Introduction
Change is the basic or fundamental factor of development because of the working condition and changing environment. The organization should adapt the changing culture and trends of the modern world to minimize the chances of risk. In the first assignment we discussed the need of cultural change in order to maintain the competitive advantage for BP Plc , here we are discussing some of literature review of culture and strategic change with reference to Strategy into Action.
Literature Review of strategic and cultural change in energy sector:
Strategic change is influential over the organizational policies and culture. According to Richard Linch (2015), the strategic change of the organization has based on the industrial and environmental theories. Industrial and environmental based theory of the Richard Linch has used into the consultancy report for BP Plc because of the need to bring change in their organizational policies cultural policies (Lynch, 2015).
Cummings & Worley (2015) has discussed the policies of organizational change and development. These strategies have used to make suggestions to BP Plc. The organizational change development can base on different policies and aspects, for example, it would need to change the learning structure of the organization, the adaptive structure of the organization and operational transformation of the organization. These changes have also identified for the BP Plc in the first assignment because these factors bring the cultural and strategic change or development in any organization (Cummings, 2015).
Kaplan and Norton (1996) have identified the model of balance score card that is helpful to design the policies and change management factor of any organization in different financial based and managerial based factors (Kaplan, 1996).
Summary of Consultancy Report
BP Plc is a Multinational company in the energy sector. The consultancy report has presented for the cultural and strategic change management in the organization. Major change management for the company has focused on the event of Horizon oil spill case. It was one of the biggest oil spill case in the history of the United States of America into the Middle Sea (Bryant, 2011).
In this assignment, the responsible factors have been identified about the Deep-Water Horizon Oil Spill case, and the evidence has highlighted about the required change in cultural and strategies of BP’s management.
Drivers to change
There is a history of oil spills in the BP Plc projects, Firstly, the Texas Refinery explosion of 2005 causes the severe financial loss, created the pollution challenge for environment, it decreased the goodwill of company in the market. In 2006, the Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill case caused the environmental damage at large scale because the oil got added in the sea water and caused a major threat to the sustainability of the marine environment. After this, the Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill case of 2010 was one of the major events that caused huge negative impact on the value of the company, caused them financial loss and their reputation was damaged badly because it was the largest damage in history of the sea life (epa.gov, 2017).
In the first assignment, different flaws have identified into the cultural and strategic management of the organization, for example, the lack of communication due to hierarchical corporate structure, the ineffective use of technology the ignorance towards the engineering activities and inferior quality of material used. These areas can be improved due to the change in strategic base and the operational based management.
Strategic tools
Following are some major strategic tool that has been discussed in assignment one.
Balance Score Card Model by Kaplan & Norton – (1996)
Kaplan and Norton (1996) have presented the useful model for change management. The model is in wide use since after its development. They identified different strategic change management aspects and features for the organizational change. (Kaplan, 1996).
Major perspectives are the internal process perspective, the financial perspective, the customer perspective and the learning & growth perspectives. These four stages of balance score card are covering the basic features and aspects of the organizational change management process. The model of balance score card has used to prepare consultancy report for the BP oil and gas company.
Three-Step Change Management Model by Kurt Lewin – (1947)
The model presented by the Kurt Lewin in 1947, is one of the most significant and useful models that could be used for effective change management process. There are three different stages of change management that have identified into this model. Three main stages of the Kurt Lewin model is unfreeze, the change policies and the freeze (Burnes, 2004).
Eight-Step Model by Kotter – (1996)
Kotter’s eight steps are the tools that analyze the organizational design of the firm by looking at eight different steps: urgency, coalition, change vision, vision communication, obstacle elimination, and short-term wines, sustain the change and the build on change. These actions are perfectly aligned, and they allow the organization to complete the change requirements and organizational developments. The model has been widely used for many years because it covers different dimensions of the change management process in the organization (Appelbaum, 2012).
Combining Model & Success factor theory by Lanning, Salminen & Rocha – (1999)
Lanning, Salminen and the Roiha have presented the combining model and success factor and it has widely used in different organizations to increase the overall change management of the organization. The model has used for the change management process in the BP oil and company because it is very effective to increase the continuous development in the organization. Following is the diagram shows detailed explanation about the steps of this model,
There are many other stages of the model that define effective change management. Major sub division of the model includes the need for change and analysis, the critical roles, the vision and targets, planning or organization, motivation and participation, the steering and follow-up, the communication, the practical changes or training, ending institutionalizing and the overall evaluation or feedback of planning.
Practical Usefulness of the theories and models
Balance scorecard is useful for BP’s management because it would help to identify a different area of change. Internal process perspective would identify the cultural based and structural based challenges for BP Plc and would help the management to identify the cultural changes the need in the wake of the disaster of Deep-water horizon oil Spill. The financial and customer perspective of the balance score card would help to design the policies for BP Plc to address the current trends and change requirement of the organization to gain back the confidence of the stakeholders and to recover from the loses caused by the event of Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill.
Main challenges with the balance score card are the addition of external market influences over the internal decision-making process. It can decrease the analysis for the operational cost BP Plc and decreases the overall ratio of decision making process.
Kurt Lewin model is not only useful for the change management process of BP Plc but it is applicable at different stages for the change management. The first stage of the model is based on the theory that organization should create the awareness for change among employees and would manage the required sources as well. It helps to initiate the change management process. The second step of the Kurt Lewin model helps to identify the models and process of change. The third stage of the Kurt Lewin model is most influential because it is also important to maintain the change (Burnes, 2017).
At the third stage of the Kurt Lewin model, the organization would maintain the continuous development process for the change. Continuous development process helps to maintain the change for long time for BP Plc.
Eight step model is the useful tool for BP Plc because it can particularly develop the organizational culture and strategy in following sequence and flow.
Firstly, it encourages the employees of BP Plc about the need for change and management identifies the causes of change. Third to fifth steps of the model focused on developing a vision and communicating the vision among stakeholders of BP Plc. It based on short term objectives because they are more attainable, measurable and clear in the comparison of long term objectives. In the end, the model calls for the implication of policies for qualitative change management in BP Plc.
Eight steps of Kotter are also applicable in the different organization because it helps the managers to maintain the qualitative flow and structure into the organization. With the help of eight steps model, the managers can increase the overall quality and performance of the organization. Work breakdown structure and the time-based planning are easy to design based on these eight steps in any organization.
After this, the four steps of combining model and success factor theory has been used in the assignment which are helpful to increase the overall change management process in BP Plc. Main steps are the institutionalization, the preparation, the implementation and the planning. These all stages can ensure the continuous development of any organization. The institutionalization in BP plc would help to build short term goals that are appropriate with the SMART check. It means that the goals and objective are the short, measurable, achievable, and relevant and have a time limitation.
Thus, the institutionalization or categorization of the objectives helps to increase the practical significance in the organization. Preparation, planning, and implementation are more practical based outcomes that would help to build more practical based strategies and policies for BP Plc.
Change models and change strategies are not only useful for change management process in any organization, but these strategies are used to manage different other activities and project management in the organization (Appelbaum, 2012).
Different kind of ethical and moral responsibilities lies on the BP Plc because of the nature of their business as they are extracting large natural resources. Increasing number of accidents brings the sustainability and environmental safety threats for the BP Plc for examples the incident of Horizon Oil spill in BP brought a critical challenge for the environmental stability. In this situation, it is very important to increase such regulation and measures that increase the overall performance of company about the security and for the environmental safety (Burnes, 2017).
All the models and change strategies that have applied or suggested into the consultancy report for BP Plc are based on the ethical standards, and they secure different concerns of stakeholders in the organization. There are a different stakeholder, for example, the customers of the company, the employees of the company, the shareholders, management or board of directors and specific bodies about the sustainability or protection of the environment (Kaplan, 1996).
Thus, the change process of the organization focuses on bringing the value for its stakeholders. To bring value to stakeholders, it is important to follow the ethical and professional working standard for the organization. Different change management model that has suggested to BP Plc shows that they secure concerns of the stakeholder. First of all, it would take into account that the change management models should be applied without sacrificing the quality or overall performance of BP Plc .
A second factor is the motivation and satisfaction of the employees. The employees of the company are the major part of change management. Thus, it is important to protect the concerns of employees by educating them about the need of change and by training them to adapt the process of change in organization. The organizational objective of BP Plc of environmental sustainability and of the increasing goodwill among people have also identified into these model or strategies of change. These factors have increased the adaptability of these suggestions and change for BP Plc (Burnes, 2017).
Critical Analysis of applied Models:
I have use different models to evaluate the drawbacks of existing strategic management system of BP Plc and to recommend an effective approach to bring some changes in their management system, which will add value in their overall performance.
The purpose of using different models such as Balance scored card, Three-Step Change Management Model by Kurt Lewin, Eight step models by Kotter and Combining models & Success theory to find out the basic needs of changes and also to recommend best approach for change management irrespective of their limitations.
I have used Balanced scored card model to understand the needs of change management for BP in respect of four main aspects of business including financial and customer’s aspects. As it looks at four different aspects, which results can vary from each other but I used this model to understand the weight of each aspect and then decide why we need to bring change to maintain our competitive advantage.
Three-Step Change Management model is force field model which require every resource (all Employees) must to participate and to have all required information but it is not very effective in practical because of its rational nature. I used this model for BP Plc because the Horizon incident was happened due to lack of engineer’s experience and their negligence. So, this model helps BP Plc to evaluate the needs of change by bringing change in man powers especially skilled workers and professionals.
The limitations of Three Step Change Management were overcome by using Eight step model by Kotter as it focuses on the urgency of the change by developing a platform where desired person understand their skills and expertise which help to bring change in strategic management.
Overall there is no such individual model available which can focus on all aspects of the needs of change management, therefore I have used different but most applicable models to elaborate our purpose of consultancy report.
Conclusion
The main objective of this report is to analyze and review the models that were used for the first assignment for BP Plc. It is clear from the above analysis that these models have widely used for change management especially the eight-step model, the balanced scorecard and the three steps Kurt Lewin model. These change management model and organizational strategies are based on the ethical and professional responsibilities at the international level. These models are very useful for the quality change management in BP Plc because these models would help BP Plc to improve their operational strategy mainly by considering the change in the engineering layout and design and the change in organization culture as well. So, by using these proven models will improve their goodwill in the market and would help BP Plc regarding environmental sustainability issues in future.
References
- Appelbaum, S. H.-L. (2012). “Back to the future: revisiting Kotter’s 1996 change model.” . Journal of Management Development 31, no. 8 , 764-782.
- Bryant, B. (2011). Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf oil spill – the key questions answered. , . The Guardian, 1(1), p. 1.
- Burnes, B. (2004). “Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: a re‐appraisal.” . Journal of Management studies 41, no. 6 , 977-1002.
- Burnes, B. (2017). “Kurt Lewin: 1890–1947: The Practical Theorist.” . The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers , 1-15.
- Cummings, T. G. (2015). Organisation Development & Change 10th Ed;. Cengage publishers.
epa.gov. (2017). Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Retrieved from epa.gov: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill - Kaplan, R. S. (1996). The balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. Harvard Business Press,
- Lynch, R. (2015). Strategic Management 7th ed; . Pearson .
Reflective report:
Firstly, I want to say that the module of strategy into action is the most unique and learning module and it was an interesting opportunity for me to learn about practical implementation of strategies. This module does not only give me effective knowledge but it also helps me to create an excellent aptitude for the organizational management and into the team working. This module offers me chance to encounter with the distinctive business activities and strategies like the strategy formation, the decision-making process, environmental protection activities and the cultural management in the organization.
Additionally, this module helped me to understand the strategic change and overall change management process for the organization.
To be given this level of learning in the organization, the module is an exceptional opportunity to learn about noticeable and practical activities to maintain quality and standards in business. In my opinion, these learning would help me to enhance the personal management and administrative skill and position in any organization.
I am currently working with the organization at the administrative position, and I tried to apply the knowledge gained from this module practically. Different learning, writing, and assignments of this course gave me an open chance to apply these theories and model for the organizational change. It helps me to accomplish my learning and to lead new strategies and policies in an organization that would help to open new ways of development.
Tutorial based session and the group activities of this course also helped me to improve my communication skills. I also become familiar with the process of communicating the ideas. I have also applied these learnings to my company and held the meeting where I encouraged the shareholders to communicate their ideas with each other and encourage the positive feedback environment between employees. It brought satisfactory results with this practice because it is a good way to bring more creative and innovative ideas as the employees were free to give their opinion. I was not able to manage such successful meeting before, but the concept sharing practice of course and learning about organizational management increased my skills of management and leadership as I convinced the employee for the change management process. Now, I am familiar with the fact that the change is need of organization and it is the base of development in the modern business world.
It shows that the learning of this course has enhanced my learning, critical thinking skills and my compatibility skills. Employability skills have improved due to the practical implication of different change management theories and models. All of the change management theories and concepts are applicable to the practical world and it would help to increase cultural base or strategic based change management process. I have applied these models and changed management strategies to manage the change process in my organization. In my opinion, the eight-step model by Kotter and the balance score card ate two most influencing change management policies because it can enhance the sequence and flow of the organizational change management step.
By applying the eight-step model, I have identified the need for change, change the internal structure by educating the employees and by training the employee, develop new policies and implement these policies to bring the desired outcome. In my opinion, this step helps to complete the process of change management with quality features.
I have studied various topics during the period of three months of course, for example, the models of strategic change, the management tool, application model, market analysis techniques and various skills of evaluating the performance of the company. Throughout this course, I have studied different literatures and writing to understand the process of change management and learn to apply these theories and models to the practical business world. There are various significant writings and literature that we have studied in this course and I have used these learning into my assignment one, the consultancy report for the change management in BP Plc
In this course, we have studied about the Strategic management and the change management at the internal and external level of the organization. It was very helpful to suggest a change for BP’s management. According to the Richard Linch, the organization should design their activities and policies in accordance with the Industry and Environmental based theory of strategy.
Change management models are effective to bring the flow and sequence in managing policies, and it would also help to increase the outcome of desired change. One of the basic significant factors is developing the behavior and attitude of the employee because the employee is the key part of change management process in the organization.
Concerning to the problems and difficulties of the course, I faced some communication barriers with my team members and face challenges of disagreement between team members. During the first week of my course, I was very nervous and face the communicational barrier. Moreover, I was nervous about the dealing of this high level of academic activities, but my friends and our teaching staff were very friendly & professional , and they help me to overcome these problems.
Day by day learning, attending classes and taking lectures build confidence in me and I believe that I would complete this course in an effective manner. Doing my first assignment was very difficult for me because I need to practically apply the all learning and knowledge to find a solution for BP Plc. BP Plc needs strategic and organizational cultural change so that they can enhance their financial performance and improve the value of company in the market that has damaged due the disaster of Deep-Water Horizon Oil Spill. However, the cooperative behavior of my friends and of the professor helps me to complete my assignment for this course.
In conclusion, I would like to say that this module has helped me to learn new things regarding the concept of change management in culture and organizational strategies. This module helps me to stand best from rest with regards to my future employability. After this course, I feel that i am now ready to face the upcoming new challenges as a senior executive in my organization .
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