Reorganizing Human Resources at ASP Software - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Introduction-Company Background 2 Problems and Opportunities in Organizational Development 2 Organizational Intervention Strategy Proposal 3 Timeline or Agenda 7 Reference 8 Introduction-Company Background The project seeks to present an organizational intervention strategy for ASP Software, which is a high-tech organization and employed numerous software engineers for its product development. The company provides software products for the Fortune 500 companies and accounts for one of the main recruiters in the region. The main purpose of the change initiative undertaken in the organization is to transform it from a functional model to a client management service model. Since any kind of change initiative is not accepted unanimously by all, it was important that Susan, the Vice President of ASP to devise an intervention strategy to bring about the change smoothly and successfully. The main purpose would be strengthening the team building activities of the firm for making the internal change strategies successful. Some of the critical aspects which would require emphasis are change management and costs. The changes were likely to invite appreciation; however, they would not be free from resistance. Moreover, for the successful implementation of a change strategy it must be ensured that they are costs effective and do not result in wastage of financial resources. Thus cost management and change management would have to be coupled with suitable team building initiatives would be some of major aspects of the organizational intervention strategy. Problems and Opportunities in Organizational Development The most important and prominent reason for need for intervention is the fact that company’s internal client managers mainly referred to as the internal clients were dissatisfied with the services they were receiving from the human resource departments. The other important challenge confronted by the organization is the area of recruitments. The company recruits around 100 positions in a year which means that each of the recruiters handle more than two dozen positions at a time. This means that when the manager hires he has to call up Paula’s organization that is responsible for recruitment and then communicate with another person who takes care of the compensations and benefits. This necessarily creates confusion as the nest time that he hires he is assigned a different recruiter who he had not communicated with previously. Moreover it is seen that the managements are more involved with the functioning of their respective teams and least focused on aligning strategies with the business objectives of the firms at large. This is one area in which the organization intervention would have to focus on. Apart from the above aspects, the organization was looking towards changing its business model from that of a functional model to a client management service model. This consequently required a change in the organizational chart and thus reducing the team sixe or strength. This would likely to generate resistance from employees as they would not want to lose their co-workers nor want to remain in insecurity. Handling change resistance and restricting of the organizational chart would be one of the important responsibilities of the intervention process (Rothwell, Sullivan & McLean, 2005, p.197). Organizational Intervention Strategy Proposal The proposal extended by Nathan would include the following areas; Structural change, Technical Change, and Behavioral Change The proposal was aimed to be implemented in a span of 12 months. The structural change would include altering the framework connecting the various parts of the ASP Software. In this case it would cater to reducing the number of departments and team strengths such that each team would be responsible for a specific function, like sales and marketing or distribution etc. This would require integration between the various departments and such as to focus on the firm’s business objectives and goals. Additionally new roles would have to be assigned to the employees along with the changes in job designs. These would account for the structural changes in the organizations. This would be followed by the technological changes also. This means that technologies feasible for the working of the organization would have to be chosen. However, any kind of technological change cannot com without resistances. Thus employees would have to be provided with the requisite training and developmental activities to work on the new skills. Moreover, new tools, machineries and equipments would have to be installed in the organization. One of the most important aspects of the change process would be to bring about the behavioral changes. This is because the changes would be likely to invite resistances from the employees and management. Arising from the structural changes new job roles would be designed and created. This would necessarily mean that new relationships would build up between employees. Thus counseling the employees on the new employee relationships would be one of the important components of the intervention process. Since the structuring process would be accompanied with downsizing of the organization by reducing the workforce, this would necessarily create insecurity among employees. Employees would be de-motivated and demoralized by the fact that their co-workers would be losing their jobs and this would consequently spread the apprehension that their jobs were also not secure. This could lead to employee attrition and low productivity. This the intervention process would include counseling the employees and training them on the new values. Their compensation and benefit plans would also require revising so as to control attritions. In other words it can be said that behavioral changes would account for one of the main aspects of the intervention process. Time line for the entire intervention process in provided in the following Gantt chart. Timeline or Agenda   OD Intervention- Description Time line in months     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Structural Changes Altering the business framework     Changing job design     Assigning new roles to employees     Aligning department activities with organizational objectives     Technologic-al Changes Deciding on new technologies as per organizational requirements     Implanting of new machineries, tools and equipments     Training employees on the new technologies       Behavioral Changes Counseling on the new relationships due to structural changes     Uplifting employee morale and commitment through constant grooming     Train employees on new values     Changes in compensations and benefits for controlling attritions                         Reference Rothwell, W. J., Sullivan, R. L. & McLean, G. N. (2005). Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Consultants. John Wiley and Sons. Read More