Kenworth Motors - Organizational Development and Change - Case Study Example

Kenworth Motors- Organizational Development and Change School The case is about a consultant’s meeting with the plant manager of a truck manufacturing company, Kenworth Motors located in Seattle. Robert Denton was the name of that plant manager; being an OD consultant, I had been recommended to him by one of my clients in the Seattle, Mr. Charlie, who was an OD manager in a major timber production company of the town(Cummings & Cummings, 2008). On the way to the Denton’s office, I was continuously thinking about what I will say in the meeting because I had very little information regarding the personality of Denton and the company as a whole. I was not certain about the problems of the company but as Charlie had recommended me, than it must be related to my expertise, because he knows me very well, as I had spent about three years with him on different consulting projects(Cummings & Cummings, 2008). When I reached his office, he made a warm welcome to me and openly briefed me about all the current situations and circumstances of the company’s business and made open and factual responses towards my questions. After studying the contents of the case study, it has been evaluated that the OD consultant was not properly prepared for the first meeting, because during his journey to the office of the plant manager of Kenworth Motors, he was thinking about the company’s operational and technical capabilities and all the other aspects of the company’s business. The OD consultant had very little information about Mr. Denton, such as the title of his job and his job tenure. He had no information about his personality and appearance because he never met him before and just talked to him on the telephone. He was imagining the personality and age of Denton from his voice and style of speaking. In addition to that, the consultant had no specific agenda regarding his meeting with the Kenworth Plant manager because he even didn’t know that what sort of conversation would be conducted at the meeting. This shows that the OD consultant didn’t plan any specific approach and agenda for the meeting. Instead of not being ready for the meeting and lack of information about Mr. Denton and the company as a whole, the consultant could be required to do a brief research about the nature of the company’s business and the extent of its operations in the town. He could contact his client Charlie, who had recommended him, in order to gain information about Mr. Denton and his personality as a whole. Before going to the meeting, he could learn the history and the current information like the management structure and operations of the company, which would help him in evaluating the possible problems in the course of the developmental projects of the company(Quinn & Cameron, 1988). During his discussion with Mr. Denton, the consultant had effectively guided him about discussing the extensive and significant range of topics regarding the current situation and performance of the company, i.e. daily sale and cost incurred for that sale, daily production rate, etc… He also tried to know about the personality and the attitude of Mr.Denton because it was very important to establish a healthy relation with him. However, after a long conversation the OD consultant was unable to interpret any sort of problem and issue of the company that needs a certain level of improvement (Anderson & Anderson, 2005). He had not concluded anything odd regarding the business of the company and its workforce. Some other questions that might have been asked to clarify the organization’s issues included, what task structure should be implemented for the development of each section? What are the potential objectives and goals of different sections of the company? What is the new platform for the company’s products and its next phase of development? What are the nature and responsibilities of different teams working in different sections of the company? As it has been evaluated that Mr. Denton was very open to the OD consultant and he had a strong trust upon his expertise, therefore the contracting process was successfully carried out. Therefore, Mr.Denton got agreed with the suggestion of having a retreat weekend program for the departmental managers and other executives of the company (Swanson & Zuber, 1996). The main theme and scope of the project was that both the OD consultant and Denton wanted to explore out different aspects of the company’s business and to check that whether or not the team of Mr. Denton was open to work with a new personnel belonging to the outside world. This was also aimed to introduce different managers with one another, so that they can share their respective problems and the performance of their respective departments (Cummings & Cummings, 2008). It was also aimed to increase coordination between the top line managers and the middle level managers. It was also agreed between the two parties to the contract that the retreat should be held at a lodge or country club situated at few hours’ drive from the main Seattle town. It was also decided that all the departmental managers would be invited for the retreat and the cost of the event would be borne by the company. The event would be a three day program and started on the Friday evening by serving cocktails and dinner to the attendees, then it would be continued on Saturday and till the Sunday noon. They were also agreed upon a minimum fee of consultancy for the services of the OD consultant as per the applicable norms of the industry and agreed to hold the retreat after a period of 45 days (Cummings & Cummings, 2008). Mr. Denton was very serious about the retreat and organized different workshops to inform the managers of other departments and executives regarding the purpose and the timetable of the retreat. They knew that the given time for organizing a perfect retreat is very short, however, they had written down a number of things to be included in the retreat and their corresponding effects over the attendees. Being a professional OD consultant, I had written a detailed plan for the successful execution of the retreat program and the potential issues to be highlighted and discussed at the retreat, which would be presented before Mr. Denton at the start of the program (Cummings & Cummings, 2008). The thing that could have been done differently would be the planning and execution of the retreat by the mutual cooperation and discussion of the other key stakeholders to the retreat, i.e. managers of different departments and other top executives. They should be contacted and invited for participating in the planning phase of the retreat to check their individual point of views and expectations from the retreat. This would help them to organize the overall program after evaluating different critical aspects of the retreat, which would reduce the risk of failure(Lok & Crawford, 1999). The OD consultant had brought up the issue of trust and mutual understanding with regard to the retreat design because trust is an important aspect of anything that could be done in an environment of mutual cooperation and understanding. Research shows that trust is the most integral part of doing business in the consultancy industry because if there is a lack of trust between the consultant and his client, then the communication between these two will be inaccurate and they will tend to be dishonest with each other. They will not openly share their secrets with one another due to the doubt that their secrets may be shared with the others (Anderson, & Anderson. 2005). It was the presence of trust between the OD consultant and Mr. Denton, which ensured the openness and willingness of Denton for responding and honestly replying to the questions of the OD consultant (Cummings & Cummings, 2008). This is the only way that encouraged them to design and implement the retreat planning program very smoothly because the nature of the relationship between the OD consultant and Mr. Denton was very collaborative and respectful. Both the parties to the contract had openly shared their problems and concerns with each other with a purpose to establish an environment of confidence and trust, so that the retreat program could be better executed (Swanson, & Zuber. 1996). Mr. Denton agreed very quickly for the retreat program because he had a high level of confidence and trust over the expertise and capabilities of the OD consultant and he was also agreed on the fact that this retreat would provide an opportunity for the managers of different departments to share their values and problems with one another (Anderson, 2010). Through Mr. Dentons quick reaction towards the retreat program, it may evolve that the main problems of Kenworth Motors had was the imperative of judgment for organizations change and improvement. As indicated by Cummings (2009), “determination is the methodology of seeing how the organization is working right now, and it gives the data necessary to plan change mediation. It generally follows from effective entrance and contracting, which set the stage for fruitful finding" (p.87) References Cummings, T., & Cummings, T. (2008). Theory of Organization Development and Change (1st ed.). Australia: South-Western Publications. Quinn, R., & Cameron, K. (1988). Paradox and transformation (1st ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Pub. Co. Anderson, D. (2010). Organization development (1st ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. Anderson, D., & Anderson, M. (2005). Coaching that counts (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. Lok, P., & Crawford, J. (1999). The relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development.Leadership \& Organization Development Journal, 20(7), 365--374. Swanson, R., & Zuber, J. (1996). A case study of a failed organization development intervention rooted in the employee survey process. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 9(2), 42--56. Read More