Leading Change
Erika Gaddist
MNGT 5590 Organizational Behavior
Integrative Paper
Dr. Victoria Bohrer
March 1, 2011
Introduction John P. Kotter’s “Leading Change” is the quintessential book for any organization looking to successfully bring about change in the workplace. As many of us know, change is never easy, but Leading Change helps by offering a plan of action. Leading Change has been used by many organizations, both large and small as a road map, to establish new policies successfully and with minimal resistance. The book offers a step by step process to introduce and successfully inplement changes. The book describes eight necessary steps for implementing change, as well as eight mistakes that can be detrimental to change. Those stages are: 1) Establishing a sense of urgency, 2) Creating the guiding coalition 3) Developing a vision and strategy, 4) Communicating the change vision, 5) Empowering Employees for Broad based action, 6) Generating short-term wins, 7) consolidating Gains and Producing More change, and 8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture. Each of the eight stages or errors relates to a business concept encountered daily, such as those described in many business textbooks. Specifically, Organizational behavior and Management by John M. Ivancevich, Robert Konopaske, and Michael t. Matteson, offers an in depth look into many of those same business concepts mentioned in Kotter’s eight step process. There are concepts in the textbook that directly relate to Kotter’s eight stages of change and there is a chapter in the book that correlates with each stage. Concepts described in the book such as; organizational culture, motivation, groups and teams, empowerment, communication, among many others. The integration between Kotter’s book and the textbook is quite evident and will be explained more deeply throughout the paper.
Stage 1: Establishing a Sense of urgency The first and possibly most important stage of Kotter’s process is, establishing a
MNGT 5590 Organizational Behavior
Integrative Paper
Dr. Victoria Bohrer
March 1, 2011
Introduction John P. Kotter’s “Leading Change” is the quintessential book for any organization looking to successfully bring about change in the workplace. As many of us know, change is never easy, but Leading Change helps by offering a plan of action. Leading Change has been used by many organizations, both large and small as a road map, to establish new policies successfully and with minimal resistance. The book offers a step by step process to introduce and successfully inplement changes. The book describes eight necessary steps for implementing change, as well as eight mistakes that can be detrimental to change. Those stages are: 1) Establishing a sense of urgency, 2) Creating the guiding coalition 3) Developing a vision and strategy, 4) Communicating the change vision, 5) Empowering Employees for Broad based action, 6) Generating short-term wins, 7) consolidating Gains and Producing More change, and 8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture. Each of the eight stages or errors relates to a business concept encountered daily, such as those described in many business textbooks. Specifically, Organizational behavior and Management by John M. Ivancevich, Robert Konopaske, and Michael t. Matteson, offers an in depth look into many of those same business concepts mentioned in Kotter’s eight step process. There are concepts in the textbook that directly relate to Kotter’s eight stages of change and there is a chapter in the book that correlates with each stage. Concepts described in the book such as; organizational culture, motivation, groups and teams, empowerment, communication, among many others. The integration between Kotter’s book and the textbook is quite evident and will be explained more deeply throughout the paper.
Stage 1: Establishing a Sense of urgency The first and possibly most important stage of Kotter’s process is, establishing a