Change management and employee motivation strategies for a business process reengineering cycle - Essay Example

Change management and employee motivation strategies for a business process re-engineering cycle Need for Business Process Re-engineering: ABC Company is a world famous chain of automobile manufacturing company, which is operation in many of the countries. Now at this point of time, the operations are so expanded for the company that the management at the centralized hub feels to facilitate the individual continental operational units so that the whole network can work in a better way. The centralized system is good but the management of the variety of sale points can be more effective if the individual units have the authority. In order to facilitate the individual units of the continents, there is a need of business process re-engineering, which will held at a larger level, thus affecting many of the areas and departments and the stakeholders including, employees, suppliers, dealers and the customers. Main Components of Business Process Re-engineering: The business process re-engineering in which the ABC Company will authorize its units in different continents; there is need of highly mechanized communication system between the individual units, so that the network of all the units of the ABC Company can be effective. There will be many of the changes in the internal systems of the company, which will affect the employees’ performance (Normandin, 2012). Therefore, it is highly recommended to facilitate the internal control system and the employees first so that they can be a part of the change, which the company management wants to implement. It will be very difficult for the company employees to adopt and adjust in the new and technological communication system but the training programs can develop them in a positive ways. Here the training and the motivation of the employees is highly required. Redistribution of all the Company Data The re-distribution of data means that initially when the whole control of the ABC Company was centralized then the centre of the employee data and the other knowledge databases was only in the main office. Now the individual units of the company will have to sort out their relevant files and then store the relevant data and knowledge at their own particular main and centralized office. This re-distribution of data requires highly professional skilled persons, a lot of time and a cost for the settlement of the database at individual level. There is a high risk of any loss or the miscommunication or mis handling of any of the piece of information. Therefore, management has to be very much careful about this component of the business process re-engineering. Redesigning of the traditional organizational Structure and the Involvement of Computerized Technology Another important component of the change process, which can affect the employees, is the break in the status quo. Breaking the status quo means that the company is trying to modify its operational and functional strategies. Breaking the status quo is always associated with the re-training of the employees so that they can easily adjust with the new technologies and the systems, which are now a part of internal control system. Traditional organizational structure does not include any of the management information system, which can facilitate the online communication of the different units of the company (Gannon, 2013). The re-designing of the traditional organizational design means that the different departments and the areas of the company are now connected to each other through an internal database, which is highly centralized and effective. Another important consideration in this regard of change management and the re-designing of the old traditional organizational structure are to make paperless communications with every type of stakeholders. The paperless communications means the communication with the help of any of the digital device or the social and technological media. This can include feedback from customers in the form of free poll on the websites, order taking through online booking, ordering the raw material to the suppliers through online system, communicating the message to the employees through the help of emails. All of these include technological advancement in the internal system of the company. Knowledge Management Tools For the Employees The last most important consideration is to manage the potential and the capabilities of the employees in order to facilitate the business process re-engineering. ABC Company should re-train its employees just according to the requirement of the newly launched management information system. This requires a comprehensive training programs along with simulations so that employees can easily assess the new technological system. Steps of Business Re-engineering Process: There can be three main steps of setting any change in the traditional organizational structure. According to famous change management model, these three steps can be unfreezing, transition and then freezing (Lindner, 2008). The unfreezing phase will include the preparation of the company and the employees to accept the change. This may include a highly motivational program for the employees including the benefits of the change in the form of increased knowledge and efficiency level. After that, the training and development programs will add value to the motivational theories. After that, the transition phase may include the implementation of the changes in the form of installation of new communication systems and the information databases in ABC Company. The third phase of the change process means the re-freezing, which means the development of habitual nature of the employees on the newly installed communication and information system in the ABC Company. Conclusion: There are many of the departments, which will be affected by this re-engineering in the ABC Company. At first, all the employees need a motivation for the adoption of new technologies. In this regard, there is a need of training programs and then incentives for the employees so that they can willingly adopt the new changes in the old processes. In addition to that, the cost of the entire change process will be a high point for the ACB Company because there is a need of heavy budget to purchase new software and associated hardware, then skilled employees, and then training of the old employees (Bourda, 2009). This individual unit system will facilitate the cross-cultural differences because in this way the Research and development department can suggest product design according to the particular area or geographical boundary. References: Normandin, B, 2012, ‘Three Types of Change Management Models’, The Fast Track, viewed March 19, 2015 from http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2012/08/28/three-types-of-change-management-models/ Gagnon, Ray, 2013, ‘Effective Change Management: The Five Critical Steps’, The Huffington Post, viewed March 19, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ray-gagnon/effective-change-manageme_b_2993527.html? Lindner, James 2008, ‘Understanding Employee Motivation’, Journal of Extension, Volume 36, Number 3, page 5 - 8 Bourda, Fabia, 2009, ‘Change Management Theories and Methodologies’, White Paper, Consultancy Services, page number 7 - 14 Read More