Change Management Strategy And Growth Of Australia Post Offices

Strategic Management of AP and Relevant Theories

This particular study has provided an in-depth overview about the case study of Australian post offices and their necessary strategy to re-generate the demand of post offices in the market of Australian consumers.  Australia Post was established in 1820 by initiating the service process from Sydney to Melbourne. The service process of the post office covered 900km area. Due to the poor transportation system, the entire service process from the post offices became delayed. After the implementation of rail transportation system from Melbourne to Sydney the entire service procedure became rapid. However, this particular study focuses to highlight the impact of change management in rendering the growth in any kind of organization.

 As per the case scenario it has been observed that the systematic transport system, use of advanced technology, implementation of e-commerce process enable the Australia Post office to enhance their range of target customers. Initially, AP was able to employ 36000 employees among 3832 communities. Therefore, the service provided could not deliver more than 10,000 contractors (Cameron and Green 2015).  The current scenario is however changing gradually. In order to render a revolutionary change within the business of AP, the experts have used change management strategy within the service process. The theory of Lewin’s Change Management Model has been successfully used within the business process of AP. As per the concept of this particular model before making a change within a business organization, the organizational experts have to face three different stages such as unfreeze, transition and refreeze.

As per the current needs and demand of the market business organizations have to change necessary business strategy and policy. AP after enhancing the number of target market had to focus on implementing new business strategy (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The new business strategy implied recruiting large number of workforce within the service process, initiating e-commerce business process and so on. However, while implementing these new business policies the organization has face innumerable obstacles from management, employees and different level of stakeholder. This particular stage is otherwise known as unfreeze.

Transition is the phase when the business policy transits from older to the new. As per this particular stage the managers have to play a major role in order to keep a constant control over entire business process. At the period of transition, AP had to face innumerable difficulties to run their service process effectively in the market of Australia. The customers sometimes fail to get proper services at the correct time (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). In this kind of situation, the business experts, organizational leaders, managers of several departments have to play the major responsibilities to control the entire business process. This particular phase of transition was very much crucial for service providers of AP. The employees were not very accustomed with the advanced technology (Hayes 2014). As a result, people had to face innumerable difficulties in order to operate the technology successfully. In addition, in case of any kind of sudden technological barrier the service providers failed to control the situation. Ultimately, customers failed to receive the service process at proper time.   

Unfreeze

Refreeze is the final phase immediate after the phase of transition. In this particular stage both the internal as well as external stakeholders get accustomed with the change management. The employees become habituated with the advancement of technology. On the other hand, customers as well do not have to wait for a long time in order to receive the entire service process at proper time (Lewis, Passmore and Cantore 2016). AP after the implementation of change management has decided to follow some of the major steps in order to make the entire situation under control. In order to make the employees confident and efficient towards the service process the organization has decided to provide an effective training session to develop the professional attitude of the employees (Fugate, Prussia and Kinicki 2012). The employees get an effective guideline for enhancing their communication skill as well as technological skill. Therefore, customers automatically receive the services within time.

With the rapid progress of advanced technology, the inhabitants of Australia were highly dependent on email, fax and social media. Post offices were gradually losing their glory and reputation. In this kind of situation, AP by implementing change management theory has decided to enhance the knowledge and skill of internal stakeholders. As a result, the customers again started to depend on the service process of this particular organization like Australia post office. Carter et al. (2013) stated that the success of a business organization is highly dependent on the needs and demands of customers as well as employees. Therefore, with the changing trend of market business experts of AP has implemented innovative business strategy and policy. 

Supplier’s power	Ø  Australia is possessed with limited number of post offices. Therefore, the suppliers’ power for this particular industry is high.
Buyer’s Power	Ø  Purchasers do not have sufficient option to bargain due to the limited number of suppliers existing in this industry.
New  market entry threat	Ø  AP has already established their business recognition in the market of Australia. Therefore, in order to expand their business in other geographical area this particular organization does not have to face major threats from its competitors.
Threat from the substitute	Ø  As per the current business scenario it is undeniable that internet communication, communication through telephone, fax and email has reduced the market opportunity of post offices. Therefore, AP has to face innumerable difficulties in running their business process amidst of its substitutes.
Competitive rivalry	Ø  AP is having limited number of competitors in the same industry. This specific organization is well familiar to the customers. As a result, the level of competition in this specific industry is low.

Table 1: Porter’s five forces

(Source: Blackmore and Sachs 2012)

AP can be considered as one of the most familiar post offices occupying a predominant place in this specific industry.  Before conducting an effective competitor’s analysis AP likes to follow some of the major steps that are as follows:

Identify the current competitors of AP:

It has been observed that St. Kilda Road Post Shop, Titjikarla CPA, Erldunda CPA are the current competitors of AP that have already flourished their business Australian market (Anderson 2013). In order to run the business process AP has decided to identity those competitors and evaluate their current market strategy

Conducting an effective market survey in order to know their marketing strategies:

The marketing executives by maintaining an effective survey tend to collect necessary data on the overall social media integration of other competitors of AP. Based on the marketing and promotional strategies of its competitors the business experts decide to re-think about the overall business strategy and policy.

Transition

Macro Environmental factors: (PESTEL)

Political	Ø  Australian government is very much flexible in maintaining a balance within country so that business organizations can run their wings successfully.
Economic	Ø  Australia is economically developed country.  Therefore, the business organizations do not have to face trouble in making their pricing strategy.
Social	Ø  This particular country is blended with different cultural and religious people. Therefore, the business experts have to be flexible in their service process.
Technological	Ø  Business organization can use advanced technology as the large number of people belonging to Australia are dependent on internet accessibility.
Environmental	Ø  Australian environment is suitable for running the business process of post offices.
Legal	Ø  AP has to maintain some relevant legislation and acts while making an effective communication the customers and employees as well. The acts include right to information act, health and safety act, data protection act and so on.

Table 2: PESTEL Analysis

As per the strategic leadership evident of AP the business experts have decided to use participative form of leadership style. This particular form of leadership style enables the business leaders to maintain a cordial relation with the employees. The business managers of AP never tend to impose their own decision on the employees regarding the business strategy and policy (Goetsch and Davis 2014). Employees get enough opportunities to share their own opinion towards meeting the business target. As a result, the interpersonal relation between the managers and employees of AP is effective.

After evaluating the entire case study this particular part has focused to highlight as well as analyze the effect of change management for the further progress of business. It has been observed from the case study that AP has recruited 200,000 employees within the business process for delivering the entire service within time to the customers. Consequently, the revenue growth of the organization has been raised automatically (Jacobs, van Witteloostuijn and Christe-Zeyse 2013). The market share has been increased to 6.7 percent. As a result, both the internal as well as external employees get necessary benefits and facilities. While implementing change management the organization such as AP has focused to implement some of the major strategies. The strategies are as follows:

Training and development session is highly needed in order to increase the level of efficiency of the employees (Blackmore and Sachs 2012). People from different geographical market are strongly associated within the business organization like AP. Therefore, the managers should provide effective development session and guideline for enhancing their level of performance. As a result, the customers would show their interest for using the products and service of AP. However, the primarily areas where the business experts have implemented professional and development training include communication skill, technological skill and professional attitude. It has been evaluated that employees belonging to different cultural level are strongly associated with the business process of AP. Therefore, they are having psychological barriers, linguistic barriers (Kool, and van Dierendonck 2012). In order to overcome the psychological barriers as well as linguistic barriers the employees need a professional training.

On the other hand, while associating within the business process, the employees are not well accustomed with advanced technology. In this kind of situation, maintaining service delivery system with the help of c-commerce process can become a major hindrance for them. The business managers of AP thus have decided to provide an effective training session on technological skill as well. After implementing this kind of change management, the organization such Australia Post Office has returned their glory (Anderson 2013).  

Refreeze

E-commerce business process is the systematic business method with the help of which the service providers control the entire service within the help of technological devices. In this specific method, the post office executives do not have to travel for delivering the service. With the help of online transportation procedure, the service users can receive the deliver at proper time (Haslam et al. 2014). In the earlier business process, the entire procedure of mail delivery system was very much time consuming. People had to wait for a long time in order to receive an important message. The entire transport system between Sydney and Melbourne was highly dependent on rain transport system. As a result, the post office executives have to travel immensely in order to transmit a message (Oreg, Michel and By 2013). Customers on the other hand failed to get proper mail at the correct time. As a result, customers being reluctant failed to show their attention for using the service of AP.

In order to overcome this kind of static situation, the business experts of AP decided to launch e-commerce service procedure. The customer service executives with the help of email delivery system can communicate with the customers by sitting at their offices. Therefore, the post office executives do not have to be dependent on the transport system (Dunford et al. 2013). In addition, after the emergence of e-commerce business process the business experts got the scope to collect customers’ feedback by using online media tools such as websites, public forum and social media. As a result, both the service users and service providers can communicate directly. Service providers get an immediate feedback from the customers. In this kind of situation, the business managers get enough scope and opportunity to run the organization more effectively in current market.

Advanced technology to some extent has reduced the gap between service providers and service users. Social media tools of now days have become one of the most effective platforms with the help of which the business experts can interact with the customers directly for receiving their necessary feedback. After the implementation of e-commerce business the experts of AP are able to gather necessary response from the customers about needs and demands. In this kind of situation, service providers get the scope to implement new business strategy and policy. This kind of strategy has a major impact in developing innovating marketing strategies by using change management. Kuipers et al. (2014) stated that change management is flexible enough to reduce the communication gap between service providers and service user. As a result, the service providers would get an in-depth overview about current market demand. For that reason AP has decided to implement advanced technology within their business process in order to get huge customers’ response.

Porter’s Five Force Analysis

After evaluating the entire case scenario it has been analyzed that change management is the only business strategy that AP has implemented for regaining the organizational image and reputation. In order to gain the market identity AP can be recommended to follow some of the major steps as well. The recommendations are as follow:

Implementation of only change management is not the ultimate solution of rendering business reputation. The business experts should invest sufficient amount of money for promotional activities. In order to promote the service procedure of AP the marketing managers can use the platform of media vehicle (Pugh 2016). Both the electronic and online media can be used in order to circulate the product concept to various geographical boundaries.

By utilizing the advancement of technology, the business experts can collect customers’ feedback in order to re-form new business strategies and policies (Kuipers et al. 2014). Social media, public forum, telephonic communication are the necessary tools with the help of which employees can get an immediate feedback from the customers.

Conclusion:

The entire study has provided an in-depth overview about the case scenario of Australia Post Office and its challenges for drawing the attention of customers. Initially the business experts had to face innumerable challenges in order to deliver services at the proper time. With the dynamic progress of civilization, the organization had implemented change management. The business experts after using some of the most effective theories such as Lewin’s Change Management Model have focused on rendering some changes within the organization. After the emergence of advanced technology, the business experts of AP have decided to implement e-commerce business process for maintaining the services within time.

As a result, customers do not have to wait for a long time for rendering the success of business organization. In order to make the employees efficient towards the business process the managers of AP has provided effective training to the employees for operating advanced technology efficiently. In this kind of situation, the relation between service providers and service users are very much closed. After maintaining change management, the business experts have been successful to enhance their growth of revenue as well. A large number of employees are currently associated with the business process of AP. Consequently, the rate of employability has automatically been increased in Australia. 

Reference List:

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Benn, S., Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

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Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

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Jacobs, G., van Witteloostuijn, A. and Christe-Zeyse, J., 2013. A theoretical framework of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(5), pp.772-792.

Kool, M. and van Dierendonck, D., 2012. Servant leadership and commitment to change, the mediating role of justice and optimism. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(3), pp.422-433.

Kuipers, B.S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J. and Van der Voet, J., 2014. The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public Administration, 92(1), pp.1-20.

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