Assessment 1 – Work-Integrated Change Project (35%)
Purpose:
This assignment aims to:
l Expose you to actual organisational change in real-time, and
l Provide you with an opportunity to apply relevant change theory to the organisational change situation (intervention). Application means, more specifically, to analyse, interpret and evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of a change process in an organisation by using available theory and logical thinking.
Description:
1. You need to identify a 'change intervention' in an actual organisation with which you are familiar, or where you, your family or friends may be currently working or have worked in the past. (Please note: You must choose your change situation case carefully in order to be able to complete this assignment well. An inadequate interview or inadequate information gained from the interview will significantly interfere with your ability to respond to the following).
2. Establish clearly whether the change intervention was introduced to bring about change OR a response/reaction to change that was introduced/imposed by other parties (external or internal). It is important to distinguish between:
a.A situation that called for / necessitated a change and the change action or intervention (a reactive form of change) that was introduced by the company official. As an example: sales are going down (a situation necessitating some form of action)… the action or intervention taken by the company to stop the decline and bring about an increase in sales such as training of sales staff, will be regarded as the change intervention.
b.A change that was proactively introduced i.e. the situation did not necessarily require or demand a change. Eg: Deciding to introduce work uniforms where there were none before can be considered a proactive change.
3. You need to conduct an interview with a person in the organisation who was closely involved with this (any) change intervention e.g. a manager in whose department/division the change intervention took place; or a member of the 'change management team' who was responsible for introducing and implementing the intervention; or the change facilitator /consultant who actively worked with employees to bring about the change (could also be a human resource management official working for the organisation, etc.)
4. You should transcribe the interview and use this interview transcription as your data.
5. Analyse and interpret the data about the change and change intervention and the (case) organisation.
6. Write a carefully considered report on the change and change intervention.
Focus of the Report:
In your report: critically analyse and discuss the following five (5) dimensions as they relate to the change and/or change intervention:
1. Consider the difference(s) between the ‘change’ situation and the ‘change action or intervention’ (that is, what was the change that took place and how did management react?) and then identify:
a.the internal and external drivers of the change (situation) and,
b.the rationale for, and objectives of, the change intervention
2. The change perspective(s) that you think might be driving the people who were responsible for the change intervention (see the topic dealing with perspectives on managing change); and
3. Indicate, what you believe the interviewee’s underlying assumptions were about the change and its nature (e.g. how did they and their colleagues react? Consider fears, the time involved, perceived threats to personal security such as wages, job loss and much, much more.); Were these concerns realised during the changed intervention period?
4. Indicate, also, whether the change was planned or emergent.
5. Indicate whether you believe the change action/intervention was effective, what its limitations were and what alternative change perspectives and possible alternative change interventions you would recommend to assist the organisation with similar change processes in future.
In your discussion of the above dimensions you should always support your views with evidence from your interview and the available literature.
Note also that we expect that your responses (‘answers’) to the issues indicated in points 1 to 5 above will go beyond the basic approaches presented in textbooks.
Important Notes:
This is a work-integrated assignment. You need to use an actual organisation and interview a person from this organisation. You cannot rely solely on information from the internet.
A copy of the transcribed interview MUST be attached to your assignment (as an annexure). Assignments without the interview attached, regrettably, will NOT be assessed.
Your work (Report), in general, will be assessed on the:
l quality of your analyses, arguments and conclusions; ??the sources of information you utilised;
l how well you used these resources in support of your arguments; and ??your referencing skills.
Do not delete your original interview until your Tutor advises you to do so.
Formatting requirements:
The length of your report should be 2500 words ± 10% (excluding the reference list and the interview transcription), font Arial; font size 11; all page margins 2.5 cm; line spacing: 1.5. Marks will be deducted if students do not follow the word count guidelines.
Source requirements:
You should use at least EIGHT (8) credible reference sources, correctly cited and referenced. Reference Sources include:
l “Academic/Scholarly” articles appearing in journals. See in this regard the list of major academic journals available in the library. The majority of your sources should be derived from such journals with a minimum of Five (5) journal articles. There is no maximum. Relevant academic books on the subject. In addition please note:
l A single (one) internet source may be used in addition to the Five (5) academic sources. (Electronic journals, accessed through the library, are also considered as relevant reference sources). A penalty will be incurred if more than one non-academic internet source is used. Avoid internet sources that do not have the author and the publisher’s names. Note also that Wikipedia is NOT allowed.
l All sources should be cited and referenced in accordance with the Chicago version 16 referencing style.