Change Management
The case discussed above was about the Change of Director at Green Peace. Here, the strategy of managing changes was basically done according to the Lewins three step model of managing change. The three step model of Lewin suggests that change comes in three phases. The model can be illustrated as (Robbins, 2003)

Unfreezing Movement Refreezing                                              
The model above illustrates how the change comes through the organization and the way it can be managed. The unfreezing stage is the beginning of the change coming into an organization which also hints the part where resistance would come. This phase throws light on the fact that people of the organization will be prepared about the change that will come. Senior employees knew that Director of the organisation would change and they also knew his strategies that would be implemented through out the organisation, thus the employees knew that most of the organizations setting will tend to change. Movement illustrates the fact that change has come and it has been implemented. It is the basic change activity which has come and it will remain to be that way. The change in this case was the commanding of new Director, and when it did so, the change actually came and people saw their system getting altered and their work systems went through a transformation too.

This change has come and will remain. The status quo of the organization has been disturbed and if it has happen just the way company desired it to, refreezing would begin and people will start to perform in the manner the way organization wants, hence the organization will not want to disturb the new status quo that has been formed.

The case discussed has seen the same thing happen. The organization had to deal with change and it found solutions to the problems. The change agents managed the transformation of the organization by keeping the people the human element of the company together. They used several strategies and offered negotiations to overcome the change and were successful in managing the change that has come (HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comEsther-CameroneB001HCWC5Grefntt_athr_dp_pel_1Cameron  HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comexecobidossearch-handle-urlrefntt_athr_dp_sr_25FencodingUTF8search-typessindexbooksfield-authorMike20GreenGreen , 2004).

Emergent Strategy by Mintzberg
Strategy is the way to design and come up with ways to solve the matter, and a strategy looks upon the aims, the means and the ends that would be reached in a certain time and certain point in an organisation. Emergent Strategy as suggested by Mintzberg is a kind of strategy which is devised over time but it is not meant to be intended, but it takes place, and it happens only when there is absence of goals and aims. That is why is called emergent, because it emerges over time. In our case of Green Peace, recession, costs and cultural diversity did not emerge in one day but it took gradual time to reach the point. The organisation was learning what it will do, but it did not intend to do it unless it observed the change in patter. The recent Copenhagen conference is an example of such. In response to the failure, the management has decided to change the director and bring one who is more competent and will device an action plan that would help organisation revive it original goal of being present and being vigilant.

The five Ps of strategy making as suggested by Mintzberg are to Plan, Ploy, Position, Pattern and Perspective. Planning is most important for devising a strategy. It has been decided that director will lay off the senior management, but it must plan as to what reasons would be identified to the lay off and how can the over come the problem in some other way. Ploy means to find a way through and coming up with different alternatives. Position means assessing the environment and then taking the action and then making a plan for it. Pattern can be described as the way to implement the strategy that would be realised in near future. Perspective deals with opinions. The opinion of all members on the new strategy might be negative and disheartening, but, a way must be sought the over come the resistance and implement the change (Mintzberg, 1992).

Change Management Action Plan
Overcoming Resistance
It was known to the employees of the organizations that the system will change. The resistance will be strong mostly from the old employees of the organization.

The new employees who showed less resistance, their resistance would be overcome by the strategies of educating and communicating. The employees of Green Peace would be resistant about the change of system through and through, they were not able to understand the system and they found it difficult to learn the new environment as the culture of the organisation would be formalised. Those employees would be given a hand book explaining the new customs that would now be incorporated. Even though the resistance will there for some time, but it will be short lived. The major resistance which came was from the people who will be laid off. They would be upset about losing their job and they would want to stay as a part of the company. That problem would be efficiently resolved too.

The old employees who will resist the change would be given careful treatment by the change agents. They will be given the advantages of having a new system and they will be asked to give suggestion as to recommend what further changes were to be brought. The employees who would be laid off will stay the part of organisation and they will be asked to serve as advisors to the board. The new senior employees would be assured that their jobs are not threatened and their expertise would be enhanced and improved.

Coercion and manipulation is not a suggested option overcoming resistance in this situation. The company is going through a vast change and the organization is not a small entity but a vast one which has operations in more than 41 countries and hence their management is difficult.

Coercion would have made the matter worse and that would have triggered more conflicts in the overall organization, not only at the head office but also at other countries of operations.

Thus, negotiation and educating the employees was the most feasible option by which resistance of the employees was overcome (HYPERLINK httpwww.amazon.comexecobidossearch-handle-urlrefntt_athr_dp_sr_15FencodingUTF8search-typessindexbooksfield-authorGlenn20M.20ParkerParker , 2008).

Conclusion
The purpose of the change management is to organise the change in such way that the problems are solved, instead of creating them. Change is vital and is appreciative in all the organisations. It has to be maintained and managed to come up with better performance from the employees of the organisation.