Leading a Major Change Using Kotter's Eight-Step Change Model

Leading a Major Change Using Kotter's Eight-Step Change Model

Introduction

John P. Kotter is one of the globally acknowledged change management and leadership pundit that has contributed a significant part of the change management and leadership theory through his researches and scripts. By profession, he is a Professor for leadership at Harvard Business School. In 1995, he successfully authored the best model in relation to change i.e. Kotter's eight-step change model, in his book “Leading Change” (Kotter, 1996). In the era of 1990's, John P. Kotter has investigated of about 100 companies in order to understand about the fundamentals of change and its management. In his investigation for the aforementioned purpose, he has taken cross-sectional firms i.e. ranging from giants such as Ford to small companies, for example Landmark communication. In his model, he has emphasized one thing as the most essential or integral part of the change across all the eight-steps i.e. leadership.

The company taken for the discussion, analysis and evaluation of the specific proposed change i.e. change in the organizational structure is named as Goebel Commercial Reality Incorporation. It is a company operating in the real-estate industry and its foundations were laid in June, 1970 (goebelrealty.com, n.d.). The company was founded by Marlin M. Goebel, renowned as veteran in the industry and then joined by his son Kevin M. Goebel and is therefore now managed and termed as a family owned business.

Nature of the Proposed Change

The change proposed to be discussed, analyzed and evaluated in this report is the change in the organizational structure of the company selected i.e. GCR Incorporation. Organization structure is necessary for any organization, as it decides about who shall report to whom and lay down the hierarchy needed in an organization to work effectively and efficiently (Mohr, 1982). Organizational redesign has been the bulging need of the firms because of the increasing demand and leading towards the recovery phase of the economic crises. An appropriate organizational structure aids the company in alleviating roles confusion, enhances the coordination among cross-sectional areas of an organization, and augments communication which leads towards sharing ideas and ultimately helping in taking better decisions (Corkindale, 2011).

Reason for the Proposed Change

The potential major change driver that insists the leadership of the company to bring such changes is the expansion of the business. Such a change driver is triggered by various plausible reasons which are listed below:

Increased demand of the property and investment in it, across the globe.

Economic recovery phase in the economy.

Efficient management of the company is the pre-requisite.

To meet the mission and vision of the company.

There can be several other reason too that can be sub-divided; however, the major reasons are highlighted above.

Kotter's eight-step change model

The bifurcation of the proposed changed into the eight-steps as proposed by the John P. Kotter in his model for change, are discussed below:

Stage One: Establishing a Sense of Urgency

The initial step in the Kotter's change model is named as “establishing a sense of ...