Organization behavior report help essay: Organization change & development – Case study analysis
Executive summary:
Intend of the essay is to analyze the case of Stanley and to discuss the changes company is going through. In this context, study of organizational change and development has been presented to support the response for justification. The report also describes the impact of these changes on framework of the organization. Next, the report also makes an analysis of Stanley’s case from its parent entity’s perspective and then critically delineates the changes in this regard. After viewing all the changes, it illustrated the implications of the changes in terms of global environment and sustainability. In support, Stanley’s people, process, structure and technology have been defined and discussed in depth so that the entire organizational framework of change and involvement could be analyzed. The report basically talks about the organizational changes and identification of problem solving skills to increase the effectiveness of management system in change scenario. Furthermore, theoretical frameworks of change management also have been reviewed critically to help the management throughout the changes. Moreover, the ethical and sustainable dilemmas also have been talked about as a part of the overall discussion. Finally, it highlights the changes situations and the skills required for other’s leadership for working with a team for make the changes effective and successful.
Introduction:
Before describing the organizational changes, it is obvious to give an outline of the case-study which is to be analyzed for the discussion. This case study is based on Stanley Australia and mainly highlights the management of a process of ongoing change at The Stanley Works. The organization was first found in Connecticut based in USA which manufactures the bolts, hinges and many more hardware. Company has raised its product line much up to a great extent and currently it manufactures more than 50,000 different kinds of products including hand-made products, hydraulic tools, mechanical, air, binding devices and automatic doors as well. Stanley defines itself as a global manufacturer of tools, technical devices, hardware and home décor products for consumers, businesses, industries and for other home development purposes. The company made changes in its organizational culture and systems due to the competitive pressure. Similarly, Stanley has one of its branches in Australia. They manufacture hand tools in Australia and report is made to the hand tool vice president of USA. Likewise, Stanly in Bostitch manufactures fastening tools and reports it to fastener tool vice president of Stanley USA
After the brief introduction of Stanley in USA, Australia and Bostitch, the change process it is going through can be discusses in next segments of the report.
Organization change and development:
Organizational change is considered with the domain that deals with the changes and also evaluates the impact of those changes on both the personnel and professional level. Today’s world requirement is rapid and dynamic changes. In this regard, globalization plays a significant role and thus develops the changes in market and creates the better opportunities for growth in future and much better positive returns for the companies (DeSimone & Harris, 1998). In addition, many of the experiences with the changes at organizational level reveal that it proposes the employees to work like a human being first rather than being resources implicated in production process or operational activities. Besides, as far as changes at organizational level are considered, a common objective is established by the management in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness. In sum, an ongoing process of organizational change tries to build such an atmosphere where more innovative, challenging and thrilling work can be enjoyed. For this to make possible, a good spectrum of strategies is taken into account for the changes (Yang, Zhuo & Yu, 2009).
Change process at Stanley:
The major changes Stanley made were with reference to their organizational culture and strategy. For the changes to be made the management of Stanley Australia was completed prepared with justifications on cost, execution process’ development. This implementation process included sourcing of different products and closures of plant. Stanley’s management set a common goal of enhancing overall profitability as well as the market share for the organization. In simple words, the area of changes were closing down of manufacturing operation in Australia and on the other hand combining both Stanley Australia and Stanley Bostitch. Moreover, they decided to cease four of their plants and to sale of fifth plant for a change. These changes were to be made in the organization because of external environment’s threats as the Asian countries were offering the better quality and cheaper products.
Additionally, the plants Stanley chooses to cease are not suitable for the product line of company. The plant chosen for closure are located in Hobart, Wangaratta, Sydney and headquarters of West Heidelberg and the plant which were to be sold off are the vices and clamps pant that are established in Coburg. Furthermore, changes can be noticed in terms of people, process, structure, culture and technology (Andrews, O’Mahoney & Bourke, n.d).
Changes – People:
Stanley had to make changes in the area of employees’ job so it became the key and primary part of their change process in which they had to abolish the jobs which were not required in manufacturing. The changes were not made at lower level only but also John Francis the CEO of the Stanley Australia was replaced with Mark Parow who was a sales executive at a senior level in Dulux Company. This was done to provide the Australian manufacturing operations with sturdy marketing & sales point of reference. In addition, the company increased the department of sales & marketing mainly to concentrate on this area. Similarly, they also remove those employees from the same department whose competencies were not well fit with the new requirements and thus restructured the sales/marketing section.
To eliminate the extra jobs from the company’s list, employees were informed about the redundancy and the company committed to openness and honesty in this regard. Moreover, Stanley conducted a refined program with respect to the outplacement. Stanley also agreed upon a few measure spectrums to deal with the employees’ natural fear. On the other front, Stanley also used the negotiation with employees on incentives to minimize the internal resistance of the company. They negotiated with them on terms of incentives so that they remain at their work with high efficiency and keep up with the schedules made for production. Some of the issues were covered under redundancy agreement proposed by Stanley for which the printouts consisting of full detail along with evaluated privileges were distributed to the employees. Additionally, to remain the limits for attendance record employees were offered two weeks’ bonus as well as the payments for sick leave. It was also added by the management that the people of the organization would be keep aware of any development or further changes so that they could apply for the left positions.
Processes:
As a part of organizational change process, they decided to add a new communication process to get high involvement both in teams as well as for individuals. The main aim was to make the employees involved in decision-making framework. The company demonstrated going with the implementation of this process so as to ensure the each employee’s incorporation. Following this, level of employee satisfaction would increase, waste costs would be diminished and overall efficiency would also be improved and enhanced. On the other hand, the fundamental elimination of manufacturing department dropped an impact on Stanley Australia’s processes. The major change occurred throughout was that procedures for processes had to be redrafted to show the organizational changes.
Furthermore, from individuals’ point of view, the changes in procedures opened a good number of opportunities for people who were in logistics and sales/marketing department. New technologies in process made the company quite competent in responding to the market. For such great technologies, they planned to hire highly skilled employees who can easily handle them.
Structure:
The main and most noticeable structural change in Stanley was the merging of Stanley Australia and Stanley Bostitch. Next, manufacturing was being separated from all other vital departments so that they could be focused more. Company made purchasing, logistics, sales & marketing, and planning function their main centre of concentration. By doing this company increased the number of skilled employees in sales & marketing and logistic section which resulted in slight demographic change of the company. Subsequently, Stanley started hiring more younger and skilled people for the concern departments.
Besides it, the company divided the position of marketing manager into two in which first manager will be accountable for the mechanical tools produced in the company and another will be responsible for builders’ tools. Additionally, the merger of Australian Stanley and Bostitch was declared in October 1997. The main aim behind that was to place both at the same level of visible equality.
Technology:
Some new technologies were introduced in the company which makes them capable to deal with the threat from external environment and market’s competitive advantage. The technology introduced in the premises such as the national call centre led to the job loss for the employees. On the other hand, it was noticed that this technology is significant for the company’s survival.
Impact of changes:
As the ongoing process of change has been discussed in above segments from the parent entity’s perspective, their impact also can be described in context on how they affect the organization.
People: The major impact noticed was that the employees of Stanley Bostitch had to face a great deal of difficulty to make them set according to Stanley Australia’s processes and systems. Reason being for this was the planning done by the management to first utilize Australia’s systems after amalgamation. But on the other hand, it became little tensed for the employees when they came to know that the systems at Stanley Australia are quite advanced and well-organized. Similarly, the merger formed complete culture instability in the organization because on the basis of an analysis, it was noticed that Stanley Bostitch had support culture while Australia has power culture which is totally different with each other. Stanley Bostitch had been following laissez faire where Stanley Australia’s main focus was on strength, power, direction and control. This issue created the contradiction between two cultures and gave birth to conflict for a number of employees.
Processes: Moreover, the organizational changes in processes and procedures are still under the resolution based on which process is most suitable for the organization after merger. It made an impact at both individual and organizational level. From the perspective of an individual, uncertainty has increased and morale has decreased among the employees of Stanley Bostitch. The changes in process decided to give Bostitch’s employees responsibility for geographical domains and to make a sale of Stanley’s’ product within the areas allotted to them. It became difficult for them to sell hand-tool products to the classy retail channels (Rao, 2009).
Furthermore, the changes at organizational level aimed at obtaining the different mix of employee’s skills which could have impact on the future potential strategies and performance. Changes in processes and systems entailed the up gradation of process subjected to performance management.
Structure: The major impact of changes in structure was that it opened and developed the way to career opportunities. The possibility of new upcoming chain will adjust the problems to new expectations. Another impact noticed was fear of the employees of Stanley Bostitch that they will be bogged and lost in the structure of Stanley Australia. In addition, from the point of view of a group or a team, HR had to face some problems in reconciling the policies of both Stanley Bostitch and Australia. On the other hand, they also noticed the success of the plants’ closure in terms of budget’s achievement, industrial disruption free and lessening of superfluous jobs.
Global and sustainable implications:
It has been mentioned that corporate culture is understood to be the best for implications of sustainable organizations. In case of merger of both Stanley Australia and Bostitch, the culture became the major factor which affected Stanley most. Therefore, the concept of organizational culture can be embraced on the basis of research done by a few researchers (Sirkis, 2000). Culture influences every aspect of organization and the performance as well. In case of Stanley, it can redesign its process and culture because structures, processes are made by people and for people only (Christensen, Clayton & Overdorf, 2000).
For that, the company can utilize some of the parts of both Bostitch and Australia’s culture of support and power. It will support the people focusing on their operational and strategic objectives and achievement of those goals will automatically lead to achievement of sustainability. In sum, to achieve the high level of sustainability, organizations need to change their perception and the way they think that again is related to organizational culture (Beer, Michael & Nohria, 2000).
Leadership qualities: To solve the problems arose in the organization requires having the leadership qualities at both an individual and at team level. First, a leader should have dedication toward the work so that required time and energy will be put from his/her end to accomplish the work (Mulec, 2006). A leader inspires and influences others by creating examples in front of others. Second comes magnanimity expected from a leader which states that leader has the responsibility to spread the credit for success throughout the enterprise (Cuilla, 2004).
Next, a leader should have the quality of openness and integrity that makes him/her able enough listening others’ ideas and perspectives. In case of Stanley, it was found that due to less time the management could not involve the employees in decision-making process which also contributed to reduction in profitability (Goleman & Daniel 2000). The key quality required of a leader is being creative in thinking and getting out of the box to think for working effectively because creativity provides a leader with the quality that he can see things which others cannot see. Rest fairness, assertiveness, and a sense of humor are the qualities required of a leader that will help out in solving organization’s problems (Gitsham, Gribben & Hind, 2008).
Theoretical framework:
Companies face ethical, diverse culture and sustainability complexities and ambiguities for that they need to engage theoretical frameworks into practice. In this context, Lewin presented three phase model of change management in which he talked about three main stages in change process. He also added that motivation for the change should be generated before changes take place. This is the model in which first he talked about unfreeze stage (Poole, Van de Ven, Dooley & Holmes, 2000).
Unfreeze: At this stage, employees of the company is informed and prepared for the necessity of changes. It allows breaking down of current status quo so that new means of operating could be approached. For this, first company’s core beliefs, values and behaviors defining it are challenged. The first stage of this theoretical framework it quite difficult and stressful because the way of current working has to be cut down and everything has to be balanced off.
Change: Once uncertainty is framed in unfreeze stage, people look forward for the resolution of those uncertainties and also make the prospects for the new ways to achieve the goals. People take time for the transition from unfreeze to change and actively participate in the process. To accept the changes, people should understand that these changes will benefit the organization and them as well. It is the stage where communication is made often and thus implementations are made for the changes (Wilson, Lenssen & Hind, 2006).
Refreeze: At the last stage of this model, organization gets ready to refreeze because changes take place and people accept the changes and understand their benefits. After that, a complete job description, an organization charts are created under this stage. The supports and the barriers to the sustainable changes are also identified throughout this stage. Furthermore, full support from leadership is ensured, a well-defined reward system is created, and feedback frameworks are examined. Finally, every employee of the company is provided with full support and required training so that they could be kept motivated and informed about the issues and changes (Lawler III, Mohrman & Benson, 2001).
Conclusion:
This report talks about Stanley case study and discusses about the ongoing change process and its impact on organization and individual as well. This is a US based company which has its entities in Australia and Bostitch. The company has decided to merge both the entities and to close four of its plants and selling of fifth plant. The change process at Stanley has been noticed in terms of its people, processes, structure and the technology adopted by the company. They eliminated the additional jobs and made a redundancy of 300 employees from their company. Moreover, the process they adopted was more of Australian Stanley. Additionally, a problem of cultural flux took place within the organization where Bostitch had support culture in practice and Australia had power culture. Similar, they made changes in logistics and sales & marketing department. Afterward, impact of these changes also have been discusses in terms of people, process, structure and technology. Besides, employee of Stanley Bostitch had to face a lot of difficulties at work when both the entities got merged and Australian culture of power came into practice at first. Next, implications have been made from global and sustainable perspective that talk about organization’s culture, leadership qualities and theoretical framework to make changes effective and to solve the problems taking place.
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