This course project will help you utilize the concepts in this class, by doing a thorough analytical and in depth review and comparison of “change” in two companies. You will accomplish this project through in the course: If you find useful information from Wikipedia, triangulate your research and find other, more credible source(s) which provide the same (or better) information, and then utilize the information from that more credible source in your paper and reference page/bibliography. Your project will have five separate parts, due throughout the term. It will incorporate the learning of the course as we go through – and hopefully will cement the process for you. At the end of the term, your final exam will contain 4 randomly selected Change Management questions based on YOUR Course Project companies and research findings as related to the course content, as well as other questions (multiple choice and essay) which are not specifically related to your project (but are related to Change Management course content!). Thus, the initial “topic selection” where you pick the companies you will research throughout the term is critical for you to ensure you are interested enough in the material that it will keep you engaged throughout the term. Both Ford and GM experienced serious issues during the pre, during and post TARP period causing them to restructure and change how they do business. Each of them reacted to these pressures differently. A paper comparing and contrasting the way both companies reacted to this pressure would be very interesting and easy to set up in an organized fashion. Further, utilizing the images grid, you can discuss how they did handle these pressures (using which image) and how a different style of leader (image) might have handled it differently. Both HP and Home Depot have had issues with selecting a new CEO for their company. Reviewing the last 10 years of CEO history, a paper comparing and contrasting the pressures involved, and how they impacted the overall productivity of the companies would be sustainable throughout the term. Review any two companies in the airline industry, their entrance into (and possibly their completion of) bankruptcy, and how they handled the changes through management as a result. (i.e. United Airlines and American Airlines) Review any two companies who have recently been through some part of Merger and Acquisition change and how they handled the culture changes. Review any two companies who have had industry changes and how they have reacted either successfully, or unsuccessfully and how their reactions perhaps resulted in their success or failure. (i.e. Yahoo vs. IBM) These are simply illustrative – you can do research and find any of many companies and topics of change which could work for this paper – and you are encouraged to do so. If you have questions or need more ideas, please ask your Professor for help! Pick out your two companies and their change. In 1 double spaced page, please submit your company selections, with a brief write-up on the changes you will be comparing in the two companies. Pick two companies which have undergone some type of fairly substan
tial change in the recent past. Find the company and the change information online, using EBSCO, or using a company’s case described somewhere in our textbook. (See page 388 of the textbook index for page numbers and names of each of the cases described in the textbook.) Other ways to find information: utilize Google or Yahoo Finance, or Reuters, and look up Annual Reports of companies which interest you. Often reading the first sections of these reports (i.e. letters from CEO’s) will give you ideas about changes they have gone through in the past year(s). Be sure that: Your topic will be graded/approved and returned to you so that you know your topic will work for the course. You must get approval to move forward with your project. This section will be worth 25 points and must have . The “Images” section focuses on the six different images of managing change and how each “approach” to change effects all that follows in its implementation and continued support. Download the “Week 2 Project Images Grid” from doc-sharing. Pick three of the “images of change” explained in the Week 2 lecture from the grid, and analyze how those particular “images” would affect the ensuing diagnosis and implementation in your two selected companies on their change plans. This paper should focus on evidence that demonstrates how the management of the organization integrated one or more of the six images of managing change (Chapters 2 and 3) how effective the change was and what management could have done differently to increase the probability of successfully implementing the strategic change initiative. Again, this is a compare and contrast paper – so include information about both companies in your report. This paper could be as short as 3 pages or as long as 7. Use APA formatting (double spaced, decent font.) Include your references on the final page. You should have at least 4 additional/new outside references, excluding the textbook. References should be scholarly. Select a Diagnostic Model (see Chapter Five) that you utilize to review aspects of change activities and actions that have been taken by the companies chosen. Here we are looking at the “parts” of the companies as well as their strategies, as surmised by your research in Part 1. It is acknowledged that this information will not be complete, as you are looking at these companies as an outsider; but a thoroughly researched paper will give enough data to allow some (well-defended) assumptions on your part. An important part of any change project is how the change is communicated to the organization, to the change agents, to the line workers, to the customers, and to the public. Along with media relations issues, communicating change (especially in a publicly traded company) can involve multiple legal and regulatory aspects, as well as personnel and management concerns. Perhaps the single most difficult piece of handling Kotter’s “establish a sense of urgency” is that too many inexperienced or immature change agents read this to mean “panic the troops.” Never do this. This project piece will have 3 parts: More details about grading your excel spreadsheet: