Organization Change Management Assignment Help
Abstract
Change management is something that companies have to go through on regular basis; regardless of the nature and the industry companies operating in they have to accept change in order to be able to stay competitive. In this report two companies have been analyzed with the help of two employees one from Darell Lea a local family owned organization in Australia and TNT express courier company that operates on a global level. It’s been analyzed that companies that companies with vision and proper leadership successfully implemented change where as the other one failed to do so, that resulted in the loss of ownership.
Introduction
Organizations over the last few years have experienced tremendous changes due to struggling economy, intense foreign competition and mainly because of the need to compete on global basis. At the same time companies have reengineered and restructured themselves on a bigger scale (Mack et al, 1998). Organizational change can be described as the process of migration from a current situation to a desired future state (Nelson, 1990). However organizational change does not occur from restructuring but may occur due to the changes been made in the way how companies do their businesses, in such process of change individuals usually have to adapt to the changes. Planning for constant change in organizations has become a necessity for survival, to be able to improve business performance and at the same time retain stability amongst competitors, requires proper planning that has to be done by the senior management (Olsen. E, 2009). Change management is generally considered as a basic skill for which most managers and leaders need to be competent about. The overall process of identifying organizations, immediate and long-term objectives require specific strategies to be monitored regularly.
Kurt Lewin, back in the era of 1940s, introduced one of the foundation stone models that were based on accepting organizational change. His overall model was based on three different elements that can be recognized as Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze. In the first phase of change it engages the business in such a way to make it acknowledge that change is essential. Burke, 1976, introduced a new business model by the name of ‘slush’, where he affirmed that modifications in technology, member of staffs, jobs and other elements of organization are more recurrent. Due to the rapid advancement in technology and other changes taking place, organizations need to change themselves. To meet with customer needs and wants organizations must have a flexible structure along with flexible and intellectual employees willing to adapt new changes and learn them. In case if organizations resist to bring in any change within their system or structure, it is very likely that such organizations may loose their market share (Kanter, Stein and Jick, 1992).
Due to the increased instance of change within organizations, employees are the ones who are usually faced with unique workplace stressors out of their daily routine work. As for this reason it is important for companies to identify various processes through which employees acquire information during the change process. In order to be able to successfully implement change within the organization the major and important role has to be played by leaders and managers.
Participant Details
The first company we did the research on is Darell Lea that is a well-known confectionary brand that was built in Sydney in 1927, by the Lea family and in no time the company grew to become Australia’s largest privately owned chocolate and confectionary manufacturer (Boley. J, 2013). Darrell Lea had 81 privately owned shops and other 1,838 outlets.
Darrell Lea had its own set of shops in large malls throughout Australia, competing against big chain of outlets: Coles and Woolworths, however the overall distribution model of Darell Lea was wrong. Mr. Smith was interviewed at Darell Lea who works under the operations department, as he’s been with the same company for last 12 years have seen some major changes with failures.
Another organization selected to conduct the research on is TNT delivery express not only operating in Australia but it operates on a global level. TNT as a courier company is involved in delivering goods from the domestic destination to other global destinations through sea, rail and road. The company started its operation from Germany and then later on expanded its operation in states and other countries. TNT was able to acquire further small companies that resulted eventually made TNT a bigger company. Up till now the company has been able to survive in the global economy by responding optimistically to the various changes that were required in the business environment (Kanter, 2009).
Findings
According to Mr. Smith, if we go 6 years back and take any objective look at Darell Lea one can identify areas of weakness and strength, pinpoint changes that needs to be made, spot opportunities and begin planning.
On the manufacturing side as well it was almost next to impossible for the company to sustain investment in production in Australia and to be able to outsource the manufacturing department, further investments were needed which the company couldn’t afford. Majority of the products needed to be improved in their quality, as Darell Lea was not only competing against the local companies in Australia, rather it was competing against companies in China, US, Europe.
According to Mr. Smith view, to be able to face rapid changes, Darell Lea had to realize that they cannot compete on a global basis without a strategic plan, to meet such challenges, the company had to encourage its employees to accept change and adapt new technology but without proper leadership and management it wasn’t easy for the company to bring in changes easily. For Darell Lea the market trends were constantly changing, new technology is being introduced; price hikes, and various environmental and political changes took place that really resulted in poor performance of the company. From the experience of Mr. Smith he believed that with any kind of change it effects the performance of the company either positive or negative but to be able to meet effectively with such changes it is important for companies like Darell Lea to have proper management and leadership.
According to Mr. Jason Trevor who works in TNT under its marketing departments, told that TNT updated its services and offerings to cater to the businesses and individual entity globally so that the company can easily reach the market worldwide. TNT enhanced its customer service just to be able to provide them with. TNT has adopted the trend of continuous innovation by thoroughly updating and advancing its operations and also implemented employer of choice, which itself was easily adapted and appreciated at all levels within the organization. TNT is committed towards sustainable environmental footprints and duly respects corporate citizenship all across the world. TNT made changes in its functionality by enhancing its leadership position globally and have access to growth markets. The changes initiated and implemented by TNT organization compels scale of economies and maintain return on capital by potential synergies and drive improved free flow of cash. Mr. Jason believes that change management process has helped the company to produce big changes that can help the company to increase its customer base.
To work at change the employees are required to be motivated and convinced of the professional and personal benefits to them and to their organization as well as for this reason it is important for management to realize the work gets slow during the process of transition.
Comparison
From the perspective and opinion provided by Mr. Smith it is very clear that with Darell Lea, there were areas that needed change from its products to operations the company was lacking proper vision and management. Whereas in TNT, change was required on both local and international level and so far the company has been able to effectively manage such change. TNT has constantly updated itself on regular basis to meet the requirements and stay competitive in the market.
The similarities in both the companies is that both of them required change on regular basis but only one of them was able to effectively manage it where as the other one failed to successfully implement such change. Apart from that one major difference that can be realized is that Darell Lea is a local family owned business that is probably one of the major reason it resisted to bring in any change within its operations. On the other side, TNT a large multinational operating not only in Australia but worldwide realized the importance that to stay competitive in the business it has to cope up with rapid changes and the most important aspect of coping up with such change is by making sure that its employee are up to date and comfortable in adapting new technology and systems. TNT implemented change management to fit to the world of globalization and spread nationwide by enhancing the operations all across widely on the other side Darell Lea failed to realized the importance of coping up with the change that was required eventually resulted in the loss of overall business ownership.
Discussions
Based on the information obtained through interviews and first part of the literature it can be analyze that change management is important for all organizations regardless of their size and the industry they are operating in. Companies who have realized the importance of coping up with the change are still in the market and enjoying their market share and those who are failed to cope up with change over time either they are out of business or finding it hard to stay in the market. TNT has managed to survive the changes not only in the management but also in its operation department and moulded its functioning accordingly to be able to adapt such changes. TNT implemented change management in order to be able to fit in the world of globalization and spread nationwide. On the other hand Darell Lea a local confectionary company that started its operation within Australia, a family owned company lacking proper management and leadership failed to cope up with changes, though the symptoms were there but because of not proper experience and vision the company didn’t do well. From the interview it’s clear that both the employees were familiar with the importance of coping up with the change but they also stated that successful change could only be implemented from top management with proper leadership and guidance. However in case if the top management itself is not willing to cope up with any change or not taking it seriously then the chances are that the organization will not be successful. Those organizations that try to keep up with their conventional standards and policies will ultimately show a decline in company’s status graph (Skripsky. J, 2001).
Conclusion
One can conclude that every organization has to go through change and accept it as part of its regular and constant update. The overall perception of change management is a recognizable one in most of the organizations, however the most important aspect is that the top management has to realize its importance and have to make sure that its employees are comfortable in accepting such change.
References
- J. (2013) ‘Delighting Australians Since 1927’, viewed on 12th May 2013 http://www.businessinfocus.com.au/index.php/2013/05/darrell-lea/
- Burke, W.W. (1976) Organization Development in Transition, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol.12, pp.22-43.
- Erica Olsen. (2009) Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies. New Jersey:Hoboken
- Kanter, R.M. (2009), When Giants Learn to Dance: Mastering the Challenges of Strategy, Management, and Careers in the1990s, New York: Simon and Schuster
- Kanter, R. M., Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D (1992) The Challenge of Organizational Change. New York: Free Press
- D.L., & Kletke, M.G. (1990). Individual adjustment during technological innovation: A research framework. Behavior and Information Technology, Y (4). 257-271
- J. (2001) ‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail: a look at the yearly operating business plan’, Journal of Leisure property, Vol 3, no 2.
