Heinz Australia - Case Study Example

Heinz Australia Case Draw on each of the elements of the cultural web to discuss how the culture at Heinz Australia has changed and is continuing to evolve under Widdows’ leadership. Widdows detected from the start the ultimate problem hovering corporate culture of Heinz Australia. There was lack of nurturing and support from staff and even conflicts that would continue remain part of the people’s story about the kind of company they are working with. The initiative of Widdows to adapt ‘a great place to work’ initiative would therefore make a great comparison among employees towards the new direction of their company. The initiative of Widdows to implement ‘a great place to work’ strategy is a way to emphasize the kind of rituals and routines employees used to do in the company. This remarkably would create impact among them concerning the kind of value Widdows would want to emphasize in his new management. Tantamount to the implementation of new management, policies and procedures eventually will help create significant representations. Under the new initiative of Widdows, it is clear new organizational structure would be defined and that it centers on the level of contribution employees will be able to give to the company. Widdows remarkably would try to control employee’s behaviors with his new initiative and there must be no question about it. In fact, he just wants to ignite certain level of influence among his employees and that would be made possible by constantly motivating them with his new initiative, one that could change organizational culture, employees’ mindset and productivity. With this, Widdows is showcasing his leadership ability as he deals with change. After all, leadership tries to cope with change (Kotter, 1998). 2. Based on your cultural web audit, identify the key forces for and against change. Based on the cultural web audit, one of the key forces against change would be the prevailing rituals and routines of the employees. Prior to Widdows’ management, people are having different behaviors towards their work, and this situation directly identifies the kind of culture Heinz Australia possesses. This is going to be a challenge on the part of Widdows’ leadership considering that the people have been practicing a system of belief and values. If people would not be able to identify the kind of direction Widdows would want to take, there would be a tendency that these employees would deviate from the direction set by Widdows. After all, culture by itself has something strong relevance with aligning people. Widdows needs to develop culture with strong acceptance to high communication level. It is only at this point Widdows would be able to provide clear instructions and ways on how to follow rituals and routines associated with the new policies and procedures for his proposed change. On the other hand, control systems would be the key for change. Widdows is actually trying to identify ways and means how to eventually control the people and their behaviors. The emancipation of ‘a great place to work’ initiative is a fundamental option in order to create an environment that would be highly controlled when it comes to monitoring of employees’ behaviors at work. This system also has relevant link with motivating employees. Widdows is just trying to identify employees’ needs in order to finally come up with the right action to control them. Identifying needs after all is essential in the motivation process (Carpenter et al., 2009). 3. What appear to be the key strengths of the new culture? There is influence in the new culture Widdows would want to introduce to Heinz Australia. The reason why there is influence is due to the fact that Widdows is trying to take control of the human resource’s attitudes and behaviors towards work. This is a significant move in order to develop influence as Widdows is trying to motivate the whole team with the inclusion of new culture that seeks to strengthen employee-company relationship. Widdows is actually good at finding the needs of the human resource so this remarkably builds up high level of influence in his leadership. There is direction setting in the new culture as this creates power and organisational structures. Without any question, Widdows is simply trying to imply how important the human resource in the company. His program could actually support the point he is giving high level of weight on the things employees could possibly give to the company. So Widdows program is actually a matter of setting direction, for there is a specific way every employee should walk on just to be able to determine organisational objectives. It is goal-oriented because in the first place, Widdows has substantial outlook to produce specific outcome in the end. So it actually would motivate employee to work at some point knowing that they have direction to follow and objectives to obtain (Carpenter et al., 2009). These are just some of the key strengths of the new culture, which in great detail would emphasise organisational, power and system structures. 4. What aspects of the organization need to be monitored and sustained to ensure the organization does not slide back into the old ways of thinking and working? It should be the human resource, the first and primary aspect Widdows needs to monitor and sustain in order to ensure the organisation does not slide back into the old ways of thinking and working. People, their mindset, behaviors and more are what would build the company in the first place (Kotter, 1998). The human resource without any question is essential to the achievement of company’s success. Employees are what the company should rely on in order to successfully implement the things it wants to achieve. People are the ones to execute important things and organisation wants to implement. It would be hard to make them a reality if the human resource does not have a complete mindset or behaviors aligned to the company’s goals and objectives. In this way, a specific improvement will be developed within the human resource, paving the way for a remarkable culture with the foundation of correct systems and beliefs or values linked with the prevailing company’s direction and structure. Therefore, organizational structure is another important aspect that would need to be sustained or monitored. This is the point in which the human resource and the executive body know the level of their function and responsibility resulting to highly organised corporate system. Thus, organizational system is another important aspect Widdows should sustain and monitor. With a specific and definite organisational system, Window will always be able to determine outcome and perform corrective actions if necessary. There is a strong level of control. Sun Microsystems Case 1. What principles of ‘best practice’ are demonstrated in the Sun Microsystems case? From the Sun Microsystems case, sustainability is a clear principle of ‘best practice.’ Considering the positive outcome associated with sustainability, substantial gains and savings on the part of the company are positive results one could actually expect to take place. In fact, it is clear from the case gains are significant due to power savings, controlled emission of green house gases and the presence of innovation. These are just some important moves associated with the issue of sustainability that in the case of Sun Microsystems’ case provides potential impact on the company. It is therefore clear that the Sun Microsystems is adhering to prevailing environmental condition with respect to its internal operation. As a result, its ability to apply sustainability issue paves the way for discovering other essential things for its benefits. In fact, Sun Microsystems comes to the point of using its resources efficiently. This is just a significant part of sustainability advantage (Environment and Heritage, 2012). On the other hand, resourcefulness and creativity are also another principle of best practice found in the Sun Microsystems case. At this point, it is clear enough Sun Microsystems was actually able to successfully integrate environmental strategies with business planning. However, in its context, this specific move requires substantial level of ability to be more resourceful. A proof for this would be their implementation of double-sided printing and maximizing technology through video-conferencing to minimise associated costs, just to name some of their best practices associated with being creative and resourceful. 2. What gains should Sun Microsystems expect from these changes? The changes Sun Microsystems emancipated could substantially lead to its competitive advantage. After all, best practice sustains competitive advantage (Kerzner, 2010). Its operational changes at this point has led to strategic moves leading to remarkable gains such us savings, and direct path towards sustainability creation. This strategic development could somehow fall on the aspect of innovation. This specific level of innovation on its operation would actually differentiate Sun Microsystems’ way of operating business from the rest of its counterparts in the same industry. This does not only promote specific monetary gain, but in the long-run, Sun Microsystems will be recognized as the leading innovator in its industry, integrating recent environmental concerns with their operations. This is a form of creating business opportunity out from some prevailing environmental changes. In other words, Sun Microsystems could eventually make it a point to generate remarkable output out from the prevailing changes from its outside environment. The opportunity created by these environmental changes is a substantial gain on the part of Sun Microsystems. In the first place, it opens other door for it to explore its creativity and resourcefulness that in the end have substantial impact on the other aspect of its operation. Furthermore, this would also give the opportunity for Sun Microsystems to be recognised as the leading innovator in its industry that on the other part would create its competitive advantage. 3. Can this example be copied by other organisations? In today’s age of competition where there is a necessity to grasp remarkable changes, it is always a possibility to copy best practices from other organisations especially if this would concern competitive advantage, profitability or good operation performance. In the case of Sun Microsystems, there are potential promises of its best practice as it eventually leads to creation of remarkable gains. Organisations nowadays are looking forward to the opportunity to become a cut above the other. The very proof of this is the existing tough competition in which the bottom line is to create competitive edge over the other. As a result, many companies or organisations are looking forward to increase customer value, highlighting competitive edge in them that at some point they look forward to become the best in it (Zemke, 1999). Some organisations are also preoccupied with the notion that increasing customer value or achieving significant market share should start from discovering best practice that would fit in their system. The case of Sun Microsystems’ best practice is not that ordinary as many organisations today try to discover the same way as how the former ensure competitive advantage and gain remarkable market share. In other words, organisations nowadays are always on the go to look for better practices and even copy some of them from others and then they would find out if they would effectively fit in their system. Other organisations with almost the same operational system just like Sun Microsystems could therefore try to emulate its best practice. References Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., and Erdogan, B. (2009) Principles of Management. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge. Environment and Heritage (2012) Sustainability Advantage. [online]. Available from: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sustainbus/sustainabilityadvantage.htm [Accessed 14th September 2012]. Kerzner, H. (2010) Project Management: Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Kotter, J. P. (1998) Harvard Business Review on Leadership: What Leaders Really Do. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing. Zemke, R. (1999) Best Practices in Customer Service. New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Read More