Organizational Development and Change at Dryburgh Footwear Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: Organizational Development and Change Organizational Development and Change Name Institution Professor Course Date Summary of the case context This project will be based on the provided case that is the absenteeism and employee turnover: Dryburgh Footwear Company. Dryburgh Footwear Company was among the seven operating business units of the clothing, textile and footwear division imperial enterprises which was a multinational British company. The business unit was developed in the 1950s and it was a family business and it prospered under the high tariffs that were enacted in the 11950s and 60’s with the aim of protecting Australian industries from massive international competition. The numbers of employees were between 448 and 527 over the year as shown in table 21.1. After being purchased the business unit, despite a number of difficulty years between 1975 and 1976 and also in 1981 to 1982, the business unit received return on their investment but this was cut short in the mid 1980s. The complexity is the organizations is that the general managers views the issues being faced in the organizations as just trivial and he depicts this when he states that the industry have always experienced such problems and that based on the people they hire they expect nothing different (Deery, 1995). The Development/Change Plan and process The major problem that seems to be facing Dryburgh Footwear Company is high absenteeism rate in the company as well as high number of employee turnover. This problem are evident in the case when Bill Brown, the company personnel officer complied the annual absenteeism and employee turnover figures of the company. Based on the figures on table 21.1 of the case study the turnover of the employees exceeded 100% in a year and the same time the average rate of absenteeism in the company exceeded 4.5 % and this showed that the costs related to turnover in the company were significant (Deery, 1995). As the change agent in I will approach the problems being experienced at Dryburgh Footwear Company by involving the management team and the workers to ensure that the change process is effective and that the desired results are achieved. Since I will a change agent sourced from the outside world, I will not be bound by the traditions, culture and politics of the company. Through these I will be able to bring on a different viewpoint on the problems that the organization is facing and challenge the status quo (Anderson & Anderson, 2001). Of the various types of change agents types that are used such as the people-change-technology type, outside pressure type, organization-development and analysis-for-the-top type I will make use of one type that is the people-change-change technology type. My selection for this approach was informed by the fact that this type of change is effective in solving the problems that are currently being faced by Dryburgh Footwear Company since it tends to focus more on individuals. I will be more concerned with the motivation and motivation of employees so as to help curb the high rates of absenteeism and turnover which affects the profits made by the company a great deal since new employees need to be trained when some employees are moved to other tasks which they are not acquainted to and thus they are not as productive the others who are acquainted to the tasks (Hanebuth, 2008). The problems being faced at Dryburgh Footwear Company need to be treated as a matter of urgency. This is based on the fact that both problems tend to have similar effects on the productivity and cost in the organization. In relation to the turnover the employees leaves and thus they job is left unattended until another person is recruited to replace them. In absenteeism, employees are in service but they are not around to do their jobs (Hanebuth, 2008). Though absenteeism and turnover cannot be dealt with totally I will propose a number of steps in curbing the problems. In curbing absenteeism, I propose that the management team in the organization follows the following steps that is; the writing the attendance policy, setting of clear attendance expectations, rewarding employees for good attendance and providing the employees with support. In writing the attendance policy, the company needs to formalize their expectations in regard to employee attendance and this should be done by formulating and implementing the attendance policy. An important aspect that should be included in the policy is the definition of what constitutes to absenteeism and tardiness (Morrell, Loan-Clarke and Wilkinson, 2001). For instance, the definition of tardiness can be termed as when an employee is late to work for about 30 minutes while excessive absenteeism can be termed as when an employee is absent for more than six times or more in for instance in six months. Thus, this policy will be used as a measure of good performance on all employees in the organization. The second steps entail the setting of clear and concise attendance expectations. The managers and immediate supervisors need to share and inform the current and new employees about the policy and in regard to the new employees it should be discussed in orientation process and inform them of the company’s expectations in regard to attendance. Also in line with this is the discussion of how employees should notify the company and who they should contact when not coming to work. Employees should also be made to understand that how much unplanned absence is acceptable and the consequence of excessive absenteeism (Johns, 2007). To ensure that employees adhere to these their attendance ought to be included in the annual appraisal form. The other step is the rewarding of good attendance. Some organizations should offer give their employees bonuses for good attendance for having no unplanned absences for example in six months or in a year. When organizations incorporate the employees’ attendance in the yearly performance appraisal employees can achieve rewards in the merit increases (Testa, 2008). Another tactic in this step is offer adequate paid-time off through this the employees will have an option of planning for absenteeism by making use of a predestined banks of hours. The next step in curbing employee absenteeism is offering employees with support. At time employees may be experiencing difficult time in their life and aspects that affect their families which make them to absent themselves from their workplaces. The company needs to assess the reasons behind employee absenteeism and if family relates show some level of concern. This kind of support to the employees during their difficult tomes and this will go a long way in making the employees feel that their employer cares for them. This is a major determining factor to high level of employee engagement in an organization (Johns, 2007). Employee turnover also seems to be prevalent in Dryburgh Footwear Company and it was recorded to be about 100% in a year. I recommend that the company should make use of the below steps in curbing the high turnover in the company. One way of reducing turnover is to hire the right people and play an essential role in developing their careers. Based on the fact that a great number of the employees were relatively unskilled offering additional training to the employees would play an essential role in maintaining them (Testa, 2008). An investment made in the upgrading of an organizations workforce is seen as the best investment that organizations can make and mostly when looking out for long term growth of the company. By hiring employees that are good and fits with the organizational culture in terms of their principles, values and goals and offering them with training will be essential in ensuring that one’s retains the employees and also gains their loyalty. Another essential strategy in reducing turnover is developing and being employee oriented (Lee, Gerhart, Weller & Trevor, 2008). The manager seems to be less concerned about the employees and the company applies a fairly authoritarian approach when it comes to the management of the employees and based on Stone there was no effective communication with the workforce. Most companies which depict lower level of employee turnover seem to be more oriented to their employees. By doing this, Dryburgh Footwear Company should solicit the involvement and input from all the employees in the company and maintain an open door policy. Through this the employee will be offered with a chance to advancement themselves rather than being micro-managed (Laloux, Wilber & Wade, 2014). Another effective option is come up with an overall and strategic compensation package. Based on the case study, the company was accused of offering award wages that were lowest among the manufacturing industry in Australia. This would be effective since the lower wages offered may be cited as an essential factor contributing to the high employee turnover in the company (Deery, 1995). The compensation package should not only include the variable or base pay scales, but it should also focus on the long-term gain sharing plans, bonuses and incentive compensation, benefits plans that aims at addressing the welfare and health issues of the employees, perks and non-cash rewards. To maintain the employees Dryburgh Footwear Company managers need to ensure that they offer a standardized benefit package such as dental, health and life insurance, leave and vocation policies as well as retirement plans. With this plans in place, the employees are likely to stay in the organization longer. The last option would be exploring creative options (Kotter, 1995). A great number of the employees at the company are women and their absenteeism may attribute to child care. The company can assist the, by subsidizing childcare such as negotiating rates with the childcare providers. Organizations that are likely to succeed are those that do not view change a detached event that need to be manager but views it as a constant opportunity to evolve their business. Sustaining and enhancing success largely depends on the ability of the organizations to adapt passed on the changing environment. In ensuring readiness I will ensure that there is change awareness and it will include aspects such as the redefining of the company for example looking for emerging opportunities and planning for the future (Kotter, 2012). Also in readiness to the change the people need to be engaged in the impending changes. The internal focus on the employees is crucial for the company to implement the planned changes. By mustering the commitment and capacity to implement the employees will be moiré involved in the change process. The other aspects of change readiness are the change reaction. Through this, I would ensure that the managers and supervisors in the company are able to sustain the day to day running of the organization while at the same time reacting appropriately and timely to the planned changes. The other way of creating readiness is ensuring that the change mechanisms in place encourage clear alignment between goals and functions, thus ensuring the change integrates well with the existing systems, accounting for the obtained results and rewards systems that are aimed at enhancing the desired and proposed changes in the company. This aspect is essential since it plays an essential role since it ensures that the desired changes such as the ones proposed for the foot wear company are implemented with minimal or no interruption on a daily basis (Hiatt, 2013). After change have been implemented in an organization there seems to be a need to assess if the changes were implemented effectively or not and if not determined reasons as to why the change efforts were unsuccessful. A major way of evaluating of evaluating the change effort would be assessing the number of absenteeism and employee turnover after the change have been implemented. If the rate of absenteeism and that of the turnover have reduced drastically the change effort can be termed as effective by the use of the proposed change process and steps (Hiatt & Creasey, 2012). This is likely to have an effect in the profits made by the company since with low levels of absenteeism and turnover the productivity of the employee is likely to increase. If the problems persist the change efforts can be termed as to have failed in meeting its objectives. References Anderson, D., & Anderson, L.A. (2001). Beyond Change Management: Advanced Strategies for Today’s Transformational Leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. Deery, S.J. 1995, 'Absenteeism and employee turnover: Dryburgh Footwear Company', in Organizational change strategies: Case studies of human resource and industrial relations issues, ed. M. Patrickson, V. Bamber, & G.J. Bamber, Longman, Melbourne, Chapter 21, pp. 240-250. Hanebuth, D. (2008) "Background of absenteeism" in K. Heinitz (ed.) Psychology in Organizations - Issues from an applied area. Peter Lang: Frankfurt. p. 115-134. Hiatt, J., & Creasey, T. (2012). Change Management: The People Side of Change. Atlanta: Prosci Learning Center Publications. Hiatt, J. (2013). Employee's Survival Guide to Change: The complete guide to surviving and thriving during organizational change. Atlanta: Prosci Learning Center Publications. Johns, G. (2007) "absenteeism" in George Ritzer (ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing. Kotter, J. (2012). Leading Change, with a new preface by the Author. Harvard: Harvard Business Review Press. Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Laloux, F Wilber, K & Wade, J. (2014). Reinventing Organizations. MA: Nelson Parker. Lee, T. H.; Gerhart, B.; Weller, I & Trevor, C. O. (2008). Understanding voluntary turnover: Path-specific job satisfaction effects and the importance of unsolicited job offers. Academy of Management Journal 51 (4): 651–671. Morrell, K. Loan-Clarke J. and Wilkinson A. (2001) Unweaving leaving: The use of models in the management of employee turnover. International Journal of Management Reviews, 3(3), 219-244. Testa, B. (2008). Early Engagement, Long Relationship? Workforce Management 87 (15): 27–31. Read More