Assignment #1 Discussion Board
Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Additional Information: You and Shawn are excited about developing the change initiative with the cross-cultural core team. Shawn is recognized in the field as an expert of change management. He relies on the foundational change management steps and his understanding of human behavior as it relates to the acceptance of change. At the end of the day, in the elevator ride down to the parking garage, you and Shawn talk about implementing change at AGC.
“I’m glad we can work together on developing the change initiative,” he says. “Your experience as a consultant for other organizations that needed to change to survive will work well with my background.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” you say. “I know that human beings are likely to react adversely to change, so I’ve developed some steps that should be addressed to facilitate the implementation of change.”
“What about problems?” Shawn asks. “And people who will resist the change? How do we turn negative attitudes around?”
“Those are all good questions,” you say. “Would you like me to send you my comments?”
“Yes,” he says. “I can review them over the weekend.”
“Let me know if you want to discuss anything in more detail,” you say.
“Thanks,” he says. “I will.”
Later that evening, you go over the following list of things you need to share with Shawn:
Identify the basic steps that Shawn and his team should follow to successfully implement change at AGC.
What kinds of problems should Shawn and his core team anticipate early in the change process?
What recommendations can you provide to Shawn and his team to help prepare them for anticipated problems and unanticipated problems?
What recommendations can you make to help Shawn and the team ensure that the optimization of global human capital management will not be viewed adversely by the employees on this multinational organization?
Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. Support your response with academic references from your textbook and reputable websites from which the author’s name may be specifically documented. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:
What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Reading Assignment
Dessler, Chapters 4-7

Assignment #2

Unit 3 – Individual Project

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Assignment Overview

Type: Individual Project
Due Date: Mon, 7/27/15
Points Possible: 100
Points Earned: 0
Deliverable Length: 10–12 slides (+ title and reference slides); Speaker notes of 200–250 words per slide
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Assignment Description
Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.
Respond to the following scenario with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. Be substantive and clear, and use research to reinforce your ideas.
Additional Information:Both you and Shawn realize that without significant levels of change, AGC will not survive in its present global environment. It is important to use a change management process to appropriately diagnose the problems at AGC and determine the root causes. You both met with the 12 members of the cross-cultural core team to begin the change process. After the meeting, you and Shawn get together to compare notes and to discuss next steps.
“John told me he wants us to provide him with the details about our change management plan for AGC,” Shawn says.
“Sure,” you say. “A PowerPoint presentation like we did last time would probably work well. I think we could cover everything in 10–12 slides (plus title and reference slides) with speaker notes of 200–250 words per slide.”
“John wants to see a step-by-step plan with explanations,” he says. “He was fairly specific in an e-mail about what he wants. I can forward it to you so we can both be on the same page.”
“Okay,” you say. “I’ll look for that so I can put the presentation together.”
Later that afternoon, Shawn’s e-mail arrives with the following list of components that must be covered in the presentation:
A step-by-step plan for change management and justifications for each step
An analysis of the current state of AGC. (i.e., What are the problems in this company that have led to the development of Shawn’s team?)
A list of the potential benefits you can expect from the change management plan
The reasoning behind the need for a diagnosis of AGC and why it is considered one of the most critical components of the team’s plan
An explanation of the diagnostic process that was applied and the type of data that was collected
In addition to John’s list, you determine that the following questions must be addressed, as well:
What would happen if the diagnostic step was not conducted?
What would happen if the diagnostic step was poorly researched and evaluated?
What types of data will be gathered, from whom, and how will they be analyzed?
Based on the diagnosis of this organization, what have you determined to be the potential root cause (or causes) of its existing problems?
Please reply with a 100 word reply to this students posting! His name is Luke!

In order to implement change successfully at AGC Shawn and his team should follow the META model of change. This model entails 8 steps as follows: entry of consultant, contracting, diagnosis, new model, planning, intervention, monitoring/evaluation, and stabilization (Colorado Technical University, 2015). When following any method of change, change itself is often met with problems. These problems could be anything from resistance to change, denial for the need for change, not enough buy-in, mistrust of management and poor conduction of the change model itself. Shawn and his team need to prepare to the best of their abilities for these problems and have readily available solutions or rebuttals/justifications. For example, the team needs to be able to show those unwilling to change or who are in denial that there is a true need by reiterating or showing data of internal forces, such as low employee satisfaction from surveys, or external forces, such as competition taking our potential profits shows through balance sheet numbers (Colorado Technical University, 2015). Hopefully, by performing the diagnostic function of the change model, the team will have enough information to be able to clarify the problems with both quantitative and qualitative data to convince people that a problem exists and that it is important to make change, thus creating buy-in (Colorado Technical University, 2015). If the barriers and problems are properly identified then this step should be relatively easy to convey for buy-in purposes. However, actually executing each step of the change model properly is what will help Shawn and his team anticipate most problems or be flexible enough to deal with unanticipated problems. For example, the first step in deciding who to use as a consultant can be very critical; people need to trust in the person morally and also in their skill sets (Colorado Technical University, 2015). This person needs to be seen as a savior of sorts verses the enemy. Secondly, the contracting step needs to be effective, roles needs to be established, access granted and honest expected outcomes need to be agreed upon before the consultant starts to diagnose the issues (Colorado Technical University, 2015). Additionally, properly planning and implementing interventions at all levels of the organization will help Shawn and the team have open communication to act proactively but be flexible and trusted enough to act on unanticipated problems (Colorado Technical University, 2015). Lastly, to make sure that the people view change as positive verses negative the team needs to be transparent with their goals and their plans. People need to know what to expect and in what time period to expect it and how it will help them individually and as a company. They need to feel important in the process and heard. This can be achieved by creating specific interventions to bridge any gap that exists in communication and increase access to information, training, and career development that comes with the changes made through the change model.

References
Colorado Technical University. (2015). HRMT620-1503A-02: Live Chat 6PBL.ppt (multimedia presentation/chat). Retrieved from Colorado Technical University, virtual Campus: http://ctuadobeconnect.careeredonline.com/p24x7mp9fvf/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal