Stakeholder Engagement Strategy - Adoption of Office 365 - Case Study Example

Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Name Professor Institution Course Date Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Executive Summary The report reviewes that adoption of Office 365 has increased significantly in contemporary organizations as they seek to improve communication and storage. The universities are some of the organizations leading in implementation of this software due to the frequent need to communicate with business partners, students, affiliate campuses, and store information for future use. However, there have been concerns from stakeholders about data security risks and storing research data in cloud software and OneDrive. Therefore, this report will devise a stakeholder engagement strategy to help University of South Australia in the rolling-out of Office365 (including Email) for students, staff and alumni. To this, the report will review and understand potential stakeholders, benefits (both direct and indirect), consequences and actions required to implement this stakeholder engagement strategy for this project. Table of Contents Stakeholder Engagement Strategy 2 Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Discussing the strategies identified 4 2.1 Organizational structures 4 2.2 Identification of stakeholders 5 3.0 Benefits (indirect and direct) 5 4.0 Consequences (Potentially bad thing for stakeholders) 6 5.0 Recommendations 7 6.0 Conclusion 9 7.0 References 10 8.0 Appendices 12 1.0 Introduction In the 21st century, stakeholder engagement strategy has emerged as a best practice in management. Neil (2009) defined stakeholder engagement as a process in which the management involves individuals who could be affected by an organization’s. Change management is often good for competition and growth of the organization, but if the stakeholders are not engaged, they will always reject the exercise (Fairlie 2011, p.509). This is the same case with University of South Australia who are intending to roll out Office365 which will also include email for students, staff and alumni. However, the stakeholders are concerned about data security and back up especially with the use of cloud software and OneDrive. Therefore, using various models this paper will review and understand potential stakeholders, benefits (both direct and indirect), consequences and actions and devise stakeholder engagement strategy to address their concerns. The models to be used include Kubler-Ross model, Adams, Hayes and Hopson model, Satir’s model and Weinberg’s critical points in change. 2.0 Discussing the strategies identified 2.1 Organizational structures Organizational structures are very important in stakeholder’s engagement. According to Jacobides (2007, p.456), organizational structures are known not just to affect individual stakeholders but also disrupt the decision makings and communication. Organizations with tall and complex finds have no proper stakeholder engagement strategy. For instance, University of South Australia has a functional organization with many levels of hierarchies. In functional structure, an organization is grouped into several functions such as human resource department, accounting and finance department, administration department (Jacobides 2007, p.458), faculty of engineering and school of business and faculty of social sciences among others. As such, change of organization structure becomes a good strategy before stakeholder engagement. On the other hand, with complex function structure, stakeholder engagement can be done at functional level. 2.2 Identification of stakeholders To begin with, NETSSAF (2008) claimed that stakeholder can be identified through brainstorming to gather a comprehensive list of groups, people and institutions. Brainstorming brings many stakeholders on board. From this point, the stakeholders can be categorized in order of importance such primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders (NETSSAF 2008). In the whole process it that primary stakeholders that are strongly and directly affected by changes, hence the organization needs to greatly focus on them. In University of South Australia, the primary stakeholders include staffs, students, alumni and suppliers. The staff comprise of university administrators such as chancellor, vice chancellor, registrar, head of faculties and department, and professors. These stakeholders’ data are at risk because personal information is often stored in cloud or OneDrive hence are exposed to cyber attacks. 3.0 Benefits (indirect and direct) Research demonstrates that there are several benefits which come with stakeholder engagement. Some of the benefits are direct while others are indirect. First, stakeholder engagement is directly beneficial to the organization as it establishes a buy-in (Luoma-aho 2015, p. 7). According to Satir‘s Change Model, change comes with a foreign element and it is this aspect that disrupts their stability as depicted in appendix 1 (Smith 2015). Since the elements destabilizes their conform zone they reject. However, after several discussions and explaining the benefits students, staff and alumni buy-in the idea. Management experts therefore advise managers to adopt Kübler-Ross model in change management. This model follows that management need to come up with an innovation but engage the stakeholders before it is implemented (Kübler-Ross, 2005). The model hold that at first, the stakeholder with deny (reject) the change before finally accept it. Luoma-aho (2015, p.7) asserted that buying in the change process is beneficial to the organization because it enables smooth completion of the projects. Another indirect benefit of employee engagement is that it reduces employees’ turnover. A research done by Talentkeepers in 2010, established that turnover is high where employees are disengaged (Ram & Prabhakar 2011, p.47). However, organization which engages employees high retains employees hence saving the cost of hiring and training employees. Adams, Hayes and Hopson model claims change makes employees go through emotional situation which can make their esteem level to fall (Adams, Hayes & Hopson 1976, p. 37). However, when they are engaged, they feel valued and part of organization. When the esteems are high they remain at the organization. 4.0 Consequences (Potentially bad thing for stakeholders) Gould (2012) opined that when an organization implements a change without engaging stakeholders, it might turn out to affect their lives in the long run. Innovation process is some of the projects which might affect tremendously. Implementing Office 365 without consulting staffs, professors, students and alumni is a bad management practice with regards to sustainability. Storing emails and data in cloud software is risky, particularly if it is distributed in numerous place as with a large university as University of South Australia (Helmick n.d, p.4). Storing data or research data in OneDrive for several students to access is equal risky lecturers. Not every who access such data have good intent, and may as well compromise the professors information such as the email. Helmick (n.d, p.4) also stated that messaging in a large organization is not safe in Office 365 because attackers now target directories and DDOS. Meaning implementing innovation exposes violate stakeholders’ privacy as their messages might be exposed. Message pear-phishing has also become common in office 365. Paper always wants to store data for future references. However, that is not possible with office 365. Helmick (n.d, p.3) claimed that Office 365 is real time service that work and not in future. It means that when wants to retrieve an email from the past, office 365 cannot offer it. In other words, this software has no data resilience and backups (Helmick n.d, p.5). Despite the concerns, Office 365 has several benefits to the stakeholders. Office 365 helps an organization with email services, cloud storage, Exchange Online, Skype services and office applications (Datto 2016). Higher institutions rely on email and storage of data to communicate and serve their clients hence adoption of office 365 helps in this process. Office 365 speed up communication because its real time. 5.0 Recommendations Adoption of office 365 is good for University of South Australia as it improve communication, information processing and storage. In the bigger, implementation of the software is an innovation agenda which makes the organization competitive (Datto 2016). However, different concerns have been pointed out that if are not ironed out the change process can be rejected. Therefore, this paper recommends that follow; The administrators must explain to the stakeholders the benefits and disadvantages of the new innovation. According to Datto (2016), the process entails analyzing the stakeholders based on how they are affected by the innovation. NETSSAF (2008) argued that the organization can analyze the stakeholders using stakeholder matrix to find the most affected then begin their engagement on the basis of the order. The process of engaging the stakeholders should discuss the benefit to the organization and individuals and how disadvantages will be minimized (Neil 2009, p. 23). When this is done, the stakeholder will feel confident of the process and buy in. The company will need resolve the disputes. The process starts with forming dispute resolution to hear concerns of the stakeholders and see the best technique of conflict resolution to use. According to Weinberg’s critical points in change accommodation is that best conflict management in this case as shown in appendix 2 (Weinberg 1997, p. 15). Since email and data concerns are personal concerns which may make stakeholders to total reject the innovation, it is advisable to give them what they want by finding away to protect their data and emails and reduce the threats. Helmick (n.d, p.4) argued that instead of removing the virus, the organization can watch them and assign the role to the vendor. The vendor can protect attack n office 365 from their side. Similarly, the company can secure its emails by sending it without storing it in the gateway for long (Helmick n.d, p.4). The organization also needs to consider restructuring their organization through merging of different position for the manager. Communication and engagement of stakeholders is difficult particular in an organization with complex organizational structure. Jacobides (2007, p. 471) postulated that merging managerial position reduces hierarchy hence flow of communication and stakeholder engagement. 6.0 Conclusion In this era of technology, organizations face pressure to innovate so as to remain competitive. However, change is like a two edged sword. While from one end there is a pressure to adopt, on the other there is a threat resistance. As such, the management needs balancing of the two. In this paper University of South Australia faces pressure to adopt office 365 to improve its communication, data storage and information processing. Nonetheless, stakeholders are also concerned about data security risks and adequate storage of research data. Therefore, the good management practice is to adopt change process but also engage the stakeholders so as to avoid resistance. The report recommends that the University of South Australia’s management needs to information the stakeholders about Office 365 on time and explains to them its benefits and shortcoming so as to buy the idea. Similarly, the report recommends accommodating the concerning by rectifying them to avoid total rejection of the innovation. 7.0 References Adams. J.D, Hayes, J & Hopson, B 1976, Transition: Understanding and managing personal change, Martin Robertson, London. Datto 2016, Migration to Exchange Online and Office 365: A Step-by-Step Guide: An Osterman Research White Paper, Osterman Research, Inc. Fairlie, P 2011, 'Meaningful Work, Employee Engagement, and Other Key Employee Outcomes: Implications for Human Resource Development', Advances in Developing Human Resources, vol.13, no. 4, pp. 508-525. Gould, R.W 2012, Open Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement, Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, Vol.7, no.3, pp.1-11. Helmick, J n.d, 4 Critical Risks Facing Microsoft® Office 365™ Implementation, Mimecast. Jacobides, M.G 2007, ‘The inherent limits of organizational structure and the unfulfilled role of hierarchy: Lessons from a near-war’, Organization Science, vo.18, no.3, pp.455-477. Kübler-Ross, E 2005, On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss, Simon & Schuster Ltd. Luoma-aho, V 2015, Understanding Stakeholder Engagement: Faith-holders, Hateholders & Fakeholders, Research Journal of the Institute for Public Relations, vol. 2, no.1, pp.1-28. Neil, J 2009, Stakeholder Engagement: A Road Map to Meaningful Engagement, Cranfield School of Management. NETSSAF 2008, NETSSAF Participatory Planning-Approach, A tutorial for sustainable sanitation planning: Network for the Development of Sustainable Approaches for Large Scale Implementation of Sanitation in Africa, viewed 19 April 2017 from http://www.netssaf.net/ Ram, P & Prabhakar, G.V 2011, ‘The role of employee engagement in work related outcomes. Interdisciplinary’, Journal of Research in Business, vol.3, no.4, pp. 47–61. Smith, S.M 2015, The Satir Change Model, viewed 19 April 2017 http://stevenmsmith.com/ar- satir-change-model/ Weinberg, G.M 1997, ‘Quality Software Management: Anticipating Change’, Dorset House. 8.0 Appendices Appendix 1: Satir Change Model Appendix 2: Weinberg’s critical points in change Read More