Organizational Change and Development in FMC Green River - Essay Example

Organizational Change and Development in FMC Green River Organizational change management is defined as the process of controlling changes to the infrastructure or any aspect of services in a controlled manner, enabling approved changes with minimum disruption. Organizational change management is crucial to an effective application management process, which is applicable to FMC Green River. A comprehensive process for managing organizational change begins with an impact and risk assessment of the effect of the organizational change on the business. When the senior management is bureaucratic in nature this needs a careful approach and a sensitive methodology. In that case organizational change must be planned, monitored and controlled throughout its lifecycle, with completion occurring on full implementation and evaluation. To ensure the effective implementation of organizational change within an organization, a number of processes should be adhered to: Appointment of an organizational change manager Adopting of an agreed organizational change management strategy for change initiators which details: Distinct responsibilities for organizational change authorization Criteria for organizational change evaluation, prioritization and categorization Implementation strategies for both major and minor organizational change Release strategy for planned organizational change Testing and implementation procedures for organizational change Reviews of post organizational change implementation, management reporting and organizational change auditing. Production of plans for organizational change, which detail both, impact and risk. 1. Current and Evolving Decision-Analysis Methodologies Organizational change decisions are often complex, multi-faceted, and involve many different stakeholders with different priorities or objectives. Most people, when confronted with such a problem will attempt to use intuitive approaches to simplify complexity until the problem seems more manageable. In the process, important information may be lost, opposing points of view may be discarded, elements of uncertainty may be ignored -- in short, there are many reasons to expect that, on their own, individuals (either lay or expert) will often experience difficulty making informed, thoughtful choices about complex issues involving uncertainties and value tradeoffs. This fact, and the tendency of change issues to involve shared resources and broad constituencies, means that group decision processes are called for. These may have some advantages over individual processes: more perspectives may be put forward for consideration, the chances of having natural systematic thinkers involved is higher, and groups may be able to rely upon the more deliberative, well-informed members. However, groups are also susceptible to the tendency to establish entrenched positions (defeating compromise initiatives) or to prematurely adopt a common perspective that excludes contrary information – a tendency termed “group think.” (McDaniel’s etal., 1999). For change management projects, decision makers may currently receive four types of technical input: modeling/monitoring, risk analysis, cost or cost benefit analysis, and stakeholders’ preferences. However, current decision processes in Green River typically offer little guidance on how to integrate or judge the relative importance of information from each source. Also, information comes in different forms. While modeling and monitoring results are usually presented as quantitative estimates, risk assessment and cost-benefit analyses incorporate a higher degree of qualitative judgment by the project team. Structured information about stakeholder preferences must be presented to the decision-maker, and should be handled in a perfect manner that minimizes the difficulty of defending the decision process as reliable and fair. If the structured approaches are employed, they may be perceived as lacking the flexibility to adapt to localized concerns or faithfully represent minority viewpoints. As a result, the decision maker may not be able to utilize all available and necessary information in choosing between identified remedial and abatement alternatives. In response to current decision-making challenges, this paper develops a systematic framework for synthesizing quantitative and qualitative information that builds on the recent efforts and implement new concepts in decision analysis and operations research . This will help to both facilitate analysis and provide for more robust treatment of stakeholder concerns. Decision analytical frameworks can be tailored to the needs of the individual decision maker or relate to multiple stakeholders. For individual decision-makers, risk-based decision analysis quantifies value judgments; scores different project alternatives on the criteria of interest, and facilitates selection of a preferred course of action. For group problems, the process of quantifying stakeholder preferences may be more intensive, often incorporating aspects of group decision-making. The capacity for calling attention to similarities or potential areas of conflict between stakeholders with different views, in group decisions results in a more complete understanding of the values held by others. Methods and Tools Methods evolved as a response to the observed inability of people to effectively analyze multiple streams of dissimilar information. There are different methods. They are based on different theoretical foundations such as optimization, goal aspiration, or outranking, or a combination of these: • Optimization models employ numerical scores to communicate the merit of one option in comparison to others on a single scale. Scores are developed from the performance of alternatives with respect to an individual criterion and then aggregated into an overall score. Individual scores may be simply added up or averaged, or a weighting mechanism can be used to favor some criteria more heavily than others. Normalizing to an appropriate single scale may be problematic. Consequently, optimization models are best applied when objectives are narrow, clearly defined, and easily measured and aggregated. • Goal aspiration, reference level, or threshold models rely on establishing desirable or satisfactory levels of achievement for each criterion. This suits for FMC Green River, as it wants to be on profit and competent in line with Aberdeen. These processes seek to discover options that are closest to achieving, but not always surpassing, these goals. When it is impossible to achieve all stated goals, a goal model can be cast in the form of an optimization problem in which the decision maker attempts to minimize the shortfalls, ignoring exceedances. Individual Decision Maker Alternatively, the decision maker may seek to satisfy as many of the goals as possible and ignore the fact that some performance metrics may be very far from target levels. Goal models are most useful when all the relevant goals of a project cannot be met at once. • Outranking models compare the performance of two (or more) alternatives at a time, initially in terms of each criterion, to identify the extent to which a preference for one over the other can be asserted. In aggregating preference information across all relevant criteria, the outranking model seeks to establish the strength of evidence favoring selection of one alternative over another – for example by favoring the alternative that performs the best on the greatest number of criteria. Outranking models are appropriate when criteria metrics are not easily aggregated, measurement scales vary over wide ranges, and units are incommensurate or incomparable. This also best suits for Green River as here criteria metrics are still to be framed correctly and they are not easily aggregated. They help the management to aggregate them also. The outranking models are compensatory. The common purpose of these diverse methods is to be able to evaluate and choose among alternatives based on multiple criteria using systematic analysis that overcomes the observed limitations of unstructured individual and group decision-making. An overview of four principal approaches is provided in the remainder of this section. ELEMENTARY METHODS are intended to reduce complex problems to a singular basis for selection of a preferred alternative. Competing decision criteria may be present, but inter-criteria weightings are not required. For example, an elementary goal aspiration approach may rank alternatives in relation to the total number of performance thresholds met or exceeded. While elementary approaches are simple and analysis can, in most cases, be executed without the help of computer software, these methods are best suited for single-decision maker. But it was already recommended for IT system development in Green river these methods can be slowly given up. A PROS AND CONS ANALYSIS is a qualitative comparison method in which experts identify the qualities and defects of each alternative. The lists of pros and cons are compared to one another for each alternative, and the alternative with the strongest pros and weakest cons is selected. Pros and Cons Analysis is suitable for simple decisions with few alternatives and few discriminating criteria of approximately equal value. It can be implemented rapidly. Other methods are based on the Pros and Cons concept, including SWOT Analysis and Force Field Analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis helps reveal changes that can be usefully made. In Force Field Analysis the viability of a project must be evaluated by comparing the forces for and against the project. MAXIMIN AND MAXIMX METHODS The maximin method is based upon a strategy that seeks to avoid the worst possible performance – or maximizing” the poorest (“minimal”) performing criterion. This is achieved by assigning total importance to the criteria in which an alternative performs the worst, ranking all alternatives by the strength of their weakest attribute. The alternative for which the score of its weakest attribute is the highest is preferred. In multi-attribute decision-making the maximin method can be used only when all attributes are comparable so that they can be measured on a common scale, which may present a serious limitation. An analogous strategy called maximix ranks alternatives solely by their best performing criterion. Maximin and minimax are noncompensatory, in that individual alternative performance is judged on the basis of a single criterion (although different criteria may be selected for different alternatives). Minimax and minimin methods also exist. DECISION TREE ANALYSIS Decision trees are useful tools for making decisions where a lot of complex quantitative information needs to be taken into account (e.g. deciding whether to take immediate action or to postpone action in treating a mal-production problem. The principle behind decision tree analysis is link specific outcomes (or consequences) to specific decision nodes. Decision trees provide an effective structure in which alternative decisions and the consequences of those decisions can be laid down and evaluated. They also help in forming an accurate, balanced picture of the risks and rewards that can result from a particular choice, especially when outcomes may be dependent upon independent choices made by more than one decision maker. INFLUENCE DIAGRAMS An Influence Diagram is a graphic representation of a decision problem. This representation provides a framework for building decision analysis problems but does not provide a framework for quantitative evaluation, unlike Decision Tree Analysis. The graphical representation comprises nodes that represent criteria relevant to the problem. The arrows connecting the nodes represent information flows. The layout of an influence diagram allows a clear representation of dependencies between various nodes. Influence diagrams have been employed to highlight key differences between how organizational change problems are perceived by different groups – such as expert and lay stakeholders The first step in analysis is development of an attribute tree that summarizes the key values to be taken into account. The attribute tree splits top-level objectives into finer attributes and criteria. In the case of applied problems such as management of mal-functioning criteria at the lowest level should be measurable. The second step is defining criteria and associated weights. The next question concerns the form of the multi-attribute utility function that adjusts the difference between outcomes so that decision-maker’s risk attitude is also considered. The utility graphs could be created based on the data for each criterion. The technique makes these differences, and similarities, lucid by eliciting from participants their subjective judgments about the importance of outcomes and using these as a basis for comparison. Thus, by taking the decision-maker’s preferences into consideration, criteria can be weighted by importance. This leads to a complete ranking of all the alternatives based on the decision-maker’s preferences. A decision-making process for organizational change management must consider employee grievances technological and departmental factors. Each of these factors includes multiple sub-criteria, which makes the process inherently multi objective. Even though technical evaluations (such as risk assessment and feasibility studies) may be perceived as quantifiable and concrete, in reality uncertainty associated with these assessments may be very high. Senior management and departments conducting investigations and surveys may attempt to provide an objective analysis of the competing remedial and abatement policies, but the decisions they make at each stage of the analysis (such as scoping out the problem, selecting a benchmark, developing appropriate models, etc.) can greatly affect the conclusions of the risk assessments and feasibility studies delivered to the decision makers (regulators and stakeholders). Most of these decisions are not well documented and not justified, which made it difficult to Green River Management to assess the degree of conservatism (or lack of it) built into the analysis. Based on their experience risk assessments and employees participation should be considered. 6. Proposed Framework Here we provide an overview of the systematic decision analytic framework that modernly incorporates the atmosphere of Green River. We can use the term decision analysis to refer to a set of quantitative methods for analyzing decisions, rather than a description of how unaided decisions are made. The proposed framework must be intended to give a generalized “road-map” to the decision process. It should acknowledge fundamental roles and freedom of “employees process and tools” within complex, organizational decisions. Decision-making involves complex trade-offs between divergent criteria. The traditional approach to decision-making involves valuing these multiple criteria in a common unit, usually money, and thereafter performing standard mathematical optimization procedures. Extensive scientific research in the area of decision analysis has exposed many weaknesses in this approach. At the same time, new methods that facilitate a more rigorous analysis of multiple criteria have been developed. These methods, collectively when applied increase the communication between employees, management, stakeholders and customers. It demonstrates advantages, but choosing among communication methods is a complex task. Each method has strengths and weaknesses. It is therefore unavoidable that the decision-maker will have to choose, on a case-by-case basis, the most suitable understanding technique applicable to each situation. Learning leads to the development. Terms like “learning company” or “learning organization” are now often used to describe a “new quality of learning” within companies. However, there is a lack of clarification as to what companies really do when they declare themselves as “learning companies”. The term “learning company” is also used in very different ways. It can be identified with teamwork, in-company training and the adaptation of the company to changing market requirements as it was in Aberdeen. The paper has aimed to identify ways of organizational learning in Green River and its implications for training of its employees to work with an attachment towards their work and the organization. Organizational learning is defined as happening when “an organization stimulates individual learning in order to share learning processes between individuals and to distribute the results of such learning within the organization”. The following can be taken: Although impressive examples of organizational learning were identified, they were not always a result of a company’s general policy. Only to some extent can organizational learning be regarded as systematically implemented by company management. In other cases organizational learning was a result of efforts at a decentralized level or as a side effect of the restructuring of work systems.   Worker specific knowledge can be used to improve company performance as well as health and safety at work. Formerly, improvements of performance and safety were almost exclusively tasks for Management. Now, workers at all company levels are being asked to share and utilize their specific knowledge about production processes, technical installations and co-workers in order to improve normal production flow and how to cope with incidents.   This merging of theoretical knowledge with practical know-how is regarded as work process knowledge, which operates within a broader horizon than just a single workplace.  The stimulation of the development and acquisition of work process knowledge involves evaluation of that knowledge, documenting it and distributing it within the Green River.   This has implications for learning and training when it is not linked with the acquisition of work process knowledge and is resulting in changes in learning of the employees. In industries behavior-oriented, theoretical elements can be added to provide a sound foundation for the acquisition of work process knowledge. Where learning and training is mainly theoretical, practical elements of learning are integrated into training. In Green River, which sticks to the old model of bureaucratic management, theoretical values are more imparted in the employees by the management. So it is better for the management to think practically in a manner to satisfy the employees and make them competent by career enhancement methodologies and addressing their grievances. Learning in a “learning company” is oriented towards the running of the plant and towards improving performance, combined to some extent with career opportunities. It is not oriented towards job descriptions and the range of vocational competences.  Learning and training as a means to prepare somebody for given work routines is losing its importance and becoming less specialized as a large number of competences are and will continue to be acquired through learning at work. Companies do benefit from organizational learning by gaining greater flexibility whereas individuals gain from improved working conditions and making work more interesting especially through knowledge creation and sharing, through utilizing more discretion and dialogue and through greater autonomy. There is also the opportunity to attain a higher salary in some cases. Organizational learning does provide multiple opportunities for learning that are appreciated by a large majority of employees.  Recommendations include: - Programmes and qualifications in initial education and training and in further or continuing training should be related to work. The concept of work process knowledge serves as a sound framework for this purpose.   As participative ways of organizational learning lead to superior results, workers should be involved in stimulating this process.   A successful company can be made like that by providing high-quality services for industrial customers. When we look at economic development in Aberdeen it becomes evident that delivery of required product and service is mainly responsible for the profit line. In view of the shift of production and services to Green River, it will be particularly the sectors focusing on research and development which make it possible to maintain a high level of added value in the Green River organization. First however the bureaucratic and highhanded ness over the employees must be discarded. The Green River will turn successful when senior managers are willing to make sacrifice of their authority in return to a conducive atmosphere, which gives employees more elbow space. By this it can develop strategies which show their adaptability to future needs in respect of product development, market integration, innovative employment systems and training, and at the same time have a positive effect on the company’s competence. A striking feature here is the fact that the products and services are created by Green River will be close to the market, and are thus designed to suit the customer if effective communication is possible. The company must succeed in converting the technological expertise generally available in Employees into marketable products for the more highly priced segments. Successful product and market strategies Economic development aims to reduce costs by increasing production. Following this trend, the Green River can be successful by adopting a model of flexible, decentralized and lean production. One characteristic of this strategy is the flexible response, which can be made to customer requirements when designing products, together with a wide range of product variations and excellent product quality. This is the reason for the success story of Aberdeen, which was made possible by more employee interaction with management. Successful Green River can be found when it discovers the flexible specialist and customer-oriented series manufacturing. A successful chemical company with hundreds of employees, which makes high quality, products, is one example of a customer-oriented series manufacturer. Its main product can be adapted to individual customer requirements by altering specific components. A manufacturer should position him on the market with differentiated quality production in the high-priced segment. Aberdeen, whose corporate strategy is based on manufacturing know-how, product innovation, flexibility and employee freedom where customer requirements are concerned and were transient from bottom to the top has achieved unusually high success. Although the size of the Green River Company is high it is the lack of sophistication and information sharing that made it a reeling unit. This shows that mass production strategies can also be comparatively successful if they are pursued rigorously. Differentiated quality producers or mass producers emphasize the differences in market strategies based on market structures in a comparison of success strategies as initiated. In case of Green River also lies in orientation, which a manufacturer of standard chemical products would be unable to implement. Green River will be successful when profits and sales trends concerned are based on their strategies, which are intensive, and purposeful for market development. This may happen when the company cultivates professionalism in its employees. The Green River Company to be successful must have independent departments for research and development and for the strategically important field of purchasing and sales. Internal success factors The company should examine endeavor to keep their production processes innovative at all times, investing considerable sums, for example, in plant modernizations which in turn increases technology up gradation. Organizational structures As far as the organizational structures are concerned, Green River should have shallow command structures, a marked abandonment of the hierarchical organizations typical of the Green River. There are considerable differences in the importance attached to formal structures in the control and regulation of operational procedures in organizations with shallow command structures. The Green River was once successful when it was informally organized while yet Aberdeen focused distinctly on modern organizational concepts for its success. The production team can enjoy considerable organizational leeway, which can be characterized by personal responsibility and experiments, which aim to optimize the production flow. The report points out here that successful business development based on strong, personal leadership is endangered when generational changes make the loss of specialists and management imminent. This problem can be countered with a strengthening of more formalized organizational structures which was the need of the hour for Green River. Formalization of the organizational structure: Regulations and the allocation of competences can help to make Green River and its organizational structures more independent of individuals without necessarily affecting internal cohesion. With the aid of formalization, transparent standards and rules can be established as a guide for the employees. As a result, the organization is able to rely less strongly on long-standing personal leadership, making it easier for new specialists to be integrated into the corporate structure. Modern organizational concepts, which grant decentralized competences to the individual departments, can be linked to formalized input from the employees. (Case study: Aberdeen) Personnel strategies Industrial specialists and personnel play a key role in innovativeness and success of a company. From engineer to machine operator, the level of qualification held by the employees must be high, if not he must be trained accordingly. Of the industrial employees, only very few can be allowed to be semi-skilled. The depth of knowledge required for the products is in line with the high importance attached to the engineering personnel – above all in the development and construction departments, but also to those with sales functions. The professional dimension of the tasks carried out by the employees and their personal responsibility must be of a superior nature. Personnel management and strategies are, of considerable significance as success factors in the Aberdeen. In no way does the significance of human resources decline in line with the standardization of production and the size of the company. Production processes must be managed "tightly" in accordance with up-to-date business organization methods do not hamper an orientation towards human resources. Green River to be successful should have a higher number of trainees, a lower rate of excessive aging (the relation of employees under thirty to those over fifty) and far more strategic personnel activities ranging from personnel development concepts through trainee planning to measures such as job rotation. Organizational culture Internal social relations are of prime importance for the success of a company. Where the management helps to build the confidence of its employees by, for example, taking into account their concerns and preventing one-sidedly imposed conditions of service; those same employees will feel bound to the company. Adequate remuneration for qualified work is also part of a strong organizational culture. Whether party to collective wage agreements or not, successful companies do not pursue low wage strategies, particularly as these would encourage the defection of qualified young employees. In addition to purely monetary incentives, "soft" motivation factors play a major role in successful companies: a good working atmosphere is characterized not only by praise and recognition of the employees and their work, and a policy of information regarding major decisions, but also by things like company parties and outings. The successful concentrates also on development of the research and development infrastructure and the improvement of the training system for its employees. Furthermore, the reduction of bureaucracy should be aimed at the practices a general criticism. This type of infrastructure promotion should complement the central success factors identified here, and above all the personnel element, and should promote efficient cooperation networks in the sense of a close cooperation between various departments of the company. This type of promotion of cooperation has the advantage of banning to all intents and making employees competent and skilled. The aim of the project was to obtain in-depth insight into the problems inherent in the Green River Company, to identify successful departments and employees in the industry and to define the factors, which contribute to their success. An analysis of success factors within the company will show that following features play an important role in its corporate growth: A strong product alignment by the company to innovation and what the customer wants. Sustainable cooperation networks between other departments and research department along with the sustainable development of human resources. It is important to note that these factors should not be considered in an isolated context. They are linked in all sorts of ways in successful companies, with human resources being of particular importance. The qualified specialists, engineers and technicians as well as the managers with superior strategic competence can be made responsible for the success of knowledge-intensive products which can make Green River on the lines of Aberdeen. Some Examples for Micro and Macro Change Management Tools Basic Processes Micro Tools Macro Tools Diagnosis Processes Different kind of questionnaires, Organizational Constellations, active listening tools, Time Lines, Organizational History / Mapping Open Space Technology, Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry Concept Building Processes Visioning, creativity techniques (e.g. Walt-Disney-Cycle), Mind mapping Project Cycle Management, Appreciative Inquiry, Scenario Technique Psychosocial Change Processes Various coaching techniques, Peer Mentoring, Meta-Mirror, working with hidden agendas, 6 Thinking Hats, Working with Limiting Beliefs Open Space Technology, Future Search Conferences Learning Processes Dialogue, tools for self-reflection, mentoring Formal training or on-the-job, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry Information Processes Tools for recognizing and utilizing different thinking styles, Pacing and Leading Public Relations Campaigns, Intranets, Stakeholder Forums Implementation Processes General management techniques General management techniques, Real Time Strategic Change (RTSC) Management of all Change Processes General management techniques General management techniques (e.g. participatory monitoring), TQM The above table was taken from change-management-toolbook.com Important element in organizational analysis Knowledge management is important element in organizational analysis. It brings cooperative atmosphere between many diverse discipline areas, with a variety of points of view. KM is a cross-functional area in organizations and can be seen as a radical management approach for achieving cultural change in an organization. In the current turbulent commercial environment, firms like Green river have to recognize that their organizational knowledge is an important resource for corporate competency. Of course, advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) have heightened the interest in knowledge as a strategic resource and knowledge management can be viewed as the latest in a long line of applications of ICT for the provision of business solutions in organizations. In ICT perspective, information is meaningful, processed data and knowledge is information that is executable. As a starting point for our search for an integrated KM framework, the following definition can be considered useful. “Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially it materializes organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings.” (Malhotra 2000) The above statement alludes to the complexity of the interplay between people and technology in innovative organizational processes which in other way urges for elimination bureaucratic management like that of the type in Green Rive, which displays lack of sufficient knowledge. It suggests that, in knowledge management projects, it is critical to focus on human activities in pursuit of business objectives and to recognize the influence of the context, in particular the current changing environment where people work both as individuals and in communities of practice. It is difficult to define distinctly and uniquely the KM. Similarly it diversifies views about what people perceive that knowledge to be. Two distinct views of organizational knowledge can be taken into consideration. One view sees knowledge as an object that can be codified and then stored in a computerized system to be made available on demand, and to the fundamental purpose of all knowledge management activity is to acquire, capture, access and reuse knowledge throughout the organization. The implication is that knowledge can be separated from its source and context and when it was done it can be used extensively. Other distinct view says that knowledge can only reside in people and that knowledge management allows individual knowledge seekers to identify and communicate with knowledge sources, i.e. experts. The implication here is that group knowledge is simply the sum of the knowledge of its members and the goal of knowledge management is to create a connected environment for knowledge exchange in a corporate memory. By adapting to the above-mentioned views sincerely the Green River management can make access to a positively directed organizational changes and development. References and bibliography http://webfuse.cqu.edu.au/Courses/2004/T3/COIS20077/Resources/Readings/Files/HasanBookChapter.pdf change-management-toolbook.com Read More