Select a Diagnostic Model (see Chapter Five) that you utilize to review aspects of change activities and actions that have been taken by the companies chosen. Here we are looking at the parts of the companies as well as their strategies, as surmised by your research in Part 1. It is acknowledged that this information will not be complete, as you are looking at these companies as an outsider; but a thoroughly researched paper will give enough data to allow some (well-defended) assumptions on your part.

Here’s what to do:

1. Choose one Diagnostic Model (i.e. 6-box, 7S, congruence, or etc.) to apply to the two chosen companies. Choose the model which you feel best identifies and measures the relevant aspects of the organization’s performance and therefore the diagnostic choices made will affect your findings.

2. Apply the data obtained in your research through an analysis of the appropriate chosen model. This will allow you to create a diagnosis of where each company is today (as per the criteria of the model).

3. Create a SWOT Analysis for each of the two chosen companies change plans/programs, utilizing information obtained in the diagnosis. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.)

4. Compare the two company analyses to each other and offer your perspective (value judgment) of the effectiveness of the changes made to date in each case.

5. Identify potential areas of resistance that may occur and at least one strategy to respond to each. (This will most likely come from your Weaknesses/Threats section of your SWOT. If not, take another look at your SWOT.)

6. Write your paper including each of the above sections, and analyses

An important part of any change project is how the change is communicated to the organization, to the change agents, to the line workers, to the customers, and to the public. Along with media relations issues, communicating change (especially in a publicly traded company) can involve multiple legal and regulatory aspects, as well as personnel and management concerns. Perhaps the single most difficult piece of handling Kotter’s establish a sense of urgency is that too many inexperienced or immature change agents read this to mean panic the troops. Never do this.

This project piece will have 3 parts:

A. The main part of your project this week will ask you to pick ONE of the company’s change plan, and develop a communication plan for the company. This plan should be submitted by using an excel spreadsheet, setting out the Stakeholders, the timeline of the communication plan, the method of communication, the rationale for why you chose this method of communication, the purpose of the communication and identifying who will do the communicating. The grid for this project can be found in doc-sharing, entitled Grid for Week 6 – Communication Plan.

B. Pick ONE of the communication pieces which you would have used which is listed in your communication plan, and write the communication in a Word document (either the text or the script, if the communication would have been oral.) Be sure to review the Week 6 lecture and the examples of communication plans and types there for more assistance on this piece of the project. If you use any form of communication from templates you find online or in a textbook, be sure to cite your source. Your instructor will grade this based on how well it relates to the audience/stakeholder group to which it is intended.

C. The real world aspect of this project is that you will write a 1-2 page analysis of one of the media pieces about one of the company’s changes written (or provided via oral media) by the company. For this section of the project, please analyze any media, news, or other communications which explained the change going on in the organization. Explain in your paper how the company handled communicating the change to its stakeholders.

List of all of your references you used in the project to date (you should have at least 12 at this point) and create an annotated bibliography. Basically, for this assignment, you will use your reference list, in alphabetical order, and provide a 2-4 sentence summary (brief!!) of what that reference said. This is a summary style document! Your grade will be based on your ability to BRIEFLY summarize the important points in the document as well as the strength of your reference materials. (i.e. if you used mainly low-level reference documents like encyclopedias, online dictionaries, anonymous articles, etc. this will negatively impact your grade.)

A. Use of at least 12 references, properly annotated: 24 points (roughly 2 points each)

B. Strength of references overall: 6 points (roughly .5 points each.)

C. Use of one of the 5 Keller-approved citation methods