Problems at Perrier - Case Study Example

Identify three drivers of change in organizations today and its impact on the organization’s need for an effective change management process. Drivers of change in organizations today can be internal or external. As a rule a company holds more sway over internal drivers than it does external, although employee turnover such as retirement, termination or death often disrupts organizations, especially at the senior levels. Three driving forces of change in organizations today include technological capacity, the economy and competition.

Technological capacity is an example of an internal driver, which includes the forced outmoding of equipment such as an operating system upgrade or a technological invention that renders current equipment obsolete. The economy and competition are two examples of external drivers of change. Companies have very little control over the economy and their competitors. In both examples, a downturn or an aggressive move by a competitor can generate considerable loss of revenue which can necessitate restructuring. 2. Discuss the typical reactions of employees to change and the related effects on the change management process. . 3.

Identify three key elements of the resistance to change described at Perrier. In the Perrier example, the employees resisted change on three key fronts: threat to loss of livelihood and revenue, “attachment to the current organizational structure and perceived breach of the psychological contract” (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009). The Perrier employees, most of whom belonged to the CGT union, viewed the Nestle takeover negatively and felt that the multinational company had no understanding or sensitivity to the importance of Perrier to the region it supported (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009).

Despite the fact that productivity remained low and competition for Perrier’s niche became fierce after Danone launched Badoit Rouge, workers and management maintained a confrontational relationship that undermined change attempts (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009). “Perrier’s management put bottles of Badoit Rouge in the cafeteria. This had been done to emphasize the point to Perrier employees that they were involved in a head-to-head battle for that niche in the market” (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009).

The Perrier employees “took the bottles and dumped them in front of the factory director’s door, so he couldn’t get into his office” (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009). 4. Construct a change management strategy for dealing with this situation. In doing so, identify three approaches to managing resistance you recommend and provide clear justification for your choice. A change management strategy involves a resistance profile that centers on the “likely resistors” (Palmer, Dunford & Akin 2009).

In the Perrier case, the CGT union