Corporate Re-initiation as a Change-Management Program Essay

Corporate organizations have adopted a number of knighthood-based investitures as methods to infuse the delicate but significant management of change among their old/senior managers.   A number of published business reviews state that the Japanese and Danish shipping companies are known for their unique change management techniques through â€Å"initiations† or corporate â€Å"baptisms of fire†, where the old-school managers are guaranteed to taste a military-style right of passage in these companies that would comprise all phases of the change process from shock to integration (Recklies). It is true enough that change management through retraining or managerial initiation is a tried and tested military method of producing good commanders for facing an ever-changing brutal field, and the design of such change management initiations has shaped the right of passage for their civilian corporate counterparts.   Essentially, a good initiation must be anchored on the scientifically-established phases of change, to provide the mental and strategic framework for leadership renewal.   One can only contemplate on the complexity of designing an effective initiation process and their phases on changing the character of the trainee into a newly refreshed manager. Departmental/Field Rotation Since experience is thought of as the best teacher, re-initiation should be conducted mostly on the field.   The manager-trainee must spend one month working in each department/division of the company.   The job for Week One must involve the lowest and dirtiest chores to provide the shock or surprise therapy.   For our shipping company example, s/he can man the forklift, move crates/boxes etc., to erase his /her alienation with the lowest level of employees and learn to confront unexpected situations on the ground level.    Week Two must involve more technical tasks, such as ship communications and radio coordination.   Then the trainee must progress up the department’s ladder in Week Three, manning a team (or teams) in the department to achieve the rational understanding and emotional acceptance phases, for it is in these ground teams that the usual crises spur up.   Then on Week Four, the re-trainee will supervise the whole department. For each first Friday of the month, the trainee must answer an exam issued by the head of the department to evaluate his/her performance and document his/her character change for the past month.   After this, the trainee must then be rotated to another department, starting from the ground-up again, then another exam, until s/he comes across all departments to implement the exercising and learning and phase, where the manager tries new behaviors and processes while adapting totally new departmental environments This program sounds very exciting for a multinational shipping company with operations (and offices) across the world, requiring the trainee(s) to travel and spend time in both functional and geographical field departments.   For optimum learning experience for the future manager, this departmental rotation must be done within 12 months, then a comprehensive exam to asses the trainee’s management horizon and newly-learned expertise.   But the designed program must not end in departmental management, for there is still the higher-level management to teach. High-level Management Now that our trainee had valuable experience in the departments and field offices, s/he should master the main office and its worldwide coordinating patterns/styles.   S/he could be in charge of a section of the coordinating network of the logistics and sea transportation form, while attending mandatory classes on advanced, MBA-level economics, customs and trade management during the weekends, all expenses paid by the company, this conducive to the realization phase of change where new experiences and insights are encountered and related into company policy and strategy.   This high-level management part should go on for another year, to ensure that our trainee can relate his/her departmental/field experience to the theoretical/conceptual nature of top-level management, thus achieving the integration phase. At the end of this program, the manager is expected to have a healthy mix of experiencing the harsh field offices/departments and the stressful solitude of the main office.   The main purpose of mixing, creating a blend of experiences is to build upon the manager an ability to empathize on real business challenges and real-life operations, that in case problems arise, our trainee can confidently resolve new and inevitable crises, then shape company policy for success.   In designing a training program, one must achieve a character change that is holistic and balanced. Reference The Maersk Group. (2007). A Global Way to Work. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from http://www.mise.edu/. Recklies, O. (no date). Managing Change: Definition and Phases in Change Processes. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from http://www.themanager.org/Strategy/Change_Phases.htm.