Assessment of PT. XYZ’s Change Management Initiatives towards Employee Readiness in Organization Restructuring

: Digital content and influencer marketing leader PT. XYZ Located at the crossroads of content, platforms, and brands, aims to revolutionize content creation, distribution, and consumption in Asia. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo, Manila, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Jakarta are the 8 Asia Pacific offices (including Philippine after the merger with Indonesia). Organizational reorganization is essential, according to PT. XYZ. After Q1–Q3 2021 revenue declines, this campaign was launched. Employee readiness to adopt the new organizational structure must be assessed. This study assesses staff readiness for the new organizational structure and then determines the best approach to address current and future results. For the Managing Director and HR Manager, the writers use the Kotter 8-Steps model, followed by the ADKAR model for Leader Functions and their personnel. This study found that employees are aware of company changes, although their views on the need for change vary. Some employees reject the idea despite knowing it will boost business success. This is largely due to a lack of accurate information and change-specific training. Because leaders want to help, employees are ready for change. Unfortunately, there is no assessment system with clear success criteria, making it difficult to determine which appraisals were beneficial. Especially without prizes or recognition to motivate improvement. Thus, improvements are needed, such as forming appropriate guiding coalition teams with the same goals, one-on-one meetings with employees, providing training to support new hires, launching short-term wins, publishing change progress reports, and HR system alignment in compensation


INTRODUCTION
Competition and unanticipated occurrences like a pandemic make business uncertain.According to the World Economic Forum in 2022, industry restructuring and business model disruptions motivate organizations to restructure for relevance and competitiveness.Businesses can adjust swiftly to survive and compete.It will cut costs till organizational reform.Organizations regularly restructure 1 .The need to adopt new, more flexible, and modular organizational forms to respond to an increasingly dynamic business environment 2 , the need for more globally integrated ways of working 3 or the need to improve business performance through cost reductions or productivity gains can drive this restructuring 4 ."The level of individuals' cognitive and emotional predisposition to accept and adopt a specific strategy to purposefully change the status quo and move forward" determines employees' change readiness 5 .Many transformation projects depend on individuals' readiness for change 6.Thus, firms must assess employee readiness to change, particularly organizational restructuring to increase business performance.Top digital content and influencer marketing agency PT.XYZ.At the intersection of content, platforms, and brands, leads Asia's digital media transformation by improving content creation, distribution, and consumption.As APAC's leading digital media and influencer organization, its objective is to transform industry and make the biggest impact by providing cutting-edge solutions for content producers, media platforms, and top brands in today's quickly evolving digital environment.Eight APAC offices are Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.PT.XYZ has a parent entity from the USA, and for the Southeast Asia (SEA) area, as October 2022, there is a change to one umbrella entity, namely Collab Asia Indonesia with Philippines under it.There are 7 functions that are divided into 2 types of departments where divided as follows, Podcast, Music, Lifestyle, Gaming for Talent department.Leaders often lack the skills to engage people during change and handle resistance.According to John Kotter's HBR article "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," if employees aren't ready for change and make critical mistakes, it will slow momentum and negate hard-won gains 8 .These changes that brought by the merger of Indonesia and the Philippines will have an impact on several areas and stakeholders, including: Potential problem analysis predicts escalating issues.This approach identifies potential issues, analyzes their causes, prevents them, and prepares for their potential effects.This method challenges an idea or action plan to identify potential problems.The final action plan would usually undergo a thorough analysis because of its effort.Key activity: Make a list of the "musts"-the results, steps, or activities needed for implementation-and look for issues.List all possible problems and their causes.Risk-assess each issue.Risk is the likelihood and severity of an event, so take preventative measures when possible.If possible, prevent or mitigate potential issues.Calculate the remaining risk after taking precautions, and then create contingency plans.When a problem could have catastrophic consequences and you can't prevent it or there's a high residual risk, make backup plans.The research goals are to use

LITERATURE REVIEW
Over the past decade, global mega-mergers and acquisitions have increased, and there are no signs of a reversal 9 .Many companies worldwide use M&As to grow.Many CEOs justify M&As with cost savings, synergies, product line expansion, distribution network expansion, and economies of scale 10 .Along with M&As, M&A failure is compounding.Internal issues, misunderstandings, and cultural clashes occur when two businesses merge 11 .Through mergers, an organization restructuring process will be needed.Strategic reasons for restructuring may include the need for more globally integrated operating procedures 3 or the desire to adopt new, more adaptable, and modular organizational forms to adapt to a more dynamic business environment 2 or simply to improve company performance through cost savings or production 4 .Organizations must adapt to their environments by shaping themselves or reacting to outside events.Technology, economies, demographics, governments, consumer preferences, and competition are changing rapidly, so organizations must change how and in what direction 12 .ADKAR approach is an effort to cultivate the ability to recognize needs or problems, owned-potential, and able to fulfill those needs because of the will and encouragement from within the community 13 .ADKAR is an acronym for the five outcomes a person must achieve to change successfully: Awareness (awareness of the need for change), Desire (the desire to participate and support the change), Knowledge (how to make changes), Ability (ability to implement changes like new skills or behaviors), and Reinforcement (Strengthening to keep changes made/occurred) 14 .Cameron and Green use Kotter's 8-Step model because it "addresses some of the power issues in making change happen, highlights the importance of a felt need" for change within the organization, emphasizes the need to communicate the vision, and keeps communication levels extremely high throughout the process" 15 .The 8 steps cover the entire change process, from setting the stage (creating urgency, forming a coalition, and communicating a vision) to empowering people to act on the vision, planning for and achieving short-term victories, consolidating improvements, and institutionalizing the new approaches 8 .Research supports Kotter's 8-Step Process for Leading Change recommend a strategic goal, a strong coalition, and quick wins [16][17][18] .Barnwell emphasizes removing barriers to enable action.They say processes need a goal and company involvement 19 .Kotter stated in HBR, "Lack of patience and allowing too much complacency, understimate the difficulties of producing change and the importance of a powerful guiding coalition, there are plenty of plans and programs but with no clear visions, under communication the vision, not removing This study uses primary and secondary data.Interviews will gather primary data for this study."A conversation, whose objective is to gather descriptions of the interviewee's life-world with respect to the interpretation of the meanings of the "described phenomena,"" 21 .Schostak defined an interview as a long conversation to gain "in-depth knowledge" of a topic.This research will also draw from company databases, literature reviews, and trustworthy online sources 22 .
The change management framework will divide interviewees into two groups.The Managing Director and HR Manager will be assessed using Kotter's 8-step change model.ADKAR will also select three division leaders and three staff members based on restructured roles.An employee from a Philippine company moved to Indonesia and kept or was promoted.Or employees who lead a diverse new function.Remember demotioned workers.Researchers collect data via direct interviewing.Interview questions must be given to each respondent.The semi-structured interview has predetermined and unplanned questions.Semi-structured interviews are useful for many tasks, especially when several open-ended questions require follow-up questions 23 .Content analysis will process interview data.The researcher repeatedly read the interview transcripts to understand the data.The researcher used inductive analysis of interview transcripts to find meaning units, which defines as "a segment of text that is comprehensible by itself and comprises one idea, episode, or piece of information" 24 .The researcher discussed their interpretations and called meaning units codes 25 .
The text-derived codes captured the interviewees' main ideas.The researcher categorized and subcategorized the codes.The researcher also developed themes from the categories' core meanings.After that, researchers must understand the meanings and avoid misinterpreting interviewees' perspectives during data analysis.This improves results reliability 26 .

FINDING AND ARGUMENTS
The PT. XYZ managing director and HR manager were interviewed for this assessment to understand the company's change management process.Since successful change of any size usually follows all eight stages.Even though one usually works in phases simultaneously, problems almost always arise when one skips a step or advances too far without a strong foundation 27 .Forming a powerful guiding coalition PT.XYZ, guiding coalition team, did not form a team to control and track changes.There isn't one because they choose leaders from each department and the non-vertical team (core) to guide changes.They also believe they pushed staff without coalition support.Vacant positions may be eliminated.Most people will accept, especially those who get promotions and raises, because their employment contract has not been terminated.Some people may reject the changes, but they usually adjust their work habits or patterns.

Communicating the Vision
It is essential to communicate the entire vision and strategy to all employees after a clear vision and thorough plan have been developed.A town hall discussion about the organization's merger and restructuring has been held as part of the announcement process.Then, ask the leaders through email to set a date for the first team meeting.
There's less hesitancy and explanations have been provided, it is presumed that employees already grasp the purpose for the change.However, there is no training that specifically accommodates the needs.The next step after informing staff of the changes is to empower them the power to take action.In the case of PT.XYZ, through the creation of performance evaluations, OKR, to ensure staff adopt changes and goals will always be updated every quarter.But currently there is no specific discussion session.

Table 8. Codes & quotes for 'Creating Short-term Wins' Creating Short-term Wins
Short-term wins can encourage everyone in the organization to make changes.There are no short-term wins specifically made to celebrate the progress.As for the evaluation process related to improvement of the changes that have occurred, it will usually be combined with a situation report meeting which is held every 2 weeks.There is also no reward or punishment system; if something is successful or unsuccessful, it should be entered into the OKR.challenges given, but also supported by adequate resource.Methods such as Team bonding can also be done.

Table 10. Codes & quotes for 'Institutionalizing new Approach'
The ADKAR model is a change management tool that uses five elements-Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement-to determine why some strategies have worked and others have not by interviewing several PT.XYZ employees who were carefully chosen to accurately portray the situations and provide insight.

Awareness
The ADKAR model shows change awareness and understanding.The staff said they were aware of the company's changes but only understood their significance through the symptoms.However, some do understand, but the reason is more about the long-term employees than the announcement or transition process.Employees disagree on the change's purpose.
The executive also advises leaders.Staff information is inconsistent.At the time of the change, several people were still confused due to a communication gap between leaders and staff, then the Indonesian and Filipino teams.

Desire
The readiness to support and participate in a change is represented by desire.In the case

Institutionalizing new Approach
At this last stage, it's important to make sure the change sticks with the company.There's company regulation that employee need to attend to the office once a week and have 1 hour meeting, ensuring everyone is in line with their work.employees are prepared for change since their leaders are willing to support them in times of need.Unfortunately, there is no evaluation process with distinct success criteria, make it impossible to determine which appraisals were successful and which ones failed.Additionally, there are no rewards or recognition, which are supposed to motivate people to make changes.
Referring to the data gathered to answer the first question, employees feel ready to adapt to changes in the company.To address various findings that may turn into issues in the future, various solutions are still required, so as to respond to the second question. 1.
The guiding coalition team forms a common goal that is understood by each party referring to the change agenda and organizes various events that facilitate discussions and joint activities to increase confidence in the changes you want to implement.o This gives employees a chance to comprehend and accept the company's new direction by offering an initial discussion forum.2.
Provide one-on-one meeting between leader and staff regarding the change agenda as a complementary process to the series of announcements stages.o With leaders required to hold meetings individually, this will assist in the process of conveying clear and detailed information to each employee, and there will be more opportunities to ask questions.

3.
Provide the training employees needed o With training assistance for employees in implementing the change, the process can be accelerated and the results can be maximized.4.
Making short-term wins with clear parameters as milestones of the change process that occurs in the company o With short-term wins, employees will be able to break down enormous goals into manageable steps, see how far they have come, be rewarded for the process they have completed, and keep the momentum from diminishing. 5.
Create a weekly/monthly change progress report o With a clear change progress report, employees can evaluate the processes that have been implemented and improve for the future.6.
Create alignment between the HR system such as compensation, promotions, succession planning with the new vision from the company.o An aligned & attractive HR system will increase employees' motivation & empower them to keep implementing changes.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Organization Structure new vision, not systematically planning and creating short-term wins, declaring victory too soon, neglecting the change in the corporation's culture8 .METHODOLOGYThis study's research design was based on the AFI strategy framework20 .The reference framework has three stages: Analysis, Formulation, and Implementation.Analysis begins with the company's business issues.Select research questions.Decide what to do next to create a resolution strategy.Once you understand the issues, you can collect primary and secondary data to assess the organization's situation.After data collection and analysis, formulation will reveal the company's condition.Solving business issues is possible.The conclusion crystallizes the analysis findings and supports the field implementation.An implementation plan summary supports the recommendation.

Table 1 .
Area of Change & Stakeholder

Table 2 .
Potential Problem Analysis

Table 3 .
Codes infrastructure for internet-based business.Then, instead of brands, creators should be the focus.Thus, to stay competitive, the company needs a restructuring.ISSN:

Table 5 .
Codes & quotes for 'Creating a Vision'

Table 6 .
Codes & quotes for 'Communicating the Vision'."Streamline the team now, the team spends costs but the role is not really needed."(HR Manager)

Table 7 .
Codes & quotes for 'Empowering Employee to take Action' Empowering

Table 9 .
Codes & quotes for 'Consolidating improvement & producing more change' "There are tools but not all teams use them, and they are not specific for monitoring the progress of changes."(HR Manager) ISSN:

Table 12
Codes & quotes for 'Desire' "Don't understand about the reason, the information is not clear" (Staff 3) Executive Guidance "There's guidance, when the change starts, the executive gives one on one to the leaders."(Leader 1) "Because they still preparing, they told me to wait for the date.." (Leader 2) "They didn't give direction, need to do it by myself."(Leaders 3) "At first, the explanation was not clear.." (Staff 1) "For the lower level, the information is a late."(Staff 2) "My manager told me that the Indonesian team had decisions, and we needed to follow them."(Staff 3) ISSN:

Table 14 .
Codes & quotes for 'Ability' Knowledge Knowledge is the information, instruction, and training required to understand how to change.However, at this point, the information offered to employees is still of a general nature, and there is no in-depth explanation of the technicalities, depending on the results of the interview process.Training should therefore be held in response to structural changes that result in transfers, promotions, or demotions, but there isn't currently any specialized, custom training for accelerating the implementation of changes. ISSN: