Organisational Development Strategy - Dryburgh Footwear Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: Plan for organisational development Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: [WORDS 2,100] Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Section I 4 Case Summary 4 Section II 5 Identification of the problem 5 Areas in need of change 6 The Development/Change Plan and Process 7 Approaching the change task 8 Unfreezing 8 Moving 9 Freezing 9 Planned change process of creating readiness 10 Managing restraining forces at Dryburgh Footwear Company 10 Handling communication and readiness 11 Evaluation of change 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction This Organisational Development Strategy provides a plan for organisational development and change in the context of Dryburgh Footwear Company (in Option 1 of the Assignment) as the case scenario. The plan has been drawn up against the background of the problems facing the company. It sets the direction that the company should pursue in order to accommodate change. In this regard, organisational development and change efforts are performed within the context of implementing change. Discussed include identification (diagnosis) of the problem to be addressed, how change would be approached, the planned change process, how communication, and readiness would be handled and how change effort would be evaluated. Section I Case Summary Dryburgh Footwear Company was among the seven business divisions of a British company called Imperial Enterprises that was initiated during the 1950s and ‘60s. The company’s mission was to produce men and women’s casual shoes, boots and fashion shoes, as well as children’s shoes. The footwear production process involves cleaning, cutting, cement- and injection-making, machining, finishing and storage. The Imperial Enterprise’s goal was to expand globally through foreign investment. For instant, it invested heavily in the Australian footwear industry through its division Dryburgh, which it purchased in 1971. In addition, the company has always targeted to increase its output and quality of products (Deery, 1995). As indicated by the case, the company’s management used an authoritarian approach in managing the personnel. Also, all employees at the factory except for those in the warehouse were employed under the terms of federal footwear industry award. Workers however earned bonuses based on their output each week. Although the purpose of the bonus system was to motivate workers, it failed on this mission. Further, employees would be shifted across departments frequently (Deery, 1995). Section II Identification of the problem In the face of some difficult years between 1975 and 1982, the business indicated vigorous return on investment. In the mid 1980s however, the business experienced a steady attrition of sales and profits because of the scaled tariff reduction program introduced by the government in 1986 (Deery, 1995). Part of the problem was also connected to employee absenteeism and turnover. Indeed, a compilation of the company’s annual employee absenteeism and turnover rate showed that the company had a turnover of more than 100 percent in one year alone. Absenteeism rate was at 4.5 percent. Part of the concern was that absenteeism was responsible for weakening the company’s output performance even though it was difficult to assign cost figures to absenteeism (Deery, 1995). In any case, among the direct costs included sick pay for absent employees in addition to other hidden or indirect costs. These were connected to low employee productivity, loss of production, poor work quality, redirection of management time, need for further trainings and unfavourable morale implication on other employees. There was also reluctance on the part of management to effect change as they were contented with the status quo. For instance, when these concerns were brought to the attention of the general manager Greg Jackson, he showed disinterest. The management had an authoritarian approach. In any case, there was also a problem with communication. The authoritarian approach to management of the personnel failed to institute an open communicative style with the workforce (Deery, 1995). A set of other problems included low profits as well as the lowest wage awarding company in the Australian manufacturing industries. Despite the fact that the company had a bonus system to motivate workers, it was highly resented by individual workers. Here, areas of concern included shifting employees from one job to the other regularly and poor level of machine maintenance. In addition to the autocratic management style, it was clear that the workforce was discontented and alienated. These were therefore the major contributors to the high rate of employee absenteeism and turnover (Deery, 1995). In regards to high employee turnover and absenteeism, problems areas included non-competitive wages, poor working conditions, high levels of stress among employees, poor management or supervision of employees, poor organizational practices and communication and poor fit between employees and the job (Deery, 1995). Areas in need of change Change will enable the company to take advantage of growth opportunities. The company will benefit from change as it will adopt new methodologies of enabling employee satisfaction, interrelationship and commitment (Kandt, n.d.). Change will ensure employees become more motivated and committed to the organisation and their respective roles (Emery, 2010). In all, the company needs to develop employee retention strategies and change the organizational culture. In this case, the company must begin to appreciate that quality of work and employee satisfaction is important for employees. The company has to hire the right people and aim to develop their careers. It also has to introduce an open-door policy that involves employees in management. Next, it should develop a strategic competitive compensation package (Kandt, n.d; Emery, 2010). The Development/Change Plan and Process There is indeed a need for change at Dryburgh Footwear Company. The change should occur as a reaction to response to the current crisis facing the company. The change should not be viewed as solely a process of adjustment but as a requirement for sufficient management capabilities. The process will allow the organisation to optimise its performance to attain an ideal state. For this particular company, this plan proposes a model suggested by Van de Ven and Poole (1995) that explains the rationale for organizational change (Chen et al., 2010). The model postulates that organizational change can be explained using dialectical, teleological and life-cycle theories. Teleological theory argues that change will enable an organization to attain an ideal state through continual setting of goals, execution, evaluation and restructuring. On the other hand, life-cycle theory suggests that an organization depends on external environment through phases of birth, growth, maturity and declination. Lastly, dialectical theory suggests that an organization resembles a multi-cultural society that has opposing values, and when one opposing force dominate over the other, new organizational goals and values are formulated resulting to organizational change. In all, the theories are applicable to the Dryburgh Footwear Company scenario (Chen et al., 2010). Approaching the change task Despite the revolutionary or evolutionary change that the organisation needs to adopt, the company faces the problem of setting the organisation to change. In regards to this, Lewin’s Force Theory of Change is proposed for Dryburgh Footwear Company. The model entails a three-step process, namely unfreezing, moving and freezing. Unfreezing Unfreezing begins with making the individuals within the organisation to understand the crisis that the organisation faces and the need for change. Essentially, it will take three phases. First, there has to be enough information suggesting that Dryburgh Footwear Company’s performs dismally. Second, the information has to be linked to the overall goal of the organisation to be able to elicit the anxious feelings of the employees (Chen et al., 2010). With this regard, the information is indeed connected to the overall goal of Dryburgh Footwear Company of attaining sustained profitability. Lastly, a solution has to be proposed that reduces resistance to change. Moving The moving process entails setting goals, seeking support, seeking resources, planning and implementation. Two kinds of moving are proposed, namely vision orientation and problem-solving orientation. Since, Dryburgh Footwear Company is faced with three major problems, problem-solving orientation is the ideal “moving” force (Chen et al., 2010). Freezing Freezing is essential for stabilising change attained in the moving stage. Here, employees, departments and the entire organisation are expected to have an inertial way of reasoning and performing tasks that must be frozen. At this rate, new rules of doing things and regulating employee behaviour will have to be formulated. For instance, the practice of shifting employees from one job to the other will have to be stopped. Additionally, new rules specifying the only well maintained machinery should be formulated (Chen et al., 2010). Planned change process of creating readiness In regards to planning readiness for change at Dryburgh Footwear Company, Lewin’s force field analysis model is proposed. According to the model, two forces exist in organisations that affect change. These include the driving force and the restraining force. While the former pushes an organisation to change towards a new direction, the latter prevents an organisation from pursuing a new direction (Mrayyan et al., 2008). On the basis of this perspective, when the restraining force is weaker than the driving force at Dryburgh Footwear Company; then the organisation will be able to move towards a new direction. However, a stronger restraining force will make the organisation to retain the status quo. In any case, when these two forces are equally powerful, the company will be temporarily stable. Managing restraining forces at Dryburgh Footwear Company Indeed, at Dryburgh Footwear Company, different kinds of forces have appeared to prevent the organisation from changing. They are classifiable into three different levels, namely organisational, secondary and individual level. Among the factors include the organisational culture of shifting employees, inertial organisational structure where the management has been contented with status quo and pressure from the organisation’s past successes in the 1960s, ‘70s and early ‘80s (Chen et al., 2010). Those at secondary level include how to manage the factors against change. Among the active ways to enable the members of the organisation to welcome and accommodate change include communication, education, involvement and participation. The passive ways to prevent resistance include coercion of member, assisting members and negotiation control (Kotter, & Schlesinger, 1979). With this respect, Kotter’s eight-step model can be applied as a possible framework. Step 1: creating urgency for change Step 2: Creating powerful coalitions Step 3: Formulating a visions for change Step 4: Communicating the vision across the organisation Step 5: Removing barriers/obstacles Step 6: Creating short-term wins Step 7: Effecting the change Step 8: Instituting the change in corporate culture Handling communication and readiness Readiness for change is basically the “cognitive precursor” of support or resistance to change. Change is accepted and accommodated when restraining forces are reduced instead of increasing driving forces. However, once accepted and implemented at Dryburgh Footwear Company, the members must be engaged continually to maximise positive effects of change. With this regard, communication would be critical for effective change implementation (Elving, 2005). Since the organisational change is essential how to change individual tasks of the company’s employees, communication on change in addition to passing information to the employees would be crucial (Mrayyan et al., 2008). Communication would serve to inform employees about new policies, new tasks in addition to other issues of change. Here, it will inform members of change and areas that have been altered in order to avert confusion. It will also serve to create a community within the organisation (team spirit). This will help to define an identity of people who can fit into organisational requirement. In this regard, communicational theories of send, message, channel, receive and noise is applicable to the scenario (Clampitt & Berk, Ln.d.). The information on change should have relevant content, it should be sent through channels that reach all affected members, it should also be understandable as well as contain no errors (Elving, 2005). Evaluation of change In evaluating the organizational change, systems theory model is proposed since it is fairly comprehensive as it focuses attention on the structure and strategies of the organisation, the style of management, employees and their efficiencies and skills as well as the shared values (Kauser, Minnick & Jacobs, 2011). This is since the company will want to implement change in a fairly comprehensive way. This proposed framework interprets change as a dynamic yet a planned process that responses to external influences while at the same time retaining the change that was planned. The theory regards the organization as complex systems of processes and people that interact within the set boundaries to accomplish tasks. With this regard, the interaction between the processes and the people can be compared with those that occur in other better performing organizations will be compared (Liu, 2009). Conclusion The problems the company faces include non-competitive wages, poor working conditions, high levels of stress among employees, poor management or supervision of employees, poor organizational practices and communication and poor fit between employees and job. In approaching the change task, Lewin’s Force Theory of Change is proposed. The model entails a three-step process, namely unfreezing, moving and freezing. In regards to planning readiness for change, Lewin’s force field analysis model is proposed. The model includes the driving force and the restraining force. Since the organisational change is essentially how to change individual tasks of the company’s employees, communication will serve to inform employees about new policies, new tasks in addition to other issues of change and to create a community within the organisation. References Chen, J., Suen, M., Lin, M. & Shieh, F. (2010). Organizational Change and Development. Retrieved, Clampitt, P. & Berk, L. (n.d.). Strategically Communicating Organisational Change. Retrieved: Deery, S. (1995). “Absenteeism and employee turnover: Dryburgh Footware Company”, in Organisational change strategies: Case studies of human resource and industrial relations issues, ed. M. Patrickson, V. Bamber, & G.J. Bamber. Melbourne: Longman Publishers, pp. 240-250. Elving, W. (2005). The role of communication in organisational change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 10(2), 129-138 Emery, M. (2010). When the Cure is the Cause: the Turnover and Absenteeism Problems. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 15(1), 1-16 Kandt, R. (n.d.) Organizational Change Management Principles and Practices. Retrieved, Kauser, F., Minnick, A. & Jacobs, R. (2011). Using System Theory to Evaluate Organizational Change in a Furniture Retailer in the United States: A Case Study. Retrived: Read More