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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A

What is major planned change?..................................................................................................1

What should the organisation do to ensure that the change process is managed effectively?. . .2

A schematic model of steps that contribute to effective change management...........................3

PART B

Organisation background...........................................................................................................4

The major change that has been undertaken..............................................................................6

The steps taken by the organisation in managing the change process.......................................8

PART C

The involvement and commitment of the staff to the change project.....................................11

The progress of implementing the change process .................................................................12

The effectiveness of the steps taken by the organisation in managing the change

process......................................................................................................................................13

Recommendations to overcome any of the shortcomings........................................................16

References................................................................................................................................17

PART A:

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A literature review on the following aspects of planned change:

a) What is a major planned change?

In the current climate of economic pressure and evolving political priorities,

organizational change within public bodies is becoming an increasing priority.

However, change is a complex process that can have negative as well as positive

outcomes and as such it is worth looking at the available evidence so that the process

is conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible.Organization Development

(OD) defines as "an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to

increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the

organizations processes, using behavioral-science knowledge."In essence, OD is a

planned system of change. OD takes a long-range approach to improving

organizational performance and efficiency. It avoids the (usual) "quick-fix".

Organization-wide. OD focuses on the total system.

b) What should the organization do to ensure that the change process is managed

effectively?

Fundamental to the success of organizational change is the acceptance of the change

by employees. Within this context, the work of Kubler-Ross (1973), who argued that

all humans go through 5 stages of ‘grief’ (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and

acceptance) when faced with a loss or change, has been seen as relevant and has been

applied to the management of organizational change. Wiggins (2009) uses the model

to help guide communication and support during the period of change, which she

suggests should be tailored to the stage of change that the employees have reached. In

order to respond to change, managers must have an in-depth understanding of the

organization, its structures, strategies, people and culture. Understanding these will

allow managers to choose the most appropriate approach to change and identify the

factors that might act as facilitators or barriers to the change (Burnes, 1996). This

focus on the organization as a whole entity when considering, change is in line with

the increasing prominence of organizational development (OD) as a framework for

thinking about change. Holbeche, an expert in the OD field, explains that this rapidly

developing discipline looks at “the total system and the linkage between all the parts

of the organization, and at how change in one part will affect the other

parts”(Holbeche, 2009). The emergent approach is itself not free from critics who

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question the usefulness of the broad-natured action sequences, and their application to

unique organizational contexts. Others have suggested a more “situational” or

“contingency” approach, arguing that the performance of an organization depends

heavily on situational variables. As these will vary from organization to organization,

managers’ responses and strategies for change will also have to vary (Dunphy and

Stace, 1993. The OD process also needs the buy-in and ownership of workers

throughout the organization. Increase organization effectiveness and health. OD is

tied to the bottom-line. Its goal is to improve the organization, to make it more

efficient and more competitive by aligning the organizations systems with its people.

For example, after the news of change is delivered, employees need to be given

information to tackle their denial. Once the information has sunk in and they

experience anger, bargaining and depression they require various kinds of support.

Once employees have begun accepting the situation they need a vision to put their

commitment into.

After a proper preparation, OD uses activities called interventions to make system

wide, permanent changes in the organization. OD is a discipline that combines

research and experience to understanding people, business systems, and their

interactions. The term Intervention refers to a set of sequenced, planned actions or

events intended to help an organization to increase its effectiveness. Interventions

purposely disrupt the status quo; they are deliberate attempts to change an

organization or sub-unit toward a different and more effective state. There are 3 major

criteria for effective Interventions in OD: firstly, the Extent to which it (the

Intervention) fits the needs of the organization. The 2nd major, the degree to which it is

based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes. The 3rd major is the extent to which

the OD intervention transfers change-management competence to organization

members. The factors relating to Change Situation is relating to the environment of

the organization and includes the physical and human environment. Intervention

success depends heavily on the organization being ready for planned change. The

capability of organization to change by managing planned change requires particular

knowledge and skills including the ability to motivate change, to lead change, to

develop political support, to manage transition, and to sustain momentum.

c) A schematic model of steps that contribute to effective change management.

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According to Doppelt (2003) environmental component of sustainability in the

organizations should be displayed as a model “borrow-use return” rather than

unsustainable scheme “take-make-waste”. Figure 1 the models of Planned Change.

Figure 1: The Models Of Planned Change

PART B:

a. Historical Background of KDU University College

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(Images retrieved from http://eduspiral.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/section-13-

campus.jpg and http://campuslife.kdu.edu.my on 22nd July 2014)

KDU University College (KDU) is a subsidiary of Paramount Corporation Berhad

(Paramount), a property development company which has diversified from strong

property arm into education. KDU Education Division was the first in Malaysian

Private Education having more than 45,000 alumni graduates. It was established in

1983 offering wide range of tertiary programmes under “KDU College” which

provided approximately to 3000 local and international students. The primary vision of

KDU College is to be the premier learning organization that sparks curiosity inspires

success and promotes responsibility. In order to drive this vision, KDU inaugurated five

missions which include, but not limited to, nurturing individuals to be ethical and

responsible citizens.

KDU College is dedicated to offer broad spectrum of education programmes, from

primary and secondary education through to undergraduate and post-graduate level as

well as executive and professional development programmes. The major objective of

the establishment of KDU College is to provide additional tertiary education

opportunities in light due to the limited places in public universities in Malaysia. In

addition to that, KDU College primary objective is to provide international education to

the local students whom are unable to study overseas due to the substantial increase in

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tuition fees imposed by foreign universities. The occurrence of economic crisis in 1997,

further contribute to a significant growth of the international and twinning programme

offered at KDU College where the students are able to complete their studies locally.

Numbers of students enrolling at KDU College continue to escalate, but the

mushrooming of the private higher education institutions have nevertheless been a

constant threat to KDU. In order to remain competitive within the market of private

education institutions, the lecturers are encouraged to pursue their Doctor of Philosophy

to move KDU College to a higher level. The success of KDU Education Division was

accomplished whereby KDU College has been upgraded to University College status

by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia in 2010. This recognition has opened a

new door for KDU University College (KDU UC) to initiate its own home-grown

degree programmes a year later. These home-grown programmes include business,

computing engineering, communications as well as culinary and hospitality

management, (KDU University College, 2014). As of November 2014, there are

altogether 165 academic staff and 184 administration staff in KDU University College,

which serve 2800 students with an annual intake of 500 students. KDU is clearly an

organization build by its people and to serve the people. With that, human relationship

is paramount for them as an educational serving industry.

KDU University College’s current position and performance

Even after the launching of KDU UC home-grown programmes, it is inevitable that

KDU UC to face an intense rivalry with other private education institutions offering

similar programmes. In order for KDU UC to strive in the education industry, KDU UC

will move to its new flagship campus at Paramount Utropolis in Glenmarie, Shah Alam

in early 2015. The move, even though risky, is progressing well in its efforts to cement

its reputation as an integrated, full-spectrum education services provider, whilst

diversifying its product offerings to better meet market needs, (Paramount Annual

Report, 2013).

The decision to move its campus to Glenmarie was based on the recent studies by

Parthenon that was commissioned by the parent company, Paramount Berhad. Its

finding that the enrolment in the private higher education sector overall is expected to

have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 5 – 7% from 2012 – 2022.

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For KDU and its nearest competitors, the CAGR is expected to be around 10 – 13%.

The high rate of the CAGR indicates that there is an opportunity for enrolment growth

at KDU UC. It is projected that the student enrolment will increase to 11,000 by 2022

bringing the ‘University College’ to full university status by 2016.

(Graph 1: The projected CAGR enrolment at KDU UC and other private education providers)

b. Major change at KDU.

In the effort to continue to stay relevant in the ever competitive private education

industry in Malaysia, KDU left with no other way then to reengineered the whole

traditional structural and operational concept, which they have practice for the past 30

years. This change is also vital as KDU are now embarking onto a journey to be a full

fledge university in Malaysia. KDU are also aiming to be among the top 3 best private

university in Malaysia in term of the highest employability graduates. Starts right is

very crucial for KDU. A clear master plan with a clear measurable and achievable goals

as well as its direction must be properly planned. This plan is not visible for KDU in

the past 30 years. As part of the 30 years anniversary master plan KDU have now

embarked onto a journey by taking a few major change initiatives, which start with a

few intervention that can be categorize as Techno-structural Interventions and Strategic

Interventions. “An organization development intervention is a sequence of activities,

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actions, and events intended to help an organization improve its performance and

effectiveness”, (Cummings & Worley, 2014).

The above two intervention were needed to be put in place in order have a more

structural and effective internal workforce as well as a better business strategy to stay

relevant in the industry. The first intervention that took place within KDU for the major

change was the techno-structural intervention. “Techno-structural interventions

focusing on an organization’s technology (e.g. task methods and job design) and

structure (e.g. division of labor and hierarchy)”, (Cummings & Worley, 2014). KDU

started their intervention by looking into their structural design as part of their effort to

be recognised as a full fledge university. According to Cummings & Worley (2014),

structural design is a change process concerning the organization’s division of labor on

how tasks are subdivided into work units and how those units are coordinated for task

completion. Interventions aimed at structural design include moving from more

traditional ways of dividing the organization’s overall work (such as functional, self-

contained unit, and matrix structures) to more integrative and flexible forms (such as

process-based, customer-centric, and network-based structures) (p. 159). Traditionally,

KDU is based on the functional organization, which has disadvantages and advantages

of its own. According to Walonick (1993), functional organization has been divided to

put the specialists in the top position throughout the enterprise and this is an

organization in which we can define as a system in which functional department are

created to deal with the problems of business at various levels (p. 3). The disadvantages

of limitation in integrated work/task have slowed down the productivity of KDU as

well as the routine task by individual have lower down the motivation within the

organization. Therefore in order for KDU to further improve and push the limit to be

the best among the best, they have decided to take the opportunity to re-design their

structure and have it to be more customer oriented (in this case students). The CEO

office is now changed to the Chancellery Office as the highest authority within the

university. In the Chancellery office, will have Vice Chancellor supported by Deputy

Vice Chancellor who support by individual support department who led individual

manager, which were divided into customer focus specialisation such as Student &

Alumni Centre, Admission & Bursary Department, and International Office. This is an

effort to form a more customer/service oriented structure to better serve the

customer/students also in return to have a better market advantages in term sustaining

the customer/students as well as attracting the new customer/students. “Firms with a

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customer-centric structure, an organizational design that aligns each business unit with

a distinct customer group are expected to exhibit superior performance compared to

firms that are internally structured”, (Lee, 2014).

The next intervention that took place to further drive KDU change effort was the

Strategic Intervention. “Strategic Intervention is considers an interventions that link the

internal functioning of the organization to the larger environment and transform the

organization to keep pace with changing conditions”, (Cummings & Worley, 2014).

Prior to this change, KDU strategic or aim were not strong enough to make its presence

notice in the market. Due to this reason, eventhough KDU is one of the oldest in the

private education industry, KDU is not the leader in a higher private instution in

Malaysia. The new Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr Khong Yoon Loong, which has been

appointed 2 years ago, has put the change in motion by establishing a unique 5 years

strategic plan to replace the old plan. The main objective was to bring KDU the

institution to greater heights that provide the same standard as international education

to the local students. Therefore, educations fees offered are lower than overseas market.

At the same time, KDU created a golden opportunity to local student who are unable to

study overseas due to the substantial increase in tuition fees imposed by foreign

universities. With the appointment, of Prof. Dr Khong, he has shifted KDU aim to the

opposite direction, by starting to create designing home-grown programmes which have

the same quality as international standard. To ensure the success of plan, he set in

motion a 5 years strategic plan for growth with a unique 7 strategic block support by

objective and goals to achieve.

c. Steps taken in managing the change process

It started with a structure and inclusive methodology used starting from KDU’s vision

and working the way to the action plans. This is part of the Structure Intervention effort

of “organization design interventions address the different elements that comprise the

architecture of the organization, including structure, work design, human resources

practices, and management processes”, (Cummings & Worley, 2014). The flow below

indicated the process of the organization design/change. The action plans will be

allocated a specific timeline.

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The whole change process will be communicated to KDU community in 2 sessions;

the first session brought together a team of head of schools and heads of all support

departments. A total of about 15 people went through the vision, mission and values to

internalise them. In this session, the team revisited the 5 key elements that the

strategies must address required for growth and sustainability of KDU:

1. Stakeholders

2. Differentiation

3. Cost

4. Quality

5. Student Pipeline

From there they have also identified the 7 strategic blocks (or strategy focus i.e what

the strategy will focus on) that will address those growth elements:

1. People and Organization Development for Operations Excellence

2. Build and sustain student pipeline

3. Academic and Research Excellence

4. Infrastructure and Education Technology Development

5. Manage Quality and Cost

6. Create Clear Differentiation

7. Community Engagement for Brand Enhancement

The second session is for people to give ideas on what the strategic goals under each of

the 7 strategic blocks. The groups are encouraged to submit their ideas beforehand and

will be deliberated during the second session. From the inputs gathered from the second

session, a set of strategic goals was prepared by the VC. A smaller team of senior

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management comprising of VC, CEO Education, DVC (Acad), DVC (Operations) and

Registrar further discuss on the objective and its measureable outcome.

The next step after finalisation is to communicate to front line managers. The strategic

plans as well as the structure of leadership will be communicated; a leader will be

appointed for each strategic block. With the key leadership team in place, deputy

leaders will be chosen for each strategic goal and the team will be form. It is the

responsibility of the deputies and their team to communicate action and direction of the

plan clearly. Due to shortage of leaders, in some cases, deputies may have to take

additional strategic goals but each deputy will stake no more than two strategic goals

under his leadership. The high level plans will be communicated to the entire

organization through various town hall meeting. The plan is, every executive in the

organization will be a member in at least one and no more than two action planning and

execution team led by respective strategic goal deputies.

One of the weaknesses of the old strategic planning was the lack of leadership structure.

The new implementation, the oversight of the whole strategic plan comes under the

purview of the Chancellery Office, which are a senior leadership committee comprising

the VC (Chair), CEO Education, DVC (Operations), DVC (Academic) and Registrar.

The 7 Strategic Blocks are also assigned to individuals in the Chancellery Office to

provide management support and oversight to the respective Strategic Blocks. Their

role is to ensure the activities executed under their auspices are aligned with the intent

of the Strategic Blocks and are progressing towards desirable outcomes. The Strategic

Goals within each of the Blocks are assigned to deputies who are responsible to plan

and coordinate the activities within the Strategic Goals. The deputies are to ensure all

the activities are moving towards the measurable and “perceivable” agreed on.

PART C:

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EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION

a. Evaluation of the involvement and commitment of the staff to the change process

The clarifying process of the desired outcomes makes it much easier to evaluate the

success of the change process. From the consultant’s perspective based on the

implementation and evaluation feedback, the staffs of KDU from all levels have

accepted this change process which the staffs feel is appropriate for them. The change

is first implemented and while the change process in progress, and at the same time it

will be evaluated. Even after the implementation of the change process fully

implemented, it will be evaluated through staffs’ feedback. From the staffs’ feedback, it

can be concluded that the techno-structural and strategic interventions have clearly

defined the staff’s job scopes and these have enable them to contribute more effectively

and efficiently to the organization.

It is also observed a strong involvement and support of the top management in

successfully implementing the change process at KDU. This is demonstrated by

frequent updates from the person in charge and his team. The management also held

frequent dialogue session with their staffs to find out their staffs ‘opinion of the change

process. By having face to face dialogues, discussion and communication with all the

relevant staffs, it will also help to improve and improvise the implementation of the

change process to run smoothly.

From the observation, there is no resistance from the staffs on the change imposed on

KDU. According to Cummings and Worley (2008), people resist change because of the

following reasons:-

Confusion

Lack of Information

Loss

Fear or inadequacy

Overwhelmed

The staffs of KDU are engaged effectively and focus toward change, no room for

resistance observed. Change is natural and even evolution itself is a response to

change. Thus, no one can avoid change but one can learn to accept change for the own

good of one self (Weatherson, 2012). KDU staffs learn to accept and embrace change

and give their utmost cooperation to ensure change take place successfully.

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b. Evaluation of the progress of implementing the change process

It is observed that the change process closely followed the milestones set by the

management. The management has set the milestones to five phases as stated

below:-

Phase 1: Requirements: To define the technical and business

requirements for the project.

In this case, the management has defined the technical and business

requirements of the proposed change in the techno-structural and strategic

intervention at KDU.

Phase 2: Design: To design the technical deliverables.

The management has monitored this phase by answering the questions

below:

Have all "design" tasks been completed?

Does the design meet the established requirements?

Are there any open design issues?

How will these issues be resolved?

Does the design function as expected?

Is the design ready to proceed to the next phase? If not, design related

problems must be resolved, mitigated or waived before progress can be

made.

Phase 3: Development: To develop and test the technical solution.

The management has monitored this phase by answering the questions

below:

Have all "development and testing" tasks been completed?

Does the system perform as expected?

Are there any open development issues?

How will these issues be resolved?

Is the system ready to proceed to the next phase?

If not, development related problems must be resolved, mitigated or

waived before progress can be made.

Phase 4: Implementation: To deploy and support the roll-out of the

technical deliverables.

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The management has monitored this phase by answering the questions

below:

Have all "implementation" tasks been completed?

Are there any open issues?

How will these issues be resolved?

Is the project ready to proceed to the next phase? If not, implementation

related problems must be resolved, mitigated or waived before progress

can be made.

Phase 5: Closure: To transition the project and deliverables from project

status to operational status.

The management has monitored this phase by answering the questions

below:

Have all "closure and transition" tasks been completed?

Are there any open issues?

How will these issues be resolved?

Have all necessary "closure and acceptance" approvals been obtained.

Has the lessons learned review been completed?

Can the project be closed? If not, closure related issues must be resolved

mitigated or waived before the project can be closed.

From the observation, it can be stated that the implementation process set by the

management of KDU has followed the formulated change plan and properly

communicated to all stake holders. This is evident from the non-resistances

offered by the staffs and timely completion of the change period.

c. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the steps taken by the organization in

managing the change process.

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Figure 2: Effective Change Management model

Figure above illustrates the Effective Change Management model which was deployed

by the KDU management to keep track with their change process. As can be seen from

the proposed model, the management of KDU first motivated the change process in

their staffs’ mind by creating readiness for the change and overcoming any possible

resistance from their staffs. Then the organization would create a vision for their staffs.

In other word, the organization has constructed an envisioned future their staffs which

is discovering and describing the organization’s core ideology. After that, the

organization developed political support which will assess their change power agent to

influence others to change their perception. Then the management managed the change

transition process as illustrated in the figure below:-

Figure 3: The change transition period

The current state is the state before the interventions took place in KDU. The transition

state is the state whereby the change are being implemented at KDU and the Desired

Future state are the state whereby KDU’s desired change plan which involves the

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techno-structural and strategic interventions. Finally the management managed to

sustain the momentum by providing resources for change process, develop new

competencies and skills and reinforce new behaviors.

The organization created readiness to accept the change in their staffs by revealing

discrepancies between the current and the desired states. In KDU’s case, the

organization’s change plan is more on the techno-structural and strategic interventions.

It is noted that the desired state has reduced the job load of the staffs tremendously and

thus the method deployed by the organization is effective. In the case of KDU, no

resistances were encountered from their staffs as the change deployed was

communicated thoroughly and regularly to their staffs. The organization also involved

many of their staffs in important decision making in pertaining the change process. By

doing so, the management had no resistance for the change process and it was effective.

The organization did develop political support for the change process.

Even though, there is no resistance from the staffs on the change process, the

organization decided to further enlighten their staffs on the change process through the

change agents such as the project leaders who are able to influence their subordinates

through their personalities which comprises charisma, reputation and creditability.

The organization did provide adequate and appropriate resources to their change agents

to implement the change at KDU. For instances, the management imposed power and

close monitoring on their change agents to carry out the proposed change. The

management also provided necessary trainings to their staffs that have new job

responsibilities. The organization involved in developing new skills and competencies

for their staffs as well. The organization provided frequent trainings to their staffs and

also implemented job rotation to promote experience and task variety in their staffs.

The management reinforced the new behaviors through frequent dialogues session with

their employees. The management has face to face and group dialogue session with

their employees to gain feedback from their staffs and to reinforce their employees’

positive behavior on the change process.

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Recommendations to overcome any shortcomings

As observed by the consultant, in the case of KDU’s proposed interventions on techno-

structural and strategic, there are no resistances from the employees on the change

process. Many organizations may receive resistance from their employees in going

through change, however KDU is an n excellent example of the success of the change

process to survive in the competitive industry, where the organization has closely

followed the Effective change management model, any organization can overcome any

change resistance easily. Investment in human intelligent in change process such as a

proper training (example, communication skill), frequent meeting and proper define of

job scope may further assist the change process to take place more effectively and

within the timeline. The consultant feels that the organization can also use reward

based compensation system to get more support from the employees on the change

process.

(Total of Words 4315)

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