The outline must be a minimum of 500 words (approximately two pages, if the template is used properly). It

Running head: NUTELLA MARKETING COMMUNICATION NUTELLA MARKETING COMMUNICATION 5 NAME: COURSE: TUTOR:

Running head: NUTELLA MARKETING COMMUNICATION

NUTELLA MARKETING COMMUNICATION 5

NAME:

COURSE:

TUTOR:

DATE:

There are several elements in Nutella chocolate’s promotional mix. As contained in the company’s marketing plan, the main promotional elements include sales promotions and public relations. These two strategies are aimed at informing the customers on the existence and introduction of the company’s brands (Vigneron, 2001). The company spends approximately half a million dollars on these strategies. The second elements is advertising, and this is aimed at differentiating its products due to the increasing imitation. Advertising takes place in various media including radio, internet, television, newspaper, magazines, and direct mail. Below is an image found in Nutella’s gallery as an example of its online or internet advertising.

Figure 1: Nutella chocolate images on Nutella’s wallpaper.

The third element of the promotional mix is sales promotional advertising. This will entail samples which are often handed out in the grocery stores. The company will also offer coupons. Indeed, it is estimated that the company gives tens of billions of dollars in coupons. These are aimed at stimulating sales and promote early trial of new brands or products. Allowances are also part of the sales promotional advertising, and this entails offering money to retailers so that they can carry the company’s brand. Another element of the promotional mix is public relations. Public relations will entail investor relations aimed at gaining relationships with shareholders and the financial community. Press relations, otherwise called the press agentry will include some television advertising aimed at building the corporate image.

The advertising agent working on Nutella chocolate is called John st. (John st., n.d.), who call themselves a creative collaborate who use the digital and social advertising, use technology and public relations, as well as design to the brands and products of their clients unignorable. The company that is manufacturing Nutella chocolate is called Nutella.

In marketing, each product tried to communicate the best possible message to the clientele, and Nutella chocolate does exactly that. The most important message for Nutella chocolate is the good thing with a healthy breakfast, and this is often intended to make the people understand they need a healthy breakfast, and Nutella chocolate offers just that (Sneed, 2013). This implies that the product communicates not only its own value, but also is concerned with the social wellbeing. The message also entails other health benefits of the product that include the nutritional value of Nutella chocolate. The advertising agency is very keen on the message because, as it is its motto, the products of its client need to be unignored, and this means bringing out the best image of the product through the advertising communication. The message is tailored to blend in with the customers’ needs- that is, everyone needs a good and healthy breakfast. As such, any product deemed to be offering healthy breakfast will be sellable.

Furthermore, as part of the communication is health education and the variety with which the product is offered. This is necessitated by the knowledge that customer’s tastes and preferences will differ, and these differences will need to be taken care of. In that case, there is a need to remind the customers that the product comes with varying tastes, designs and packaging. This way, it would be possible to attract a wide range of customers. The communication will, as mentioned earlier on, include health facts that are aimed at educating the people on various health issues. With this type of communication, the company is often perceived as one that cares for the people thereby attracting more customers. This message will always come alongside that informing the people how the products caters for the various health issues as discussed in health communication.

The product advertises in several media mostly in order to beat competition and also to gain competitive advantage (Vigneron, 2001). Among the most common media is the radio. Just like the competitors, Nutella chocolate has opted to advertise via the radio whereby the brand concentrates strongly on the top radio stations among the target market segments. The product runs regular ads on the radios and this is mostly to create awareness of the product. The second media is the television. The television has always been a choice for the products especially where they want to take advantage of the visual offered by the TV to display features like product color and other physical features that cannot be adequately communicated via the radio. Nutella chocolate uses the television whereby it utilizes strategies such as catchy phrases, teaser campaigns, and commercial repetition with the hope of obtaining ‘intellectual ownership’ of the product’s target market.

The other major media where Nutella chocolate is the newspaper. The newspapers are widely read over very many parts of the nation. The most interesting part is that with the technological advancements, online versions of the newspapers are available, and those who prefer digital means will read the digital versions and will still get the message. This is the same case with magazines, which is also another major media where Nutella chocolate advertises. Examples of the newspapers include daily times and Sunday news. Examples of the magazines include Times, People, and a motley of cooking magazines.

There are possibilities of direct marketing, database marketing and e-commerce for the Nutella chocolate. Direct marketing and database marketing is possible because customer data is available in various databases where the company can reach out to the customers and send some customized messages (DMA, 2011). For example, teleservices companies do have databases that the company can use, to send texts and even make calls. However, calls may be ineffective as they will consume a lot of air time and other resources. Messages need not be too customized as general messages can be sent to all customer. In direct marketing, however, customized marketing may be expensive in case the company aims at reaching to the end customers, but might be very effective in the business to business marketing to reach to distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. E-commerce is also possible because the internet has made this very easy.

Promotional mix plays a vital role in brand positioning. The promotional mix builds the image of the image of the brand in the eyes of the customers, and differentiates the brand from those of the competitors. In so doing, the brand will be positioning itself strategically especially by outlining the features that make the brand superior those others in the market. The promotional mix does allows for extensive communications pertaining to the brand as compared to other elements of the marketing mix like the product, price and place. It is also a fact that the key positioning strategy is differentiation of both the product and marketing communications. Wit promotional mix, there are avenues for differentiation.

References

DMA. (2011). Real-Time Direct Marketing. Special Advertising Section of Advertising Age, 1-8.

John st. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.johnst.com/en/who-we-are

Sneed, K. (2013, March 6). 100+ Nutella Recipes. Retrieved from A Night Owl: http://www.anightowlblog.com/2013/03/nutella-recipes.html/

Vigneron, F. (2001). Nutella Marketing Plan. 1-45.

References

DMA. (2011). Real-Time Direct Marketing. Special Advertising Section of Advertising Age, 1-8.

John st. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.johnst.com/en/who-we-are

Sneed, K. (2013, March 6). 100+ Nutella Recipes. Retrieved from A Night Owl: http://www.anightowlblog.com/2013/03/nutella-recipes.html/

Vigneron, F. (2001). Nutella Marketing Plan. 1-45.

FIRST ITERATION 6 Running head: FIRST ITERATION First Iteration Oracle Enterprise Resource

The outline must be a minimum of 500 words (approximately two pages, if the template is used properly). It History Assignment Help FIRST ITERATION 6

Running head: FIRST ITERATION

First Iteration

Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (e-Business Suit)

Action Research

Course Code:

Name:

Table of contents

Plan 3

Act 3

Observe 4

Reflect 5

Iteration 1: Research objectives

Plan. This is the first phase of the iteration. The researcher needs to plan on how to go about establishing the goals or objectives of the action research. This phase will entail several activities that will lay out a guideline for the researcher to establish and precisely define the objectives of the action research. A plan outlines the course of action to be undertaken, and in other times alternative course of action in case the first one develops challenges.

The first activity that the researcher undertook was to specify the resources needed for the definition of the iteration objectives. Mostly, the most needed resource herein is the data, since this is the one that will be used to identify the gaps and define the problem. The researcher established on how to obtain the data and how this data will be used in defining the problem thereby establishing the objectives of the action research. The second activity was to identify the various actions that will be undertaken in the iteration. The actions are to be undertaken as per the plans, and they will allow the researcher to accomplish the research and achieve the research goals. In establishing the research objectives, the researcher will need to understand the topic and related concepts, as this will be the background to the research problem. After identifying the activities, the researcher plans on how these actions will be conducted one after the other. The sequence is established. The researcher then schedules the activities – that is, allocates time to all the activities. Alongside the allocation of time, the activities are also allocated resources that will help in in fulfilling the actions.

Act. The second phase of the iteration is the action phase. The action phase means that the researcher undertakes to accomplish the research by actually doing the activities laid out in the plan. The researcher follows the course of action developed previously making modifications and changes where necessary. Corrective actions are also undertaken whenever the researcher establishes that the actual actions undertaken have deviated from the plans. Modifications are meant to keep the researcher focused on the ultimate outcome of the actin research.

In determining the objectives of this action research, there are several activities that the researcher had to undertake. The first action was to clarify on the topic for the research. This was determined to be concept of enterprise resource planning. The second activity was use the resources made available to define the research objective. The resources used is information pertaining to the enterprise resource planning, as well as the products offered by the said company (Oracle Inc.). The researcher specifies the research objectives as outlining the features of the enterprise resource planning and the e-business suite offered by the company. Lastly, the researcher had to determine the various groups of people who were to be involved in the action research. These are the participants who will actively participate in the research process, as well as other stakeholders who are likely to be affected by the process of undertaking the action research, or by the outcome of the actin research. The researcher is to conduct the action research alongside the company employees and executives. Users of the system offered by the company will also be active participants in the action research. Other stakeholders include corporations and individuals who are potential customers. Competitor will also be affected.

Observe. The third phase of the iteration is called the observation phase. This phase entails keeping track of all happenings and the result of all happenings of the previous phases of the iteration. Most likely, the action researcher will focus on taking note of the outcomes of the various actions undertaken in the previous phases, and also seeking some explanations pertaining to various issues. There are a number of observations that were made for the first iteration, and these are as discussed below:

The research objectives are narrowed down from the general concept of the enterprise resource planning to the more specific e-business suit, an integrated system offering the enterprise resource planning (the focus of the discussion topic) as part of the products that come with the package. However, this integration makes it impossible for the researcher to talk about the enterprise resource planning system alone without paying attention to the rest of the products within the package.

Being a system of its kind, it was not easy to obtainmuch data about it, as only few facts were given by the company (Oracle). It is this limited information, in addition to the interaction with the producer and the uses that the researcher was able to display all the details necessary for this action research.

The company was not willing to give the much sensitive information for fear of compromise. The same case happened with the users who wanted to keep their secrets about the system and it uses. However, all basic data needed was obtainable from both of these parties and from other sources of information.

Reflect. The last phase of the iteration is about reflecting on the happenings of the previous phases, and seeking explanations to various phenomena. In this iteration, the reflection phase will focus on outlining the successes and/or failures, things that went on well and those that did no, challenges and restraints, as well as risks observed in this iteration.

Firstly, the entire iteration was a success, and this was made possible by the clear course of action given during the planning phase. The resources made available facilitated the smooth undertaking of the actions that followed. The scope of the entire action research was defined, and this also is to be a guide to the rest of the iterations in the action research. Some processes needed to be improved, and these included the means of obtaining insight into the concept of e-business suite and its usability. Since the researcher was able to interact with the company and users, a better approach would have helped gain more information. For example, taking part in operating the systems rather than just observing at a distance. Everything about the iteration went on well.

Any research is prone to challenges and constraints, as well as risks. In this iteration, the main challenges getting the various participants to give relevant information about the systems. As mentioned above, they focused more on conserving sensitive information. This caused data constraints – that is, data became very hard to access. In turn, this created the risk of inadequate insight into the concepts or problem under investigation, and this could possibly lead to biased outcomes and biased conclusions to be made after the completion of the action research.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT UHN 1 ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT UHN 12

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT UHN 1

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AT UHN 12

Applying ADKAR Model to Organizational Change: A Case Study of UHN

Name:

Institution:

Date:

Introduction

Change is a common feature of the contemporary life (D’Ortenzio, 2012), and this is a fact that has been well documented in literature and presented in arguments of scholars and theorists. Organizational change has for a long time now been a subject of debate especially because of the implications it has on the survival of the organizations. In psychological studies, it has been established that the organizational change fails to materialize because of one major characteristic of the people – they resist change. Change, to them, is always a threat mainly because it offsets the status quo and forces people to adapt and adjust to new things and this is not easy. However, it is time that change was seen as an opportunity rather than a threat. When an organization is able to effectively handle organizational change, the change will then be seen as a component of organizational survival (Paul, 2015).

Every sector and every industry is subject to turbulent environment that tends to offer new opportunities that can be seized by organizations to build on their competitive edges and drive organizational performance and success (Bukovec, n.d.). The healthcare industry is an example, and this will be the focus of the discussion presented in this paper. The question herein is, why organizational change? This is a broad question that can be answered in various approaches, the first being the causes of organizational change, and the second one the importance of the organizational change to an organization. Organizational change is driven by several aspects. The case study used in this discussion is the University Health Network of Toronto (henceforth UHN), a healthcare organization that has undergone several transformative changes (Golden, 2006).

Over the years, the UHN has implemented a series of changes ranging from the introduction of the Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) in the year 2006, to the most recent efforts to implement workplace safety transformations. In the year 2016, the organization entered a sort of a contest in the area of patient and employee safety which comprises of the implementation of various safety aspects including creating safety awareness (UHN, 2016). Prior to this, there was another transformation in the previous year (2015) that entailed a unique partnership between UHN and Michener Institute for Applied Health Science. The integration between these two organizations was a challenging experience because the obligations of the two towards each other needed to be clearly defined and the structures altered to allow for the formation of links between the two (Michener Institute, 2015).

Change management, as will be seen in this essay entails the application of change management models in handling the organizational change. There are a number of these models, but this case study will focus on a single model – ADKAR model. This is a model that has been seen to successfully measure the change competencies in organizations (Kiani & Hussain, 2014). This model will be applied in analysing the organization change at UHN, drawing evidences from literature.

Background to organizational change and ADKAR model of change

The term organizational change has been defined differently. Todnem (2005) defines organizational change as a process where organizations continually review their capabilities, direction, and structure in response to the ever-changing stakeholders’ needs, both internal and external. According to Amagoh (2008), “It is becoming increasingly important for organizations to gain competitive advantage by being able to manage and survive change” (p. 1). The globalization trend and the competition resulting from this trend present a turbulent environment for not only the private sector, but also for the public sector. The notion herein is that the environmental changes drive the organizational changes. A good example is technology whereby adoption of new technologies have far reaching impacts on the organizational structure and culture. This is what happened when UHN implemented the CPOE (Golden, 2006).

Organizational change as a strategy, however, has always been seen as a risky endeavour (Jacobs, Witteloostuijn, & Christe-Zeyse, 2013). This explains why the modern organizational sciences have focused largely on producing insights into the various issues related to the concept of organizational change. Even with so much focus being given to this concept, organizational change is still largely associated with failure (Jacobs, Witteloostuijn, & Christe-Zeyse, 2013). Herein, the case studies presented often tough on failed organizational change endeavours like mergers and acquisition, and very few presented as success case studies. There is also literature expressing the failure of organizations caused by the resistance to change and to adapt to the current market trends, and also making wrong decisions regarding the kind of change to implement. The case for Nokia is a good example (Jia & Yin, 2015).

The strategic considerations are at the heart of organizational change (Pieterse, Caniëls, & Homan, 2012), for example, the need to improve business performance, the need for a more integrated working means, drive competitive edge, etc. In this case, the change may be intentional, unintentional, or anticipatory. Regardless of the type, the change is deemed essential as a means of response to the emergent situations. As for the intended or anticipatory changes, it is arguably possible that the ADKAR model has been applied to the change management. ADKAR represents Awareness change needs, Desire for support and participation in the change, Knowledge handling the change, Ability of change implementation, and Reinforcement for sustainment of the change (Kiani & Hussain, 2014).

ADKAR model is applied in the people dimension of change as opposed to the business dimension of change (Prosci, 2002). It entails how the employee of the organization experience the change process. In much of the research outcomes, this dimension of change is associated with the reason that many change endeavour fail. It has also been found out that helping the managers become effective sponsors of change is critical to the success of the change endeavour. As such, any scholar would be justified in using the ADKAR model in assessing a change that has successfully occurred because this is an indication that the people dimension of the change was positively implemented. In other words, the change did not experience much resistance as it is in most cases.

Hiatt (2006) posits that the change in the collective behaviour of the organizational employees is what produces the different outcomes for the firm. He gives an example of an organisation that has reorganized: in this scenario, it is not the change is not presented by the restructuring, rather it is the change or shift in the responsibilities and accountabilities of each person in the organization. It becomes justifiable to say that it is not the organizations that change, but the people within the organization. The change management model assessed herein – that is, ADKAR, should entail various change management forms. These include sponsorship, employee involvement, communications, training and education, rewards, resistance management, recognition, and coaching managers and supervisors. In such a case, accomplishing these activities is not what results to change. Rather, it is the outcomes of the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.

Rationale for ADKAR model

The rationale for choosing this change management model is the knowledge that organizations do not successfully change if the people within do not want the change or are reluctant to adopting the change. The people element in any organization determines a lot of things including identity and culture among others. Herein, it is held that the success of a change in an organization is synonymous to the success of changing the people within. Resistance to change is the major barrier to successful change endeavours, and this resistance comes from the people or employees and managers. Overcoming this resistance, as such, is equivalent to achieving the change desired. The change initiators will have to consider the people element first whereby there should be enough motivation that will make the people accept change. In order to fully implement change, there should be a prior awareness about the change meaning proper communication needs to be in place. Education regarding the change and outlining the goals clearly also help in motivating the people accept the change. ADKAR model, being based on the people dimension, encompasses change of the people and by the people.

Applying the model

The transformative changes that take place in UHN can be seen to follow, at least remotely, the ADKAR model of change. The best case scenario that can help provide this evidence, and perhaps be representative of the rest of the change endeavours, is the implementation of the CPOE systems as hinted earlier on. This change is illustrated by Golden (2006) using four stages – that is, 1) determination of the desired outcome, 2) assessing readiness for the change, 3) increase the support for change, and 4) reinforce and sustain the change. Golden (2006) also looks at the UHN’s endeavours of creating an effective change program in advance, and finds that the difficulties that arise result from the possibility of unnerving the employees. In this case, UHN has had to prepare for any unanticipated events. Another constraint has been the time and resources. As for now, the focus is on the actions undertaken in implementing the change.

It is apparent that, in other cases of change at UHN, the organization will make the communications regarding the change in advance, and this is largely to prepare the employee and managers psychologically. For example, the joint partnership with Michener Institute was announced before it could be implemented (Michener Institute, 2015). This can be seen as creating awareness or becoming awareness of the need for a change as per the ADKAR model. Other than the news releases, it is assumed herein that the organizational also has internal communication mechanisms that crate this awareness among the employees also highlighting the reasons for the change and the desired outcomes for the change.

The first stage of change implementation as per Golden (2006) is the determination of the desired end state. Even though this stage focuses on the changes in the organization that are anticipated, it is important to emphasize that the people element is also considered. For example, implementing the CPOE will change various roles like that of the chief information officer among others. This can be translated into the willingness to support and stand the change after understanding and accepting the end state of the change. Herein, the knowledge of how to go about the change features because the awareness has already been created and end state known. The means to get there, as such, are assumed to be well known by the stakeholders.

The second stage discussed by Golden (2006) entails assessing the readiness for the change. Herein, the supporters of the change need to be fully aware and reasonably clear of their objective before they can assess the organization’s readiness for the change. Herein, the ability of the organization to implement the change, as per the ADKAR is the main focus. This ability is then enhanced in the third stage where the supporters or initiators of the change solicit for support and organizational redesign. The last stage aligns itself with the reinforcement element of the ADKAR model. This stage is where the reinforcements are made to the change, as well as sustaining the change.

Apparently, this one change implementation at UHN, following the four stages addressed by Golden (2006) has been seen to align itself with the ADKAR model of change. It must be emphasized herein that the elements may not be in the correct order, but as mentioned earlier on, it is not the activities, but the end result of the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcements that present the change. In the four stages, the outcomes of these elements have been made clear, and that is what marks the change. According to Dana (2013), the ADKAR model tends to direct the change management activities and it is focused on the outcomes rather than the tasks performed.

It is also important to emphasize the ongoing changes at UHN will also be similar to the past scenarios where the ADKAR model can be effectively applied. For instance, implementing the safety program was anticipated to bring about some organizational changes specifically affecting the organizational structure and the organizational chart (UHN, 2016). The announcements have been made and the end state established, and the people dimension of change management can then be followed.

Recommendations

UHN implements changes that have far reaching implications of the roles and responsibilities, as well as the accountabilities of the employees. In this case, the four stages it uses to implement change needs to be expounded to include more activities that are aimed enhancing the abilities of the employees to not only implement the change, but also withstand it. As has been mentioned earlier on, there is a need to motivate the employees to that they can accept the change and increase their willingness to support the change.

According to Hiatt (2006) forms of change management in the ADKAR model include employee involvement, training and education, and resistance management. The four stages of change implementation at UHN only assess the readiness and seek support (as part of seeking employee involvement), but the elements of training and education and resistance management have not featured. In this case, the ongoing change can use this recommendation and later assess the effectiveness of the change management as compared to the previous cases.

In terms of training and education, simple but effective programs intended to equip the employees with adequate knowledge regarding the change and how it will affect them mentally and psychologically, as well as how to best respond to the change should be implemented. The readiness should not just be assessed, but enhanced, and this could also add to the resistance management. The best thing to understand herein is the reason why the resistance may exist and then design mechanisms of overcoming the resistance.

Conclusions

The discussion presented herein holds that change is essential for the success and survival of any organization, especially because the environment has become more turbulent. This turbulence results from the globalization trend and the underlying competition. It has also been emphasized that it is time to deviate from the notion of change as a negative and a challenging thing to the notion of change as an opportunity. The case presented is that of a healthcare organization called UHN that has undertaken a series of transformative changes aimed at enhancing the survival and success of the organization. The case used to represent all is the implementation of the CPOE, and the four stages used therein have been seen to follow the ADKAR model of change management. This follows the argument that the people element poses the greatest challenge to change, and that organizational change is all about changing the people. Even though this model fits well in this change endeavour, it has been recommended that the organization should pay more attention not on assessing the readiness, but on enhancing the readiness. Suggested recommendations have been resistance management mechanisms and education and training programs for the employees.

References

Amagoh, F. (2008). Perspectives on Orgational Change: Systems and Complexity Theories. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 1-14. Retrieved from https://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/amagoh3dec2008jag2rev1.pdf

Bukovec, B. (n.d.). Analysis of Various Models of Organizational Change Management. The 4th International Conference of the Central and Eastern European Countries, 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.mirs.gov.si/fileadmin/um.gov.si/pageuploads/Dokpdf/PRSPO/Literatura/AnalysisOfVariousModel.PDF

D’Ortenzio, C. (2012). Understanding Change and Change Management Processes: A Case Study. Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Universit of Canberra. Retrieved from http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/81c02a90-6a15-91ae-c7a2-ff44c96d60b2/1/full_text.pdf

Dana, G. (2013). ADKAR Model vs. Quality Management Change. International Conference “Risk in Contemporary Economy, 246-253. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266310181_ADKAR_Model_vs_Quality_Management_Change

Golden, B. (2006). Transforming Healthcare Organizations. Healthcare Quarterly, 10-19. Retrieved from http://www.longwoods.com/content/18490

Hiatt, J. (2006). The Essence of ADKAR: a model for individual change management. Prosci. Retrieved from http://www.change-management.com/The-Essence-of-ADKAR.pdf

Jacobs, G., Witteloostuijn, A., & Christe-Zeyse, J. (2013). A theoretical framework of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 772-792. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256645542_A_theoretical_framework_of_organizational_change

Jia, J., & Yin, Y. (2015). Analysis of Nokia’s Decline from Marketing Perspective. Open Journal of Business and Management, 446-452. Retrieved from http://file.scirp.org/pdf/OJBM_2015102710294521.pdf

Kiani, A., & Hussain, M. (2014). An Application of ADKAR Change Model for the Change Management Competencies of School Heads in Pakistan. Journal of Managerial Sciences, 77-95. Retrieved from http://www.qurtuba.edu.pk/jms/default_files/JMS/8_1/JMS_January_June2014_77-95.pdf

Michener Institute. (2015, May 21). University Health Network and The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences Announce Joint Partnership for Health Care Education in Ontario. Retrieved from Michener.ca: http://michener.ca/university-health-network-and-the-michener-institute-for-applied-health-sciences-announce-joint-partnership-for-health-care-education-in-ontario/

Paul, L. (2015). The Future of Organizational Change Management. 5th IBA Bachelor Thesis Conference. Retrieved from http://essay.utwente.nl/67268/1/Paul_BA_BMS.pdf

Pieterse, J., Caniëls, M., & Homan, T. (2012). Professional discourses and resistance to Change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25, 798-818. Retrieved from https://www.ou.nl/Docs/Faculteiten/MW/artikelenThijsHoman/PIETERSECANIELSANDHOMAN2012-JOCM25(6).pdf

Prosci. (2002). The ADKAR model for change management. Change Management Tutorial Series, 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.yashada.org/yashttt_new/static_pgs/TC/ADKARmodelforchangemanagement.pdf

Todnem, R. (2005). Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change Management, 5(4), 369-380. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ece4/cce0b626aea87504819f3c1918ff5304b7ee.pdf

UHN. (2016, March 10). Organizational Changes and Smoke Free Grounds at UHN. Retrieved from UHN.ca: http://www.uhn.ca/corporate/AboutUHN/Updates_from_Peter/Pages/organizational_changes_and_smoke_free_grounds_at_UHN.aspx

PATCH MANAGEMENT 3 Running head: PATCH MANAGEMENT PATCH MANAGEMENT Name: Course: Tutor:

PATCH MANAGEMENT 3

Running head: PATCH MANAGEMENT

PATCH MANAGEMENT

Name:

Course:

Tutor:

Date:

Despite the fact that there exists a lot of challenges in the patch management, it remains an extremely important responsibility of the IT departments to ensure that software and systems are kept safe and that vulnerability are not exploited. There has been debates as to whether organizations should practice patch management as part of risk management or just do away with it owing to these issues and problems associated with patch management. As it turns out, most organizations are not satisfied with their parch management practices as a risk management practice because they often feel burdened by the same (Thrive Networks, 2013). In that case, an analysis of the issues surrounding patch management and views about the same provided.

Installing a patching system may cause the systems to crash, and failure to patch may leave the systems vulnerable to attacks. In light of this statement, it can be argued that patch management is a ‘necessary evil’ since it is needed yet a cost to the organization. Among the challenges associated with patch management includes unexpected failures of the patches (Orion Technology, 2016). This problem arises from the fact that the patch management systems are not designed with the capacity of detecting events in advance. An occurrence of failure in a patch often has the impact of leaving it vulnerable thereby making it corrupt. Secondly, they patch management systems are often designed for monitoring patching on the internal servers thereby limiting their capacity in monitoring machines and mobile devices in remote areas outside the network of the company.

Nichastro (2015) talks about healing a patch management headache; testing. As it appears, organizations have an issue testing their patch management systems, and this may be due to some challenges or limitations. Patch testing aids in ascertaining the operations of the patch- that is, whether it affects the normal operations of other software (The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2008). This is vital because, as mentioned above, there are chances of failures of the patch systems or even jeopardizing the operations of other software. Organizations may not have the time to test their patches due to the following issues:

The organization may not have the necessary hardware and software to do the testing.

The organizations may also lack personnel with the required expertise in the testing of the patches. (Mack, 2013)

The organization may not have the time to test the patches especially because a patch may be developed after a threat has already occurred.

Despite these issues, it remains a critical issue to maintain patch management systems. It is good to consider the various threats facing the organization that includes malware viruses, data leakage, and denial-of-service attacks that would cost the organization more it is advisable that the organization seeks to optimize its patch management costs rather than considering doing away with it altogether. There are a few recommendations that can help to handle the various challenges, and one included proper timing that can help in enabling testing practices. The organizations should also seek to innovate their patch management systems so that they can come up with systems that can detect threats and that can work even on outside servers. Most importantly, cost minimization in the patch management practices would greatly help in eliminating the perception of patch management as a burden for the organization.

As a conclusion, patch management should remain a key goal of the IT departments because the security of the systems may outweigh the associated challenges. The focus or the issue ought not to be the possibility of dumping the practice, but how to make it cost effective and operationally effective and efficient.

References

Mack, B. (2013, Oct 28). Patch Management Overview, Challenges, and Recommendations. Retrieved from Cisco Blogs: http://blogs.cisco.com/security/patch-management-overview-challenges-and-recommendations

Nicastro, F. (2015, Jan). Curing the Patch Management Headache: Common Issues with Testing. Retrieved from Search Security: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/feature/Curing-the-Patch-Management-Headache-Common-Issues-with-Testing

Orion Technology. (2016). Common Patch management Problems. Retrieved from Oriontech: http://www.oriontech.com/common-patch-management-problems-how-a-msp-can-help/

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. (2008). Patch Management. 1-15.

Thrive Networks. (2013, Dec 03). Common Patch Management Problems and How a Managed Patching Provider Can Help. Retrieved from Thrive Networks: http://www.thrivenetworks.com/blog/2013/12/03/5-common-patch-management-problems-and-how-a-managed-patching-provider-can-help/