Question

Students will apply the course work to a real business issue and be able to think through the implications to the organization. Organizations and individuals engaged in global trade must adapt to the opportunities and challenges created by doing business across borders.

Assignment Steps

Select a continent where your organization (or a company for which you want to work) is currently operating or wishes to operate.

Outline how change can be managed for a company that has never done business outside of the U.S.

how you can motivate and manage change, taking into account the following concepts:

Change Management and the Basic Functions of Management

Answer 1

1) The continent that the organisation will be operating is Asia.

2) Outline how change can be managed for a company that has never done business outside of the U.S.

The change should be first Planned and then managed and then re-inforced.
The below steps falls broadly under Planned-managed-re-inforced structure.
a) Understanding another culture
The culture in which the organisation will operate should be studied and understood well in advance.This will ease out the differences.
b) Creating vision and values
A desirable future in the form of a vision needs to be created. So as to motivate employees to strive for goals in the overseas market
c) Communicating
The vision should be communicated across the lenght and the breadth of the organization
d) Understanding that doing business overseas is different
e) Due diligence should be taken while hiring employees in foreign country. Employees who fit into the organisation culture, needs to be hired and trained.

3)
The following steps needs to be taken to motivate and manage change effectively. The model followed is of Lewin's three-stage process
i:e Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze

a) Unfreezing before change
It is the stage where the employees are prepared for change. The important steps at this stage are. The employees need to informed upfront what is going to happen, when and why. This candid communication will make the employee comfortable and secure. Resistance to change will be minimized.
A sense of urgency should be built so as to send across a message that there is a need for the change. A coalition will be built so as to take everyone on board, and all the stake holders will be made responsible for their work. Emotional and instrumental support wiln be provided so that employees can better cope with change.

b) Executing change
In the Second stage, the change model will be executed. When change is underway the employees will experience high amount of stress, sufficient support should be provided for employees to cope the stress.
The change will divided into many phases and completion of phases will be treated as small wins, so that employees are motivated all along.

b) Refreezing
Refreezing is the stage where change is evaluated and re-inforced. This will be done by publicly speaking about success, so that employees confidence will increase. Rewards will be constituted for employees who embrace change.