Reflective Diry on Change Management - Assignment Example

Week One Microsoft has done a good job of adapting to the changed that have occurred by introducing a new organizational culture to the world by transforming itself at an organizational level. Throughout its time as a corporate giant, Microsoft has been feared by its competitors because of its ruthless business practices. Microsoft has been deemed as the ‘evil empire’ by many in the technological field because they have attempted to monopolize the industry. Microsoft’s chief goal over the years has been to make money for its executives. Even though the majority of the public might not agree with these business practices, they still continue to buy Microsoft products because they are the most convenient. Most services on the internet require some sort of Microsoft product to be used, and Microsoft Windows is the most widely used computer platform. Also, Microsoft Office has become the software of choice for many in the business world. The problem is that since most people now already own a computer, sales from these products has been steadily decreasing. For example, Microsoft Windows is something that only needs to be purchased once, with the occasional new edition coming out sporadically. With the majority of people already owning this software, Microsoft was forced to do other things to generate profit. What they began doing was creating partnerships with companies that they previously had attempted to destroy. Microsoft is now much friendlier to other software companies because it is good for their business as “roughly 95 percent of Microsofts revenue comes through its partners” (Ricciuti, 2006). Also, by relying on these partners, Microsoft should be able to increase its productivity. The company’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner says, “And I would tell you that thats a great example of where were figuring that out in real time, but doing it with partners versus developing the solution and then saying, OK, how does it all work and make it work. So this is a different, subtle shift. Everybody always wants more, and they always will. But its a real-time evolution...I really like the way were approaching it, and I agree with it and Im really excited about the opportunity that this is going to provide for the whole breadth of partners that we have” (Ricciuti, 2006). This new approach shows that Microsoft has realized that its past culture of squashing the competition will not work anymore because people are interesting in different things than before. Microsoft can utilize the technologies that have been developed by other companies and these companies can use the Microsoft name to further their business practices. An example of such a partnership is that many personal computers now come preloaded with Microsoft sample products, even if the computers are not Microsoft. These computers also come preloaded with Windows so the software is still being spread, even if it is not sold directly to the consumer. This is important because it keeps things circulating, even though direct sales have decreased, which means that Microsoft’s products will continue to be used for a long time. Microsoft has been forced, in recent years, to adapt to changes that have occurred both internally and externally. There was a massive power shift within the company that happened when Bill Gates decided to step down and appointed Steven A. Ballmer to succeed him. Since there was new leadership within the company, things changed for the employees. What was once thought to be a great company to work for became riddled with discontent among the employees. What this does is it begins “decomposing the strategy, through programs, into specific activities of various kinds. But this presupposes an organization that itself can be decomposed into a system of subunits and these into positions at different levels” (Mintzberg 346). The company is now fragmented into several subdivisions, which has caused many internal changes. Even though Microsoft received a high volume of applications for employment, it constantly has to make sure its top employees do not go elsewhere, as many see Microsoft as a chaotic work environment. Workers appear to be demoralized by the current structure because they have lost the freedom to be creative with their ideas, even though Ballmer disagrees as he says, “We have a fantastic leadership team in place. A leadership team that is empowered, a leadership team that everyday were pushing to take advantage of, and move quickly, to act quickly, to drive, get things done, do innovation, new programs in front of customers, new support offerings” (Greene and Rebello, 2005). Despite the unrest with employees, Microsoft has managed to move forward with its decision making process. Where there were formally seven divisions that had to be monitored, there are now only three. This makes Ballmer’s job much easier, as he is a hands on type of manager who like to have the final say on everything that occurs within the company. By lessening the divisions, Ballmer has made it possible for everything that occurs to be passed along to him, without him having to run around and get the information from a variety of people. Perhaps the most important change that has occurred within Microsoft is its willingness to cooperate with competitors and turn them into prospective partners. While not everyone who approaches Microsoft is able to gain such a partnership, many are able to do so, which is beneficial to both. Microsoft has managed to move forward in these two aspects and now all it needs to do is find a way to keep its employees happy, as it is them who make everything happen for the company. This shows that Microsoft has been able to effectively change its relationship to its environment, change the nature of the human activity, and also change the nature of the human relationships within the corporation. By doing so, they have moved into the future because they have not stayed with the status quo. Week Two The main function of management in the corporate world is to make decisions that will best serve the company in meeting its goals. With these decisions come reactions from employees that will dictate whether or not the decision is the correct one. The actions of the employees are based on what management tells them and also about how much pride these employees take in their work. While it is impossible to keep each and every employee happy at all times, it is important that an executive do his or her best to ensure that the most efficient working environment is present and this includes being responsible for the actions and behaviour of the employees, but this does not have to be done in a direct disciplinary fashion because that can often lead to conflict. One such way to do so is to keep the company’s image positive. If an employee is proud to work for a company, which is often based on a company’s reputation, then he or she will be more likely to behave in an efficient and professional manner. This image is largely based on public perception, so that perception must always be worked on and kept up my management. Also, it is important to give the employees the best tools possible in order to ensure that they are able to perform up to expectations. A tool that is growing in popularity is e-business technology, which makes it possible for workers to get important in real time and stay ahead of the competition. If a worker feels as if he or she is truly making a difference, then he or she will be more likely to put in that extra effort. An interesting ideology in employee management comes from Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in their book First, Break All the Rules: What the Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently. This books states that it is management’s job to make sure each and every employee is put into a role where his or her talents can best be utilized. This is important because, once again, employee behaviour in usually based on how they feel about the company and a worker who is out of his or her element will not be happy about going to work each and every day. Another technique of employee management is to keep employees in check by not letting them get too high or too low by praising them sometimes and reprimanding them at other times. This is a common one that is used by managers, but it seems to keep things at the status quo and does not give the employees the opportunity to really succeed with their jobs. It is content with allowing them to simply work in the roles that they are given, without playing to their individual strengths. Management has a very important role in the behaviours and actions of employees because it is management who is responsible for defining the roles that each employee is placed into, as well as ensuring that all of the targets are met while this is occurring. Making decisions under competing constraints is difficult because it is impossible to keep everyone happy. There could be a situation where a manager has to try to raise the profit, but is also responsible for trying to raise the environmental awareness of a company. Since most environmentally friendly programs are not designed with the maximum profit, there will always be conflicts between the two sides. This is especially challenging in modern times, as an increased awareness of the environment has caused the media to take notice of any violations that are occurring. On top of this, the business world is more competitive than it has ever been, so competing constraints are becoming more of an issue for those in charge. One way to decide what to do in a situation like this is to follow the program that was set forth by David A. Welch as he says to first identify your objective and do a preliminary survey of your options. Then to identify the implicated values and assess the importance of the decision, to make sure that the situation has not been over or under estimated. Next he says to budget your time and energy while developing a decision making strategy. Then you identify and evaluated all of your options, so that you are sure that you have taken enough time to think them all through. Based on all of these factors, he says to make a decision that will leave you with enough time and resources to complete it. Welch does, however, realize that we “we do not live in the ideal world. We live in a world where there are constraints” (Welch 26), and, therefore, everything will not always work out as planned. This makes it even more important for managers to thoroughly think through any decisions that they make, in order to minimize the problems between the competing constraints. This is very important in the organizational problems solving process because it puts people in a position where they can succeed. Week Three When marketing a business, it is important to recognize what types of things can have a negative impact on sales in the future. There are a number of external environmental issues that can have a large effect on how well a company does in business, some of which are difficult to detect. Business ethics are very important because they create a public image for the company and that will determine how the public perceives the company. Technological issues can also come into play, as a company must have the same, if not better, technologies than its competitors or any marketing strategies that are implemented are bound to fail. Thirdly, environmental issues are becoming increasing important, as corporations that are labelled as being bad for the environment can also face negative public opinion. As with anything in life, business has ethical implications that are often an issue. For a multinational corporation, these ethical questions are on a much larger scale than a small business, so there is a much larger risk involved. For example, multinational corporations are known to have their goods manufactured in China and other Third World nations, while paying the workers much less than they would have to pay them at an American plant. This raises the ethical question of whether or not this is acceptable, as the workers often work very long hours in substandard working conditions. This ethical question could cause problems for the corporation if the public sees it as a huge negative, which can impact marketing strategies, and, therefore, decisions must be made about whether or not this is an ethical thing to continue doing, as “business leaders were blamed for their role in the presumed ethical decline, and business schools were criticized for failing to provide ethical training to future leaders” (Bazerman, 2006, p.121). If the public begins to boycott a corporation due to its unethical practices, then there will be a lot of money lost, so these decisions are very important to the survival of a company. Therefore, strategic managerial decisions must incorporate ethics into them, to ensure that the public will not be discouraged from using the corporation’s goods or services. Small businesses are not on that large of a scale, so any ethical problems that they might run in to will not be as magnified, but they also must realize that any business that they lose is very important. A multinational corporation can afford to lose customers, as there will always be other customers to replace them, but small businesses rely on repeat customers to keep the business afloat, so they must keep them happy. When developing a strategy, small businesses must appeal to the values of the community, because they do not have the large marketing budget that multinationals do. Therefore, they must develop roots within the community, and the only way to do that is to understand the community’s ethical background and follow it. By focusing on the ethical questions that are present in this situation, the corporation is able to focus on the unaware culture of the business, which helps out in the long run. Week Four The book First, Break All the Rules: What the Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently, also gives new managerial techniques that have not been used in past generations. This is an example of postmodernism, as “post-modern is a culture that believes there is a better world than the modern one” (Lemert 22). Perhaps most importantly, this book tells managers to focus on their employees’ strengths and attempt to get the most out of them, rather than placing them in situations where their weaknesses will be exploited. This is done in order to get the most out of every employee, which will make the work environment much more productive. This book is an excellent source for any manager who wishes to discover how to get the most out of his or her employees. This is especially important for small businesses, as they have far less room for error. This business book was written for managers of companies of any size in order for them to learn how an effective leader should run a business. The authors have quite a bit of experience in this field, as they have written many business books before, and they took their information from over 80,000 different interviews that were conducted by Gallup polls. This shows that they have thoroughly research this subject and, therefore, they are knowledgeable authorities on the subject. This knowledge on the subject helps create a situation where the material is presented in a fashion that is useable for business executives when dealing with employee management, behaviours, and actions on a day-to-day basis in the business world. This most important tip that is given in this book is to put people in a role where they are most likely to succeed, since “no ones perfect. No one possesses all of the talents needed to excel in a particular role” (Buckingham and Coffman 167). Since every brain is different, different people will thrive in different working environments and situations. Just because one person is able to complete a task with relative ease, does not mean that his or her replacement will be able to, and it is up to the manger to figure out who is capable of doing what. If a manager wants his or her employees to be productive, he or she should put them in a role where they are most likely to succeed, not just a role that has yet to be filled because “when someone leaves a company, he takes value with him - more often than not, straight to the competition“ (Buckingham and Coffman 23). Think of it as being similar to putting a famous quarterback like Joe Montana at a position like offensive tackle. If a coach had done this, there is not doubt that Joe Montana would not have been a successful football player and, therefore, his coach would not have been happy with him and his career would have been very short. If a worker is not put in a role that he or she can thrive in, then he or she will not perform to the best of his or her abilities and neither the worker nor the manager will be happy. For small business owner, this is especially important because there are less people around to catch mistakes than there would be in a large corporation. Therefore, a small business owner should remember that in order to be competitive, each and every worker must contribute to the best of his or her abilities and the only way that this will happen is if each worker is put into a situation that he or she is comfortable with. This is a form of democratic modernism, which gives people the room to act on their own and become comfortable with their surroundings. This leads to the highest level of success in the future for both the individual and the corporation. Week Five The new landscape in the business world has led to constant cultural changes. For example, with corporate mergers becoming a very regular thing, there is often disgruntlement amongst employees of the corporation that has been taken over. This leads to them being even less trusting of their new bosses and, at the same time, confused about what their day-to-day duties are as well as where they sit in office politics. Office politics can very often come into play in situations like this because people who were parts of the two corporations that have merged will form separate subcultures. This can lead to divisions within the company, which will cause all of the internal workings to be fragmented. Winners of the merger will also often place their will upon the losers, which makes the losing side even more disgruntled and can make the work environment even more fragmented. Those who were a part of the losing side of the merger are forced to adapt to an entirely different culture and that is a very difficult thing to do. While in theory they are doing the exact same job as before, things could be different because the new company will have a much different way of doing things. The political power structure in the corporate world is just an important as it has ever been. Those at the top have all the power, which allows for them to make more decisions and, therefore, have more of an influence in the company’s future. Works Cited Bazerman, Max H., 2006, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Buckingham, Marcus and Coffman, Curt, 1999, First, Break All the Rules: What the Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently, Simon and Schuster, New York. Greene, Jay and Rubello, Kathy, September 26, 2005, “Steve Ballmer Shrugs of the Critics”, Business Week. December 24, 2006, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_39/b3952008.htm Mintzberg, Henry. 1994, Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, The Free Press, New York. Lemert, Charles, 2005, Postmodernism is Not What You Think, Paradigm Press, Boulder, Colorado. Ricciuti, Mike, July 21, 2006, “Newsmaker: Building the New Microsoft”. CNET. December 24, 2006. http://news.com.com/Building+the+new+Microsoft/2008-1014_3-6096753.html Welch, David A., 2002, Decisions, Decisions: The Art of Effective Decision Making. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY. Read More