The Work Force at Mid Lancs - Case Study Example

Case Background Qualtex is a traditional textile manufacturer making materials on the site. Due to industry problems, qualtex was greatly affected and the labor force was reduced to 125. Employees were paid salaries well below the minimum wage rate. There was a 55% labor turnover at qualtex and the company refused the recognition of (TGWU) Transport and General Workers Labor union. Health and safety issues were alarming with accidents increasing gradually. The MD published policies and procedures to resolve these issues. Qualtex hired local women to replace the labor. The Work force of the company was shattered with the news of the Qualtex’s merger with Mid Lancs. Mid Lancs is highly modernized and a successful textile manufacturer. The work force at Mid Lancs was paid above minimum wage rate and constituted women at shop floor and men at technical levels. Health and safety records were good at Mid Lancs with zero reported incidents and the company was tough with its employees in giving Christmas profit share bonus. The MD of original Mid Lancs remained the MD of the Mid Lancashire Quality textiles and the MD of Qualtex became the chairman of Mid Lancashire Quality textiles. A lot of issues arouse as a result of the merger. Personal policies and procedures have to be changed; managers have to be trained, record maintenance, organizational change, and Health and safety issues. The task here is to frame a Human resource management strategy to overcome the change issues and the corporate strategy was to reduce the costs and increase the quality of the product. The Human resource management strategy must be aligned with the corporate strategy and address the various issues. In this time, the personnel manager had resigned her job. Issues The case has a lot of issues pertaining to Human resources. As a result of the merger, employees are in a state of Job insecurity. More the work practices of Qualtex and Mid Lancs are highly different from each other and a training and development program has to be arranged to train the managers to adopt a standard practice and remove the ambiguities. Employees from both the companies have under gone a change and a change management strategy aimed at changing the behavior of the individuals must be framed. Forces against change must be reviewed and addressed. Human resource management strategy must address these issues. Some of the challenges include organizational culture, organizational change, workforce diversity, discrimination, work stress. Organizational culture When one wants to change an aspect of the culture of an organization one has to keep in consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change. This is a huge challenge for management. - Cummings & Worley, Organization Culture and Change , 2005, page 490 - 494 Organizational Change Change is the only permanent thing in this world and when organizations change there are many forces of resistance against the change and culture is one of the important forces of resistance. HRM Techniques play a major role in changing the organizational culture. The major Interventions used in bringing a change include Human Processual, Techno structural, Socio technical systems and organization transformation. The various HRM Techniques include Action research, Organizational development, Sensitivity Training, Survey Feedback, Process Consultation, Team Building, Inter group development, Appreciative enquiry. - Cummings & Worley, Organization Culture and Change, 2005, page 500-512 Managing Diversity (Workforce Diversity is the concept that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and inclusion of other diverse groups.) - Stephen P. Robbins, Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, Tenth Edition. Pg. 14. The world's increasing globalizations requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before and people no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today and managing diversity remains a significant organizational challenge and managers must learn the managerial skills needed in a multicultural work environment and Managers must shift their philosophy from treating every one alike to recognizing differences and responding to those differences in different ways and at the same time avoiding discrimination. Supervisors and managers must be prepared to teach themselves and others within their organizations to value multicultural differences in both associates and customers so that everyone is treated with dignity. - Stephen P. Robbins, Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, 10th Edition.Pg.14-15. Demographic changes (women in the workplace, organizational restructurings, and equal opportunity legislation) will require organizations to review their management practices and develop new and creative approaches to managing people. Changes will increase work performance and customer service. The need to understand diversity is also driven by women in the workplace. Today's workforce has the highest levels of employment participation ever by women. The number of dual income families and single working mothers has increased. Change in the family structure means that there are fewer men and women in traditional family roles. Therefore, diversity issues cut across both race and gender. Women face discrimination in three aspects: Pay, promotion and Sexual harassment all over the world. Black Enterprise. (2001). Managing a multicultural workforce. Black Enterprise Magazine Stress management Organizations and corporate have understood the importance of Stress Management in the work place and managing stress is gaining importance these days and stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. Three potential sources of stress include: Environmental factors, Organizational factors and Individual factors. Other sources of stress includes Poor communication, Seeking power, Dissatisfaction with management style, Weak leadership, Lack of openness, Change in leadership. - Garry Dessler, Human Resource Management, Eastern Economy edition. Pg 465-479. Objectives To develop an Organizational change model to overcome the resistance to change as a result of the merger To develop a training and performance appraisal model to train employees To develop a strategic plan to manage Human resource STRATEGIC PLANNING Cherunilam discusses Strategic planning as the formal consideration of an organization's future course and an effective tool for forecasting or plotting a direction for the company. The strategic planning provides an estimate of the revenues of the company and the market as a whole. Strategic planning differs from long term plans and other sorts of plans in numerous ways: Strategic plans are proactive with a high probability of occurring while long term and other plans are re-active. Strategic plans are sure to be implemented on the existence of the company while other plans carry the risk of failure and eventually result in dropping the plan, Strategic plans are internal in source and the business venture has absolute control over their application and a strategic plan is also used as a guidance to define functional and divisional plans, including Technology, Marketing, etc Francis states that Strategy is defined as the future action plans that the firm is going to undertake and the strategy components include: Goals, Scope, Competitive Advantages and Logic. In our case, the strategic plan is to bring a change of establishing a control mechanism through a quality management program at Mid Lancashire Quality textiles playing the role of a Human resource manager. ASSESSING CHANGE FORCES Barney and Griffin comment that managers fail to anticipate the change forces or respond to forces for change leading to organizational problems and thus in a dynamic society surrounding today’s organizations, the question whether change will occur is no longer relevant, Instead, the issue is how managers cope with the inevitable barrage of changes that confront them daily in attempting to keep their organizations viable and current. Otherwise the organizations will find it difficult or impossible to survive. Gary Dessler comments that basic human characteristics such as perceptions, personalities and needs play a vital role in individual sources of resistance to change. Individuals resist change mainly due to the following reasons: Human beings are creatures of habit and heavily rely on habits or programmed responses for decision making. When a change occurs, the habit has to be changed which will act as a source of resistance. In the case of a university, the professors will be having their own methodology of teaching, evaluating etc. and when a quality management system is implemented with standards, obviously there will be a large amount of friction between the employees of the university and the management and another example would be when a new automatic machine enters the company, employees tend to lose their jobs and resist the change, Changes in job tasks or established work routines also can arouse economic fears if people are concerned that they won’t be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards. For example, the introduction of quality management makes it mandatory for every employee to learn statistical procedures. This will cause resistance as most employees think they will be not able to do so and the planned change does not come automatically; rather there are many forces in individuals, groups and organization which resist such change. The change process will never be successful unless the cooperation of employees is ensured and hence, the management will have to create an environment in which change will be amicably accepted by people. If the management can overcome the resistance, change process will succeed and in a group process, there are always some forces who favor the change and some forces that are against the change and thereby a balance is maintained; Kurt lewin calls in the “field of forces” where Lewin assumes that in every situation there are both driving and restraining forces which influence any change that may occur. Driving forces are those forces which affect a situation by pushing in a particular direction. These forces tend to initiate the change and keep it going. In our case, the major drivers of change include Nature of the work force, technology, professionalism, management, competition and Social Trends. Restraining forces are the forces that act to restrain or decrease the driving forces. University restraining forces would be the opposition from the employees and labor union against the change, politics and equilibrium is reached when sum of the driving forces equals the sum of the restraining forces as shown in the following figure: The situations for these forces to work and interpret are: 1. If the driving forces far out weight the restraining forces, management can push driving forces and overpower restraining forces 2. If restraining forces are stronger than driving forces, management either gives up the change programme or it can pursue it by concentrating on driving forces and changing restraining forces into driving ones or immobilizing them 3. If driving and restraining forces are fairly equal, management can push up driving forces and at the same time can convert or immobilize restraining forces Thus, to make the people accept the changes, the management must push driving forces and convert or immobilize the restraining forces. Companies driving forces exceeded the restraining forces and company must use the push strategy to implement the change. MANAGING PLANNED CHANGE A planned change is a change by the organization; it does not happen by itself. It is affected by the organization with the purpose of achieving something that might otherwise by unattainable or attainable with great difficulty. Through planned change, an organization can achieve its goals rapidly. The basic reasons for planned change are: To improve the means for satisfying economic needs of members To increase profitability To promote human work for human beings To contribute to individual satisfaction and social well being The planned change process may comprise, basically the three following steps of planning for change, assessing change forces, implementing the change. These steps are applied to a change at company to implement a quality management system. This is to monitor the performance of the employees and evaluate them by the manager. Strategies to manage change Change is the only permanent thing in this world and when organizations change there are many forces of resistance against the change and culture is one of the important forces of resistance. HRM Techniques play a major role in changing the organizational culture. The major Interventions used in bringing a change include Human Processual, Techno structural, Socio technical systems and organization transformation. The various HRM Techniques include Action research, Organizational development, Sensitivity Training, Survey Feedback, Process Consultation, Team Building, Inter group development, Appreciative enquiry. Cummings & Worley, Organization Culture and Change , 2005, page 490 HR Interventions for Organizational culture change Interventions are mainly focused on changing the culture through changing employee behavior, Organization structure, Infrastructure and change with the external environment Human Process Interventions (Group and Individual Human Relations) These interventions are directed at improving inter personal, intra group, and inter group relations in a culturally mixed workforce and bring a change in the individual’s beliefs and attitude to suit the organizational culture. They focus on helping members of the organization to enhance themselves, each other and the ways in which they work together in order to enhance their overall organization Techno structural Interventions (Structures, Technologies, Positions) The purpose of techno structural interventions is to improve work content, work method, and relationships among workers and lower costs by replacing inefficient materials, methods, equipment, work flow designs and costly unnecessary labor with more efficient technology. These interventions might also be useful in new organizations where internal operational systems must be developed and implemented Human Resource Management Interventions (Individual and Group Performance Management) The following activities aim to enhance overall organizational performance by improving the performance of individuals and groups within the organization. Performance is in regard to setting goals, monitoring progress to the goals, sharing feedback, reinforcing activities to achieve goals and dissuading those that don't. Some of the techniques include Employee Performance Management, Employee Development, and Employee Wellness Programs Strategic Interventions (Organization and Its External Environment) The following activities focus especially on the organization and its interactions with its external environment, and often involve changes to many aspects of the organization, including employees, groups, technologies, products and services, etc These are the various strategies and HRM techniques that can be adopted to bring an organizational change breaking the resistance to change from culture. Randy L. Desimone, Jon M. Werner and David M. Harris, Human Resource Development, Pearson education. Pg. 225 – 239 Change Model Recommendation for Mid Lancashire Quality Textiles The model in the annexure serves as a framework for brining a change in the behavior of an individual at Mid Lancashire Quality Textiles. According to the model of planned change, the first stage is selecting the change intervention. Organizational transformation and Organizational Development are the famous interventions involved in bringing a change. Organizational transformation is aimed at bringing a change in the management, changing the vision, purpose and mission of an organization. Organizational Development is aimed at changing the work setting. Both the interventions finally attempt to change the behavior of an individual. The second part of the model shows the relationship between change interventions and organizational target variables. In this stage, various variables to be changed are identified. The third part of the model focuses on the types of individual cognitive change. A cognitive change can occur at various levels: Alpha Changes are possible when there is a change in the skill level of the employee. Beta changes are possible when there is a change in the work setting. Gamma (A) changes are possible when individuals perceive a change in the configuration of an existing paradigm, without the addition of new variables. i.e Change from a cost containing company to a total quality concern. This is characterized by a change in the process of the work. Gamma (B) changes are possible when individuals perceive a replacement of one paradigm with another. At this stage, the entire change has occurred and has been accepted successfully. The fourth and final part of the model focuses on how individual behavior changes can lead to two possible outcomes – improved organizational performance and enhanced individual development. By applying this model, the behavior of the employees can be changed at Mid Lancashire Quality Textiles, contributing to the overall development of the organization. Training Model and Performance appraisal: The following Training model can be adapted to bring a change in the attitude of the employees and since the job pertains to sales to a great extent, “Pay for performance” or “PPP” Method of performance appraisal could be adopted. This method should be combined with 360 degree feedback appraisal to ensure control over the performance appraisal technique. The Unions also must be brought in to agree with the performance standards set. Training and performance appraisal Model Source: HRD by Desimone. References 1. Francis Cherunilam, Strategic management and Business Environment, Himalaya Publishing. Pg. 499-508 2. Cummings & Worley, Organization Culture and Change , 2005, page 490 - 494 3. Black Enterprise. (2001). Managing a multicultural workforce. Black Enterprise Magazine (July) 4. Devoe, Deborah. (1999). Managing a diverse workforce. San Mateo, CA: InfoWorld Media Group 5. Esty, Katharine, Richard Griffin, and Marcie Schorr-Hirsh (1995). Workplace diversity. A managers guide to solving problems and turning diversity into a competitive advantage. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation 6. Stephen P. Robbins, Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall of India, Tenth Edition. Pg. 14-15 7. Garry Dessler, Human Resource Management, Eastern Economy edition, Pg 25-57 8. Randy L. Desimone, Jon M. Werner and David M. Harris, Human Resource Development, Pearson education. Pg.621-634 9. Bachon Nicholas, Storey John, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 38, No. 3, September 2000 10. Koonce, Richard. (2001). Redefining diversity: It's not just the right thing to do; it also makes good business sense. Training and Development, December 11. Jeanne Brett, Kristin Behfar and Mary C. Kern. 2006. Managing Multi Cultural teams: Harvard Business Review South Asia 12. Merril Ewert D and Jennifer A King Rice. 2002 October. Managing Diversity: HRM Review ANNEXURE Proposed change Model for Mid Lancashire Quality Textiles CHANGE INTERVENTION ORAGANISATIONAL INDIVIDUAL ORAGANISATIONAL TARGET ORGANISATION OUTCOME VARIABLES MEMBERS Source: Randy L. Desimone, Jon M. Werner and David M. Harris, Human Resource Development, Pg. 573 Read More