Leading Organizational Change: Jamaica Coalition of Service Industries - Research Paper

Leading organizational change has continued to be a more debatable concept in the contemporary business community. Many organizations fumble with the best strategy to employ in change management (Pathak, H. 2010). This report provides a synthesized overview of the strategies that can be invoked for leading organizational change that will aid in the creation of a more competitive spa industry in Jamaica. Businesses worldwide have a challenge of facing and adapting to new environmental and organizational changes. Therefore, businesses and business people must adjust accordingly to the changes for them to retain their competitive advantage in the general markets.

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Therefore, changes in organizations should be facilitated by adhering to a particular strategy for imposing the necessary change. The organization change is a duty to the management of the businesses in close liaison with the workforce in the said organization. Anderson (2010) states that organizational change is the context and purpose of organizational development, work and the many kinds of change that occur at the many levels. Therefore, the evolution of organizations calls for continuous change that reflects an organization is never truly out of a state of change and that change is always occurring (Anderson, 2010). This paper argues that successful change in an organization should follow three key processes: transformative learning, self-efficacy, and transformative leadership. Furthermore, the paper utilizes the atomic model as the fundamental theory of organizational change in explaining the process of organizational change.

Keywords: organizational change, atomic model, transformative leadership, transformative learning, self-efficacy, spa industry

Title Leading Organizational Change: Creating a competitive spa industry within the hospitality sector in Jamaica

IntroductionOrganizational change is a continuous process in todays business environment. Organizations need to change their approaches for them to adapt to the changing conditions. This section will look to highlight the purpose of the research, the research questions and the statement of the problem.

Purpose of the StudyThe objective of this study is to explore the strategies to be used to create a more competitive spa industry in Jamaica. After the dissemination of the research findings, the stakeholders including the governments will devise mechanisms for sensitizing the spa industry in Jamaica and therefore boost the industry to bring more revenue to the resort spas and also the local spas.

Research QuestionThe research will focus on delineating what should be done so that a more competitive spa industry in Jamaica is created. Therefore, the research question will be: What can be done to create a competitive spa industry in Jamaica?

Statement of the Problem

Jamaica is among the leading tourist attraction countries in the world. Jamaica welcomes tourist from all over the world to enjoy the serene environment coupled with entertainment (Ajagunna & Crick 2014). Therefore, the hospitality industry has to be a more active and competitive one especially with the number of resorts spas and its demand for services. However, the spa industry in Jamaica is faced with laxity among the stakeholders in the industry to the extent that sometimes, poor services are offered. This has adversely affected the brand image of the sector since the clients are dissatisfied with the services provided to them (Phelan, Mejia, & Hertzman 2013). As such, the industry should devise a mechanism to come out of the mess by sanitizing the industry so that the services are improved.

Literature Review

The spa industry in Jamaica falls under the Jamaica Coalition of Service Industries (JCSI) which is currently establishing appropriate management and leadership strategies to improve the services offered by the governing body the Jamaica Spa Association and the entire tourism and services industry (JAMPRO Trade and Investment Jamaica, 2016). The main aim of these transformations is to meet the international standards required for credible spa services and the performance of the tourism and services industry in Jamaica. Strategic management and leadership are important to institute and implement these major industrial changes.

According to Kotter (1996), organizational change goes through eight elaborate processes:

Establishing a need for urgent changes.

Creating and fostering collaborative efforts.

Developing strategy for accomplishing a vision.

Disseminating the change vision to the stakeholders.

Empowering action.

Generating short-term targets.

Consolidating gains and creating sustainable outcomes.

Revisiting organizational culture.

Research indicates that the rate of success of an organizational change initiative is approximately 55% (Idowu, 2016). This value means that there are hurdles to the processes of implementing shifts in a corporate setup. Failed organizational change initiatives are liabilities to the organizations regarding cost, time wastage, lost opportunities, dismissed morale of employees and waste of resources. For instance, when employees are involved in a project, and then the project fails, the employees lose confidence for the job. Therefore, organizational change managers should bring all stakeholders on board so that they do not feel the fatigue in embracing change in the organization. Employees should not be caught unawares with what is taking place in the organization (Fugate, Harrison, & Kinicki, 2011). Research indicates that 65% of employees in organizations do not get involved in the change processes in organizations

The wise leadership hypothesis is one of the key strategies that could be employed to help in the management of change in such a broad industry. According to Kleiner and Schwarz (2015), the effective hypothesis leadership is built through the capacity to pay attention when it critically matters.

Besides, change initiatives should be facilitated when there is the sustainability of the tenets of the change processes (Alavi & Gill, 2016). The change in the organization should be sustainable enough so that the changes are evident even after the change period is over (Blachfellner, 2012). This entails giving the stakeholders the skills involved in perpetuating the change so that the legacy rolls out to the next phase. The skills can be imparted to the stakeholders through constant training, on the job training, organizational learning, and coaching. Research indicates that 50% of organizational change processes fail because the corporate lack the capacity to sustain the changes through the successive phases.

Moreover, organizational change processes should be a collaborative effort between the junior and senior employees in the organization. Organizations should encourage practices that foster harmonized policies from both the upper management and the junior employees. Therefore, the top-bottom approach style of communication should overlook the bottom up approach. By doing this, the organization will be collecting views from both segments of the organization instead of imposing policies on the junior employees without proper deliberations.

In this study, the atomic model will be extensively utilized to explain organizations change processes. The atomic model emphasizes the three processes of organizational change: transformative learning, self-efficacy, and transformative leadership. Leading organizational change is not solely affected by skills or the organizational structures (Panton, 2016). However, one critical factor is the people's psychological response to the shifts in that organizational after the initiation of the changes (Hall, Keppell, & Bourne, 2010). Therefore, the atomic model stresses the self-efficacy of the employees in the organization. The atomic model recognizes the contribution of people's skills and psychology and prepared them to equip themselves with additional skills through organizational learning and transformative leadership (Illeris, 2014). In this case, transformative leadership involves the leaders facilitating the organizational change in a more proactive manner whereby the subordinates are actively engaged in the process of making major decisions in the organizations (Nicolaides & McCallum, 2013).

Research Methodologies

The study will use a combination of research designs which aim at analyzing and answering the research question. Majorly, the study will use case studies, interviews, and literature review.

Data Collection Methods and Techniques

The study will use the qualitative and quantitative approaches in the collection of the primary data. The study will utilize opinion polls to the stakeholders such as Spa managers, Human Resource Directors, General Managers, Supervisors, and Spa employees. The stakeholders will be convened in a meeting whereby they will deliberate on the best strategy for initiating organizational change. The questions contained in the interview will be developed through careful analysis. In the exercise, the responded will be asked to volunteer their opinions regarding the organizational change. During this exercise, the respondents will volunteer to develop a suitable strategy of imposing organizational change, which according to them; will be operative to the spa industry. Furthermore, the study will apply the stratified non-profitability sampling technique to select the sample population.

Methods of Data Analysis

The survey will utilize a multiple regression as well as Pearson correlation analysis to illustrate the impact organizational change to the employees. Similarly, the study will use situational and statistical analysis to decide on the organizational change strategy. Finally, the study will use the mean and standard deviation as modes of identifying the inclination of the employees concerning the procedure of choice.

Ethical Consideration

This research will follow the guidelines and standard outlined by the Universitys ethical considerations for data collection and analysis. For this study, to protect participants confidentiality;

Participants will be fully informed about the purpose, methods and intended possible uses of the research, what their participation entails & what risks, if any, are involved.

The confidentiality of information supplied by participants and anonymity will be respected.

Research participants will be informed to take part voluntarily, free from any coercion.

The independence of research will be clear, and any conflicts of interest will be explicit.

Limitations and Weaknesses of research

There are several factors that are beyond the control of the research and are considered as w...