Introduction
Change management is an important process that is inevitable for organisations to keep up with modern times and Kotter (1995, p. 97) states ‘that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains’. South Australian Police (SAPOL) has brought about numerous significant corporate changes in recent years. In this paper I will argue that SAPOL should approach change management using Kotter’s eight-step plan. There are two major issues that will be addressed in this argument: (1) comparing how SAPOL conducted its process of change with the implementation of Shield; and (2) what steps SAPOL fulfilled to arrive at its new gender equality policy.
Introduction of Shield
Shield is computer software that SAPOL recently implemented and has been gradually rolled out since 2013. Prior to the introduction of Shield, SAPOL had numerous legacy systems that maintained information but one of the most crucial being the Police Incident Management System (PIMS). The issues with PIMS included that it was outdated and was not used correctly upon its implementation, therefore carrying duplicitous information.
Looking at Kotter’s eight-step plan for implementing change, when SAPOL introduced Shield as being the replacement for PIMS, there was no sense of urgency (KI 2017). Kotter (1995 p. 97) …show more content…
If Kotter’s eight-step plan is applied here from an employee’s perspective, it shows SAPOL continue to make the same mistakes. Rick (2012) states ‘failure to create a strong sense of urgency causes a change movement to lose momentum before it gets a chance to start.’ Once again Kotter’s first step never came into fruition. SAPOL members were never given a compelling reason as to why gender equality was suddenly so important, they were just informed this change would be implemented to meet quotas and comply with government initiatives (Rice
Change management is an important process that is inevitable for organisations to keep up with modern times and Kotter (1995, p. 97) states ‘that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains’. South Australian Police (SAPOL) has brought about numerous significant corporate changes in recent years. In this paper I will argue that SAPOL should approach change management using Kotter’s eight-step plan. There are two major issues that will be addressed in this argument: (1) comparing how SAPOL conducted its process of change with the implementation of Shield; and (2) what steps SAPOL fulfilled to arrive at its new gender equality policy.
Introduction of Shield
Shield is computer software that SAPOL recently implemented and has been gradually rolled out since 2013. Prior to the introduction of Shield, SAPOL had numerous legacy systems that maintained information but one of the most crucial being the Police Incident Management System (PIMS). The issues with PIMS included that it was outdated and was not used correctly upon its implementation, therefore carrying duplicitous information.
Looking at Kotter’s eight-step plan for implementing change, when SAPOL introduced Shield as being the replacement for PIMS, there was no sense of urgency (KI 2017). Kotter (1995 p. 97) …show more content…
If Kotter’s eight-step plan is applied here from an employee’s perspective, it shows SAPOL continue to make the same mistakes. Rick (2012) states ‘failure to create a strong sense of urgency causes a change movement to lose momentum before it gets a chance to start.’ Once again Kotter’s first step never came into fruition. SAPOL members were never given a compelling reason as to why gender equality was suddenly so important, they were just informed this change would be implemented to meet quotas and comply with government initiatives (Rice