LDR-615 Change Initiative

All types of organizations initiate change for specific reasons such as; meet customer demands, meet required quality, increase employee output, increase profits among other goals. From the front lines to the C-suite, organizational management, leaders, and organizational departments figure out distinct ways of resolving existing problems regarding customer needs, improve organizational products, reduce costs, and create new streams of earning an organization more revenue. Government agencies and non-profit firms conceive new means of attracting donors, bettering their mission fulfillment ways and expanding the scope of the services they offer. There are cases whereby the key advocates of change aim at changing the company’s line of products to a whole new venture.

This paper will seek to provide a detailed discussion of the LDR-615 change initiative with the key focus being; implementation, evaluation, and sustainability. The company of target of this change will be Apple Inc. The main objectives will be to discuss the key issues affecting the company on the basis of its current outcomes, external and internal forces causing change.

Change Initiative

Change is necessary when a firm is not doing well in achieving its set vision with the outlines goals and objectives. Change is eminent if a firm is not performing as expected. Apple Inc. is the world-leading innovation in iPad, Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and TV. In addition to that, Apple also deals in software development under its four key software platforms. The key issue affecting Apple Inc. as a dealer in electronic devices is targeting mainly high-class people as their market (Spencer-Cavaliere, Kingsley, & Norris, 2018). Apple manufactures electronic devices of very high quality and as such, they are overly-priced. Very few people, mainly rich, high-class citizens can afford them making the company’s target market very specific.

Currently, the outcomes of the organization rely on how many people are rich enough to afford their products. Electronic devices as secondary need even though the monotonous use might have made them seem basic. Fewer people even middle-class cannot afford to spend as much as $650 on an iPhone, iPad, or any type of handset (Banjo Ally, Kehinde Agbolade, & Hassanat Adunni, 2016). Apple needs to start manufacturing handsets that are cheaper and affordable to customers across different living standards.

The external force contributing to the issue affecting Apple Inc. is the manufacture of cheaper handsets by competitors such as; Samsung, T-Mobile, and AT&T. These companies cover a wide range of electronic market and target customers from all living standards. Issues contributing the problem affecting Apple Inc. are; use of higher technology in their devices, use of better chips and raw material that cost the company a lot of money (Coghlan, Shani, & Roth, 2016). People affected by this issue are all middle-class and low-class individuals that have very little to spend on luxury products such as handsets. As such they cannot afford Apple products. The company is also negatively affected by this issue as the company’s sales are limited unlike when the company was selling average priced products (Lauricella, Ford, Riley, Powers, & Lederle, 2017).

Stakeholders Involved in the Change Initiative:

The key stakeholders of Apple Inc. that will be involved in the issue include;

1. Lenders of Apple Inc.

The organizations that provide Apple Inc. with finance always look for the company’s strategies and market performance prior to offering their help. If Apple starts manufacturing iPhones, iPads and other devices that are of easily affordable prices, it will sell more and make more profits. Lenders will be positively affected by the outcomes of the change initiative to be implemented (Banjo Ally, Kehinde Agbolade, & Hassanat Adunni, 2016). Given that these financial lenders require the organization’s financial particulars and thus if Apple starts making better financial gains, they will be encouraged to lend to the organization even more.

2. Apple employees

Apple employees are many, ranging from departmental workers to distributors. Increase in the organization’s production and sales will benefit them it that they will have access to labor benefits from all over the world. Distributors of Apple are limited to only deal with high-class and a few middle-class customers and as such, they earn little (Spencer-Cavaliere, Kingsley, & Norris, 2018). Dealing in low-priced commodities will improve their customers and sales thus, making them more in terms of profit.

3. Customers

Currently, Apple has about 166 million customers around the world. These customers are mainly high-class and middle-class people from around the world. This implies that Apple has very few customers from Africa, Asia and other parts of the world with middle-class and low-class people that cannot afford Apple products at their current prices. Manufacturing cheaper products will make Apple products affordable to middle-class and some low-class people in different parts of the world. Customers will be positively affected when Apple implements this change initiative as even those customers with low income will be able to purchase Apple products.

Contingency Leadership Theory

To implement change initiative in a large organization like Apple, require the organization’s leader to play a major role. As a leader, the first role is to identify the issue which is; the organization sells its product mainly to rich people that can afford expensive electronic products. The role of a leader in change initiative aimed at resolving this problem is, helping the entire management of the organization in understanding the issue at hand, suggest the solution. After the management team agrees with the suggestion, the leader provides a strategic plan on how to resolve the problem, parties involved in the process and lastly, the resources required. The leadership theory suitable for this part is the Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership (Coghlan, Shani, & Roth, 2016).

Contingency theory of leadership emphasizes the leadership effectiveness. The essence of this theory is that the effectiveness of a leader depends upon two forces combined together; the style of leadership an individual leader employs, and “situational favorableness”. Apple leadership employs a democratic leadership style (Fernandes, Ward, & Araújo, 2014). Democratic leadership implies that a leader seeks opinions, suggestions and involves the rest of the management team in decision-making. It is for this reason as a leader; the first step is to inform the management team of the issue at hand. Situational favorableness is whereby a leader has to be equipped to handle different organizational situations such as the one at hand.

Change Agents and their Roles

To successfully implement the above-suggested change, Apple Inc. will rely on the following change agents;

Apple Management Team

The management team of Apple includes; all departmental managers and top leaders. In implementing change, they play the vital role of communicating the requirements and change specifications to their departments.

Apple Software developers

New handsets that will be manufactured by Apple will require specific software that is compatible so as to effectively work. Software developers will be responsible for the creation of this new software (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry, & Loh, 2014). Without software developers, it is impossible to implement the suggested change.

Suppliers

Suppliers help Apple Inc. meet very high standards in the market for all its goods and services (Mahringer, & Renzl, 2018). The new products will require market and thus, suppliers will be playing their usual role of ensuring the rightful customers get the products and services related to the new products.

Change Model to Develop Strategies

The ADKAR model

ADKAR model is a model of transformation management that is mainly goal-focused. According to this model, every organizational aspect that a leader considers in the management process is sequential (Alderton, et al., 2014). In addition to that, the model requires the drivers of change to achieve the goals and visions cumulatively as well as achieving the transformative objective set in place. Therefore, for change to be successfully implemented in an organization like Apple Inc. the phases of change put in place have to happen simultaneously. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the steps followed in implementing change with respect to the ADKAR change model;

Post-implementation

Implementation

Concept and design

Business need

Awareness Desire Knowledge Ability Reinforcement

Fig. 1.0: showing how the phases of project and change for employees occurs simultaneously

In the name ADKAR, below are the initials and their implication as they form the strategic aspects in the model

A - Awareness

Recognize the need as to why change is necessary. The change management team will provide adequate information for the change helping to overcome barriers to the change.

D – Desire

Take part in and offer adequate support that will facilitate change. The stage will involve developers, management, employees and other stakeholders to ensure success of the change process.

K – Knowledge

Be aware of how to implement change and identify the possible outcome of change on the basis of behavior and skills. Utilize employee skills and understanding including design of new phones and undertaking adequate marketing to ensure the change process is successful.

A – Ability

Implement the required change through day-to-day participation. The change agents have to do their part to ensure that change is successfully implemented.

R – Reinforcement

Provide a way to sustain change on a long-term basis. The organization has to provide necessary resources to ensure change agents have proper resources to do their part (Charlie Chi Cong, Perry, & Loh, 2014).

ADKAR is the most suitable model for change to use in implementing any change. Unlike other models, it is flexible and provides key emphasis on the importance of communicating different steps involved in implementing change to the employees of an organization.

Outcome Assessment Evaluation

For Apple to determine the level of success of the change after its implementation, it will have to use outcome assessment evaluation method (Alderton, et al., 2014). According to this assessment method, the company will compare the current outcomes to the outcomes after change implementation. If the outcomes after change surpass the outcomes acquired by the organization before the change, the change initiative will be positive and vice versa is true.

Barriers to change

The potential barriers to change include organization culture and resistance by employees. These barriers can be overcome by explaining the importance of the change in-depth and providing strategic implications to gain support from all.

Mission and Goal Accomplishment:

The mission and goals of Apple Inc. are centered on achieving the most desirable customer satisfaction and making profit (Plummer, Lecomte, & Doherty, 2017). The suggested change is focused on improving the organization’s customer reach and benefit Apple’s stakeholders at large. Through all these, the suggested change will be equitably contributing to the society in general.

References:

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Banjo Ally, H., Kehinde Agbolade, O., & Hassanat Adunni, A. (2016). PERCEPTION OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES. Revista De Administração FACES Journal, 15(2), 67-80.

Charlie Chi Cong, M., Perry, C., & Loh, E. (2014). Integrating Organizational Change Management and Customer Relationship Management in a Casino. UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal, 18(2), 1-21.

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Fernandes, G., Ward, S., & Araújo, M. (2014). Developing a Framework for Embedding Useful Project Management Improvement Initiatives in Organizations. Project Management Journal, 45(4), 81-108. doi:10.1002/pmj.21441

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Spencer-Cavaliere, N., Kingsley, B. C., & Norris, C. (2018). Reimagining the Role of Human Services Workers: Staff Experiences of a Social Change Initiative. International Journal Of Disability, Development & Education, 65(2), 214-228.