STUDENT NAME:

MODULE NAME: Managing Organizational Change

MODULE NUMBER: UMODML-15-3
WORD COUNT: 2905
Critically evaluate the implementation of a specific case of organizational change. Building
on this, reflect on what you can personally learn from this case analysis about change
management and how you might benefit from these insights in the future.
Case study: Driving Organizational Change in the Midst of Crisis.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
ANALYZING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE.........................................................................................3
Leading Change.......................................................................................................................................3
Cultural change........................................................................................................................................5
Planned approaches to change.................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11
REFLECTING ON IMPLICATIONS........................................................................................................13
INTRODUCTION

In 1990, Millstone Nuclear Power station which is a nuclear plant in Connecticut, was not able to

meet the highest performance standards as compared to its competitors. Under this situation,

company realized that they lost trust of their workforce which would need healing by

implementing effective management strategies. A need for organizational change was important

under situation of crisis faced by Millstone. Organizational change refers to alteration of core

aspect of an organizational operations (Hallencreutz and Turner, 2011). This essay will analyze

the organizational change of Millstone in terms of leadership, culture and planned approaches to

change to overcome organizational crisis. Implications of the study will also be discussed.

ANALYZING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Leading Change

Effective leadership is a fundamental element of organizational success (Yukl, 2012). Critical

management issues of Millstone required effective leader to save them from emerging crisis. In

the process of leading change, Millstone hired Bruce Kenyon in 1996, to look after Northeast

Utilities nuclear program including millstone and some others. As a leader, Bruce Kenyon

already knew that Millstone needed quick action to resolve their organizational issues. Effective

leadership approach was essential to pull out Millstone from crisis situation. Effective strategic

leadership approach requires that responsibility of management is to keep everyone aligned and

dedicated with the evolving vision (Hitt et al., 1994). In this case, Bruce communicated his

vision of change with the employees and provided them freedom of communicating their

thoughts to the leaders to heal their trust. Previously, Millstone lacked continuous

communication with their organizational members. Continuous communication is important for

the flow of information within organization and to improve coordination among employees

(Flauto, 1999). Effective strategic leadership requires fluent communication with all members of

the organization (Hitt et al., 1994). For this purpose, Kenyon arranged regular meetings with

milestone managers and regularly met small groups of workers to encourage two-way

communication and improving sharing of information. Through this procedure, all members of

the Millstone were able to know about existing issues of organizations and required objectives to

mitigate these issues.

Kenyon build a strategic plan to resolve the emerging issues of Millstone. Strategic leadership

refers to the ability of a leader in influencing others to voluntarily make day to day decisions

which are suitable for long term organizational sustainability and at the same time effective in

maintaining short term financial stability (Rowe, 2001). Strategic leadership also acquires

motivating and persuading others to achieve common vision or objectives (Vera and Crossan,

2004). In this case, Kenyon day to day decision were discussed with employees and managers

openly to present their views about these decisions and implementing it accordingly to achieve

long term organizational goals. Cheryl Grise, SVP of Northeast Utilities, persuaded and

motivated the employees of Millstone in achieving organizational vision of change through team

building activities. Through these influential activities, HR system and employees trust was

enhancing in short run which ensured the improvement in financial structure of Millstone.

Hence, strategic leadership approach can be witnessed in the organizational change process of

Millstone. Besides this, Transformational leadership approach could also be utilized in the

Millstone case which is an authentic leadership approach towards organizational change. In

Transformational leadership approach, leaders collaboratively work with team to recognize

required change, create vision to guide that change through the element of inspiration and
execute the change along with committed group members (Samad, 2012). Transformational

leadership approach has proven eminent leadership model to bring effective organizational

change and declining employee resistance (Nielsen et al., 2008).

Kenyon provided consistent guidelines to the managers and employees of organization to work

accordingly with the proposed action plan handling employee resistance under the environment

of trust. His vision was to change management style, communicate openly and strengthen the

employee concerns. To attain this vision, Kenyon hired skilled leaders and replaced 40 managers

that were out of performance. Kenyon developed advanced human capital within Millstone to

achieve organizational objectives. Moreover, this change process was aimed to be sustainable. A

study reflected that determining vision, developing human capital and sustaining organizational

culture are among the essential components of bringing strategic change (Ireland and Hitt, 1999).

By following these strategic components Millstone change strategy brought fruitful outcomes.

Which further implicates that organizations can utilize these strategic components to bring

positive change in their working environment.

Cultural change

Organizational culture are the set of beliefs and values that are designed by leaders and

communicated and implemented through various techniques, shaping employee behavior and

perceptions (Buschgens, Bausch and Balkin, 2013). Millstone company was facing broken

culture within their organization that leaded them towards crisis situation. To change the

organizational culture, Kenyon undergone through some major management changes. Brown

model proposed that culture within an organizational can be managed and conformity and

compliance are key to success in changing organizational culture (Brown, 1998). Regarding

conformity Kenyon along with his top management team showed matching attitude and value
towards working with honesty and commitment. Employees performance were enhanced under

this corporate culture altered by Kenyon and his top management team. Regarding compliance,

every top management leader under their authority hired those members that were willing to

work passionately under the crisis situation. Those managers and employees showing weak

performances on the indicators of evaluation were replaced by new candidates who were

passionate. In this way Millstone acquired some new members in their organizational culture.

Previously the strength of consensus among the members of Millstone employees were weak.

Employees lost their trust on the managers of Millstone as managers were not listening to their

employees’ arguments and issues. Brown argued that organizations in which strength of

consensus is weak possess weak corporate culture and the intensity of culture is weak in their

organizations (Brown, 1998). Which demonstrated the fact that Millstone was having weak

corporate culture that could be the reason of its emerging crisis. After this, company build strong

consensus within their management teams by strengthening their employees and building a

safety conscious work environment where every employee should be listened. A study proposed

the concept that listening to the voice of employees can positively influence their performance

and resultantly it will improve the organizational performance (Reed, Goolsby and Johnston,

2016). After the culture of listening to employees, Millstone performance of employees were

enhanced and employee resistance was reduced to great extent. This can also be counted as the

success factor for organizational change in Millstone company. Hence, listening to employees is

important to minimize employees’ resistance as failure to do this can lead towards organizational

failure.

Organizational culture is influenced in two ways: Employees have their own societal culture that

they bring in the form of language and customs; The individual values, ethics expectations and
attitudes in turn are impacted by organizational culture (Hofstede, 1980). In the middle of crisis,

the employee culture was not properly communicated with the top management team of

Millstone to understand their strength and weaknesses regarding work. Due to this, certain

conflicts were rising within the organization. Kenyon demanded the vice presidents to grade their

employees on the basis of their strength and weaknesses. This was done to communicate the

attitudes, values and ethics of employees towards working environment and giving them freedom

of voice. After this, employees were communicated with the desired organizational change that

was important to enhance performance. The new organizational culture of Millstone changed the

values, attitudes and behaviour of employee towards work and their learning procedure was

enhanced. Through participation in group discussions related to organizational change and their

freedom of communication with top leaders enriched learning environment. In this way the

changed culture has influence the organizational behaviour of Millstone. In a study it was

indicated that, leaders and managers play a significant role in relating organizational

performance with organizational culture (Awadh and Alyahya, 2013). In this case Millstone,

leaders focused on enhancing organizational performance which was demanded in organizational

culture. However, some of the managers were not skilled enough to lead their employees after

which they were provided with training. The managers showing weak performances were

replaced by those managers who were more skilled and aligned with organizational culture.

Planned approaches to change

Organizational change is a complex process that involves robust strategies to ensure its success.

Lewin articulated that people resist change naturally, settle towards familiar things and find

comfort zones (Burnes, 2004). Lewin proposed three steps to streamline change management

strategy i.e unfreeze, change and refreeze. The first step, unfreeze relates to preparing
organization for the change that is going to take place and communicating the reasons that why

change is necessary (Burnes, 2004). When Kenyon joined as a CEO of Nuclear Power position,

by analysing the emerging crisis situation he prepared organization for a change process. Kenyon

communicated employees his values and beliefs that were aligned with the organizational change

that was going to occur. Millstone was unable to meet their standards in response to competitive

industries and facing continuous decline in their financial performance. Kenyon communicated

these problems with all management members through regular meetings. The feedback of

management members regarding organizational change was also demanded. The second step

change, refers that people will take time to support the desired change completely (Burnes,

2004). Their attitudes and practices will be shaped after a certain passage of time. Kenyon

Strategy involved clear articulation of his values, open communication, changing management

style and strengthening employee concerns. Kenyan believed and communicated that these

elements will bring benefits for organization. Open questions were emphasized regarding any

issues related to organizational process. The Kenyon leadership focused on involving every

employee in the process of change. In the third stage of refreeze, employees will be advised to

continue working in the new ways and internalize these changes that have been implemented

(Burnes, 2004). Millstone workers adapted the new ways of working linked with organizational

change, provided with training and resultantly HR management operation were improved leading

to sustainability. Hence, Lewin 3 stage model of change is applicable in case of Millstone.

Kotter presented 8 step model to implement change effectively within an organization. First

stage of the model is creating urgency which illustrates that leaders need to communicate the

importance of change within organization (Kotter, 2007). Kenyon communicated the importance

of organizational changes with employees and communicated the importance of change process
which can lead towards positive results. Second stage involves guiding coalition, that demands

army of effective people coordinating towards implementing change (Kotter, 2007). Kenyon

changed his top management team by hiring people that were skilled and aligned with

organizational change. Third step involves creating vision in explaining how future will be

different then existing condition and how that future can be achieved through initiatives that are

linked with vision (Kotter, 2007). Millstone future vision was to change the existing

organizational culture to a productive and efficient culture that can increase management

effectiveness. Fourth step communicating vision involves connecting vision in all crucial aspects

of organization. The changed vision of Millstone was operational in every step of leadership plan

proposed by Kenyon. Open communication, change in management style and employees’

concerns were strengthened in every aspect of organizational operations. Fifth step involved

removing obstacles that are related to barriers resisting change (Kotter, 2007). Through feedback

report, Kenyon analysed that managers are not communicating effectively with employees in

sharing organizational vision. In action, Kenyon developed training programs to guide managers

in building safety conscious work environment. Those managers showing poor performance on

assessments criteria were replaced by other managers who were more skilled. This element

brought a drastic reduction in change resistance by employees and developed working

environment of trust. Sixth stage involves creating short term targets that are achievable and with

minimal chance of failure (Kotter, 2007). In the initial stage of Millstone organizational change,

hiring effective top leaders, Kenyon sharing of changed organizational values and

communication improvement by involving employees in decision making process were

witnessed to be improved after short time. However, giving rewards to the employees involved

in change were not witnessed in the case which can increase employee and organizational
performance (Edirisooriya, 2014). Seventh stage involves consolidate which refers to continuous

improvement in success and experiences resulted through change (Kotter, 2007). Millstone

continuously improved under the leadership of Kenyon as compared to its crisis period. Eighth

stage involves anchor the new which demonstrates that change has become integral part of

organizational culture and visible in all aspects (Kotter, 2007). Millstone employees’

relationships with top management team was enhanced, effective communication was prevalent

and financial stability was regained. By the above analysis, Kotter organizational change model

is applicable on Millstone change process. McKinsey 7s change model which is considered as

longest lasting management model is also a dominant framework in brining change within

organization. This model consists of 7 stages strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style and

staff (Alshaher, 2013). For a change to occur organization should go through these 7 stages of

change.

CONCLUSION

Through the case analysis it was found that, Millstone leader Kenyon was following strategic

leadership in their organizational change process. Their planned approaches of organizational

change were relevant to Kotter and Lewin change model. Moreover, Millstone company

embedded strong organizational culture within their change management process to reduce the

change resistance.
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REFLECTING ON IMPLICATIONS

Through the analysis of this case, my personal learning regarding change management has

improved substantially. I have learnt different model and theories that are influential in the

process of organizational change. I have gone through various researches and articles to signify

the importance of organizational change and their practical implications. My personal learning of

applying appropriate leadership styles that are important in managing the change process have

been improved. In the case analysis of Millstone Power station, strategic leadership was applied

which was more prevalent in brining organizational change for Millstone. Managerial and

visionary leadership are also important frameworks of leading organizational change but they

were not applied on the given case (Rowe, 2001). Through critical study and further learning of

leadership styles, I also learnt that transformational leadership style is another dominant

leadership approach to bring organizational change. Studying these leadership styles and models

in terms of organizational change, my critical thinking and understanding of different style of

leadership during case analysis was improved. Furthermore, I was able to learn the influence of

culture in change process of organization. By analyzing the study conducted by Brown (1998)

enabled me to investigate that how strong cultures can be built within an organization. In

analyzing the planned approaches to change, I applied Lewin 3 step model and Kotter 8 step

model that were pertinent with my case (Kotter, 2007; (Burnes, 2004). Moreover, McKinsey 7s

change model could also prove out to be useful in analyzing the change process but it was not

utilized in the case analysis. Overall my critical learning of leadership, establishing strong

culture and evaluating planned change methods during organizational change has improved

significantly.
Benefits from these insights include a number of things that have been learned during analysis of

case. An important insight that can be extracted was that planned approaches to organizational

change like Kotter model and Lewin model can bring effective change and reduces resistance in

the management process. Another insight was that strategic leadership is an effective leadership

style to bring successful organizational change according to the given case. However, in the

presence of various leadership styles it can be analyzed through study that what kind of

leadership is more effective regarding the given case. Another important insight that can be

extracted from the case was that organizational leaders should remove those members that are

not aligned with the desired organizational change (Brown, 1998). Continuous communication

within organization is also important for increasing coordination among the employees (Flauto,

1999). All of these useful insights enabled me to learn that change is a complex procedure and

hard to achieve.

My future focus regarding management of organizational change will be on a number of things.

In the process of any organizational change to be occur, I can apply Lewin model, Kotter model

or McKinsey 7s change model. All of these models of change are effective according to their

desired implications. However, for future perspectives, I will use Kotter model of change during

the organizational change process as it is a detailed model and covers key components of brining

successful change. I will also apply strategic leadership in managing change within organization.

However, regarding the situation of organizational change, I can also use other leadership styles

like managerial or visionary. For future, I will also try to incorporate strong cultural values

within organization by including high consensus and high intensity that will be helpful in brining

positive organizational change. I will utilize this learning experience in my professional life. If I

will be appointed as the leader of organization, I can find issues and problems that likely to resist
change. After this I will be able to present robust strategies to the organization in brining

influential and strong organizational change that will be beneficial for them. All the learning

tools in the module and in the process of analyzing case study I was able to learn potential

change strategies and relevant models and framework that will help me in bringing

organizational change. In the time of organizational crisis, my learning and critical thinking of

brining organizational change can prove out to be effective in leading change. Overall my skills

of analyzing organizational change and proposing effective strategies in the time of

organizational crisis has improved.