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MOL 628E Course Analsis Final Paper

MOL 628 Final Paper

Evelyn Parker
Medaille College

Author Note
This paper was prepared on January 26, 2016 for MOL 628, taught by Professor Weeks

Final Paper
I am the newly appointed Director of Organizational Change of Excellus Health Plan, and
I work directly with the CEO of the organization. My job duties and special project are assigned
as reevaluating and rethinking the organizations management philosophy and implementation
perspectives.
I have been sent to Harvard Business School conference where I have participated in
various workshops and initiatives, during my time at the conference I have created a report to
illustrate my finding and takeaways that will be instrumental in implementing as the newly
Director of Organizational Change.
Breaking the Code of Change was the first segment of the conference and some
highlighted areas that I thought were very important are:

Theory E and Theory O

Leadership of Change
Planning of Change: Planned or Emergent
Consultants' Role in Change

My takeaways on Theory E and Theory O are that each business change is unique but each
change is a variant of one of two archetypes. These archetypes are based on different and
unconscious assumptions by senior executives and the consultants and academics. The two
theories are Theory E and Theory O. Theory E is change based on economic value. Theory O is
change based on organizational capability. (Nohria, 2000)
Theory O is the process of changing, obtaining feedback, reflecting, and making further
changes, organizations that enact this strategy have a strong, long-held, commitment-based
psychological contract with their employees. Theory E change strategies are ones that make all
the headlines. In this hard approach to change, shareholder value is the only legitimate

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concern. Change usually involves heavy use of economic incentives, drastic layoffs, downsizing,
and restructuring. E change strategies are more common in the workplace. (Nohria, 2000)
Leadership of Change clearly states that the most successful change initiatives require
radical changes in current practice. Change leadership has its own demands and requires a
different mindset and an extra set of capabilities in order to lead your organization to a new
place. Change leadership requires different skills and abilities beyond the norm, not the least of
which is being able to manage your day-to-day activities while transitioning toward the changed
business. You cant really afford to take your attention of any issue. (Nohria, 2000) Some ideas
that I would implement into my leadership style and leadership role are:
Creating a Vision

Leadership workshop. Get leaders together, and help them understand the need for

change; give them a chance to contribute and create a shared vision

Create a change story together. By working through the steps with your leaders, youre
building joint ownership and commitment among a critical group that will help you to
drive the change

Planned or Emergent is another takeaway, traditional planned change management strategies

involve sequential steps for altering organizational and individual behavior. This method is
typically employed once decision makers identify a need for change. Emergent change is
described as unpredictable, often unintentional, can come from anywhere, and involving
relatively informal self-organizing.
Consultants' role in working with organizations argue that the way in which leaders
present their case for change can make a world of difference in the kind of reaction that results so

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by involving others such as a consultant to help facilitate issues in decision-making can avoid
bruising egos, and increase staff members' levels of self-esteem.
So after taking away these key concepts , I have learned that change is everywhere and as
a new leader I need to be very thorough with my decision making skills and leadership skills
because change is very evident in any organization. In my current organization I have
experienced some change initiatives and building self-understanding and then translating it into
an organizational understanding is easier said than done, and getting started is often the hardest
part is what I have understood from this process.
Change shouldnt be something ground breaking. Even the smallest change requires effort in
its beginning and ending phase. Here are some examples that I have encountered:

A completely new project or piece of business

A change in the management of performance or introduction of a new product for

performance reviews
A new system or introduction of a different software package.
A takeover or merger involving the transfer of employees with different rules and/or

cultural norm
A reorganization including introduction of new job roles and / or the removal of others
There is no escaping the fact that a successful outcome in introducing change will require

significant time and effort, but this is outweighed by the impact of failing. Apart from the
associated costs and lost time, failed change initiatives often result in a loss of credibility and
trust.
A SWOT analysis of my current organization Excellus Health Plan is as follow:

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Strengths

Weaknesses

experienced business units

-investments in research and development

-barriers of market entry

-brand portfolio

-skilled workforce

-tax structure
-future debt rating
-competitive market

Opportunities

-future profitability
Threats

-growing demand

-financial capacity

-venture capital

-cash flow

-new acquisitions

-increase in labor costs

-income level is at a constant increase

-tax changes

-global markets

-technological problems
-price changes
-government regulations

As part of my strategic plan moving forward in the organization in my new role I would like to
implement the timely delivery of needed and effective care by measurably improving the health
and satisfaction of everyone that my organization serves, including enrollees, providers and
others throughout our community. My goals as the new Director would be to:

Improve outcomes through the selection of issues where opportunities for

improvement exist
Engage practitioners and providers to become more active quality improvement

partners
Meet regulatory, accreditation and purchaser requirements

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Improve service to enrollees and practitioners

Engage members to become more active and educated healthcare consumers

Moving forward I would implement and incorporate many changes so that my new work space is
running effectively and efficiently as possible, because effective leadership is needed for change
to be successful. The key to transformational change or any change is to have leadership that is
able to understand it, support it, explain it, and move the organization to commit to it. (Nohria,
2000)
Implementing change in any organization is extremely complicated, however having a
new role involved knowing the responsibilities they are to meet could be the difference between
success and a failure. The role must know the distinct difference in the areas that are to be
changed, and how to go about handling staff resistance. Using processes like assessment,
planning, implementation and evaluation help management assist staff in adjusting to change and
focus on the areas of importance.
I would then incorporate:

Determining the need for change

Defining the desired future state
Assessing the present in terms of the desired future to determine the changes to be

made
Implementing the change and managing the transition
Consolidation and sustaining the change

I would also suggest a survey to see where employees are within the organization and to see what
changes they would like done, and I would use all the takeaways from the conference that I
attended.

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When there is change in an organization people become fearful simply because they do
not know what is going to happen. They do not know if the change will be for the good of the
organization and their jobs or if the change will cause turmoil and possibly losses of jobs. This is
when management has to step up and behave in a manner that presents their interest in the new
way of working.
In my current role it was requested that an analysis be done on the organization. Once the
analysis was completed it was revealed that the organization was in of several changes:
1. Clear vision and mission statements.
2. Change-ready culture to accomplish new strategic initiatives
3. A sense of instilled values
4. A redistribution of power within the organization and team empowered for decision making at
high problem levels
5. Systematic approaches to their coaching and mentoring to invest in the self-esteem or
awareness and individual development
6. Open and transparent communication and decision system
This implemented the change of culture as the results of this analysis which helped Excellus
Health Plan to be able to increase the number of patients that were provided services and
revenues. It also helped with the increasing of employment.
My research and learning about Organizational Change has allowed me to conclude that
success of an organization must be dependent on the self-efficiency of employees and the

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teamwork they choose to use. By maintaining the competitiveness in an ever changing world it
requires our abilities and the confidence to learn. Change will always be evident in any
organization, people need to be able to change to better themselves and to reach their ultimate
goal for a better quality of life.

Works Cited
Are You Change-Ready?: Preparing for Organizational Change. (2015, September
15). Retrieved from Harvard Business Review : https://hbr.org/product/areyou-change-ready-preparing-for-organizational-change/7126BC-PDF-ENG
Excellus BCBS . (2015, May 25). Retrieved from Excellus BCBS :
https://www.excellusbcbs.com/wps/portal/xl/our/compinfo/diversity
Fingertips Excellus . (2015, July 14). Retrieved from Fingertips Excellus :
http://fingertips.excellus.com/hr/BENEFITS/Employee_Case_Management/FML
A_FAQs.pdf
Nohria, M. B. (2000). Breaking the Code of Change. Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.