PM 583 Week 4 Applying Change Management Models Example

Eight Steps, Five Building Blocks and One Skeptical Workforce: Applying Change Models to a Motor Vehicle Division's First Release

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PM/583: Organizational Transformation and Governance

Week 4 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The State Motor Vehicle Division, its staff, counties and figures are composites written for a model paper.

The State Motor Vehicle Division, the composite agency followed in this course, will launch its first release in eight months: redesigned vehicle registration renewals online, at kiosks and at office counters, supported by a new registration records module. Week 3 found strong drivers for change but heavy restraining forces in people, above all the doubt front-line staff carry from the abandoned first effort and county treasurers' reliance on current processes. This paper selects change management models for the release and applies them.

Comparing the Models

Lewin's three stages, unfreezing, changing and refreezing, offer a simple organizational frame but little detail on what leaders should do at each stage. Kotter's eight steps, set out in his 1996 book, provide a detailed sequence of leadership actions, from creating urgency to anchoring change in culture. The ADKAR model, developed by Hiatt (2006), focuses on individuals, describing five elements each person needs: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. Bridges (2009) separated what happens around people, a new system or procedure, from what happens inside them as they let go of old routines and find their footing again, and he stressed the uncertain middle period between the two.

The evidence behind these models is uneven. Appelbaum et al. (2012) reviewed research on Kotter's model and found that while many studies supported parts of it, few tested the full sequence, and the model's linear order did not always match real change. A critical review of change management theories (By, 2005) argued that much of the popular literature lacked empirical support and that organizations needed approaches fitted to their situation rather than universal recipes. These findings argue for using models as structured guides, combined and adapted, rather than as proven formulas.

Choosing a Combination

The division needs both an organizational sequence and a way to understand individuals, because the main resistance sits with specific groups. It will use Kotter's steps to sequence leadership actions for the release and ADKAR to diagnose and plan for three groups: front-line clerks, office supervisors and county treasurers. Bridges' attention to loss shapes communication: staff are giving up skills they have mastered on the old screens.

Kotter's Steps Applied to the First Release

Create urgency: rather than adding pressure to a skeptical workforce, the director shares the facts openly: the retiring programmers, the 90-minute lines in two offices and the legislature's staged funding. Urgency is framed as protecting staff from a system no one will be able to fix.

Build a guiding coalition: the senior responsible owner, two respected office supervisors, a county treasurer and the union steward form the coalition for the release.

Form a vision: "Renew in minutes, wherever you are; and counter staff with tools that work."

Communicate the vision: monthly town halls in each region, a weekly two-paragraph update and supervisors briefing their teams in person, each time acknowledging the first attempt's failure.

Remove obstacles: overtime budget for training, temporary staff for the busiest offices during the change and a fix-it line that resolves screen issues within a day.

Generate short-term wins: a pilot of online renewals with text reminders in one county three months before full launch, with results shared widely.

Consolidate gains: use the pilot's lessons in the full rollout and keep the design group for the next release.

Anchor in culture: recognize offices and counties that adopt the new process well and include customer wait time in supervisors' performance goals.

In an agency that has already seen one transformation fail, urgency without honesty sounds like the same promise twice.

ADKAR Assessment by Group

Front-line clerks: awareness moderate, desire low after the first attempt, knowledge and ability not yet developed. The gap is desire. Actions: clerks in the design group, a visible commitment that no positions will be cut because of the release and early hands-on practice.

Supervisors: awareness and desire moderate, knowledge low. Actions: early training as super-users who support their teams.

County treasurers: awareness high, desire mixed, since some fear losing local service revenue. Actions: a treasurer on the coalition, a clear statement that county counters remain part of the service and early access to new screens.

Oreg et al. (2011) reviewed sixty years of quantitative research on reactions to organizational change and found that recipients' responses depended heavily on factors such as trust in management, participation in the change process and the information provided, as well as on personal characteristics. The actions above target those factors directly.

Applying Bridges to the Clerks

Bridges' distinction between change and transition explains why training alone will not be enough for front-line clerks. Many have spent fifteen or twenty years mastering the old screens, including shortcuts that make them fast and respected by colleagues. The new process removes that expertise overnight. The plan therefore marks the ending explicitly: a short session in each office where clerks list what they know about the old system that must not be lost, which the design group reviews for features or checks to keep. During the uncertain middle period, supervisors will expect slower transactions for the first three weeks and will not use speed in performance reviews. The new beginning is reinforced when experienced clerks become peer coaches for the second release.

Addressing Resistance

Resistance is treated as information. The fix-it line logs every complaint, and the design group reviews them weekly. When clerks objected that the new screen hid a field they used to catch errors, the field was restored before launch.

Timing the Actions

The actions are sequenced across the eight months before launch and the six months after. Months one and two focus on urgency, the coalition and the vision. Months three to five bring the design group's testing and the county pilot. Months six and seven are for training, with the fix-it line opening two weeks before launch. Reinforcement begins at launch and continues through the six-month review, when the plan for the second release draws on what worked.

Measuring and Sustaining the Change

Measures include the share of staff who complete training before launch, a pulse survey on confidence in the new process, with a target of 60 percent by launch from 22 percent now, online renewal share, office wait times and counter errors per thousand transactions. Reinforcement continues after launch: refresher sessions, recognition of offices that cut waits and a six-month review of what needs to change for the next release.

Conclusion

The motor vehicle division's first release faces more resistance from people than from technology. No single change model fits that situation, and the evidence behind popular models is mixed. Combining Kotter's steps for leadership actions with ADKAR for individual groups, informed by Bridges' attention to loss and by research on how people react to change, produces a plan that is honest about the past, involves staff and counties in design and measures whether confidence is actually rising.

References

Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J.-L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: Revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), 764-782. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211253231

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing transitions: Making the most of change (3rd ed.). Da Capo Press.

By, R. T. (2005). Organisational change management: A critical review. Journal of Change Management, 5(4), 369-380. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500359250

Hiatt, J. M. (2006). ADKAR: A model for change in business, government and our community. Prosci Learning Center Publications.

Oreg, S., Vakola, M., & Armenakis, A. (2011). Change recipients' reactions to organizational change: A 60-year review of quantitative studies. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(4), 461-524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886310396550