Current Situation at Wilders Department Store - Case Study Example

Running Header: Report on Change Management Surname: First Names: Student Number: Institution: Course Code: Course Name: Assignment Due Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 3 Wilders Department Store 4 Operations at the Wilder’s Department Store 4 Demand for change 6 Change strategies for consideration 7 Strategy implementation process 9 Barriers to management of change 10 Management of change barriers 11 Strategy change management action plan template 12 Conclusion 16 Recommendations 16 References 17 Executive summary The way business is performed in the market that Wilder operates within continues to change at a rapid rate. Changes in the requirements of Bicycle Store customers, suppliers and alliance partners also continue to change. In order for the Bicycle Store to identify its current management style it has embarked on defining the nature of change management that can be used by the company in order to meet the ever increasing demand for the company bicycles. This report has extensively reviewed the situation at the bicycle store where a number of issues have been highlighted. The first component of this report has analyzed the current situation at the store followed by the prevailing demand for change. The report has further evaluated the different change strategies under use at the store, their process of implementation, barriers to change management process and the ways in which the management team can overcome these challenges. The report has also provided a detailed change management action plan that could be used during the implementation process. Finally, the report has discussed three recommendations that are very vital in ensuring success in change management process. Introduction Management change within an organization refers to the process of changing the company’s vision; mission and objectives in order to assist the organization remain on course in performing its activities in order to achieve both its long-term and short-term goals. Management change involves change of company’s core content as presented in the organizational scope, synergy, resource deployments and competitive advantages. The whole process entails the re-alignment of the organizational goals with the external environment in which it operates. This report will critically analyze the Wilders’ Department Store current situation by employing the Bolman & Deal’s Four Frame model to help identify the various prevailing conditions that are necessitating for change, the change strategies that could be applied by the store to attain its both long-term and short-term goals apart from discussing some of the risks or challenges that are likely to hinder the change management implementation process and the ways in which the management can overcome them with reference to Kottter’s eight step model . The report will further give the general view of the situation at the Wilders’ Department Store before discussing in depth some of the recommendations that could be used by the management team to solve the current problem according to Black (2002). Wilders Department Store The Wilder’s Department Store is concerned with selling bicycles to its clients. Given the current situation in the global economical environment which has caused high escalations in the cost of energy, many people are now seeking new alternatives of accessing transport in order to save on their daily travel expenses. The Department is headed by George Nolan who is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that service provision to customers is of high standards. The Department in many occasions experience more sales during Christmas seasons when many people wish to save on fuel costs. The Department sells both assembled and unassembled bicycles to their customers. However, the difference is that those customers who wish to buy already assembled bicycles must incur extra charges of not less than $25 as an assembly fee apart from having to wait for a little longer time to access their assembled bicycles. Operations at the Wilder’s Department Store The Wilder’s Department Store apart from enjoying high sales, it is notable that the Store is experiencing some serious challenges in running its business especially when managing its recording system which is not up to date and the process of maintaining the bicycles at that are on display. In my own assessment it is clear that the Department has failed to observe the very important models like the Bolman & Deal’s Four Frame model which demonstrates four important elements that the management could use to view both the internal and external business world. The four frames presented in the model are: structural, human resources, political and symbolic. In considering this idea, the Business is in a position to bring into account all the necessary aspects that are affecting the key players and the way to act in managing business divergent situations as illustrated by Axelrod (2000). The Department is faced with so many simultaneous events that need to be controlled in a more rational way. The whole essence of Bolman’s Model is to help the business managers realize how they can actually ensure that there is always balance among these four important frames the fact that has been greatly forgotten by the Wilder’s Department Store. This is more so clear when it is realized that the Department is not in a position to come up with a strategy that will see adequate balancing of all the frames. In my own evaluation, the Department is not keen to balance all the four frames in the model. For example, the structural frame has not been considered in order to bring into action central and vital concepts which include: business rules, roles, goals, policies, technology and environment. This is clearly revealed from the business operations whereby the staff is not clear of their responsibilities and the company’s goal as well as the organizational structure. On the other hand, the human resources frame has not considered the fact that staff is overexploited in terms of their needs, skills and relationships as argued by Stevenson & Salmon (2005). In general terms, the business has failed greatly to recognize management change as Punctuated Equilibrium and ensure that there is balance between incremental and transformational change rather than focusing more on either adaptive or transformational change. In the Bicycle Department for example, after realizing that demand for more bicycles is growing more rapidly, the department decided to overlook some of the very important aspects of the business such as record keeping, accounting and communication to meet the customers’ demand in the short-run. However, this is only transformational in order to meet current needs of achieving more sales at the expense of the other key players such as the staff. Application of the triangulation methodology to predict the future business also has not been fully utilized. The availability of data from the previous years on the bicycle store’s sales could have played a very vital role in helping the store to forecast what it expects in the respective years by interpreting the already existing data. Use of known facts could have helped the Department determine the unknown from the known facts from the pre-planning as stated by Conner and Patterson (2000). Demand for change Demand for change refers to those pressing factors that force the management to change the business strategy. The most important factor for changing management is to ensure that the business vision is a realized in a more effective way as argued by Conner and Patterson (2000). Despite the fact the bicycle department is a very large store that serves a wide market; the following business operational problems have been identified that need the Department to change its management strategy: 1. Unsatisfied demands 2. Poor public relations 3. Overwhelmed personnel 4. Inadequate constant supply 5. Poor customer contact 6. Lack of proper recording and accounting 7. Lack of clear departmental policy and structure However, it is important to note that at Bicycle Department, the above listed problems have been attributed to a number of factors which include: 1. Lack of enough staff 2. Lack of enough space 3. Lack of technology 4. Lack of strategy formulation and implementation (identify the opportunities, strengths, threats and weaknesses for the department and the organization as a whole). 5. Lack of clear goals 6. Lack of motivation 7. Strategy communication failure Change strategies for consideration Given the current situation at the bicycle Department, the company is obliged to come up with different strategies that will meet the prevailing demand from the customers as well as ensure that the company is on the right track in realizing its objectives. However, the Wilder’s Department store is currently embarked in realizing more sales regardless of their operational strategies. The concept of ensuring Punctuated Equilibrium is the main tool in realizing both its long-term and short-term objectives is not taken into consideration with much emphasis it deserves. For example the technology that is presently being used at the Bicycle Department is that of communication through phone. Despite the fact that this kind of strategy is faster and more convenient, it is not a long-term solution to solving the Department’s problems. This is only a second-order management strategy that is more of transformational rather being considerate of both first-order and second-order strategies to ensure that is balance on all key business perspectives according to Axelrod (2000). This is because use of this kind of technology is not sustainable since it does not create a platform where both incremental and transformational factors are put into consideration. Communication through phone is one of the fastest ways of communicating and keeping the clients in touch. However, as demonstrated at the Bicycle Department, it does not allow for easy retrieving, keeping and tracking customers’ data something that makes it very difficult for the Depart to identify crucial areas that need improvement such as record keeping and human resources utilization. Another strategy that is commonly used at the Bicycle Department is the one involving merging of the Department with other departments. The Department Store, for example is currently merged with other departments which include the toys and sporting goods departments in order to have the Departmental Store sales staff assist in supporting sales from these two sections. This strategy however, being a second-order change management strategy, is not adequately bringing employees’ roles and responsibilities into perspective thus creating more confusion among the staff something that results into lowly motivated workers as illustrated by Black (2002). This is because the strategy as applied is not sustainable but only aimed at realizing short-term results which is to achieve high bicycle sales. Finally, according to my view and as presented in the Bicycle Department, employee workload as one of the strategies has also been demonstrated whereby the staff is expected to do more work than expected than expected for the benefit of the company. As discussed earlier in this review, human resources is one of the main four frames discussed in the Bolman’s Model. According to Bolman’s Model, the four main frames namely: the structural, the human resources, the political as well as the symbolic have to be well analyzed at strategy formulation stage according to Skarke and Diane (2001). Strategy implementation process Strategy implementation refers to the process of ensuring that a particular business change management is put into use. These are the steps that must be followed by any given organization to make sure that strategy implementation is done a more effective and efficient manner according to Petter and Jack (2005). As demonstrated by the Kottter’s eight step model, eight key strategy implementation steps have been put into consideration which includes: 1. Creation of a sense of urgency 2. Developing a guideline 3. Developing a vision for change 4. Communicating the vision 5. Empowering of a broad-based action 6. Generating short-term wins 7. Persistence to change management strategy 8. Transformation of the strategy into organizational culture In my own thought and as depicted in the Bicycle Department, this model has been ignored completely. To demonstrate this, the Department, currently is operating under the urgency created by the high demand for bicycles from customers something that ought to have been done prior to strategy implementation by the Department itself. The act of ignoring these important strategy implementation steps has been openly demonstrated by a number of factors which include: lack of clear departmental guideline, vision, communication process, action, short-term and long-term wins, persistence to change management and customization of the change into organizational culture. The department is currently lacking the link between the business vision and the strategy (Weick and Quinn,1999). As indicated by Kotter’s Model these eight steps are key to success to change implementation and lack of its recognition by the Bicycle Department explains the reason as to why the department is not able to develop a long-term strategy that will ensure that customer demands does not overwhelm its capacity at certain times like Christmas. Barriers to management of change Barriers refer to those obstacles that hinder the process of managing change. These barriers require that extensive analysis to be done by the management team in order to identify key challenges that are likely to be faced during the implementation process to make it easy for the management team to execute the change with little or no difficulties as argued by Weick and Quinn (1999). Some of the challenges that are likely to be encountered during change management implementation process include: 1. Poor organization structure 2. Lack of sufficient customer information 3. Inadequate market predictions 4. Facility overestimation 5. Lack of proper coordination 6. Lack of commitment by the management team 7. Low employee commitment 8. Failure to respect the action plan and its sustainability 9. Poor organizational communication procedures 10. Lack of clear link between vision and strategy Management of change barriers The table below shows various barriers to change management and the ways in which their effect can be minimized. TYPE OF BARRIER EXAMPLE MINIMIZATION Organizational challenge Cognitive hurdle, Motivational hurdle, Resource hurdle, Political hurdle Establishing proper organizational structures that will take into account issues of motivation, allocation of enough resources and disengagement from political wars. Lack of customer information The customer needs, customer perception and the actual desire for the product by the customer. Undertaking extensive market survey in order to have a general view of the market dynamics. Inadequate prediction Failure to understand what the competitors have to offer, the strength of the brand and the price wars. Producing appropriate products that will meet the needs of the customer. Overestimation The ability of the facility, equipment and labour to handle change. Employee skills and management change processes. Carrying out proper estimation before undertaking a management change strategy. Lack of proper coordination Reporting, controlling and flexibility of the organizational structure. Establishing proper relationships that will allow adequate coordination. Lack of commitment by the management team. Lack of involvement and resource acquisition for change management. Determination by the management team to undertake strategy change Lack of employee commitment Unaware of the new strategies and lack of proper remuneration and incentives. Proper education and remuneration for the employees. Failure to respect the plan Lack of follow-ups, diverting from the actual plan without any action taken. Designing of performance measures Poor communication procedures Insufficient information and exclusion of key members to change implementation Establishing proper communication channels. Strategy change management action plan template Project Name: Case study report Prepared by: Date (MM/DD/YYYY): 1.0 Purpose Change Management Plan objectives Reviewing and approving change management processes. Help coordinate changes throughout the project. To notify the key stakeholders of the changes that have been approved for the project. 2.0 Goals Change Management Plan goals: Give consideration change requests. Identify, evaluate, track, define and approve changes to the finish line. Adjust Project Plans to indicate the effect of the requested amendments. To allow for discussions among the key stakeholders Deliberate changes and do proper communication to the affected parties. 3.0 Responsibilities Members to Change Management Their Responsibilities Change Manager and the Project Team Designing the Change Management Plan Departmental Manager Facilitating and executing change management activities. Reviewing change management activities together with the seniors. The Executive Committee Ensuring adequate allocation of resources and funding for change execution. Monitoring Change Management Plan implementation process 4. Process The Change Management process: 1. Submitting Change Request (CR) 2. Reviewing CRs for approval or disapproval 3. Developing recommendations on the approved CRs. 4. Approval or rejection of the recommendations 5. If accepted, updating of project documents follows. 6. Notifying all the stakeholders to the change process. 1. CRs reviewing Reject: Defer to a date: analysis consideration by change team: 2. reviewing pending CRs. Reject: Defer to a date: Accept for analysis: 3. Reviewing of the analysis possible outcomes: Reject: Accept: Return for further analysis: 4. Accepted CRs are forwarded to the change manager. Possible outcomes: Reject: Accept: Return for further analysis: Conclusion To conclude this report, it is important to note that as stated early in the introductory part, the most important task was to identify the various reasons as to why change management is needed in any particular organization and more so the Bicycle Department in this case. This report has evaluated in details the current situation of the Bicycle Department at Wilder Organization, the operational processes, the demand for change, various strategies to change for consideration, strategy implementation process, and barriers to strategy implementation. It also evaluated ways of managing barriers to change implementation process as well as the strategy change management action plan template that could be used by the management team to execute change as argued by Skarke and Diane (2001). In general terms, this report has highlighted all key aspects to change management that could be very useful senior management at Bicycle Department. Recommendations After reviewing the situation at the Bicycle Store, the following recommendations have been suggested as one way of ensuring that the Store is able to overcome its perennial challenges of managing customers’ demand: There is need to develop long-term strategies that are relevant to business vision in order to make sure that there is no deviation from the main objective of the company. This should only be done by creating a clear link between the strategy and the vision. Introduction of more convenient Information and Communication Technology as one ways of eliminating the prevailing communication problems as well information storage and retrieval related difficulties. Finally, the is need for the organization as a whole to recognize the role played by the Bicycle Department and do adequate allocation of both human and financial resources for the Department to expand its capacity in managing both recurrent and emerging customer demands according to Sohier & Orlikowski (2006) References Axelrod, H 2000, Terms Of Engagement: Changing The Way We Change Organizations, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, San Francisco, California. Black, J 2002, Leading Strategic Change, Financial Times Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Conner, D & Patterson, R 2000, Building Commitment to Organizational Change, Training and Development Journal, Vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 18-30. Kimchi, J et el 2005, How To Manage Change Effectively, ALT-J, Vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 201-218. Lippitt, G., Petter, L & Jack, M 2005, Implementing Organizational Change, Management journal, Vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 263-276. Skarke, G., Butch, H., Bill, R., and Diane, L 2001, The Change Management Toolkit: A Step- By-Step Methodology For Successfully Implementing Dramatic Organizational Change, Journal of advanced change management, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 631-641 Sohier, R & Orlikowski, W 2006, Improvising organisational transformation over time: a situated change perspective, Information Systems Research, Vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 63-92. Weick, K and Quinn, R 1999, Organisational change and development, Annual Review, vol. 50 pp. 361-86. Read More