Assignment 5: Change Management Plan

Due Week 10 and worth 300 points

In this assignment, you will combine the previous four (4) assignments into a proposal that you could present to the executive leadership and board members. You will argue the value of the change management plan to the overall success of the organization. Add to your previous submissions a plan for sustaining the change in the long run.

Write a six to ten (6-10) page paper in which you:

Section I: Organization: Describe the organization and comment on the HR change that the organization should make. Utilize effective diagnostic tools to assess the organizations ability to change. Support assertions with theoretical evidence.

1. Describe the company in terms of industry, size, number of employees, and history.
2. Analyze in detail the current HR practice, policy, process, or procedure that you believe should be changed.
3. Formulate three (3) valid reasons for the proposed change based on current change management theories.
4. Appraise the diagnostic tools that you can use to determine an organization’s readiness for change. Propose two (2) diagnostic tools which you can utilize to determine if the organization is ready for change. Defend why you believe the diagnostic tools selected are the best choice for diagnosing change in the organization.
5. Using one (1) of the diagnostic tools you selected, assess the organization’s readiness for change.
   1. Provide results of the diagnostic analysis
   2. Explain the results
6. Interpret whether or not the organization is ready for change. Substantiate your conclusion by referencing current change management theories.

Section II: Kotter Change Plan: Utilizing the Kotter eight (8) step method of change, create a solid change management plan for the HR initiative you identified as requiring improvement.

1. Ascertain how each of the steps applies to your specific organization.
2. Develop a strategy that illustrates how you would address each of the eight (8) stages of change:
   1. Establishing a sense of urgency
   2. Creating coalition
   3. Developing vision and strategy
   4. Communicating the vision
   5. Empowering broad-based action
   6. Generating short-term wins
   7. Consolidating gains and producing more change
   8. Anchoring new approaches into the culture

Section III: Resistance and Communication: Research methods of minimizing resistance to change and create plan to address resistance within your change management initiative.

1. Diagnose the reasons for resistance to change.
2. Interpret the potential causes of resistance in the organization. Identify and describe three (3) potential causes of resistance to your change plan. Identify and describe three (3) potential sources of resistance to your change plan.
3. Create a plan for minimizing possible resistance to your change management plan.
4. Elaborate on the relationship between resistance to change and communication.
5. Evaluate three (3) communication strategies.
6. Recommend one (1) communication strategy that would be applicable to your organization. Diagnose why this communication strategy is best for your organization.
7. Create a solid communication plan for your change initiative.

Section IV: Sustaining Change: Research methods of sustaining change in organizations and create a plan for sustaining proposed change.

1. Recommend two (2) strategies for sustaining change:
   1. Diagnose the two (2) theories from a scholarly perspective
   2. Evaluate why the strategies selected are viable for the organization

Section V: Presentation: Create a visually appealing and informative presentation espousing the importance of the change management plan you developed.

1. Create a ten to fifteen (10-15) slide PowerPoint presentation to submit to executive leadership and board members outlining and describing your recommended change. Include the following criteria:
   1. Be creative in your design so that is appealing to others.
   2. Ensure that all of the MAJOR points of the plan are covered.
   3. Create bulleted speaking notes for your presentation to the shareholders in the Notes section of the PowerPoint. Note: You may create or assume any fictitious names, data, or scenarios that have not been established in this assignment for a realistic flow of communication.
   4. Use a professional technically written style to graphically convey the information.
   5. Create a video of yourself presenting the presentation to key stakeholders. Note: View the “Creating a Presentation for Your Course” playlist, located here for tutorials on creating and submitting video assignments.

Section VI: References: Utilize good scholarly research skills and writing skills to develop a solid change plan and presentation.

1. Use at least ten (10) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources
2. Write clearly and concisely about managing organizational change using proper writing mechanics.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Evaluate the reactions to change including identifying signs of resistance and approaches to managing it.
• Evaluate strategies for communicating change.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in managing organizational change.
• Write clearly and concisely about managing organizational change using proper writing mechanics.
• Evaluate strategies for communicating change.

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Instructions

For this assignment, you will create a professional-looking PowerPoint presentation on a topic of professional communication. To help put this in perspective, the scenario is that your supervisor has assigned you the task of presenting a 45 to 60-minute training session on some aspect of professional communication. You need to research your topic and prepare an engaging PowerPoint that would be used to guide your presentation.

Topic Ideas

The course textbook will be a great resource when looking for a topic that relates to some aspect of professional communication. Some examples of topics include (but are not limited to):

• How to be an Effective Verbal and Nonverbal Communicator;
• How to Give an Effective Presentation;
• Effective Communication Within Teams;
• Overcoming Communication Barriers

It is recommended that you pick a topic of interest and then do some research to make sure you can find 5 credible sources. Once you are certain you can locate five credible sources, begin creating your PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint Requirements:

I. Title Slide

• This will be the first slide of your PowerPoint (and is not considered a content slide).
• This slide will include the following: the title of your presentation; your full name; class name and section number; & your institution.

II. Content Slides

• A minimum of 15 content slides must be included.
• All content slides should contain speaker notes (which should be included in the “Click to add notes” section under each slide). Remember, a PowerPoint is meant to be an engaging visual aid that helps guide the presenter and the audience; it is not meant to be the presentation. Therefore, speaker notes served to expand up and offer further clarification regarding all the points on a slide.

III. Reference Slide

• This slide will be the last slide(s) of your PowerPoint(and is not considered a content slide).

• This slide will contain all used sources.

• Sources must be formatted according to current APA formatting guidelines.
• In addition to current APA formatting guidelines, the inclusion of thecomplete URL (sometimes called a permalink) is required for all full-text, peer-reviewed/scholarly articles retrieved from Liberty’s online library journal database. Note that this is not the same as the doi #. The URL must take your reader directly to the full text article withinLiberty’s online library journal database. If you’re unsure about the specific URL/link, you can copy the entire web address from the top of the browser’s address bar once you are viewing the full text article within Liberty’s online library journal database.

IV. Sources

A minimum of 5 credible sources must be used within your presentation. Required, credible sources include:

• 4 full-text, peer-reviewed/scholarly articles retrieved from Liberty’s online library journal database.
• 2 of the above 4 full-text, peer-reviewed/scholarly articles must be within the last 7 years.
• the course textbook (as listed on the course syllabus).

You are able to include additional sources, other than the 5 credible sources listed above; however, they must be full-text articles retrieved from Liberty’s online library journal database.

Sources NOT acceptable for this assignment:

• No textbooks, other than the course textbook listed on the course syllabus, including e-books, may be used.
• No general Internet searching is acceptable.  Therefore, no blogs, education sites, commercial sites, Wikipedia, About.com, editorials, abstracts, online books, book reviews, etc. are acceptable for this assignment.

V. Avoiding Plagiarism

• Create an original PowerPoint presentation; previously submitted work from this or another course is considered self-plagiarism and is prohibited.
• Provide citations for any:
  • statement, idea, & thought (whether paraphrased or directly quoted) used from an outside source;
  • table, data, image, etc. used from an outside source.
• All citations should be formatted according to current APA formatting guidelines and should directly follow the information used from an outside source.
• All sources used should be formatted according to current APA formatting guidelines on your reference slide(s).

VI. Other Requirements and Reminders:

• Must be created in Microsoft PowerPoint and uploaded through the assignment link as a .ppt or .pptx file.

• Appropriate and relevant images should be used.
• Individual slides and the overall design of your presentation must be professional and engaging.

• A running header or page #s are not required.
• An abstract is not required.

• A PowerPoint is meant to be an engaging visual aid that enhances and guides a presenter in a presentation; it is not meant to be the presentation.
• Look over the grading rubric for this assignment before you begin creating your PowerPoint.