Good Research Paper About Managing And Leading Change

Introduction

Introducing change to an organization is a practice that requires careful consideration since it is mostly not welcomed no matter how well-intentioned it might be. Scholars such as John Kotter, Kurt Lewin, and others, came up with change models to help ease the process of change. The article Starbucks: A Strategic Change and Management Perspective by Maleek enumerate some of the changes that the global coffee seller Starbucks has experienced other the last two decades. Change is good if well managed. However, if poorly managed, change can be detrimental to an organization’s progress. According to the article, Starbucks experienced a major drop in its sales within a period of one year. This was characterized by a notable fall in the company's stock price. In the words of the author of the article, Starbucks performance prior to 2007/2008 was "miraculous". All of a sudden the miracle was no more as customer satisfaction levels went down forcing the company to undertake a process of major transformation. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the opinion of the article's author and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. The paper will also discuss the process of implementing change in an acceptable manner.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Author’s Opinions

The writer is also of the view that Starbucks may not have managed change properly over the course of time and that eventually caught up with them. The company did not realize the changes in its environment, and this led to a drop in the customer satisfaction levels. Had the company anticipated the changes in the environment and pro-acted to them, they may not have experienced the blip that the company underwent in 2007 and 2008 (Gilbert, 2008).

Positive and Negative Points on Change Management Concepts

The world of business is constantly growing and so are business goals and strategies. The constant evolution makes it necessary for businesses to institute some changes in their operations to be able to cope with the dynamism in the business environment (Doppelt, 2003). It, therefore, calls for change management concepts to be applied in ensuring the continuous process of change is smooth. The article by Maleek on Starbucks illustrates how the company changed people's perspective of a coffee shop. The company perhaps sold the same coffee brands as its competitors but gave them fancy Italian names and also turned their shops into comfortable coffee houses that one would relish visiting more often. In other words, Starbucks changed the way business was done in the coffee business industry (Gilbert, 2008). They managed to sell their ideas to both employees and the customers, and they got accepted. Change needs to be accepted by the people it is likely to affect for it to succeed. The success of Starbucks is, therefore, as a result of them convincing all the stakeholders to embrace the new way of doing business. The company's employees play the most important role in providing satisfactory service to the clients. The services are personalized, and it is common for the store employees to call out customers names giving them a sense of belonging.
The article addresses the issue of customer disapproval in relation to the services administered in the stores. It may imply that there reached a point where the employees ceased to respond the change concept. The stores' managers stopped implementing change and deviated from the company’s values. This led to the poor performance leading up to the 2008 recession (Gilbert, 2008).

Change Implementation

Implementing change in an organization is a process that needs both time and resources. Change needs to involve all the stakeholders for it to succeed. As such, the management is required to explain to junior employees, who effect the change, the benefits of the intended change (Karten, 2009). Change is better implemented using a model. It ensures that it is done systematically and thus, minimizes the chances of failure. There are three change models advanced by different scholars that can be used by different organizations. The best model in the case of Starbucks would be the Kotter's 8-Step Change Model. The model is systematic and thorough in implementing change. It eliminates chances of resistance since it gives enough time to convince stakeholders and employ new change agents in the organization (Karten, 2009).

Conclusion

Bringing change in an organization is not an easy process and requires hard work and dedication (Doppelt, 2003). The current Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is a good example of a change agent. When he came back to the company in 2008 he was quick to recognize what was ailing the company and set out to change it. He started by turning the over 11,000 store managers to his side (Gilbert, 2008). Through his strategy of involving key stakeholders and advancing company values amongst employees, he has managed to transform around what seemed to be a dark future for Starbucks.

References

Doppelt, B. (2003). Leading change toward sustainability. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
Gilbert, S. (2008). The story of Starbucks. Mankato, MN: Creative Education.
Karten, N. (2009). Changing how you manage and communicate change. Ely: IT Governance Pub.