Change is always necessary for any organization that has numerous procedures to

operate in a highly competitive environment, such as in technology, culture, or

organizational processes. ADKAR is such a model which helps any individual to
manage a change in the workplace. Prosci, a company that specializes in change
management, created the model (Prosci, n.d.). ADKAR model entails 5 levels:
Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement, that help any individual to
undergo change effectively. Indeed, this model targets to help higher management in
the organization recognize the potential factors that restrict the individual from adapting
to the change and help them accordingly to resolve the hurdles (Hiatt, 2006).

The ADKAR model first demonstrates awareness, where an individual or an

organization gets the initial idea creation of the importance of the change and its
potential benefits. This stage is essential to deal with the hurdles and help build a
decisive motivation factor. Secondly, the desire helps to cultivate a positive mindset and
a willingness to engage in supporting the transformation. It is influenced by personal
and organizational rewards, faith in the management and administrative culture. Thirdly,
knowledge provides the guidelines or abilities to learn new competencies, such as
training, guidance from seniors in the team etc., as a part of the change. Fourthly, ability
demonstrates how the individual involves in applying the abilities to execute the
transformation in real-time. Finally, reinforcement entails withholding the transformation
by strengthening the new adaptions through acknowledgements, recognitions, awards
and many more (Hiatt, 2006; Prosci, n.d.).

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a large Indian organization, is a recent example of

adopting it. They used the model to undergo changes in their annual rating procedure.
The firm previously used the bell curve to evaluate individual performance in the
organization and switched to a continuous feedback strategy (Srivastava & Agarwal,
2016). In the awareness stage, they circulated the changes to all levels of employees
and made them understand how the previous model was obsoleted and unfair to the
employees and the essentials of the new model in providing transparency and
motivation. In the desire stage, it inspired the employees in backing up the new model
by demonstrating the potential benefits of how it improves performance and
development. In the knowledge stage, the firm conducted various workshops,
conferences, HR activities and town hall meetings across all levels to enhance the
abilities. Finally, TCS has proven the new transformation through successful feedback
from the employees and celebrated the accomplishment.

In Summary, the planning, carrying out and assessing transformation actions at the
individual level can be achieved using the ADKAR model. Moreover, it helps to
recognize and resolve hurdles that restrict any individual from achieving the change.

Reference:
1. Hiatt, J. M. (2006). ADKAR: A model for change in business, government and our
community. Prosci Learning Center.
2. Prosci. (n.d.). The PROSCI ADKAR® model. Prosci.
https://www.prosci.com/methodology/adkar
3. Srivastava, S. and Agrawal, S. (2016), “Resistance to change and turnover
intention: a moderated mediation model of burnout and perceived organizational
support”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp.
1431-1447