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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
Western Governors University
C721 T1: Change Management
Name:
Student ID:
Date:
A. Using either the contingency model or the organizational life cycle model, discuss the
need for change for the company in the scenario.
In regard to the organizational life cycle model, the company in the scenario is in the
second stage. While the company in the scenario has a strong and strategic company direction,
the company suffers from a lack of autonomy brought on by the stage two crisis of the
organizational life cycle model due to the fact that the company is structured in a manner of
top-down hierarchical leadership. Stage two is known as the growth/survival stage, and
autonomy is a critical component to employ for a company to make it through to stage three.
Because of the structure of the company in the scenario, the company's employees feel
trapped by the company's rigid and outdated way of doing things. To ensure the company
continues to grow and survive in such a competitive labor market, the company must loosen
some of its grasp on control and decision-making responsibility and allow both the lower-level
managers and employees to contribute. Employees will feel more empowered to play a strong
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
role in the company if the company delegates and loosens restrictions. This will ultimately result
in more balanced control and decision-making across the whole of the company.
B. Describe the differences between a learning organization and a traditional organization.
Compared to a traditional organization, a learning organization is different in that a
learning organization focuses on "big picture" ideas, in other words, long-term ideas, and
these organizations take a special effort to learn and grow from lessons learned in the past.
Learning organizations encourage their members to think of new and creative ways of doing
things that will ensure the organization continues to adapt, evolve, and thrive in today's
competitive labor market. In a learning organization, as employees try different roles and teams
change, leadership openly and happily adjusts to support this knowledge and innovation that's
shared across the organization.
Compared to a learning organization, there is much more structure and
predictability present within a traditional organization. In a traditional organization, well-
defined roles and responsibilities are established and designed to ensure the status quo is
maintained and innovative ideas are shot down. Nonflexible processes and a rigid culture are
present in a traditional organization. Employees lack encouragement from the organization to
take risks and make decisions. In a traditional organization, for a decision to be approved, it must
be moved up to the very top of the hierarchical command chain. This, in turn, results in a
slowdown of suggested resolutions. In today's competitive labor market, these slowdowns are
detrimental as quickly deciding and implementing resolutions is of immense vitality in ensuring
a company's continued growth and survival.
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
B1. Stage of Woolner’s 5-Stage Model the Company Is Currently In.
Regarding Woolner's 5-stage model, the company in the scenario is currently in the
second stage.
B1A. Explain Why the Company Is in the Identified Stage.
There has been a development of formalized processes over the last decade the
company has been in business. Due to this formalization, the company has been taken out
of the first stage. The first stage is when a new company learns from trial and error.
According to Acrobatiq (2022), in the second stage, a stable organization begins to see
the need for learning, and once this need has been realized, the organization begins to
introduce training scenarios via a 3rd party.
The company in the scenario has identified a need, with that need being
growth and training, and this situation aligns with the second stage of Woolner's 5-
stage model. The company in the scenario has hired a change management expert to
guide the company in satisfying the growth and training needs the company has
identified. The company in the scenario has yet to make it to the third stage of Woolner's
5-stage model, where, in the third stage, a company has begun to provide internal training
measures that are viewed as critical in allowing the company to continue to grow and
succeed.
B2. How Will the Company in the Scenario Use Senge’s 5 Disciplines to
Become a Learning Organization.
Regarding the first discipline, according to Feldman (2013), the ability
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
to view an organization not only in its individualized processes but as a whole
unit comprised of interconnected processes is what it means to employ systems
thinking. Because the company in the scenario has now expanded and grown to
an international scale, employing systems thinking will allow the company's
leadership to visualize how all the moving parts of the organization will interact
with one another on a global level. Ultimately, this will result in more
comprehensive decision-making, and these more comprehensive decisions will
grant the company's leadership the ability to better identify process issues that
require immediate attention.
Personal mastery is the next discipline, and while this discipline is more
prone to ambiguity than systems thinking, personal mastery is equally as
important. According to Feldman (2013), personal mastery is when a person
strengthens and deepens their personal vision via the means of individual
learning. While personal mastery may seem like a simple concept, there's more to
it than that. Personal mastery results in a person feeling a sense of internal
motivation to focus all their energy toward making their vision become a reality.
Personal mastery is an ever-lasting process rather than a set goal or destination.
The company would benefit from employing personal mastery as employees
would feel empowered to partake in constant learning and growth, and ultimately,
this will result in a refocusing of goals that will guide the company toward
achieving its vision, and in the end, these actions would result in the company
developing into a learning organization. As the saying goes, a chain is only as
strong as its weakest link, so the company must ensure that each chain of the
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C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf
C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf 1 of 108
C721 Task 1 – Change Management
Western Governors University
C721 T1: Change Management
Name:
Student ID:
Date:
A. Using either the contingency model or the organizational life cycle model, discuss the
need for change for the company in the scenario.
In regard to the organizational life cycle model, the company in the scenario is in the
second stage. While the company in the scenario has a strong and strategic company direction,
the company suffers from a lack of autonomy brought on by the stage two crisis of the
organizational life cycle model due to the fact that the company is structured in a manner of
top-down hierarchical leadership. Stage two is known as the growth/survival stage, and
autonomy is a critical component to employ for a company to make it through to stage three.
Because of the structure of the company in the scenario, the company's employees feel
trapped by the company's rigid and outdated way of doing things. To ensure the company
continues to grow and survive in such a competitive labor market, the company must loosen
some of its grasp on control and decision-making responsibility and allow both the lower-level
managers and employees to contribute. Employees will feel more empowered to play a strong
Downloaded by madiba South Africa stuvia ()
C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
role in the company if the company delegates and loosens restrictions. This will ultimately result
in more balanced control and decision-making across the whole of the company.
B. Describe the differences between a learning organization and a traditional organization.
Compared to a traditional organization, a learning organization is different in that a
learning organization focuses on "big picture" ideas, in other words, long-term ideas, and
these organizations take a special effort to learn and grow from lessons learned in the past.
Learning organizations encourage their members to think of new and creative ways of doing
things that will ensure the organization continues to adapt, evolve, and thrive in today's
competitive labor market. In a learning organization, as employees try different roles and teams
change, leadership openly and happily adjusts to support this knowledge and innovation that's
shared across the organization.
Compared to a learning organization, there is much more structure and
predictability present within a traditional organization. In a traditional organization, well-
defined roles and responsibilities are established and designed to ensure the status quo is
maintained and innovative ideas are shot down. Nonflexible processes and a rigid culture are
present in a traditional organization. Employees lack encouragement from the organization to
take risks and make decisions. In a traditional organization, for a decision to be approved, it must
be moved up to the very top of the hierarchical command chain. This, in turn, results in a
slowdown of suggested resolutions. In today's competitive labor market, these slowdowns are
detrimental as quickly deciding and implementing resolutions is of immense vitality in ensuring
a company's continued growth and survival.
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C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf C721 Change Management.pdf
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
B1. Stage of Woolner’s 5-Stage Model the Company Is Currently In.
Regarding Woolner's 5-stage model, the company in the scenario is currently in the
second stage.
B1A. Explain Why the Company Is in the Identified Stage.
There has been a development of formalized processes over the last decade the
company has been in business. Due to this formalization, the company has been taken out
of the first stage. The first stage is when a new company learns from trial and error.
According to Acrobatiq (2022), in the second stage, a stable organization begins to see
the need for learning, and once this need has been realized, the organization begins to
introduce training scenarios via a 3rd party.
The company in the scenario has identified a need, with that need being
growth and training, and this situation aligns with the second stage of Woolner's 5-
stage model. The company in the scenario has hired a change management expert to
guide the company in satisfying the growth and training needs the company has
identified. The company in the scenario has yet to make it to the third stage of Woolner's
5-stage model, where, in the third stage, a company has begun to provide internal training
measures that are viewed as critical in allowing the company to continue to grow and
succeed.
B2. How Will the Company in the Scenario Use Senge’s 5 Disciplines to
Become a Learning Organization.
Regarding the first discipline, according to Feldman (2013), the ability
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C721 Task 1 – Change Management
to view an organization not only in its individualized processes but as a whole
unit comprised of interconnected processes is what it means to employ systems
thinking. Because the company in the scenario has now expanded and grown to
an international scale, employing systems thinking will allow the company's
leadership to visualize how all the moving parts of the organization will interact
with one another on a global level. Ultimately, this will result in more
comprehensive decision-making, and these more comprehensive decisions will
grant the company's leadership the ability to better identify process issues that
require immediate attention.
Personal mastery is the next discipline, and while this discipline is more
prone to ambiguity than systems thinking, personal mastery is equally as
important. According to Feldman (2013), personal mastery is when a person
strengthens and deepens their personal vision via the means of individual
learning. While personal mastery may seem like a simple concept, there's more to
it than that. Personal mastery results in a person feeling a sense of internal
motivation to focus all their energy toward making their vision become a reality.
Personal mastery is an ever-lasting process rather than a set goal or destination.
The company would benefit from employing personal mastery as employees
would feel empowered to partake in constant learning and growth, and ultimately,
this will result in a refocusing of goals that will guide the company toward
achieving its vision, and in the end, these actions would result in the company
developing into a learning organization. As the saying goes, a chain is only as
strong as its weakest link, so the company must ensure that each chain of the
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