The Xerox Corporation Company - Case Study Example

125120 Q To start with, the company, Xerox Corporation had been impressive as a well-known and distinguished leader in its field. The words Xeroxing and Xerox machine show the immense clout and sway the company had over the consumer minds, as the name of the company has become a verb in English language. Something akin to Microsoft style, it has made its faithful investors millionaires and had opened a famous research centre. In the initial days of globalisation, company ran into many troubles and upheavals. It had to suffer, change its production line and after long struggle, today it is a force to reckon with. In order to analyse the change of management in Xerox, it is necessary to adopt many management theories to analyse friction by friction. PEST analysis, comprising of Political, Economical, sociocultural and technological factors, according to which the marketing environment is made up of three aspects, internal environment, micro environment, macro environment etc. The internal environment consists of staff that is also called internal customers, office technology, wages and finance etc. Micro environment is external customers, agents and distributors, suppliers, out competitors etc. Macro environment consists of Political and legal forces, economic forces, sociocultural forces and technological forces etc. PEST is concerned only with the Macro Environment, which is concerned with the production of the company. "The first is efficiency in the production of a given set of outputs. That is, with a given capital stock a given technology and a given set of resource prices, firms should be producing goods and services with a minimum expenditure of the economy's resources," (Cyert, 1988, p.36). Xerox had to overcome many problems while going through Change Management. It could not compete with the Japanese competitors because of high manufacturing cost. Internal culture and leadership suffered due to mindsets bordering towards complacent inertia. But later, leadership went through an immense transformation that led to the present enviable state of the company. It improved the quality of its products and the organisation turned the corner. In 1990s, Xerox introduced digital photocopiers, high-end laser printers with attached scanners and these products made Xerox march ahead of its competitors in this mercurial field. "Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete "document service" to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration and user support." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox Xerox created excellent name for itself in the employment front as well. Company received 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. "They have maintained this rating in 2003, 2004, 2005. Xerox has been recognized by a number of other organizations for its diversity leadership as well." Ibid. As far as the political factors are concerned, the political scenario has a very large influence on business. It depends on the stability of the political environment, how could the tax regulation going to affect the company, what could be the Government's stand in marketing ethics, government's economic and industrial policy etc. It also depends on its religious or secular policies and if they are religion oriented enough to disturb other cultures or if there are any regional or international agreements and compulsions. Xerox did not face many problems due to political problems in home country, but it must have faced problems in other countries like Asian Specific countries, and to some extent, in India. "But, according to a recent article (Cordtz, 1974, "Xerox is moving into an awkward agethe company resembles a muscular adolescent who has grown so fast that he finds it difficult to coordinate his newly acquired strength" (page 117)" (Burke, 1977, p.22). In economic factors deal with market trends, economic predictions, theories of long and short term both, international market trend, any upcoming national and international fiscal policies that might change the trend, interest rates, inflation, employment level, national per capita income, and any immediate changes in any of the above. This is a very broad spectrum and naturally Xerox was affected by many of them. "The assumption of an organization as a system implies that certain organizational configurations are most likely to be associated with a high rate of program change," (Donaldson, 1995, P.5). Sociocultural factors are connected with the cultural and social diversities that could affect the business. They differ from country to country and it is always better for the MNCs to find out the dominant religion, culture and its biases and prejudices against foreign business and products in advance. Organisations that venture into business beyond boundaries should also have more information about local language and their affects, different social and commercial roles of men and women, and how much contribution each groups make in consumerism, leisure time, living time and environmental policies. Work environment and environmental preservation through proper policies both are necessary for a company that has branches abroad, because the work culture and environmental constraints differ from place to place. Xerox did not have much problem here, with India and Asia Pacific both being tolerant regions. Technological factors include competition, globalisation, technological development of the land, consumers, Internet banking, mobile phone connections, production expenses etc. Also company has to make sure if the technologies, machines and facilities are updated and modern enough to compete with the best tools used by other companies. Other requirements are to check how Internet savvy the company is, how direct communication with customers could be maintained and the effectiveness of customer relationship management. Managing complexity of a big organisation like Xerox always exists and comes in the way of any attempt of acute change management and it is no wonder that many kinds of conflicts will arise. Management has to be patient with such problems and Xerox had many problems not only in the home country, but also in the outlets. Environmental changes, environmental rules, other changes like business environment change, e.g., globalisation, collapse of communism etc. do prevail on business world. The Creativity theory advocated by Teresa Amabile says time is not on our side and this was really proved by Xerox when they made many wrong decisions like introducing typewriters, less advanced PCs as against advanced PCs of higher competitor, and ignoring the order flow to other companies. Nonaka and Takeuchi insisted on knowledge creation and knowledge management. They argued that tacit knowledge is more important than the formal knowledge. They say that knowledge are building blocks of interaction and create key dynamics of knowledge creation in an organisation. Xerox's success came when the company's knowledge base was broadened. Agryris and Schol specified concept of organisational learning in 1978. They developed theories of learning and emphasised the importance of learning and showed that learning is the most important path to success. Both of them have made significant contribution to the appreciation of organisational learning and experimental learning. Between them they developed single and double loop learning and developed the Theory of Action. They are the mechanisms by which we link our thoughts with our actions and these theories have many elements like, "Action strategies, Consequences for self, Consequences for others, Governing values, Action Strategy effectiveness," http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/argyris2.html#a_as_toa Xerox, according to Action Strategies, the company has to keep managing the immediate and social surroundings and in the case study, Xerox did a good job in equality employment and service management. With the next consequences for self, where end effect is important, Xerox brought in many changes that looked doubtful at the time, but later ushered in fantastic results, e.g., laser technology. In consequences to others too, Xerox did commendable work. It made its investors millionaires, its customers were looked after, its document service became popular, it went to the extent of supplying even the paper so that quality would not suffer, and it had been comfortable in diversity of India, Europe and Asia Pacific. It managed its governing values too very well, adapted itself to new situations without losing its inherent values and without making quality compromises, tried to be rational even though opportunities became limited, and maximised cooperation and collaboration. QUESTION 2 Force field analysis is a management technique advocated by Kurt Lewin, for diagnosing diverse situations in companies, corporations and vast organisations. In the mercurial business world of globalisation, unlike earlier, every situation changes according to internal and external atmosphere. Almost all the big organisations and some small companies as well are going through the Programme of Change Management. Change Management depends on the involved variables of planning and implementing the plan. This management technique takes into consideration the overcoming resistance of employees and employers against change. Team building is another important criteria that is being applied in all earnestness as one of the major requirement for the Change Management. According to Force Field Analysis, Driving Forces will push the organisation's working pattern towards a particular direction. Driving forces could be anything like superior pressure, competition, more salary, incentives, appreciation, and motives of leadership. Restraining forces could be the resistance for change from workers and management, undesirability of moving from a comfortable slot, unhappiness in going through upheavals of change, apprehension about-facing the unknown and fear of disturbing equilibrium etc. http://www.accel-team.com/techniques/force_field_analysis.html When Change Management takes place, with new employees, different cadres are being introduced along with new market approach and newer technology. At the same time, business leaders have their own fears of failure that holds them back from adventurous decisions. This shows more in Xerox's decision to produce better typewriters, even though computers were replacing the typewriters all over the world. Organisational inertia, to which it has got accustomed to, is difficult to be shaken off. Xerox had created an illusion of equilibrium in its structure and it had to liberate itself from these forces that were causing inertia. No doubt imbalance was introduced later to enable change by increasing drivers and reducing restraints and sometimes both. Every organisation has the choice of bringing the forces back into quasi-equilibrium and re-freeze them, which eventually Xerox did. DUNPHY AND STACE MODEL: Dunphy and Stace Model is used to investigate and solve a controversy between universal and specific corporate change. According to this model universal models of change management are not sufficient to explain the total impact of change management taking place within the corporate sector and in individual corporate houses. The model is explained as making sense of contemporary strategic implementation of organisational change. Even though universal changes were sweeping the globe in 1970s and 1980s when Xerox lost the patent of copier technology, because the company's internal changes are not coordinating with the universal changes, company lost customers by ignoring PARC like developed technologies. Due to this lack of coordination, it introduced a range of computers called Xerox 820 exactly when IBM came out with a far more advanced PC. QUESTION 3 Sadly, in 2002, U.S, Securities and Exchange commission filed a suit against Xerox claiming that the company made many 'accounting manoeuvres' also alleging that senior management of Xerox was aware of the discrepancies and did some 'closing the gap' work and this was a direct assault on the company's integrity. Now it has branched into Xerox India and Fuji Xerox, while European operation is maintained by Rank Xerox. "W. Edwards Deming in the 1950's proposed that business processes should be analysed and measured to identify sources of variations that cause products to deviate from customer requirements. He recommended that business processes be placed in a continuous feedback loop so that managers can identify and change the parts of the process that need improvements," http://www.balancedscorecard.org/bkgd/pdca.html It is called PDCA cycle for Plan, Do, Check and Act and the model is used mainly on production processes, and improvements in production technology. Mostly it is used on smaller companies, because larger companies cannot change as fast as the smaller companies, as their size and number would become their hindrances. Xerox too takes a very long time to change. But once it changed, there was no stopping the giant. It also introduced its corporate signature, which was a real clever move and the 'digital X' became the new symbol of digital world. In 2004, it was confidant enough to abandon and 'digital X'. Their office environments, graphic arts and the company covers education, healthcare, financial services and creative services and printing customers. Markets software, paper, works with major paper mills and brings out array of products to improve image and speed and quality, and sees that traditional offset papers are not optimised. Research centre focuses on toners, digital imaging, mechanical systems and printing systems. Also markets special application and speciality papers, and carbonless papers for digital printing. "Xerox requires paper suppliers to meet stringent requirements that encompass sustainable forest management and fibre sourcing that put limits on use of hazardous materials, and that demand reusable or recyclable packaging," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox Deming said it is imperative to improve constantly and forever the system of production and service. "Every product should be regarded as one of a kind; there is only one chance for optimum success. Teamwork in design, ..is fundamental," (Deming, 1991, p.49). He also emphasized everyday learning to concerned people and organisations. "If communities of practice are crucial to everyday natural leavrning processes and achievements and if we emphasize practice over theory and the social over the individual, what might be consequences be for management learning" (Burgoyne and Reynolds, 1997, p.30). This model has a wheel within a wheel to show the relationship between 'strategic management and business unit management in a large company.' Separate business units will have separate goals, targets, processes, designs and motives. The benefits of the cycle is considered to be: "daily routine management for the individual/or for the team, problem solving process, project management, continuous development, vendor development, human resources development, new product development and process trials" http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_demingcycle.html BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Burgoyne, John and Reynolds, Michael (1997), ed., Management Learning, Sage Publications, London. 2. Burke, W. Warner (1977) ed., Current Issues and Strategies in Organization Development, Human Sciences Press, London. 3. Cyert, Richard M. (1998), The Economic Theory of Organization and the Firm, Harvester-Wheatsheaf, London. 4. Donaldson, Lex (1995), ed., Contingency Theory, Dartmouth, Aldershot. 5. Damachi, Ukandi G. (1978), Theories of Management and the Executive in the Developing World, The MacMillan Press Limited, London. 6. Deming, W. Edwards (1991), Out of the Crisis, Cambridge University Press. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox 2. http://www.accel-team.com/techniques/force_field_analysis.html 3. http://www.balancedscorecard.org/bkgd/pdca.html 4. http://www.balancedscorecard.org/bkgd/pdca.html 5. http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_demingcycle.html 6. http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/argyris2.html#a_as_toa 7. Read More