Organizational agility and the ability to manage change are critical determinants of local growth or rejuvenation capabilities as it moves across its life cycles. The constancy of operational transformation is inevitable in enterprises, given that most of the necessities stem from external dynamics defining the industry business environment. Whereas some brands embrace post-crisis transformation more than other opportunities available, others jump on the gaps and risks as soon as they emerge. When thinking small and local, businesses reinvent internal operational characteristics to ensure they are best run from the inside before emerging as competitive entities on the global stage. This paper presents Onomotion’s change management diagnosis under Kotter’s 8-step model. The proposed novel idea is for the company to introduce a green human resource management (GHRM) model to reflect its goal of ecologically friendly operations. It is based on the philosophy that an upcoming global brand of the caliber of Onomotion must organize and manage its internal operational strategies to maximum efficiency before facing other rivals in the transport and logistics industry.
Company Overview
Onomotion is a Berlin-based e-mobility company transforming urban logistics by switching from dependence on traditional automobiles to electric bikes. The Retail SEE Group (2023) listed the organization among the top thirty emerging global brands in the year 2023, making it a top choice for diagnosing local change management. The rationale is that a brand already recognized by Retail SEE Group and the European Innovation Council has the potential to make a global impact, given its current growth rate. The implication is that the enterprise has to set itself on change inertia using the most dependable tools, such as Kotter’s 8-step model, also taking in opportunities for expansion at an industrial scale. The company’s original vision was to ‘create transformative change in urban mobility’ (Onomotion GmbH, 2024). It further stated that putting people at the front and center is the best approach to achieving that vision (Onomotion GmbH, 2024). The implication is that the brand will focus on more than urban logistics but also on managing its human resources to meet its goals regarding revenue and brand reputation.
Diagnosis
Onomotion’s modular platform systems for moving vehicles and other logistics activities are favorable grounds for managing a GHRM system that focuses on employee environmental commitment. The company already acknowledges that, besides moving flowers and furniture, it has endless possibilities for its value model (Onomotion GmbH, 2024). The role of the proposed transformation is to install new approaches towards which the brand will adapt and rejuvenate its commercial activities, building a competitive reputation on ecological-friendly services. Weiss (2016) connected successful change to astute leadership, noting that company executives must be willing to change business models to meet goals. The GHRM suggestion is one of what Weiss (2016) would term ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions, given that it is a local and small change for setting employees to gain capabilities in meeting the actual enterprise strategies. Eight steps in Kotter’s model begin with creating urgency for the need to have green human resource practices at Onomotion.
The current change diagnosis is for Onomotion to manage a new human resource operations strategy that implements novel ideas such as green training to improve environmental commitment at the employee level. Hayyat et al. (2023) noted that a green attitude at corporate levels mediates employees’ commitment to pro-environmental behaviors. There are four basic agility and learning frameworks from Weiss (2016) that Onomotion will use to implement the proposed change. The first is by making employees comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation. Weiss (2016) suggested that personnel should be willing to test and present novel ideas contributing to the desired transformations at enterprise levels. The second framework is valuing innovation, supported by information-based decision-making (Weiss, 2016). The last approach will entail inventiveness by making as many novel models as possible to reflect sustainability desires when forging a new corporate environmental commitment. The company leadership must communicate the urgency for integrating GHRM with its existing e-cargo logistics techniques.
Kotter’s 8-Step Approach
Creating Urgency
The company’s willingness to transform its business model and adapt to industry standards or competitive leadership must begin with a created sense of urgency, albeit Onomotion will be doing it for local change. One way to approach this first stage is by presenting green logistics (GL) as a green human resource management technique for achieving environmentally friendly performance toward developing a sustainable development organization (Setyadi et al., 2023). Creating a sense of urgency has to conform to one of the three needs that apply to Kotter’s model. The first one is identifying potential threats, actualized by playing out scenarios and their implications in the present and future (Weiss, 2016). The second is by examining opportunities and suggesting ways to exploit them. The third is about initiating honest discussions about the current developments and possibilities of making positive progress in the future should an enterprise embrace suggested transformations.
The Onomotion leadership team has to make the GHRM change urgent by introducing ecology-oriented discussions and current global practices around the GL concept that the company does not practice. The strategy must involve presentation and dialoguing on all dynamics happening in the market and practices common with the competition, showcasing how a brand can meet prevailing trends in building their customer and investment attractions. Chen et al.’s (2022) observation was that green logistics integration in an enterprise promotes better resource utilization, especially by focusing on capability building within the GHRM operations. The resource-based theory can be used to justify why green logistics changes are urgent at Onomotion, showcasing how the organization needs a configurational relationship between value chain management systems and human capital controls (Chen et al., 2022; Setyadi et al., 2023). The Onomotion leadership will strive for at least 80% buy-in by communicating the need for transformation in their employee management practices (Graves et al., 2023). The next step is to create a powerful change coalition from over 80% of the personnel buying into the vision towards enterprise evolution.
Forming a Powerful Coalition
Local change significantly impacts in the same way as a transformative project that could move Onomotion from a European to a global brand. The reason for using powerful coalitions in managing the GHRM evolution suggested for Onomotion is to identify like-minded individuals who can amplify the vision and urgency created in Kotter’s step 1 (Kotter International Inc., 2024). Finding the most diverse team with different motivations is the most effective approach to keeping a sustainable motion toward remodeling internal or external operational activities. The coalition must represent personnel characteristics within the enterprise, using their power and influence to further the change momentum in different engagements. Ghimire (2023) focused on using leaders as the representatives of the decisive coalition, insisting that there must be a team showcasing the best intentions and benefits of the intended change. Onomotion’s team must have similarities in characteristics such as emotional commitment, teambuilding spirit, and work-related skillset for the intended reforms. The other commonality is that they must be willing to share and modify the vision as they deem fit to make local change sustainable.
Creating a Vision for Change
Although the urgency step already shares how the intended transformation would transform an organization, powerful coalitions must work around numerous great ideas and solutions available for making change a reality. In Kotter’s third step, enterprise leaders are encouraged to clarify their rationales behind novel ideas for transforming operational processes (Graves et al., 2023). For instance, Onomotion’s aspiration to develop employee environmental commitment will be supported with values to be created upon which the reforms will be centralized. Ghimire (2023) encouraged leaders to cultivate open communication and the flow of information among teams and other enterprise personnel. Creating visions for ecologically friendly HRM at Onomotion will include the need for regular brainstorming and implementation of best practices, albeit the rollout must be different from Kotter’s fourth step for communicating reforms. The role of brainstorming in the third step is to develop as many strategies as possible for executing the change vision, narrowing down to the most effective and resource-friendly options possible.
Communicating the Vision
The onomotion change team has to keep the strategies generated in step three under constant dialogue to make them popular trends matching the values created for environmental commitment. Hayyat et al.’s (2023) strategy with green logistics at HRM levels is to promote the values needed to sustain change, such as a green attitude. At Onomotion, the company leadership needs to keep the dialogue about strategies developed in step three, with the coalition group being stewards of the new environmental changes. One of the best practices from Kotter’s fourth step is ensuring that personnel often talk about the new change vision (Kotter International Inc., 2024). The rationale is to identify how employees will likely perceive their roles in environmental commitment at Onomotion, implying that GHRM practices have to include training to boost personnel knowledge of biodiversity. The coalition team and other transformation movers must encourage communication to identify people’s concerns or anxieties toward change (Graves et al., 2023). The final effort by all leaders at Onomotion will be to implement the communicated visions in all aspects of company operations, including green training and performance evaluations.
Removing Obstacles
The most effective way to smoothen value sustainability at Onomotion will be to eliminate possible obstacles that could interfere with the momentum of local reforms. The fifth step in Kotter’s model encourages leaders to achieve the most buy-in from different organizational levels by strategizing workplace motivation (Kotter International Inc., 2024). Change inertia is likely to be experienced through reluctance or resistance to conform to newly developed strategies and overall company visions. One of the issues the company must anticipate is that employees will be concerned about their performances in the green commitment evaluations and the implications on their job security (Marando, 2023). The coalition team is expected to encourage personnel to get involved in personal development and other resource-based transformations to achieve Onomotion’s environmental goals. However, milestones and anticipations of enterprise members’ contributions to the change must match their levels of skills and knowledge of the new concepts (Graves et al., 2023). Therefore, one of the approaches suggested for Onomotion to remove obstacles is to invest in adequate training, development, and reward schemes to encourage and motivate employee commitment to the new biodiversity practices.
Creating Short-Term Wins
Employee encouragement and motivation on the vision for reforms is not limited to rewards. Using short-term wins in the sixth step of managing transformations is to showcase success in mini-milestone achievements, assuring personnel that the bigger visions are also achievable. Setyadi et al. (2023) insisted on sustainable development regarding green logistics and HRM goals, implying that values and practices must begin from noble implementation to industrial-scale applications. At Onomotion, the vision communication step must be merged with Kotter’s sixth step, which entails creating short-term wins. The immediate goals should add up to a longer-term strategy of having a brand reputable for green human resource practices, which include employee development and organizational attitudes encouraging personnel autonomy on biodiversity decisions (Hayyat et al., 2023; Chen et al., 2022). For instance, the HRM team at Onomotion can identify inexpensive sure-fire projects for the green initiatives, train employees on them, and then implement changes to make them seem effortless. The HRM team must reward groups or individuals who meet their evaluating targets from the green training and project-leadership opportunities.
Building on the Change
After working on the vision, building momentum, and creating small wins, the seventh step is to make the change by applying continuous improvement tools. Connecting the first success to the last victory in managing long-term reform can only be achievable if an organization dwells on its first breakthrough. The onomotion HRM team, for instance, can spend too much time on the first GL projects at the expense of implementing other strategies for encouraging environmental commitment (Kotter International Inc., 2024). However, the company can overcome stagnation by implementing the Kaizen tool to consistently analyze and evaluate each short-term success, identify failures, and make improvements to fit the bigger picture. The role of monitoring and evaluating values development is to promote change acculturation.
Anchoring Change to Corporate Culture
The last step in developing sustainable organizational transformation is to ensure that the change is reflected in every part of the operational/value model. Making continuous efforts to have the new practices seen in organizational behavior transcribes the final culture and inertia for other improvement opportunities (Kotter International Inc., 2024). At Onomotion, anchoring will occur by consistent evaluation, dialoguing, and reporting on progress at every chance available. The company’s HRM team will use green logistics ideas when advertising vacancies and during hiring. The rationale is that environmentally-oriented talent onboarding and development corroborates values like the desired green attitudes. The company must have plans for managing critical members of the coalition by incorporating them into strategic leadership positions where they can use their influences to sustain change.
Conclusion
Transforming Onomotion’s HRM practices to be ecologically oriented, although a small change, is vital for the company’s logistics success. The enterprise needs to create more momentum for its industry transition efforts to electric automobiles, developing a reputable brand for environmental commitment at personnel levels. Kotter’s change model encourages enterprise leaders to identify opportunities, create urgency, and identify solid coalitions for sharing the change vision. The organization must create short-term milestones for the GHRM implementation, including building sustainable values such as a green attitude. Anchoring changes to corporate culture provides the inertia for managing reforms resulting from improvements, such as using the Kaizen tool to continuously analyze strategy implementations (Cheraffi et al., 2019). Onomotion leadership should facilitate resources necessary for green training and other talent management activities during onboarding and selection.
References
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