ESM706 Leading and Managing People

Introduction:

Change management is described as the methodology by which an organization understand the need of a change and implement changes according to that understanding. Change management is a disciplinary action that an organization implements over its employees to prepare and support their employees to successfully cope with the change so that they can deliver products according to their potential to achieve the objectives and goals of the organization. There are three levels in the change management process. The first one is individual change management. In individual change management, the employees understand the change and also understand that what they need to change (Sattar Ahmad and Hassan 2015). The second one is organizational change management. In organizational change management at first, a group of people is taken for the implementation of change management. After that group is trained accordingly to adopt the change in the organization. The final one is enterprise change management.  In enterprise change management the change has occurred in the core competency level of the organization. This report will give a brief overview of the change management process in the organization. This report further discusses different literature associated with the change management process and will analyze the change that occurred in the chosen organization.

Discussion:

Theory Part:

Change management model given by Lewin’s:

Change is needed in all types of organizations despite industry type, size of the firm, and age of the organization. This model was created by Kurt Lewin. There are three phases present in the model. The first phase is the unfreezing phase, the second one is the change phase and the final one is the refreeze phase. This is an important model for any organization to bring change in their organizational process. To bring change in the organization the first step that one organization has to take is to prepare the employees of the organization to accept the process in which the change will have occurred. To take this step the organization first has to break the resistance or stereotypes among the people of the organization. Before implementing the new change, close down the existing process is necessary to be successful in the process (Ekwoaba, Ikeije and Ufoma 2015). In this process, the organization has to spread the message successfully about why the existing way of business process is not considered a fruitful process by the organization. Organizations could take different parameters or statistics to prove that the need for change is necessary for the organization. Such type of parameters or statistics could be the annual sales report of the organization, declining sales volume of the product or service of the organization, Declining customer satisfaction level, and so on. All of these parameters will show that the organization needs an urgent change to uplift the performance level the organization (Pawirosumarto, Sarjana and Muchtar 2017). To prepare the people of the organization for the new change their beliefs, attitudes, and values which they have in them must be challenged to make them understand that the way they are thinking is not going to be fruitful anymore. The first step in the change process is more difficult and often stressful for the employees as well as for the whole management of the organization. When the existing process has to be changed all the processes of the organization get off balance. Employees can create strong resistance against the new change (Hornstein 2015). To overcome this situation, the core competency level of the organization must be evaluated and when a crisis will generate by the management in the organization it will create a strong motivation to set a new equilibrium. Without motivation, employees will not be going to participate in the change process (Parashakti and Ekhsan 2020). To bring a successful change in the organization participation from the employee is essential. After successfully doing the first step that is unfreezing process, the organization needs to implement the change. In the unfreeze stage some kind of uncertainty has been created in the organization. In the implementation stage of change, the employees begin to solve out their uncertainty and cope with the change process to do their work accordingly to the new changed process. Employees started to work in the new process accordingly. The transition stage from unfreezing stage to the change stage is not a very quick process and it cannot be achieved in one night. Employees take time to exit from the old process and adopt the new process. To adopt the new change and to work accordingly employees need to understand the value that is created to them by implementing the new change. To make this happen communication between the management of the organization and the employees is essential. The communication gap can create a barrier in the process. Time is also an essential element in the change process (Saadat and Saadat 2016). Time must be given to the employees to adopt the change and work accordingly. It is the duty of the organization to make the employee understood the benefit they will get from the change management. In the final process that is the refreezing process when the change is taking place and people have adopted the new process of working, that is the perfect time to implement the refreeze phase. The signs of a refreeze phase are shown in the stability of the organization chart and consistent work description. In the refreeze stage the employees and the organization need assistance in the change which occurs at the institutional level and internal level. This ensures the changes are made available all the time and the changes are included in the business of every day. After boosting up the confidence of employees they feel more confident in the new change process. Despite change is constant in many organizations, still, the refreezing stage is important to successfully conduct the change management process. In the refreezing stage support and development is necessary. Leadership role plays an important role in this process. In refreezing stage establishing a feedback system is very much necessary. In refreezing stage training is necessary (Mangkunegara and Waris 2015). The elements that support the change must be identified in this stage.

SCARF Model:

In the model SCARF means status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, fairness. If employees started to feel that there is a threat to them and that this is a negative thing going on, then employees get into that negativity (Basetoli Mishkat 2015).

Status: If employees can see that there is a reward in it for them that is a positive thing for them personally not just for the business, then it creates a sense of hope and optimism. From driving through change employees want to move towards the change. Employee's sense of status can be threatening if the feedback is mishandled. The employee then can be more defensive and will not readily accept the change (Stone and Deadrick 2015). To minimize this risk employer can give the employee an opportunity to evaluate his or her performance or try to frame the feedback in a positive manner. Giving regular praise can be considered as a reward to the employee and they will motivate by this step. Employers can give the employee more scope to develop their skills.

Certainty: If employees know what the journey will be like again they will more likely to move towards it if there is a mystery around the future they will hold back. If the employee can found that there is certainty in their future career growth they will adopt the changed process without any hesitation.  Employees do not want to accept the change if it will carry towards uncertainty (Hayes 2018). Future safety is considered as a reward to the employee. If the employee can predict his or her near future and see certainty in that then they are more readily accept the change.

Autonomy: If the organization provides to their employees some measure of choice, some measure of free choice about things, and again more likely to move towards enhanced energy around that, then employees will adopt the change easily. Involvement of the management in the employee’s day-to-day work is a barrier to autonomy (Rozario, Venkatraman and Abbas 2019). This is considered a threat to the employee. Without a little autonomy, they do not accept any new change.

Relatedness: If employees feel as though there are going to go through this change alone then they are very unlikely to go for that change. If in the change process the team is going through this and they have several meetings and they connect up and they talk about the certainty and all those sorts of things and if the employer gives their employee the choice, then they are more likely want to do that with each other. The gap in relatedness can leave an employee feeling lonely in the change process (Kumar and Jauhari 2016). The gap in relatedness will hamper the creativity level and existing skills of employees. The more connected the employee will feel, the more will be their productivity level in the change process.

Fairness: If the change in any business process does not feel fair for them and other people present in the group then the employee does not want to go for that change. Fairness is essential in any process of change (Delery and Roumpi 2017). Treating every employee in any business process will help the employee to readily accept the change.

Practical Part:

Qantas airlines are one of the largest airline service providers in the continent of Australia. They are carrying the more number of domestic traffic in Australia. Qantas and it's subsidiary company such as jet connect which carries passengers between Australia and New Zealand. The official name of Qantas airlines is Queensland and northern territory aerial services. The company was founded in the year 1920. The company operates on several national as well as international routes.

Change management is responsible for implementing new ideas within the business strategies of the company (Burke 2017). The main function of change management is to identify the areas where a change is needed and also to identify whether the change could be beneficial for Qantas or not. In the change process of Qantas airlines, the change occurred in the employee satisfaction, performance enhancement of employees, change in the discipline of the employees (Balamurugan and Shenbagapandian 2016), change in the communication process between the employer and the employees, change in the recruitment and selection process of new employees, change in the cross-cultural diversity management, change in the international staffing, change in the grievance management system has occurred (Richter et al. 2017).  All of this change is closely monitored with the help of Lewin’s change model and SCARF theory.

Change in the cross-cultural diversity management of Qantas Airlines Limited:

In an international airline like Qantas airlines, there is various diversity present in their workforce. Qantas outsourced from different nationalities. In Qantas airlines when some people are treated and visualized differently then there arises the problem in diversity management. Stereotypes create problems in the communication process of the organization. That creates a threat to the diversity management of the organization (Parízek 2017). By taking the help of Lewin’s change management theory Qantas Airlines find out the problem for which there cause a problem in the proper diversity management of the organization. In the unfreezing phase, Qantas identified some problems in the internal communication in the structure of the organization. Due to the diversity among employees there occurs several fights. Qantas finds that employees are facing stereotypes due to age, race, and ethnicity. For this diversity communication between the employees got affected. Operational efficiency of Qantas airlines going down for these problems. Thus, Qantas airlines took several human resource policies and strategies. By implementing a proper change in their human resource policies and strategies Qantas airlines tried to overcome the communication gap between employees in the workplace (Bratton and Gold 2017). Diversity management-oriented change is necessary to mitigate the problem between employees.  But to make this happen a proper diversity climate must be created inside the organization. By managing proper diversity management in the organization Qantas airlines could gain more productivity and efficiency from the employees. To change the point of view of the employees it is a much-needed step to arrange for the proper training and development of the employees of Qantas airlines, to help them adopt the change that is going on regarding diversity management of the organization. In the change process, it is the responsibility of the management of Qantas airlines to boost up the morale of the employees and to boost up their confidence in the workplace. In this process, employees will feel more confident and it will help them to adopt the change easily. Training and development are much necessary for this change process to train the people to cope with the change that is happening in the organization to successfully run the diversity management between the employees of the organization. Running properly the diversity management in the organization Qantas wants to expand and diversify its business by getting proper collaboration among the employees of the organization (Obiekwe and Eke 2019). To maintain diversity in the organization different technical competencies such as attitudes, knowledge, and skills in the employee must be changed accordingly in the change phase of Lewin’s model of change management. In the change process, Qantas airlines took several changes which will be helpful to maintain proper diversity management in the organization. In the change process to maintain proper diversity management in the organization, they changed their mission and vision statement accordingly and spread the message to their employees so that they can understand the message and changed their attitudes, values, and skills accordingly to cope with the new vision and mission statement of the organization. Qantas creates several strategic plans and other communication techniques for their employees who need to change accordingly (Van Dun, Hicks and  Wilderom 2017). To reduce the stereotypes in the organization Qantas took several collaborative techniques among their managers so that it can help in the process of proper decision making and fair hiring process for the employees. The employee of the organization has been educated thoroughly by giving proper training which could be helpful for them to reduce stereotyping which in turn helps to increase the diversity in the organization, thus create more productivity and increase operational efficiency. In the recruitment panel, more diversification has been created in the organization (Derous and De Fruyt 2016). Assistance has been given to all the employees who belong to different diverse backgrounds. To maintain diversity and reducing stereotyping, a zero tolerance policy has been given. All the change process has been communicated with all the employees of the organization. In the refreeze phase of the change management regarding the diversity management in Qantas airlines, proper training and assistance have been given to the employees to make the change process a successful one (Mateescu 2017).

Change in the international recruitment and selection for Qantas Airlines Limited:

Recruitment and selection of employees are the crucial human resource practice for Qantas airlines (Chungyalpa and Karishma 2016). The change occurred in the recruitment and selection process with the help of the SCARF model. Recruitment managers have been given limited autonomy to find out the skilled employees from the pool of candidates. Qantas changed the process of communication for searching for new employees for their organization. Qantas changed the status of the new employees by giving them proper training and by helping them out to cope with the organizational structure and process of the organization. This process is helping to reduce the uncertainty of the newly hired employee. The management of Qantas airlines collaborates with the newly recruited employee in a proper manner which helps to increase his or her relatedness in the process of recruitment. Fairness in the recruitment and selection process of employees was a big issue for Qantas airlines limited. Qantas airlines bring the change in the recruitment and selection process so that there will be no bias in the recruitment and selection of employees. To employ the right and skillful employees is the most important job for the human resource professional who is responsible for the recruitment and selection process of employees. To bring fairness to the recruitment and selection process Qantas airline trained its human resource personnel accordingly so that they can understand the talented candidate and employ them for the overall benefit of the organization (Collings, Scullion and Vaiman 2015). Recruiting new employees who are not up to the mark for the business process of the organization will increase the employee turnover rate as well as can cause losses in the human resource for the organization.

Change in the Discipline and grievance management in Qantas Airlines Limited:

Effective implementation of discipline is necessary to rectify employee behavior in the organization (Arif et al. 2019). If the management of the organization unable to deal with the problem of the employee, then that will create a big issue for the overall performance and efficiency of the organization. Thus it is necessary for the management of the Qantas airline limited to monitor the problems of the employees. By implementing the SCARF model Qantas can handle the grievance of employees effectively (Andalib and Darun 2018). The employee must provide some amount of autonomy to share their feedback about their grievance. Collaboration between the employer and the employee regarding grievance will increase the relatedness of employees as well as reduce the level of uncertainty among them.

Conclusion And Recommendations:

In the conclusion, it can be concluded that this reports signify the two change management concepts one is Lewin’s change management theory and the SCARF model for change management in the organization. This report concludes about the different change that has been occurred in Qantas Airlines Limited. There are several problems in various field of the organization such as problems in the diversity management of the problem, problem in the international recruitment and selection, problem in the international staffing of the organization, problems in the grievance handling by the employer of the organization. To rectify all of these problems Qantas airlines has to change several processes in the organization. But change management is a critical process and it does not take place overnight. Qantas airlines thus implemented change management in all of these relevant fields with the help of Lewin’s change management theory. In the unfreeze stage Qantas airlines find out the problem and in the change process, they have undertaken several changes and to implement that change in the mindset of employees they took time and also they have provided training to their employees so that they can accept the change. By using the SCARF model of change management they have given some amount of autonomy to the employee so that they can provide their feedback which can be an important tool for the organization to implement change management efficiently within the organization (Pandita and Ray 2018). Qantas airlines also bring fairness in their recruitment and selection process for the employees.

From the above discussion there, are several recommendations that could be given to Qantas Airlines Limited:

• To implement a change in their organizational process, at first Qantas Airlines has to change its mission and vision statement accordingly. Changing the mission and vision statement is considered as the first step towards the implementation of change management in the organization. Qantas must communicate more with their employees about which type of change they are doing in their mission and vision of the organization. Communication about the change is essential to make the employee ready for the acceptance of the new change that will be happening within the organization.
• To implement the change Qantas airlines must train the leaders of the organization to be more collaborative with the employees so that their level of uncertainty about the change will be lowered. Collaboration is necessary to make the employee more comfortable in the organization. Collaboration with the employee also helps to increase the relatedness of the employees in the organization. This will fulfil the elements of the SCARF model of change management.
• The employee of the organization should provide more autonomy in the organization. Involvement of management in the day-to-day work of the employees will lead to dissatisfaction of the employee in their work. Dissatisfaction will lead to low productivity of the employee which in turn lowers the productivity as well as the performance level of the organization.
• Qantas Airlines has diverse work culture. Employees are from different countries. Sometimes which contribute to the conflict between employees. Thus, Qantas must change the training process of employees so that they can understand the benefit of diverse and cross-cultural diversity in the organization. For this reason, proper specialized training is necessary to train the employees to accept the change and cope with the change accordingly.
• As Qantas Airlines is a diversified business organization thus their recruitment and selection process is also critical. They have to recruit personnel from different nationalities. Thus there is a chance of biases and stereotyping in that process. Qantas should bring change in that process. They must train their recruiting personnel accordingly so that they can choose the talented and skilled employees from the pool of candidates.
• Qantas airlines must provide proper assistance who are coming from diverse backgrounds. If they provide proper assistance to the newly recruited employees, then the employee will feel more comfortable and his level of uncertainty will be lower which can be beneficial for the organization as a whole.

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