Behavioral and Emotional Responses to the Change Initiative - Essay Example

? Management Contents Contents 2 Change Management in Organisations 3 Organisational Change in Retail 4 The Change Initiative 5 Behavioural and Emotional Responses to the Change Initiative 6 Outcomes Associated with Behavioural and Emotional Responses 8 Recommendations 8 References 9 Change Management in Organisations The external environment of the business organisations are amenable to large amount of changes owing to alteration in consumer tastes and fashions and also other economic, social and technological changes. Business organisations relating to such external changes are required to adapt to new vision and mission objectives to help address the market needs in an effective fashion. Changes brought about in the organisational vision and mission are evaluated in terms of enhancing the competence level of the business concerns to operate more effectively thereby gaining on in market shares and revenues. However change management to be successful requires effective percolation and transmission of vision and mission objectives amongst the people at different levels. Involvement of human resources is considered as a prime concern for implementation of changes adapted. The people pertaining to different levels are required to be trained and communicated accordingly to make them understand the benefits and advantages related to the change process. Similarly the people must also be encouraged to render effective feedbacks relating to their problems and grievances owing to the requirement to perform in a changed environmental setting. This process put in place helps in the designing of adequate teams in the organisation that would contribute in the accomplishment of the new organisational objectives (Cameron and Green, 2004, p.79-80). Organisational Change in Retail The demand for fashion merchandises is countering dynamic changes owing to changing tastes and desires of the people around the world for which fashion retail companies are required to bring about changes in the operational processes and accordingly adapt new vision and mission objectives. Retail concerns thus needs to incorporate processes that would help in effectively tracking changes in the demand scenario and thereby help in effective ordering for the right stocks. Working as a store manager in a fashion retail concern rendered a clear understanding about the factors for which the sales figures were countering a fall each month thereby leading to loss of revenues and goodwill. Fall in demand for the garments led to undue stock piling both in the store and warehouse thereby also creating a financial impact on the organisation in terms of locking of working capital. Thus it was strongly felt that the retail organisation needed adequate changes both in the vision and mission guidelines and also needed the incorporation of effective technology and process to help serve the organisational objectives. The main problem identified here related to the failure of the right merchandise to reach the stores from the warehouse at the right time. This fact thus led to the consumers perceives the unavailability of the required merchandise at the store leading to loss of potential demand and business for the retail concern. Thus it was required for the retail organisation to take resort to the process and concept of ‘Fast Fashion Retailing’ and also to implement technological and process changes thereby. ‘Fast Fashion’ is held to be a retail business strategy that aims in helping the retail concerns in effective reduction of lead times thereby contributing in the right merchandising of the stocks required to be sold (Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2006, p.259). Henceforth incorporation of technological changes relating to use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology enabled scanners was also strongly felt that would help in rightly tracking inventory movement and thereby inform about the ‘hot sellers’ and the ‘unsold stocks’ (Thomas, 2008, p.98). Along with the above stated process and technological changes the vision and mission objectives were transformed to focus on enhancing the level of customer satisfaction through helping them gain access to the right goods at the right time in a convenient fashion. The Change Initiative Herein the implementation of the change process incorporated would be reflected pertaining to the use of RFID Technology enabled scanners to fulfil the requirement for introduction of Fast Fashion concept. Implementation of incorporating RFID in the retail corporation firstly required the putting of RFID Tags and Codes on each of the different merchandises present in the store and the warehouse. This uniform tagging of the merchandises both at the retail outlet and in the warehouse helped the retail company to effectively track the movement of stocks from the manufacturer or the supplier’s end and also from the retailer’s end. Secondly with the production and incorporation of RFID Enabled tags the retail concern along with its distribution arms were also required to work based on Scanners that would help scan the RFID Tags embodied on the merchandises. Thirdly in parallel to the introduction of the RFID Technology in the retail concern the incorporation of web based operations based on both along the intranet and internet applications was carried out. This process helped the retail concern in effectively integrating the supply chain bodies along with its distribution and store outlets situated in different areas respectively. The web interface along with the RFID Technology taken simultaneously was held to enhance the communication paradigm to a far-flung level thereby helping the suppliers and distributors gain the knowledge of the ‘hot-selling’ items and thereby render the merchandises accordingly leading to rise in sales. Incorporation of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology also caused paramount change in the billing process in the concern making it fast and secure. The billing done through use of RFID Scanners helped in production of databases pertaining to stocks sold out thereby assisting in inventory tracking also (Brown, 2007, p.137; White and Bruton, 2010, p.8). The implementation of RFID Technology in the retail concern to gain a success required the inwarding of the stocks to be carried out in the company’s inventory system through scanning the tags tied through use of RFID Scanners. However in that the RFID Technology Implementation needed a lot of technological resources to be put in place this called for a larger amount of investment for the concern. The retail concern aptly desired to incorporate RFID Implementation owing to other related benefits like helping to reduce pilferage levels of the merchandise thus requiring the concern to reduce business and manpower costs. Behavioural and Emotional Responses to the Change Initiative The introduction and implementation of RFID Technology in the retail environment led to the changes in the policy goals of the company pertaining to human resources. In the previous days the retail stores had to depend on sourcing teams that would visit the distribution outlets and pick up the merchandise depending on one’s level of perception. Further the scanning functions of the stocks both at the supply chain and distributor’s end and also at the store also required large amount of manpower to both scan and count the stocks physically. This process thereby firstly required larger manpower and increased time thereby increasing business costs and reducing efficiency. Thus introduction of RFID Technology happened to create an impact on the workers to adequately gain trained pertaining to listing and tracking the inventories through scanning and also on the process of handling the internet and intranet based applications related to the same. Expectation levels for the employees working at the front line level increased wherein they had to effectively search for the merchandise being present in other locations and also in other warehouses based on the technology interface present. Owing to the above fact the workers started felling pressurised pertaining to the training requirements imposed upon them to fulfil the expectations of the retail company relating to rendering enhanced customer service. Some of the staffs in the stores along with distributor and supply chain teams were found to evade the training programs. Further again the use of the RFID and other Web based technologies also led to reduce the manpower levels in sourcing and distribution departments. These people were either shifted to front line sales or were asked to leave the concern. This fact affected the people emotionally as they had started sharing an emotional bond both for each other and also with the concern (IGI Global, p.612). Outcomes Associated with Behavioural and Emotional Responses Technological changes pursued through the incorporation of RFID and Web enabled technology created a lot of problems for the staffs and customers in the retail corporations. The staffs complained about higher expectancy and quick servicing pressures along with retrenchment in some quarters. Further the staffs along with the consumers also started complaining of embarrassing situations where they had been caught by beeping of the RFID Tags embossed in the garments. Protests along with boycotts were launched by both the staff and consumer groups. The staffs working in the supply chain and distribution category ends also carried out protests owing to increased pressure to scan and update inventory data on computers (Ranasinghe, Sheng and Zeadally, 2010, p.298-299). Recommendations From the above discussion it is learnt that to inculcate an effective environment for the introduction and use of RFID Technology and other Web technology in the retail environment it is highly required to gain an effective communication process with other stakeholder groups pertaining to supplier and distributor bodies. Gaining of confidence pertaining to the staffs of these sectors along with incorporation of deactivators to deactivate the RFID tags for goods bought would help in reducing both staff and consumer complaints. The internal and external people must be adequately communicated with the changes being incorporated along with stating the benefits and advantages related to gain the needed support for the change management enabled in the retail paradigm. References Barnes, L., and Lea-Greenwood, G., 2006. Fast Fashioning the Supply Chain: Shaping the Research Agenda. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 19(3), pp.259-271. Brown, D. E., 2007. Rfid Implementation. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Cameron, E., and Green, M., 2004. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools & Techniques of Organizational Change. United Kingdom: Kogan Page Publishers. IGI Global, 2010. Enterprise Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. Idea Group Inc (IGI). Ranasinghe, D.C., Sheng, Q.Z., and Zeadally, S., 2010. Unique Radio Innovation for the 21st Century: Building Scalable and Global RFID Networks. New York: Springer. Thomas, R., 2008. Rfid 100 Success Secrets - 100 Most Asked Questions: The Missing Radio Frequency Identification Tag, Implementation and Technology Guide. Raleigh: Lulu.com. White, M. A., and Bruton, G.D., 2010. The Management of Technology and Innovation: A Strategic Approach. United States: Cengage Learning. Read More