...The Concord Bookshop and the Change process Kelly Collinsworth HCS/587 September 3, 2012 Ginger Weatherston, BS, MAS Introduction Change is inevitable for business owners. External forces like technological advances and consumer demands often places financial hardship on a company. The success of online shopping has forced bookstore owners to become creative in competing with Internet companies. To remain competitive and maintain viability, bookstore owners must be able to adapt quickly and implement organizational changes. Organizational change means introducing a new enterprise resource planning system to co-ordinate and standardize internal process (Spector, 2010). Businesses often turn to strategic renewal changes to improve profit margins and customer relations. An independently owned bookstore, The Concord Bookshop, underwent organizational change processes that led to failure. The Concord Bookshop The Concord Bookshop was a thriving bookstore in Boston, Massachusetts, until national bookstore chains and the availability of online shopping affected its financial status. To improve the store’s financial position, the owners represented by a board president, elected to implement organizational changes. The owners no longer wanted to use a three-way management system. They elected to demote the existing managers into different positions and hire a new general manager. This came as an abrupt surprise to the current employees. Employees to the proposed...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper It is safe to say that change is inevitable and an important part of most organizations. Changes usually occur to improve the productivity in an organization because of a crisis or to prevent any issues that may arise. Problems usually arise when the changes made are not manages appropriately. This is why it is so important to familiarize oneself with the phases of the organizational change process. This paper discusses the different phases and determines which phases were not completed or executed by the concord bookshop and eventually caused the change failure. Phases of the Organizational Process To start the organizational change process there are several steps are taken. The first step is goal recognition. According to Ingram (n.d.) to make a change one must realize a change is inevitable. The need for change can be brought to light in several ways. Audits and employees can help in identifying issues as well as the use of assessment tools such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) or Gap analyses are useful in identifying problems. The second step of the organizational process is planning phase. This is the time when the decision makers can sit down to discuss the steps he or she will need to perform to achieve the desired goal. Research will assess what effects this change will have on the organizations...
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...Welcome to WritePoint, the automated review system that recognizes errors most commonly made by university students in academic essays. The system embeds comments into your paper and suggests possible changes in grammar and style. Please evaluate each comment carefully to ensure that the suggested change is appropriate for your paper, but remember that your instructor's preferences for style and format prevail. You will also need to review your own citations and references since WritePoint capability in this area is limited. NOTE: WritePoint comments are computer-generated writing and grammar suggestions inviting the consideration and analysis of the writer; they are not infallible statements of right/wrong, and they should not be used as grading elements. Also, at present, WritePoint cannot detect quotations or block-quotes, so comments in those areas should be ignored. Please see the other helpful writing resources in the Tutorials and Guides section of the Center for Writing Excellence. Thank you for using WritePoint. Personal Plan to Succeed Doreen M. Giglio University of Phoenix ...
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...Organizational Change Process at Concord Bookshop HCS/587 Organizational Change Process at Concord Bookshop The intense competition and economy are two major drivers of organizational changes. The development and implementation of any significant organizational changes requires strategic planning. Kurt Lewin’s change model offers a simple and an effective approach for implementing the organizational changes. The lack of a strategic planning to implement the organizational changes could be demoralizing for the staff and disastrous for the entire organization. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of poor organizational change planning at Concord Bookshop in New England. Additionally, the paper will describe the Kurt Lewin’s three phases of organizational change. The failure to follow three phases of organizational change resulted in employees’ resistance to embrace the proposed changes. The Concord Bookshop was a highly regarded bookstore famous for its knowledgeable staff and friendly service. The online mega bookstores, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble have created a stiff competition forcing the Concord Bookshop owners to implement significant organizational changes. The owners failed to include the staff members in the change process creating an environment of resistance that forced many long-time employees to leave the organization. Kurt Lewin’s Phases of Change Model Unfreeze Phase During this phase, the top management effectively communicates with...
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...What environmental factors influenced the trigger for new strategic direction of the Concord Bookshop? Explain by using PESTEL Framework. The PESTEL Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The letters stand Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, technological and Legal. The important principle is identifying the key factors from the wider, uncontrollable external environment that might affect the organization. In this scenario of Concord Bookshop these is no influence of Political factors for the change at all and there is no mention about it as well. But there seem to be an impact from the economic factors since they see that there is a problem in finance. Once Smith declared that “Things have never been worse” depicting that there is a significant change in the environment. The managers who are about to resign stated that they were doing well and profit margins are tighter than ever during “the last 5 years “. This kind of drop in profits can be due to a low economic growth rate, cost of raw materials have gone up or even due to a hike in inflation rate where readers give second priority to buy a book. Further many socio- cultural factors can affect the book selling such as changes in demographics and age distribution during the last 5 years. People have started to buy e- books from amazon etc. and this depicts that the life style and the conditions of people have changed. Readers are penetrating to comfortable ways of buying...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper The article “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop” is about a small town bookshop that has been in existence for 64 years. Many people of the town enjoyed using the bookshop. The bookshop’s financial situation was considered to be the worst it had ever been, so the board of directors made a drastic decision to hire a new general manager. No changes were going to be made to any current employee. This paper will show the organizational change processes that were not implemented at the Concord Bookshop, which led to the change failure. The phases in an organizational change process are strategic renewal and organization change, behavioral changes, and employee participation and resistance to change. According to Spector (2010), strategic renewal requires organizational change and demands “wide-scale invention, reinvention, and redesign of business processes and organizational structures” (p. 4). For strategic renewal to be successful, organizations need to create new business models. The business model is the organizations approach to generating revenue and making a profit. Changing an existing business model is more difficult than starting a new one because changing an existing model requires organizational changes. These changes usually affect behavior patterns of existing...
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...Concord Bookshop Introduction As the world is changing with Technology, many companies are finding themselves struggling to stay afloat in competitive market. Whenever new business strategy is introduced in a company, a change has to take place. The way changes are introduced and implemented, determines the success of the change. Before change is introduced, there must be need for change and after implementation of change; there is expectation (Vaughn, 2012). Change is not an easy process; it requires team work in planning, organizing and implementation. Organizational change is successful when it is effective and yield growth, but a failure when is unproductive. This paper will discuss the phases in the organizational change process and what lead to the change failure at the Concord Bookshop. Phases of Organizational Change Process Change is trying to do things in a different way for a better result or outcome. (Spector, 2010). Kurt Lewin’s three stage theory of change are Unfreeze, Change and Freeze. The Unfreezing stage is the understanding of the need for change and preparing for it. It requires moving away from the comfort zone of the old norms. The Change stage or Transition is the most difficult time of the change. At this stage reaction to change are displayed, people are frustrated and fearful. Support is need at this stage either in form of training, or in-services and mistakes are expected...
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...Concord Bookshop Creating Change Within Organizations HCS 587 March 30, 2013 Professor David Harrell Concord Bookshop The Concord Bookshop was a 64 year old small establishment that had been well established in New England. The establishment had been having financial difficulties due to larger competitors and Internet purchases. The board decided to hire a new general manager to change the direction of the company to avoid ruin. There are three stages of an organizational change process. When changes in an organization do not complete these stages or leave one of them out it can result in angry employees who are resistant to change. Ultimately this leads to financial ruin of the organization. This paper will describe processes of change that were not completed at the Concord Bookshop which lead to change failure. Phases in Organizational Change Process There are three stages of the organizational change process for implementation to be effective. Kurt Lewin’s Model for Change describes the three vital phases as unfreezing, moving, and refreezing. The first stage, unfreezing, occurs when employees or an organization learns that change is required, which creates dissatisfaction with the way things have always worked. “We must accept disconfirming information and connect it to something we care about” (Spector, 2010, p. 29). This stage creates increased anxiety for the stakeholders of an organization. Open communication is imperative for discussions of change to decrease...
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...Concord Bookshop HCS 587 Georgetta Baptist The concept of change is vital to the survival of all forms of life; it is nearly impossible to remain stagnant and unchanged when inhabiting a round sphere that is in constant motion. Today’s society thrives on competition, speed, and convenience. Long gone are the days of mom and pop stores and consumers actually enjoying to shop in person. Instead, physical stores are being replaced by the convenience of virtual shopping from your cell phones, Ipads, computers, etc. This is the case of the Concord bookshop, whom in its hay day was a highly regarded community jewel in Boston, known for their customer service and vast knowledge of books. The last few years have been financially difficult for the bookshop and in a last ditch effort to remain open, the owners have decided to enforce a new business model much to the dissatisfaction of their employees. I will focus on two phases of the organizational change process that were not implemented by the Concord bookshop that ultimately led to their failure. The first failure occurred when the new general manager and the owners decided to change the business plan without consulting the three current store managers or the employees. “Change imposed from “above”-top executives telling employees that they must alter their behaviors in order to implement a new strategy or perform better under the old strategy-is likely to engender resistance” (Spector, p.11, 2010). Getting people to change...
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...Concord Paper Deejah Klein HCS 587 December 24, 2012 Introduction Change is inevitable. According to Borkowski (2005), “change is a very complex phenomenon involving the multiplicity of man’s motivations in both micro and macro systems and that man gets satisfied with his equilibrium and is resistant to changing his status quo.” Most organizational efforts will be met by resistance. The Concord Bookshop is initiating a change due to the store’s financial situation. The President of the bookshop announced that a new general manager will be hired. This will not lead to any salary cuts or employee lay off. Employees were not happy with this change and met with board members to express their concerns but the board members had already made up their minds and told employees to decide on how they want to proceed. This approach backfired, which led some of the employees to quit or give their notice (Spector, 2010). This paper discusses the phases in the organizational change process and also discusses the phases that was not completed or implemented at the concord bookshop that led to the change failure. Phases in the Organizational Change Process In 1947, Kurt Lewin developed a three stage process of implementing change which is necessary for effective change within an organization. The three stages are: Unfreezing: Recognizing the need for change is very vital. This is the first phase that involves preparing the organization to accept that change is necessary. The existing...
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...The Phases in the Organizational Change Process HCS/587 October 14, 2013 The Phases in the Organizational Change Process Spector (2010) stated “organizational change is typically initiated in response to a trigger event or a shift in the environment that precipitates a need for altered strategies and new patterns of employee behavior” (p.18). According to Spector (2010), to understand and analyze the dynamics of change it is important to sort out and distinguish the different approaches that can be taken. In chapter one Spector gives the reader insight into the Concord Bookshop, a bookstore that is in the process of implementing new changes. Spector (2010), states that “for the Concord Bookshop, the increasing penetration of online booksellers into the store’s market space triggered the requirement for strategic renewal” (p.18). Kurt Lewin developed a change model to assist organizations such as the Concord Bookshop with changes. There are three steps in Lewin’s...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper Shobin Kovoor HCS/587 February 27, 2012 Laura Hurst Concord Bookshop Paper Change is a natural and necessary process in an organization. Continual and managing change has become one of the greatest challenges in today’s successful organization. Implementing successful organizational change is a key challenge to many businesses. This paper provides a description about phases in organizational change process and what lead to the failure of Concord bookshop to survive change. An organizational change means introducing a new enterprise resource planning system to co-ordinate and standardize internal process (Spector, 2010). According to Kurt Lewin, there are three phases of organizational change. First one is unfreezing. In this phase, the organization needs to identify the need of change and find solutions. A strategic renewal is needed. Organization must make the people visualize the need for change. Next phase is change. This phase is aimed on individual behavior. People try to do things in a better way. This process takes long time. Next phase is refreezing. In this phase changes are implemented and evaluated. The organization needs new goals and good leadership. Concord bookshop is an old store, that is running for 64 years in New England. This store was famous in the small community and they had support from the people. The management knew the need for change. There was financial crisis in the store. The owners failed to communicate the vision...
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...Concord Bookshop Paper Read “Tales of Woe at Concord Bookshop” in Ch. 1 of Implementing Organizational Change. Prepare a 350- to 700-word paper discussing the phases in the organizational change process including the following: • Describe 2 to 3 phases of the organizational change process that were not completed or implemented at the Concord Bookshop that lead to the change failure. • Format your paper according to APA standards. The Concord Bookshop is not a health care organization, but the organizational change process you study in this course applies to other types of organizations. In this assignment, you must focus on the change process. You observe how this process applies to health care organizations as you progress through the course. This assignment is due in Week One. |Content |Points |Points |Additional Comments: | |60 Percent |Available |Earned | | | |3 |X/3 | | |Discusses the phases in the organizational change process | | | | |Described 2 to 3 phases of the organizational change process that were not | | | | |completed...
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...Introduction It’s like a family quarrel that nobody wants and nobody knows how to stop. The Concord Bookshop, a 64-year-old independent store regarded as one of the best in New England, is beset by a bitter clash between owners and staff. The conflict puts pressure on the store at a time when independent booksellers are reeling from competition from chains and the Internet. Eight of Concord Bookshop’s employees, including the trio of top managers, have quit or given their notice. The staffers’ years of service add up to 73. The three managers, including [the] general manager have worked at the store for a total of 34 years. Meanwhile, a group of outraged local authors . . . has fired off a letter to the owners supporting the staff. The precipitating event was a surprise announcement last month by the owners a group of three families represented by a board led by President Morgan “Kim” Smith of Concord—that a new general manager will be hired. No one was laid off, and no one’s salary was cut. Yet many of the staff were outraged at the de facto demotions, as well as by what they saw as the owners’ immovable stance. “We asked for a meeting with the whole board,” says [a departing staff member]. “We presented our concerns, and they thanked us for our input and said, ‘We’re going to do it our way, and if you don’t like it, each of you will have to make up your mind as to how to proceed.’ Something in me died, the fragile alchemy that made it such a great place to work had...
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...Concord Bookshop Concord Bookshop Sabrina Scruton HCS 587 Georgetta Baptist The concept of change is vital to the survival of all forms of life; it is nearly impossible to remain stagnant and unchanged when inhabiting a round sphere that is in constant motion. Today’s society thrives on competition, speed, and convenience. Long gone are the days of mom and pop stores and consumers actually enjoying to shop in person. Instead, physical stores are being replaced by the convenience of virtual shopping from your cell phones, Ipads, computers, etc. This is the case of the Concord bookshop, whom in its hay day was a highly regarded community jewel in Boston, known for their customer service and vast knowledge of books. The last few years have been financially difficult for the bookshop and in a last ditch effort to remain open, the owners have decided to enforce a new business model much to the dissatisfaction of their employees. I will focus on two phases of the organizational change process that were not implemented by the Concord bookshop that ultimately led to their failure. The first failure occurred when the new general manager and the owners decided to change the business plan without consulting the three current store managers or the employees. “Change imposed from “above”-top executives telling employees that they must alter their behaviors in order to implement a new strategy or perform better under the old strategy-is likely to engender resistance” (Spector,...
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