Initiating A Change Strategy For Improving Organizational Culture And Ensuring Ethical And Legal Compliance Of Agents In Max Lionel Realty (MLR)

Step 1: Appointment and training of the implementation team

A Change Strategy for Improvement of Organizational Culture and Ensuring Ethical and Legal Compliance of Agents in Max Lionel.

The main reason for undertaking this project is to device means and methods of effectively improving on the current organizational culture by encouraging higher professional conduct with the aim of improving the organization’s overall performance. It also aims at ensuring that the agents are ethically and legally compliant. There is a universal consensus that culture plays a key role in determining the success, continuity and even failure of an organization. But despite of this there is no single universally agreed meaning of culture and whether or not the management are capable of changing it (Watkins 2013) (Brown, 1998). According to Needle (2004), organizational culture is the shared values, goals, processes and vision within an organization that determines how people behave.

Therefore at the direction of the CEO, this project seeks to produce a comprehensive guide for development and implementation of a change strategy for improvement of our organizations culture.

Step 1: Appointment and training of the implementation team

This stage involves the appointment of the core team that will be involved in the development and implementation of the strategy and communicating the same (Abdul & Johari, 2003). Allocation of responsibilities to each member and setting up of an office will also be done at this stage. External consultants and trainers will also be recruited at this stage to guide the core team during the process. Lastly, the core team will be trained. This stage will take one month.

Step 2: Review of the current culture and performance.

This stage will review the current organization’s culture, its benefits and weaknesses by referring to the policies and procedure documents (Martins & Terbalanche, 2003). The company’s main priorities as stated in the policies and procedure documents are growth, profitability and customer satisfaction. So far, various factors which can be considered as the company’s strength have contributed to the successful achievement of these key goals. They include

• The ability to recruit and retain qualified and motivated workforce.
• Adherence to the industry’s set ethical and legal standards like the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) Code of Conduct and the WHS requirements.
• Continuously increasing and retaining a satisfied customer base.

Because of the dynamism of the real estate industry, there is need to constantly review the policies if growth is to be realized. Thus there are some challenges that prevent the company from realizing its full potential. These include;

• Agents, clients and tenants are culturally diverse making it difficult to formulate policies that best suit everyone.
• The clients are unaware of MLR’s obligations to comply with ethical and legal requirements.
• Some agents are unaware of the ethical and legal requirements while other do not know how to apply them hence constantly finding themselves at odds with law enforcement agencies which negatively affect the image of the company.
• Some employees are not committed and motivated in their work leading to a lower output therefore hindering the realization of the main objectives of the company.
• Some tenants feel discriminated against and their opinions not sought (Mosley, 2007).

This stage will take between two and three months.

Step 3: Development of the strategic actions

This stage will focus on the actions the company will undertake to realize the initial objective of improving the organizations culture and achieving the key company goals of profitability, growth and customer satisfaction. It will take approximately six months and the actions will include;

• Promoting a teamwork mentality. Employees will be encouraged to work as a team rather than individuals in attaining company’s goals. This pulling together in one direction can be very beneficial. To promote teamwork various activities will be done including regular team building exercises, dinners, sports, and picnics.
• Support training and development of the workforce. Managers, employees and agents will be trained on the use of ethics charter, WHS responsibilities and legal/ethical responsibilities. The permanent staff which include the manager will be given 40 hours of training while the part time staff will get 20 hours. Further, all employees will be given more autonomy to effectively manage their responsibilities therefore furthering their career development.  
• Articulation of company’s vision, policies and goals. All stakeholders’ input will be sought in reviewing the current policies and procedures to incorporate use of charter by agents. Those policies and procedures will be promptly communicated to all the stakeholders through company magazines, notice boards, brochures and other company document.
• An ethics charter for the business based on WHS responsibilities and Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) Code of Conduct will be developed.

Step 2: Review of the current culture and performance

Step 4: Developing the project budget

At this stage the action team will develop the project’s budget that will allocate funds to each activity and will also identify the source of the funds. The stage will take two months.

The project budget

Step 5; Development of a communication plan for the change strategy

The communication plan will outline the methods and the plans to be used in the project communications ( Parker & Bradley, 2007). This include distribution of information to various stakeholders and receiving their feedback. Successful implementation of the communication plan will be responsibility of both the ICT department and research team. The mechanisms to be used in communication include; telephone calls, seminar and workshop presentations, emails, staff meetings, posters in the notice boards and websites, audio visual materials etc. this exercise will take one month.

Throughout the project development and implementation process, communication process will be as follows in addressing various issues;

• The implementation chair will send information release regarding the stage to members.
• The members of the implementation committee will check the draft and make necessary adjustments as per their personal research.
• The members will send their feedback to the chair.
• A meeting will be held between members to deliberate on issues raised by the individual members.
• A draft will be made that will be sent to the other company employees for their input
• Input of the other employees will be received by the chair and meeting between members called to compile a final version.

Feedback being a very important part of a communication plan, the mechanisms will include;

• Direct feedback. This will involve face to face communication in meetings to get input of all the stakeholders.
• Formal feedback. This will be through the company’s official communication channels like emails, telephone and official letters.
• Informal feedback. This is mainly by word of mouth between the staff during informal interactions.

Step 5: Meeting with the CEO

A meeting will be held with the CEO to discuss among other issues the importance of the change strategy in mitigating risks, seek approval of the draft project budget and discuss the project planning in general. This stage will depend on the availability of the CEO and is not expected to take more than one week.

The main components of the meeting will be;

• Presentation of the action plan and draft budget for approval
• Explaining the importance of the chosen communication plan in meeting all the needs. For instance, workshop presentations, notice boards and staff meetings will cater for internal communication while emails, telephone calls and websites mainly serve the external communication.
• Discuss how the proposed changes help in reducing risks in the organization. For example, ensuring ethical and legal compliance of the agents reduces legal risks. The development and compliance with an ethics charter according to the WHS requirements and the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) Code of Conduct also reduces legal risks and work related injuries which forces the company into compensation.
• Inform the CEO on the issues arising from meetings with the managers to discuss implementation process.

Step 6: Meeting with managers

Managers are key to the implementation of the change strategy and therefore their input will be sought. Their duties and responsibilities in the implementation process will include

• The managers will be used as trainers to train other employees
• They will communicate the changes directly to employees hence linking the implementation committee to the employees.
• They will demonstrate support for the change which is important in seeking acceptance by other employees (Lonesku et al 2014)

Step 7: Revision of plans and budgets

After consultations with the CEO and managers, the plan and budget will be revised to include their input after which documentations will be provided.

References

Abdul Z, Sambasivan, M & Johari, J 2003 ‘The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance’ Journal of management development, vol. 22, pp.708-728.

Brown, A 1998, Organisational culture, Financial Times.

Lonescu, E, Merut, A, Dragomiroiu, R 2014, ‘Role of managers in management of change’, Procedia economics and finance, vol. 16, pp. 293 – 298

Martins, E C and Terblanche, F 2003. Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European journal of innovation management, 6(1), pp.64-74.

Mosley, R W 2007, ‘Customer experience, organisational culture and the employer brand’, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 15, no. 2, pp.123-134.

Needle, D 2004, Business in context. An introduction to business and its environment, ISBN 978-1861529923

Parker, R & Bradley, L 2000, ‘Organisational culture in the public sector: evidence from six organisations’ International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 13, no. 2, pp.125-141.

Watkins M D 2013, Organizational Culture, New York