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Assignment pointed out the particular change management strategy to be employed by AGL Energy Ltd in the future

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Introduction

Currently, change management is considered as a structured approach of transitioning people, teams and companies from a recent state to achieve a desired objective, to fulfil or process a vision and new strategy. This is an organizational procedure aimed at providing empowerment to workers to accept as well as accept changes in their current environment. AGL Energy Ltd is a leading Australian company involved in both retailing and producing gas and electricity for commercial and residential use (agl.com.au, 2018). This organization is currently taking more integrated steps towards using natural energy sources. In Australia various sources of renewable energies are present and this company is effective in utilizing these energy sources for power generation. But for more strategic management, this company needs to apply strategic training and education for their employees, so that they could be able to adopt changes while developing business channels worldwide and taking new renewable projects under construction.  

(a) what is/are the outcome/s expected from this change project

AGLEnergy Ltd is targeting to implement an “integration of change management training” into their present learning and development plans. This interactive learning and training process for employees will be helpful for the organization and workers in many ways. Main expected outcomes are listed below;

• The main point is that, this new learning and training platforms will help employees to develop their perform standards. Since, this company employs technologies to produce electricity supply to various commercial sectors and residentials, continuous learning and training is required. This learning and training program will focus on developing technical knowledge of the employees. 

• Implementing new learning and training platform will help management to address their current weaknesses that is providing employees to achieve organizational objectives (Cummings & Worley, 2014). 

• One of the major results of this new change management strategy, this company is targeting to achieve a project-orientedresults of using renewable energy resources in Australia. 

• On the other hand, this training and learning program will also help AGL Energy Ltd to expand their markets in emerging countries and apply their technological understanding as well as expertise to produce renewable energies even if scopes are few. 

• New training and learning sessions will help employees to keep motivated and positive of organization’s approach towards protecting their employees’ concerns. In this way, keeping employee turnover ration in a limited positive will be achievable. Additionally, this change management policy will also help company to retain an effective brand imagery in their target market (Doppelt,2017). 

(b) what is the current reality and how did it become so?

It has been seen that with changing time, Australia’s electricity production has faced many changes over time as the technology, infrastructure and financial position have developed. Concerns regarding less use of fossil fuel for electricity production and consumption is one of the main in twenty first century. The future Australian government policy regrading “Renewable Energy Target” and the workings of the battery technologies employed by many organizations to produce reliable natural energy on a large scale are becoming one of the threats for newly born organizations such as AGL Energy Ltd. Therefore, developing knowledge of their employees regarding these new technologies advances that their organization is targeting to improvise in the future is necessary (Hua,Oliphant & Hu, 2016). 

On the other side, it has been noticed that there are always one unhappy employee present in the organization due to lack of proper supervision of the team leader and working loads. These loopholes in the management process could be minimized if the employees become self-sufficient to do their works. These current situations and concerns from the industry as well as related to the internal working environment of the company is forcing them to develop a new change their administrative process. 

(c) How substantial is the gap between current reality and expected outcomes?

As described above in the previous section regarding the expected outcomes from the training and learning change management within the AGL Energy Ltd as well as the current reality that compels to plan this type of change management have identified substantial gap between the current reality and the expected outcomes. It is noticeable that, the proposed plan is for future efficiency level of the company so that they could be able to adopt new technologies advances easily to produce renewable energies. However, this plan is not pointed out what will be the amount of renewable energies used to produce electricity and support a commercial plan. On the other hand, this plan is also not providing sufficient insight to the fact that how the current pressure and governmental agenda on the renewable energy resources will be maintained through developing knowledge and technical learning of the employees. 

(d) Description and details of the proposed change

• The origination would use several methods as part of this training and development program that are the amalgamation of the traditional and new methods of training and development. This would also follow and step by step procedure for this change plan. Previously the organisation used to have a class room training procedure. Now the company would adopt on job training procedure. The employees would have to work in different departments with some experienced workers. They would have to learn the skills directly by working in the field. The scope of knowledge transfer would be the most in this change process.

• The change process can be implemented with the help of adopting the McKinneymodel of change. This focuses on four areas that are role modelling, fostering understanding and conviction, reinforcing with formal mechanism, developing talent and skills. In this case the fourth measure that is developing talent and skills would be adopted.  The change management can be initiated with the help of the 7s model of McKinsey. Following are the steps.

• Strategy- the first is to create the strategy. Here the strategy is on job training.

• Structure- then the firm would have to form the structure of the entire process and the organisational structure have to amended as well  

• System- the day to day activities have to be sorted

• Shared values- the organisation would have to promote the sense of shared value among its employees

• Style- the manner in which leadership for change would be adopted is the style of it. Here transformation style would be adopted as the leadership style.

• Staff- the employees is the main part of the project. Here they would be trained and encouraged.

• Skill- the required skill is technical that would be developed through the project

• In this change the employees would adopt technical skills but in an entirely different manner. The employees would learn strategies and technology use with the help of practically doing them. They would know about the renewable sources theoretically but have to use their knowledge from the very first day of the program. 

(e) Address any resistance to or other barriers for change

There is some basic resistance to change exist in every change management policy and some direct changes also exist that are associated with the strategies organizations are targeting to implement. 

According to Burke (2017), in organization there could be resistance to change due to regardless whatever be the influences or implications these processes. The management should offer reassurance of this type of resistance to change from the initial stage to avoid any type of blind resistance from the employees. On the other hand, Burke (2017) has pointed out that resistance could be there is the employees thin that they might loss some value to when the changes will be implemented. For instance, the loss of one’s status, responsibilities, position in the organization. This type of conditions could provide resistance to change within the organization. Management should be clear in this regard that what is the change is about and what should be the target areas. Yilmaz&Kiliçoglu (2013) have investigated that there is another type of change also could occur in the organization and this is due to the ideological causes. Some people might assume that proposed changes from the organization is ill-timed and organization have no sufficient resource capability of the changes. Therefore, the changes would not be fulfilled and will not able to provide effective chances to the organization to achieve its future goals. 

The direct resistance to changes of the above-mentioned change management policy are listed below;

• Lack of employee engagement in the new process of training and learning. Employees who are quite habituated with the existing working environment of the company as well as working pattern may get irritated with the new training and learning plan assuming the fact that this new plan will influence on the existing working conditions and will change their working patterns. 

• On the other hand, the management should be careful about the current communication process within the organization as in the new learning and training session, there should be a string communication between all the individual and parties involve in the process. Therefore, if the communication process is not enough strong then the organization could face difficulties with accomplishing the tasks (Georgalis, Samaratunge, Kimberley & Lu,2015). 

• Another resistance from the employees that they could be resistance for the change in the organizational culture. It is obvious that new training and learning session will change the organizational culture by developing it to more integrated one. This will affect on the culture dwelling in the company and some employees may not like this type of organizational change. The management should be responsible for providing knowledge to their employees about the benefits of this type of change they are proposing. 

• On the other hand, management should be careful about the change in the working time and work-life balance before implementing the change management strategy. In this regard, it should be mentioned that employees will not willingly engage themselves into the new training and learning session if that exceeds their normal working hour and pay system (Georgalis, Samaratunge, Kimberley & Lu,2015).    

(f) identify the change agents and assess if they are willing and able

Change agent could be demonstrated by defining it as an administrative body within a company or the individuals who will enable the change policies and ensure their positive results. In this context, the identifiable change agents of AGL Energy Ltd are listed below;

Internal change agents 

The internal change agents of this organizations are the management and the leaders of the company. The management is responsible for reviewing the entire process as well as monitoring the progress of the new proposed plan and how this is affecting the overall productivity and profitability of the company (agl.com.au, 2018). On the other hand, the team leaders will be assigned by the higher management of the company such as the for developing knowledge of the technical support group in the company, one or two team leaders will be assigned and they will only focus on the development, learning, training of their team members. The leaders are able to provide training regarding the new technological changes and requirements for producing enough electricity from the renewable sources in the country. This type of training will also help in developing the ability of the employees if they expand their business into the emerging markets or any other countries around the globe. 

External change agents

On the other hand, this organization has also made a backup plan for the change management to be fruitful. The management has planned to hire a consultant for specifically train the employees in the technical areas. The consultant is well equipped and capable in handling the change management process within various organizations. In this context, responsibilities of the change management team would be offering practical knowledge regarding efficiently using renewable sources of energies for the new appointed employees in this company to produce the electricity (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). On the other hand, the consultant is also able to provide training and support for better supply chain management so that in future retaining of electricity and gas to the residentials and commercial purposes within and out of the country will be controlled by the organization within minimum cost level. 

(g) Given the responses to the previous questions, is change feasible? Implications of the change, both positive and negative as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of the post-change organization must be considered

The change management plan initiated for the project is feasible due to several reasons. The plan aims at developing technical knowledge of the workers working in the firm. This is beneficial not only for the workers but also for the employer. The employees of the firm require effective knowledge and understanding in order to be efficient. In today’s world remaining upgraded is the most important aspect to be an efficient employee. The leading and development initiated for them is definitely beneficial for their future in within the firm or outside of it (Herzberg, 2017).  This is definitely beneficial for the firm as well as this change would enable the firm to have efficient workforce. On the other hand, they would also be able to use the skills of the employees according to the needs of the company. For example, an employee may have proper knowledge and other core skills that are required for his or her designed job role. The only deficit that is coming in the way is the technical knowledge. This project would enable the firm to overcome this drawback of the employees and make them efficient from every aspect.

The method is definitely feasible as the firm is not old enough to have their predominant training strategies employees who are accustomed with old way of work. In old firm, this is a common problem that employees start resisting whenever a new change appears to the scenario. In this firm, this would not be present and therefore this is feasible for the firm. The company also have high to moderate profit margin which enables it to initiate such projects that do not require much investment. The organisation also has proper human resource department that can effectively initiate the program.   

The change may have some negative impact too. First of all, this would change the company culture and the way of work that they used to do previously. This new skill may not come to work for every kind of employees (Benn, Edwards & Williams, 2014).  The lack of practical implications of the learning and development procedure, may bring negative consequence. This may result to wastage of money and time. The employees may also shift to another firm after acquiring the knowledge. This would lead a mere wastage of resources for the firm

Conclusion

This study has helped in developing overall knowledge of change management and its impact on organizational level. At the initial stage, this study has pointed out the particular change management strategy to be employed by AGL Energy Ltd in the future. This change management process is reflecting the fact that, with developing training and learning procedure for their employees will help them to minimize errors present with the internal employee management strategy. With this study, another thing has become clear is that, currently sources and production of renewable energy is very important for reducing pollution form the environment and companies connected with electricity production and retailing should ensure technologies to produce electricity from renewable sources. 

Another thing is understood from the above study and analysis of change management is that, efficiency level in handling project management with the changing needs and preferences of the market and internal and external atmosphere of the companies is important. Connecting project-orientedmindset with the ultimate goals of the organization by developing employee efficiency level is the main point in this study that has been highlighted with strategic viewpoint.

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