When employees understand the values of human relations and open systems, they are more receptive to organisational change than those who are not. It leads to increased chances of success after the implementation of any change. Their readiness in accepting the changes affects the success of change implementation greatly. There are many levels to organisational readiness; it is not at all homologous, it multifaceted. The change depends on the workers’ efficiency to accept and commit to it, both psychologically and behaviourally. Employees can accept organisational changes due to three reasons –– because they value the change, because they are obliged to, or because they have little choice in the matter (Malhotra & Hinings 2015, p. 1-22).
There are three stages to implementing any change: establishment of the need, implementation, and monitoring of the change. The need for a change can arise due to any number of factors; if there is saturation in the local market, the company can be forced to consider moving out into the international market. The leader or the manager can then bring about the needed changes and make the modifications necessary to maximise the results from the company. The stage of monitoring then comes to play –– the effects brought about by the changes are to be taken into account and appropriate adjustments are to be made. The leader should be flexible enough to make the necessary decisions, even it leads to reducing the number of employees and reassigning roles to the management. It is to be kept in mind that different people react to changes differently (Mestrich 2014).
As seen in the case of Bessington Trading and Sons (BTS), the primary cause of their malfunction and underperformance is their failure to let their workers know about the changes and the company’s objectives. BTS has a leadership structure that is centralised, and there is more than one leader –– this leads to confusion as there could be a situation where there is lack of cooperation between them. Also, the decisions they make are all finalised by the governing body, and this leads to their employees feeling left out and alienated (Parish, Cadwallader & Busch 2008). It is important that they be involved in the decision-making process, as they are also affected by the modifications. Organisational change needs to be collaborated among all levels of management in order to make it successful. The relation between the management and the employees is a key factor in determining the rate of success. Equally important is the number of younger workers, as they are more receptive to change (Reynolds 2015).
The decisions that a certain leader makes might be conflicting for another. In this case, Tommy and Khadija’s proposal to include designer clothing in the company’s list of products is facing opposition from the Board of Directors. They feel that it contradicts the company’s strategies and goals, and are therefore not ready for the change (Palmer, Akin & Dunford 2015).
Moreover, Tommy and Khadija have undertaken attempts to enter the foreign market, but this might have a negative effect on the organisation by making some of the members feel demotivated and thereby prompting them to leave. The management at the top level is rigid, and is not at all flexible. What the need to do is to focus on the performance of the company rather than waste their resources concentrating on the market situation and future trends.
With the passage of time, the once employee-focused BTS became very formal regarding the treatment of its workers, with the leadership becoming directive along with the addition of newer departments (Gulati, Tush & Henderson 2015). As a result, the organisational changes were revolutionary in nature, with the workers often unprepared for them. What BTS needed to do was to keep the line of communication between the management and the workers simple and free of doubts. A worker who is updated regularly about the developments in the company is more open and willing to accept the organisational change.
The Three elements that are necessary for successful change. Absence of any one element shall lead to unsuccessful change. X denotes absence of the elements in order to determine the absence of any element on the success of the change. In the given case study, BTS company is trying to deviate its operations from the production of batches of wool and cotton textile to production of designer clothes. The company is also trying to extend its operations in international market where at present it has no demand for its products. Therefore, it can be stated that absence of need for change shall lead to absence of urgency as well as no action shall be taken. In the absence of leadership and direction, the change shall never get started. Lastly, the absence of planning shall result in false starts and unanticipated consequences (Investments 2017). Therefore, presence of all the three elements namely need for change, leadership and direction and planning leads to successful change. Proper planning with proper direction given by the leaders of the organization that needs to change its operations leads to successful changes.
The effect of not emphasizing on the four elements namely process, organization and resources, system and control and behavior. The ‘X’ in the absence of the elements so that the impact of the absence of the elements on the successful change can be determined. In case of insufficient attention given to the processes, the effort shall be wasted on the unimportant activities (Knights & Willmott 2012). In case the leader fails to give proper attention to the organization and resources, it would lead to paralysis and frustration as the people will be incapable of understanding their new roles and responsibilities. In the absence of the systems and controls, the processes shall be driving blind or shall not be in proper place and the implementation shall be undermined. Lastly, in the absence of sufficient attention towards behavior of the people, there will be resistance that shall endanger the success of the change.
In the given case study, BTS company is trying to deviate its operations from the production of batches of wool and cotton textile to production of designer clothes. The company is also trying to extend its operations in international market where at present it has no demand for its products. Therefore, the company must pay attention to all the four elements in order to implement successful change as absence of any element shall take the company far away from success.
The open system theory states that there is dynamic relation between the environment in which they operate. Organization is considered as a system of various inter- related components that transact with the larger environment. Therefore, the organizations are highly dependent upon the resources, information and feedback (Laloux & Wilber 2014).
In the given case study, the management at BTS Company has laid emphasis on increasing the market share of the company in the international market by extending the product line and adding value to the present products. The company strives to provide good quality products at affordable prices to its customers and providing attractive compensation to the employees in order to keep them motivated. BTS company is trying to deviate its operations from the production of batches of wool and cotton textile to production of designer clothes. The company is also trying to extend its operations in international market where at present it has no demand for its products (Hayes 2014). At organizational level, the information regarding the competitors, values of the organization, strategies, people, system, conflicts and other inputs are considered. Therefore, these internal and external elements comprise the inputs.
Since the company is trying to expand its operations on an international level and is also trying to deviate its production therefore, the organization is required to study both internal and external elements so that there is no mismatch between the elements (Gibbons 2015). The company does not have any demand for its products in the international market due to which the company is required to study the market as well as the potential competitors. The change shall have huge impact upon the human resources of the organization. Therefore, the management must consider the expectations of the employees before taking any decisions.
As seen in the case of BTS, the primary cause of their malfunction and underperformance is their failure to let their workers know about the changes and the company’s objectives. BTS has a leadership structure that is centralised, and there is more than one leader –– this leads to confusion as there could be a situation where there is lack of cooperation between them. Also, the decisions they make are all finalised by the governing body, and this leads to their employees feeling left out and alienated. It is important that they be involved in the decision-making process, as they are also affected by the modifications. Organisational change needs to be collaborated among all levels of management in order to make it successful. The relation between the management and the employees is a key factor in determining the rate of success. Equally important is the number of younger workers, as they are more receptive to change.
Kotter’s integrative model shows that change in any one internal or external elements of the system of the organization shall result in changes in other elements. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the various interconnected elements of the system in order to understand the overall performance of the organization. The model comprises of seven elements that form the major organizational processes along with the six structural elements. The external environment includes political system and public attitudes. The employees and other tangible assets include buildings, inventories, cash and plant. The formal structure include the job design, hierarchy of arrangements and operating systems. The social system includes the social structure and the culture of the organization. The technology includes the main products of the company and the dominant coalition involves the strategies and objectives of those who are in charge of control policy making (Bruke 2013).
In the given case study, the management at BTS Company has laid emphasis on increasing the market share of the company in the international market by extending the product line and adding value to the present products. The company strives to provide good quality products at affordable prices to its customers and providing attractive compensation to the employees in order to keep them motivated. BTS company is trying to deviate its operations from the production of batches of wool and cotton textile to production of designer clothes. The company is also trying to extend its operations in international market where at present it has no demand for its products. This decision might affect the managers, employees and the board members as they might feel demotivated. The decision regarding the changes might also result in an increase in the employee turn- over that would adversely affect the productivity of the company.
According to Kottler, medium term is considered to be the duration between a few months to a few years. In the medium- term, the companies are required to maintain their short-term efficiency. Therefore, the company is required to maintain the efficiency of major process elements so that all the sic elements are properly aligned to each other. The company is required to maintain its culture and social structure and maintain proper relationship between all the six elements. The size of the new workforce and the new technology must be sufficient in order to ensure economies of scale and to avoid wastages. The amount of specialization must also match the requirements of the organization in order to ensure success of the changes. Proper coordination among all the six elements and absence of any misalignments shall lead to successful changes.
According to Kottler, long- term is the period between 6 to 60 years. It has been observed that in long- term, certain elements among the six elements start exerting influence over the major organizational processes (Dailey & Browning 2014). Due to the interdependency among the elements, sometimes one or two elements become a driving force and the others tend to follow them. This might create ‘deep structure’ within the organizations. In order to survive in the long- term, it is necessary for the company to maintain external alignment. Therefore, the focus of the change management must be to ensure that the major elements of the organization are adaptable to the changes.
The Norwegian Civil Aviation industry – Avinor was found to have a mismatched organizational type of culture and the change implementation which resulted in the premature collapse of the change initiative. Avinor being a complex organization within the civil industry that involves high risk has faced several environmental challenges over the past few years. The organization came up with the Take-Off 05 plan that involved reduction of 725 man- years over a period of six years. This represented approximately 25% of the workforce. Even the management justified the cuts as a major portion of the costs incurred by the organization included the salary and the personnel costs and the cut in the number of employees shall lead to cost savings up to 75%. However, it was observed that the speed of the changes did not match the expectations as the employees of the organization were not involved in the planning processes. The employees were not satisfied with the massive cut as the management did not consider the expectations of the employees (Whitehead 2014). This led to loss of faith in the leadership. There was also a sudden change in the implementation approach from participative approach to leadership approach as the final decisions were formally communicated to the employees. The loss of trust in the management led to resistance especially in the air traffic controllers. There were disagreements relating to the number of air traffic controllers that resulted in conflict between the management and the union. The decision to close the second air traffic control centre gave rise to further issues. However, the project collapsed as a result of the employee resistance and the conflicts of the management with the union. Therefore, it can be stated that the collapse of the project was due to the failure of the management to address both external and internal elements.
In the case study of BTS Company, the attempt to enter the international market and deviation of its operations from the production of batches of wool and cotton textile to production of designer clothes caused demotivation among the board members, employees and the managers. The change also resulted in several changes in the management of the organization as it lost its flexibility and became rigid. All these changes increased the employee turn- over rate of the organization. There exisits several parallels between BTS and Avinor. Similar to the case of Avinor, the BTS Company did not lay emphasis on the expectations of its employees and did not involve them in the planning process. The employees were not asked to express their views regarding the proposed changes that led to resistance among them.
Therefore, BTS Company must learn from the failure of Avinor to involve the employees in the planning process and to make the management more flexible so that the employees feel free to express their views. The management must also consider the expectations of the employees before taking any decisions in order to avoid any kind of resistance.
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