Nowadays many organizations are now and then experiencing tremendous change processes to align their objectives to the ever changing market. Globalization has created more market opportunities for many multinational corporations. Majority of these companies have capitalized on this chance to enhance their growth and development.
In today’s economy, the rapid societal and technological changes that are prevalent everywhere are responsible for the prevailing many transformations that are being witnessed in many firms worldwide. For instance, the advancement in Information Technology (IT) has resulted in many organizations considerably modifying their businesses processes to align them with the current IT requirements.
Those firms that have managed to successfully implement these changes have been able to greatly boost their performances. Their performances have enhanced because the new technology has enabled the companies to amplify their operations through automating most of them. Similarly, the technology has allowed these corporations to diversify their market by the use of e-commerce to reach more consumers.
The new technologies witnessed in the 21st century have greatly enhanced the present industrialization. In turn the high industrialization witnessed has also been associated with some challenges. One of the challenges associated with is the high increase in global warming as a result of the high greenhouse gas emissions from these industries.
The presence of high greenhouse gas emissions has become an issue of concern everywhere and every government and concerned corporations are doing their best to try and cut down their greenhouse gas emissions considerably. The issue is a major factor in the automobile industries which are among the leading sector in greenhouse gas emissions.
Many of these industries are opting for various alternatives to keep their greenhouse gas emissions low. Among the strategies they are employing include the production of hybrid cars that use both petrol and solar energy, while others are producing cars that consume only alternative source of energy such as biogas and solar.
Many organizations such as UNEP and UNESCO are advocating for the industries to adapt environmental friendly forms of productions to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, the high costs associated with petroleum are encouraging many such organizations to adapt alternative sources of energy in their productions and produce devices that use alternative sources of energies.
Thus, the future success in the automobile industry will belong to those automobile industries that will realize that appropriate investment in alternative sources of energy by adapting them in their productions and producing products that use alternative sources of energy is a paramount factor for their future survival and success.
Toyota Company is a Japanese firm that was started in 1867 as Sakici Toyonda and later adapted its current brand Toyota Corporation Company in 1937. The company has gone through many change process since its formation in 1867 up its current position.
The company has witnessed various challenges through all these phases it have transcended to become the seventh largest company worldwide and being ranking as the second largest automobile company with production facilities in 28 countries(Toyota Company Website par.3). The success of Toyota can be attributed to its ability to implement its change processes successfully.
The company is currently experiencing a big challenge to restructure its production facilities and devices to comply with the current environmental regulations that stipulate low greenhouse gas emissions.
This calls for appropriate restructuring of their production facilities in all the countries they operate from, in order to conform to these new requirement. Successful transformation of their production facilities and products will greatly assist it remain among the best industries globally (Heathfield 5).
John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model
There are occasions where change process is mandatory for corporate. For successful change process, the leaders should devise appropriate methodology to be adapted by all relevant stakeholders. Four important issues have been identified to greatly influence the success or failure of a change process.
One factor is how the objective of the process is communicated. This entails how the vision and urgency of the process is conversed.The way the management employs the powers to create organization support is vital for successful change implementation.
In addition, the manner in which leaders understand and influence employees’ behavior and use of reinforcement is also an important factor that will determine the nature of the change process.
Similarly, the mode in which the change process is planned also accounts greatly for its success. John Kotter’s 8-step change model is an important model for strategically change transformation for a company such as Toyota Corporation Company. The model specifies 8 vital phases to ensure a successful change implementation (Ewton par.3). They include:
Creating a sense of Urgency
The first most important aspect in a change process implementation is the success of the management to clearly define problem statement that is triggering the change process. If the management fails to concisely specify the need for change then, it will not be successful to come up with the necessary future vision that will guide the change process.
Studies about change process implementation reveals that for a successful change process implementation to occur, 75% of the management teams must concur with the need for change. One very important aspect that the leaders should ensure is to develop a sense of urgency for the change. This urgency will convince other employees the importance of the change process.
The sense of urgency is often used as a catalyst for the change that is required. The sense of urgency should not be based on deception, but it should be real.
This is because effective change process implementation is based on honest discussions between the leaders and, managements and employees so that all parties understands and appreciate the need for the change. Involving the staffs and making sure that they realize they are instrumental in helping in the realization of needed change is imperative (Evans par 2).
Establishing a Change Management Team
once the sense of urgency about the impending change process has been communicated, the management will require putting into place the management team that will oversee the change process. Establishment of this team requires first identifying the change agents that will act as the controls centers in the company. They will use their influential ability and power to make the change process implementation a success.
The change management team should comprise of representatives from all the departments present in the company. While forming this team, one should ensure the following; that he/she identifies the real leaders in the organization; one evaluates the team’s strengths and weaknesses and make sure that the team is formed by personnel from cross-cultural functions that possess varied views.
Coming up with an appropriate learning program to empower this team is important. Once the team is formed it should assume its role and work as a team in reinforcing the aspect of the need for urgency and create a momentum for the change process (Evans par.3).
Come up with a vision for Change
The management team is responsible for defining a map for the transformation process. This can be realized by creating a clear vision that articulates the future goal of the organization. The team assigned the responsibility of overseeing the success of the change implementation process should work diligently and direct the employees behavior based on realistic and strategic planning, great leadership, honest and action.
The vision statement adapted should mirror the anticipated outcomes. The team should ensure that they articulate clearly the roles of every key member in the vision.
The vision should mirror the company’s goal and values it intends to pursue. The change management team should ensure that every employee understands and is conversant in describing the vision. The vision statement should be tailed in a manner to motivate and energize everyone within or outside the company (Evans par.5).
Communicate the vision
With the implementation of the vision statement, the remaining task involves shaping the employees behaviors to align it towards achievement of the set goal. The vision statement must be crafted in a manner to sway everyday leadership, behavior, and problem solving system.
The management team should occasionally and powerfully communicate the vision. This will help everyone action being directed towards the achievement of the set goal. The top management should ensure that they lead by example to greatly influence the others to follow suit (Evans par.7).
Remove Obstacles
Change is a very controversial issue to many people whether being a positive or a negative one. Thus, leaders should comprehend the change curve very well and recognize the natural obstacles to the change that exist. They should put in place appropriate solutions to these barriers to facilitate employees reaching the set goals (Evans par. 8).
Generating Wins
Implementation of a change process is a difficult task to many organizations. Change implementation process can often cause many employees to get discouraged and in particular when employees see very little benefits early on. This is why it is essential for the management to break down the change process into stages and motivate employees to achieve them one after the other.
The iterative-plan-Transition-Implementation –Reward is an important model that is used to break the change process into distinct manageable phases. Use of this model helps in the enhancement and planning towards the organization transformation process. Use of the model ensures in the realization of these short time frames and clearly defined visible results that become very important motivators for the employees.
The management should ensure that it rewards those that meet the initial goals and celebrate these initial successful goals. In addition, the management should assist those that are experiencing problems in realizing the initial goals accordingly (Evans par.9).
Produce More Change
It is often common for many organizations that are undergoing the change process to rest after realizing their initial goals. The change management team should use these results to motivate its workforce to pursue its long term goal.
They should assess on where to improve on and set other new goals that are closer to their main objective. The change management team should occasionally become innovative, bring new leaders to reinforce behavior and modify their strategy and tactics as more information is realized (Evans par.10).
Make it Stick
Generally it is well known that a permanent change is not caused by an event, but a habit. The leaders should remember to always direct the employees towards sustenance of their behavior. After the realization of the main objective, the management should come up with a replacement plan that will sustain the behavior to ensure the change process last.
Transformation plan for Toyota
As earlier highlighted, the Toyota Corporation Company is in dare need to implement a change process that will assist it to restructure its processes and ensure that it shifts its production and products to being environmental friendly. The Toyota Corporation Company can effectively achieve this goal by the help of the John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model.
The top management of the company will first require informing all the relevant stakeholders the need for the change. The management should communicate to the other workforce the importance of the company adapting alternative sources of energy in its production. It should also inform them on the importance for the company to enhance the production of devices and automobiles that use alternative sources of energy.
The management should emphasize the urgency for the need for this change to the employees. They should do so by informing them that for the company to retain its excellent performance and being able to survive the stiff current competition that it does not have any other alternative, but to comply and make its productions and operations environmental friendly.
The management in Toyota Corporation Company will then require forming a change management team that will help the company to implement the change process. The change process of restructuring the productions of the company to become environmental friendly is an expensive venture for Toyota Corporation Company. The management should identify appropriate leaders in the key departments of the company.
These leaders should be the one to form the change management team. The formation of the team with members across the department will be a strategic move in the change process. The management will then require coming up with learning program that will help to equip the change management team for the task ahead of them.
After the formation of the team, the team will be responsible for emphasizing for the urgency for the change. It should do this by communicating to the employees the importance restricting their productions and products the earliest possible to remain in the market.
The next step after the formation of the change management team is to ensure the team assumes its duty of oversees the change process. The team should articulate the vision statement to direct the employees’ behavior towards the realization of the goal of aligning their production and products to being environmental friendly.
The vision should be crafted in a manner to address the company’s values of sustaining a conducive environment for everyone to live in. The team should educate the management about the vision statements such that everyone is conversant in describing and fully understanding it.
The top management should ensure that they live their talk so that they become good role model for the employees. They should always direct the other workforce towards the realization of the set objective and occasionally remind them about their vision in a powerful way.
One thing that they can achieve this is by encouraging the other employees to adapt those devices that they are designed to be environmental friendly. This will entail use of automobiles that consume biogas or solar energy. The top management team should first adapt this lifestyle so that the other workforce can be motivated to take suit.
The change like any other change is likely to experience various obstacles. The managements should try to identify the prevailing barriers being expressed in the change process and assist the employees accordingly.
Among one of them likely challenge the employees are likely to experience is insufficient technology on alternative sources of energy. Japan is not well advanced in the technology of alternative sources of energy such as solar energy and biogas.
Behind every global-class supply chain are global world people, but with an environment of constant change and transformation of supply chain practice, matching the right persons and their skills to the ever changing demands and abilities is a difficult situation. Most companies tend to be reactive and make a mistake of reapply the old skills that are present rather than the needed skills.
The management instead of the management empowering relevant employees with appropriate skills and also higher more employees that are more experienced on these new skills to boost the performance appropriately. The Toyota Corporation Company is supposed to take its employees for further training maybe in Germany where the technology on alternative sources of energy is more advanced.
Similarly, the management can opt to import the technology by hiring Germens that are skilled with that technology. The availability of the new technology in Toyota Corporation Company will act as a catalyst to speed up the process of the company realizing its objective (Haines 7).
Since the task of change process is a very difficult task and many employees often becomes discouraged, the change management team in Toyota Corporation Company need to split the change process into factions with a definite goals and process. For instance, the team can take employees acquisition of the new skills of alternative source of energy as their initial objective.
Those employees that will successful pass through this process should be rewarded accordingly and those that will face challenges being supported adequately. The success of the employees to transcend with the new skills should be celebrated so that to motivate the employees and energize them to their main objective (McNamara 7).
The change management should ensure that the employees remain focused to their main objective of transforming their production and products to being environmental friendly. They should shun from being satisfied by their immediate goals. They should do so by keeping the employees motivated and directed to their main goal.
The management should also ensure that after the company is successful in implementing their change process, they should come with a replacement plan to sustain the change that has been realized. Failure for that can result to the company going back to their former performance that can greatly affect the change process.
General electric organization is an example of an organization that used similar strategy and succeeded to implement the change process successfully with the help of its chairman Jack Welch.
He used the concept of creating a need of urgency to influence the employees see the call for the change. Therefore by the Toyota corporation company adapting similar strategy it will succeed to with its change implementation.
Works Cited
Evans, Joe.”Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model: Implementing Change Powerfully and Successfully.”2011. Web..
Ewton, Zane. “Change Management Theories.” 2006. Web.20 July, 2011
Haines, Stephen. “Leading Strategic Change: To Create and Sustain Your Competitive Edge.” 2011. 20 July, 2011
Heathfield, Susan. Change Management Checklist.2011. Web.20 July, 2011
McNamara, Carter. “Organizational Change and Development.” n.d. Web.20 July, 2011.
“Toyota Company Website.” 2011. Web.