Bessington Trading And Sons For Organization Change Process

What is happening between growth and change in BTS

Discuss about the Bessington Trading and Sons for Organization Change Process.

First, lack of adequate and proper information is the leading cause of malfunction and underperformance in the company. Failing to disclose accurate information to the employees at the right time can lead to failing to achieve the company’s objectives. Secondly, Critical decisions should not be made at the top hierarchy of the organization. The decisions ought to be deliberate at the departmental level and involve the subordinate and middle staff. Thirdly, the employees and departmental teams should be treated as organizational an asset. Therefore, the change process should involve the whole organization as a whole and not a few individuals. Fourthly, a successful company when faced with the need for change should develop and open communication network. Open communication would help in building faith and confidence among the employees at all levels of management. Fifthly, People will only support a system or process which they are part of. Therefore everybody who will be affected by the change should be involved in its development and implementation. Sixthly, the goals and objectives of facilitating change are to remove/ reduce unnecessary competition expected between departments. Therefore, there is the need for collaboration for effective change management.

Bessington Trading & Sons (BTS) is a good definition of a centralized leadership structure since it is led by more than one leader. One problem with this structure is that raise of confusion. One leader might choose to overrule the directives given by another. This might be a major setback, especially when making important decisions such as change processes. Conversely, different members can have conflicting interests in the running of the organization (Malhotra & Hinings, 2015, p. 4). For instance, both Tommy and Khadija are pushing for the inclusion of designer clothing in the company’s products portfolio. The Board of Directors is opposed to the proposal. According to the board, introducing this product would be contrary to the BTS’ vision, strategy, goals, and objectives (Gibbons, 2015, p.43).

The attempt by the two leaders (Tommy and Khadija) to enter new foreign markets might force some managers and board members who feel demotivated to quit. When top management leave in additional to the stiff competition in the industry, BTS’ productivity and profitability will be diversely affected. The two leaders are only considering the market situation and the future trend while ignoring the company’s performance records to push their growth agenda (Burke, 2013, p. 33). The best approach should be basing the push for growth on the company’s vision, past performance, and present position. This would help in setting future goals instead of just relying on market and industry factors. As a company grow, there are expected changes on its business processes and practices which brings about new challenges (Whitehead, 2014, p. 98).

Deep structure leads to stable organizational behavioral change

The growth in the size of BTS the over time has brought about several problems and challenges. For instance, the company’s top leadership has changed from a flexible to a rigid leadership structure. The problem with the latter is that it ignores the views of other managers hence affecting the overall aim of proposed changes. At the conception of the BTS, the management should communicate frequently though informally with the employees. The George Bessington was entrepreneurially and technically focused (Investments, 2017, p. 45). He would provide better salaries and wages to the employees. However, as the company grew in size, communication with the employees became formal. As time passed by the leadership style became more directive while new departments such as marketing units, stock management, finance department and production units were established (Malhotra & Hinings, 2015, p. 45). Organizational growth and changes occurred in a revolutionary pattern. The ideas about growth and change in an organization are shared by both Larry Greiner and Malhotra Hinings.

The top management at BTS should realize the concept that growth and change goes hand in hand. All the employees should be prepared on the expected changes as the company grows in size and market share. The attempt to make decisions at the top management level and impose them of the employees would amount to resistance (Knights & Willmott, 2012, p. 53). Change would not be forced on the employees, rather they should be involved in its development and implementation phases. Lastly, change cannot be implemented within a short time frame, it’s a revolutionary process. Both Tommy and Khadija should involve all the stakeholders within the organization in deliberating on the proposed changed. The views of different teams and groups should be collected and considered. Likewise, each team should be presented in the decision making process as far as organizational change and growth is concerned (Palmer, et al., 2015, p. 54).

The case study shows that some board members are supporting streamlining the organizational by reducing it. Reshuffling of the company’s structure would ensure that the revolutionary change pattern is achieved. According to Gersick, system’s deep structure is defined as a basic configurations which helps a company to develop its resources, units, and activities. Systems deep structure helps the company to adapt to its macro environment. It also determine whether the changes will be implemented successfully or not. Gersick posits that a company’s structure should be adjusted and disintegrated for the success of revolutionary change pattern to occur (Gulati, et al., 2015, p. 10).

Similarities with Gersick’s model of deep structures

Deep structure leads to stable organizational behavioral change and it follows the evolutionary model. This structure is the determinant of unnoticeable, unidentifiable and implicit changes in the organization because of its composite interaction with the system elements and relationships among different individual in a company. Deep structures provides many options on favorable and unfavorable factors that are likely to affect a company’s growth in the long run (Reynolds, 2015, p. 22). Therefore, this structure model is suitable because it promotes continuity and sustainability of an organization. Lastly, deep structures ensures comprehensiveness of a company’s system because there is an option of sharing feedback among groups, teams and individuals (Hayes, 2014, p. 41).

Furthermore, deep structures comprises of company’s culture, structure, control system, distribution of power, and strategy.  The issues facing BTS Company are similar to those described by Gersick. To achieve the proposed changes, the company must disintegrate its structure as well as streamline its workforce (Hayes, 2014, p. 61). Likewise, power distribution at BTS is consistent. Other decisions are made by the top managements, their execution are done in a hierarchical manner. Each management level have specified duties to perform. The leadership strategy is also consistent; decision applied at the company are made by the top management. The management has placed emphasize on increasing its market share in the foreign markets by extending the product depth and adding value to the existing products Parish, et al., 2008, p. 34).

Besides, the company’s structure and culture have been consistent over time. Although the structure is complex considering the large workforce, it is well organized in line with the ideas of George (its founder). The company believes in providing quality products at affordable prices to the customers. The employees are well motivated using appealing compensation benefits (Gulati, et al., 2015, p. 101). To promote positive a relationship with the consumers and investors, the company have put in place good customer services in place. The company enjoys long-term sustainability which is rooted in its good culture and well-organized structure. This is in line with the deep structures as proposed by Gersick.

Lastly, the available information on the company shows consistency with Gersick’s description of the deep structures. The proposed approaches to change by the top management, i.e. expanding into the foreign markets, may affect the BTS’ continuity. The views of some board members who opposed the adopted changes were ignored. The move endangers the continuity of the company. The affected board members, managers and employees will be demoralized (Mestrich, 2014). This may lead to losing talented workforce to competitive. Additionally, the employees’ turnover is likely to increase affecting the company’s productivity, profitability and continuity. The information on BTS Company has shown consistency with Gersick description of deep structures (Gulati, et al., 2015, p. 71).

Narrative and storytelling are important to a company’s progress in different ways. Some of the benefits of storytelling to a company are; first, it assists in managing the company’s behaviour, business ethics and actions. Second, storytelling is used as a mechanism for strengthening favourable behaviours in the company (Dailey & Browning, 2014, p. 22). Third, it guides the managers and leaders on the best action to take when dealing with suppliers, customers, retailers and competitors as well as different environments. Conversely, storytelling can be applied by the company on its reward system with an aim of controlling the actions and policies set by the managers to maintain good reputation. Lastly, BTS Company can apply storytelling in convincing the resistant stakeholders on the importance of the proposed changes. Sometimes stakeholders lack adequate information of the change process. Through storytelling, such stakeholders can be convinced to support the implementation of the changes (Dailey & Browning, 2014, p. 26).

Narratives are also important in business operations and can be used to benefit the BTS Company. Narratives will help BTS to differentiate itself in the market and industry. For example, it help to distinguish the company’s culture, competence, and products from those of the competitors. Through narratives, the company can create a unique brand identity which is a competitive advantages in the market. Many consumers would to identify themselves with an outstanding brand. Additionally, narratives can be applied integrate the company with other in the industry (Dailey & Browning, 2014, pp. 33-4). This will ensure that most people talk about the company and its products.

Through narratives, the employees become motivated from the narratives they hear from the external parties about the organization. Customers are proud when customers, suppliers, other firms have a positive story to tell about their employer. Lastly, narratives would improve BTS’ stability which supports the implementation of the proposed changes. By gathering the information on what the stakeholders think about the changes, the company would be in a position to choose the right path. Such tales can be used to establish the required modifications required to promote survival and growth while eliminating negative perception that the public hold on the Company (Gibbons, 2015, p. 112).

In the case of BTS, the favorable intervening approach is theorizing. Theorizing approach ensures that theoretical models are identified and presented to a company by the change agents. In most cases the models presented are relevant to the problems facing a company. Theorizing approach also guides a company on the best way of utilizing the proposed models to understand the problem through cause and effect analysis. Through this mode of intervening, the company can identify the best course of action to apply that would ensure positive results (Laloux & Wilber, 2014, p. 33).

Another mode of intervening that can be used in the case of BTS is supportive approach. Under this approach, change agents collaborate with other stakeholders. Change agents allow other employees to express their views and opinion on the proposed changes. Through supportive approach both the opportunities and challenges presented by changes are identified through teamwork (Palmer, et al., 2015, p. 43). For instance, both the top management and employees of BTS will have a platform where they air their views and worries about the organizational changes. The BTS’ board of director is divided on either to support or oppose the changes. Supportive approach is applicable because it provides an objective way of thinking about the problem (Malhotra & Hinings, 2015, p. 51).

Information-gathering technique can be used by the top management as well to handle this situation. Using this approach, the concerned part gathers data which is then applied to evaluate and appraise the problematic issue. After the cause of problem has been identified, the agent of change should then help the company to find the best resolution to the problem. In the case of BTS the change agents are Modjo, his children, Tommy and Khadija, and the board members (Kotter, 2012, p. 9).

For the case of BTS, the most appropriate typology of change is anticipatory. The company can use this typology of change for a re-orientation approach. It is a transformational change that deviates from the previously used patterns for the company’s growth and development. The anticipatory discontinuous change applies the current organizational relationships and the industrial forces that might affect the company’s focuses and competencies (Hayes, 2014, p. 105). Conversely, it promotes doing business processes and practices differently from the previous processes.

This typology of change is useful to the BTS Company since it is on the verge of transforming its operations from the production of a large batch of wool and cotton textile into producing designer clothing. The change is aimed at increasing the product in-depth and improving customer services. Clearly, the company is trying to deviate from its previous operations to a new dimension of doing things. However, there is no obvious demand for the company’s products in the foreign markets (Hayes, 2014, p. 111). By adopting the anticipatory change topology, BTS Company will improve its competitive advantage in the foreign markets as well as prepare itself for unpredictable problems that might affect its growth.

Likewise, a discontinuous organization change in the company can also be achieved by applying the re-orientation approach. Considering that the company is planning to change its management structure as part of the proposed organizational changes is need to redefine its operations to survive in the foreign markets (Hayes, 2014, p. 74). Without the application of the re-orientation approach, the company would create a negative perception from the public. Therefore, anticipatory discontinuous change will ensure that the company aligns itself with the environmental forces in the market. By redefining its structure in line with the proposed changes, the company will achieve an effective level of productivity and profitability in the short and long run (Burke, 2013, p. 69).

References List

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