RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON

“Implementation and Evaluation of

Change Management System”
 Submitted to: Mr Joseph Aglohor

Module: Research Methodology

Course: MBA University of Wales

Submitted by: Nadeem Ahmed

Student ID:1002444

27th May, 2010.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background Study

Habib Bank Limited (HBL) is the most recently privatized amongst the local big
banks in Pakistan. HBL is the leading private bank in Pakistan with over 1400
branches and international outreach of more than 30 branches across the Globe.

HBL was privatized in 2004 and since then has emerged head on with the
competition because of its aggressive and effective customer oriented strategies,
especially re-branding and revitalization of branches. HBL has a workforce of around
15000 employees, most of which had been part of the pre-privatization phase.

Being recently privatized, it is facing the problems of pre-privatization bureaucratic

culture. However despite the fact mentioned above, HBL has been seen as
emerging out in the competition with aggressive and effective customer oriented
strategies even though a majority of its work force is used to dealing with
conventional bureaucratic management styles and a change resisting attitude.

1.2 Problem Statement

The banking industry in Pakistan has progressed at a fast pace in the recent years
where multinational banks have provided the impetus for economic growth and
change. Thus in order to keep up with the new trends it became necessary for the
local banks to develop new strategies in order to keep abreast with the evolution of
the banking industry. The researcher is attempting to explore how HBL has
implemented its change management program after it was privatized in 2004.

HBL has emerged as a bank that revitalized itself to keep up with the changing
trends. However this change was not implemented overnight and through this
research, the researcher seeks to understand the challenges that the management
faced while implementing and managing the change program and what sort of
resistance did the middle level management employees put up to counter the new
process through following research questions:
  What were the HBL employees' perceptions regarding the organizational
change taking place after privatization?
 What were the factors that lead to resistance to change from employees?
How did HBL’s change agents overcome those factors?
 What was the way by which new organizational change program was
implemented by HBL’s management so that the employees having a
bureaucratic organizational orientation are now performing their jobs in an
entirely new culture?
 Have these changes been productive?

The above were the major questions relevant to the problem statement which came
in the mind of researcher and were addressed.

1.3 Study Objectives

 To analyze the process of change adopted at HBL from the perspective of

those middle level management employees employed at the branches,
seeking to identify strengths and weaknesses in the process
 To find out what types of resistances were faced by HBL’s management
during the change management process
 To find out how HBL’s management responded to employees' resistance and
the effectiveness of these applied strategies
 To evaluate the validity of existing change management models and to find
out the type of organizational change implemented (rational-empirical,
normative – reeducative or power – coercive)

1.4 Scope of the Study

The scope of this research was limited to HBL, which covers only post privatization
era. The research studied that how resistance to change of middle level
management level employees working at the branches is being managed at HBL in
post-privatized environment so that they are performing their jobs in more effective
manner after privatization.

1.5 Research Methodology

The research, being a case study, was qualitative in nature.

Since the research was exploratory in nature the researchers chose a case study
methodology. Moreover, out of literature reviewed by the researcher, many of the
research papers and articles emphasized on qualitative case study pattern and
researcher was of the view that case studies provide a detailed study of the various
frameworks and theories.

1.5.1 Key Variables

Independent Variables

a. Administrative change
b. Level of education
c. Seniority
d. Rank in organization

Dependent Variables

a. Employee Participation
b. Cognitive Dissonance
c. Job Insecurity
d. Complacent Attitude

1.5.2 Sampling

The respondents were employees belonging to the Middle Level Management of

HBL. From this level of hierarchy the employees from branches were chosen, as the
major change management process was implemented in the branches of HBL
primarily. 30 out of 157 branches of HBL in Karachi were chosen on convenience
basis. The branches selected were those, which were in existence before HBL was
privatized.
Approximately 2000 middle level management employees work in HBL at Karachi,
out of which the research sample size consisted of approximately 150 employees,
who work in branches and have been with HBL before privatization.

Apart from branch level employees, structured interviews were also conducted from
business heads (or their nominated personnel) of 3 departments namely Human
Resources/ Organization Development, Branch Banking and Service Quality as
these departments were directly in interaction with the employees and played an
important role in managing and implementing the change process. The number of
business heads that were interviewed was 8 individuals.

1.5.3 Sources of Primary Data

 Interviews of Top Level Management: The first method of data collection

was the interviews of top level management of HBL which were conducted by
the researcher in order to understand how the resistance to change was
managed while implementing the change management program at HBL.
Questions were put forward to the top management from the departments of
Human Resource, Organization Development, Branch Banking and Service
Quality as these departments are directly in interaction with employees and
have a considerable role in managing and implementing the change process.
For this purpose Senior Managers and Heads of Departments were
interviewed and a total of 8 senior management personnel were interviewed.

 Questionnaire: After conducting an experimental test survey, the formal

questionnaire survey to be administered to the branch banking employees of
HBL was carried out. The questionnaires were developed keeping in mind the
variables identified during the interviews with the top management and also
the common variables that were found out during the course of the research
of various literature on change management. The questionnaire questions
were kept to the point and easy to understand so that the participants could
easily fill the questionnaire.

1.5.4 Sources of Secondary Data

  Journals: The sources of secondary data included research journals such as
JSTOR, Journal of Change Management, Harvard Business Review, Journal
of Human Resources, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Willey
Blackwell, SZABIST – JISR. To date, major business and commerce journals
and some social sciences journals have published special editions on this
topic. The focus of the journals varied, from technical aspects of a
privatization deal to managerial topics, and exemplified the complex nature of
the change management and privatization process. Apart from these journals
several other sources available over the internet and HEC digital library were
also referred to.

1.5.5 Research Tools

 Close-ended questionnaires were the tool used to get required information

from employees working in the branches. The respondents were asked to
either tick a particular option from the given list options or Likert scale.

 Structured interviews were conducted of personnel belonging to upper level of

management. The researcher opted for structured format of interviews
because responses of such interviews were precise and clear in order for the
researcher to grasp an understanding of the subject at hand.

1.6 Expected Thesis Outcomes

i. Employees’ major concerns while management change was taking place and
their reasons
ii. Types of resistance faced by the management (such as union strikes,
employee turnover, complaints, etc.) and strategies to manage them
iii. Tools and techniques used by the management to communicate the change
(if any)
iv. Changes in the organization’s environment (Culture change, attitude change,
leadership change) due to administrative change
v. Technology clash (if any) that has come about due to the change
management process
 vi. Impact on the motivational level of employees after or during the
implementation of change program

1.7 Limitations of the Study

 It was a new area of research which was not yet completely tapped in
Pakistan so it was not particularly easy to get the required information
(especially from secondary data).
 As the researcher had difficulty in gathering data on a country-wide basis from
HBL branches, the data was gathered from only the city of Karachi and from
branches of HBL only
 Limited availability of time on part of the respondents and researcher
 Financial Constraints

1.8 Organization of Study

The second section of the thesis includes an in-depth understanding of the concepts
of change management, its impact on the organization and the individuals, why
individuals resist change and how the employees need to be involved in the change
management process in order to implement a successful change management
program in any organization. Various cases most matching the requirements and
objectives of the researcher’s subject matter were analyzed by the researcher in
order to gain an insight into the concept of change management and resistance. The
common factors among the various cases were highlighted so as to provide support
to the data gathered by the researcher.

The third section is based on the information that the researcher gathered through
the interviews of the senior executives of HBL. This section gives a detailed insight
into the history of HBL, how and why the need was felt to privatized HBL, details of
the implementation of this process and its outcomes. The researcher’s objective was
to clearly convey the reasons and the causes of the decision taken by the
management of HBL. The fourth section includes the findings and analysis of the
employee questionnaire. Each question was analyzed by the researcher so as to
clearly explain the researcher’s objective in asking that question and to what extent
did the results support the literature the researcher had reviewed.

The fifth section comprises of the conclusion and recommendations provided by the
researcher based on information acquired through the top level management
interviews and through the analysis of the employee questionnaire. The researcher’s
aim was to provide objective and unbiased recommendations which in turn could be
used both by the management of HBL and for the purposes of further research.