In this paper, Starbucks will adopt Kotter’s 8-step model to implement the proposed change.
The first step entails creating urgency based on the fact that change is successful only when every member in the organization understands and embraces its significance (Kotter, 2012). For Starbucks, creating urgency will entail engaging in an honest, compelling dialogue with employees regarding the value of offering them sponsorships to advance their education. At the same time, Starbucks will engage employees in a dialogue about how other companies in the market have embraced this change and are reaping notable benefits from it. To accelerate the urgency building process, the HR manager at Starbucks could guide employees in developing scenarios illustrating future trends that could negatively affect employees who fail to take advantages of opportunities to upgrade their knowledge. At the same time, the organization could approach external parties such as colleges and universities offering part-time courses to employed persons. This kind of collaboration will help to create urgency and strengthen the company’s proposal to offer sponsorships to willing employees.
The second step in the change management model is creating a coalition. According to Kotter (2012), convincing people to accept change often calls for strong leadership as well as support from influential members of an organization. This is because good leaders play a key role in establishing a learning culture, formulating plans, and empowering staff besides transforming operations in organizations (Lv & Zhang, 2017; Weiss & Li, 2020)). In reference to Starbucks’ proposed granting of sponsorships, the guiding coalition will comprise people who are not only influential but also individuals who share in the organization’s objective of employee development. As the organization selects the guiding coalition, it should be taken into consideration that not all people in senior positions in the organization support this idea. It is possible that some managers or supervisors will not be genuinely supportive as they feel that empowering employees in this manner is a threat to their jobs and rank. For this reason, the company should only select people who genuinely embrace the idea. The coalition will also be made up of external players, notably partners, donors and well-wishers who are ready to fund the company’s proposal. Motivational speakers and career guidance experts may also be included.
The next step is to create a vision that will guide implementation of change. In decision making, individuals start by generating as many ideas as possible then using the elimination method to narrow down the list to the most feasible ideas. The same case applies in change management: every change proposal attracts numerous ideas together with solutions. To ensure that only those ideas necessary to change implementation are chosen, it is crucial that organizations develop clear visions as these will help members to understand the proposed change (Kotter, 2012). For Starbucks, the third step will entail crafting a vision statement that captures where the company sees itself in the next five or so years. For example, Starbucks’ vision in regard to the proposed change would be something like “To become the company with the most relevantly trained workforce globally”.
The new vision will be of little use unless it is properly communicated across the entire organization. A key proposition in Kotter’s model is that “what you do with your vision after you create it will determine your success” (Jeston & Nelis, 2014 p.529). The implication of this is that Starbucks must endeavor to communicate the vision of becoming the company with the most relevantly trained employees worldwide not only frequently but also powerfully, embedding this message in every activity that takes place in the organization. This vision will be applied in operational areas such as performance reviews and staff training, both formal and informal.
Looking at the steps described above, one may be led to conclude that resistance to change is unlikely if the organization creates urgency besides creating and communicating the change vision. However, it is still possible for employees to resist change unless they are adequately empowered on how to implement the vision (Kotter, 2012). To avoid this, it is very important that Starbucks ensures that all the necessary systems, resources and tools are available and adequate for all employees. Precisely, the company will review key aspects such as job descriptions, reward systems and organizational structure to keep them aligned with the change vision. Any employees or managers who are identified as opposing the plan will be talked to to identify the problem and help them to understand the short-term and long-term benefits of the proposed change.
Providing results indicating that the company is making progress motivates employees to keep working towards a set goal. In regard to change management, such short-term wins help a lot in minimizing resistance (Kotter, 2012). Much as Starbucks’ change vision is to become the organization with the most relevantly trained employees in the world, it pays to develop and work towards smaller targets that are all aligned to this big vision. A practical strategy would be for the organization to begin implementing its big plan by sponsoring employees in lower-cadre jobs to upgrade their skills and education. Here, the company will pay for certificate or diploma courses for those employees whose current education level is high school or certificate respectively.
Since most certificate courses take less than six months to complete, they could be effective short-term targets that will help Starbucks to measure success of the planned sponsorship of all willing and eligible employees. Likewise, diploma courses that take a year or two are equally useful targets that can be used to project the achievability of the organization’s broad goal. An important thing to mention is that Starbucks should provide appropriate rewards to employees who successfully complete the certificate and diploma courses as a way of motivating others to embrace the bigger plan.
While it pays to implement change in phases, it should be remembered that celebrating victory too early can be disastrous. In Kotter’s (2012) words, many change initiatives fail due to premature declarations of victory. Managers need to understand that quick wins only indicate areas on which emphasis is necessary for long-term change to be realized. In this light, therefore, Starbucks must be careful not to relax after recording wins with the certificate and diploma programs. Instead, the company should use the results obtained from these short-term wins to identify areas that need improvement when the firm starts rolling out sponsorships for Bachelors, Masters and PhD courses. In other words, the focus should be on continuous improvement and constant generation of ideas on what can be done to achieve the best results.
The final step in the implementation process is to make the changes a part of the company’s core. The rationale behind this is that in most cases, a company’s culture greatly determines its achievements and the extent to which the vision and mission are realized (Kotter, 2012). As such, the change should be reflected in all the organization’s aspects and the leaders motivated and encouraged to support it. To incorporate the change into the company’s culture, Starbucks should constantly talk about the change’s success stories and include its ideals as well as values during the hiring of new staff. Equally important, members of the change coalition should be publicly recognized.
References
Jeston, J. & Nelis, J. (2014). Business process management. Routledge.
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
Lv, C. M., & Zhang, L. (2017). How can collective leadership influence the implementation of change in health care? Chinese nursing research, 4(4), 182-185.
Weiss, P. G., & Li, S. T. T. (2020). Leading change to address the needs and well-being of trainees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic pediatrics, 20(6), 735-741.
Why You Should Choose Us
Affordable Prices
Since we know that we are dealing with students, either part time or full time, many might be having financial constraints, but still want to pursue academic life. This has made us ensure we have very affordable prices, and wonderful discounts, yet give high quality products.
Professional Writers
Our reputation has been built because of the dedicated and highly qualified writers in our team. The writers give clients high quality products which guarantees return clients and referrals.
Quality
Our team is dedicated to giving clients the best quality products. However, if a paper does not meet the requirements stated by the client, our team will provide free revisions to the satisfaction of the client.
Moneyback guarantee policy
We believe that clients should get value for their money. If the client finds that the product has not met the requirements stated, we will refund the amount paid.
Original papers
We understand how plagiarism can ruin clients’ careers and reputation. We thus strive to provide original papers to our clients. We use several tools to check plagiarism. This ensures that clients get products that meet their institutions’ standards.
24/7 Customer Support
You can reach our support team via, live chat, email or phone. All your issues will be dealt with asap as the team works round the clock.
Try it now!
How it works?
Follow these simple steps to get your paper done
Place your order
Fill in the order form and provide all details of your assignment.
Proceed with the payment
Choose the payment system that suits you most.
Receive the final file
Once your paper is ready, we will email it to you.
Our Services
You have other errands to run? No need to worry. Place your order with us, carry out your errands while we do your paper and deliver on time.
Give us a topic you want your blog based on, and let our team handle the rest. You will get the best article to be published in any forum you want. We have able team to do all the work for you.
Assignments
Many students are given assignments by their tutors. However, students find it challenging to just even come up with a topic. This should no longer be a problem to you. Just visit our site, contact the support team that will help you place your order, and find the best writer to handle the assignment.
Dissertation Services
Dissertation has proven to be challenging to most students. For this reason, we have specialized writers who handles only these kind of papers. You will be in constant touch with the writer and the support team once you place a dissertation order to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Editing and Proofreading
Some students have good points and writing prowess. However, they make minor mistakes that deny them good grades. To avoid such cases, you can give us your already written paper so that our team can edit it to the correct formatting style, language, proper flow and the correct academic language. This gives you an upper hand to get the best grade than a person whose job has not been edited.