Culture Change at Heinz Australia under Widdows Leadership - Case Study Example

Managing Change and Innovation Name Course Tutor Date Managing Change and Innovation Drawing cultural web elements to discuss culture change at Heinz Australia under Widdows leadership Connecting the situation with the cultural web, the paradigm culture of the company can be described to encapsulate low morale among employees as a result of low motivation. Graetz et al., (2010, p.62) claim that Widdows changed the situation by encouraging support, nurturing employees and coming with new ideas. Another difficulty Widdows faced was lack of control systems in the organization. The company was experiencing high employees’ turnover every year but could not control the situation due to no proper mechanism. The control system widows put in place was to motivate players by listening to their problems and creating “a great place to work” culture that ensured workforce were motivated to remain loyal to the company (Graetz et al., 2010, p.62). As stated earlier, Heinz had a complex organizational structure, making it hard to control the process and even operations. Such structure had no well defined roles and responsibility, hence leading to conflicts (Jacobides, 2007, p.456). Widdows swiftly reduced the number of workforce by 25% and reconstituted the board and brought in middle level managers. Reduction of workforce ensured the company reduce the wage bill more were there was role duplication. The power structure is demonstrated by no middle level managers. When Widdows was appointed as the CEO, he brought in middle level managers to work as senior managers to be to help in decision making and to be able to listening model new behavior in employees. The routine is typified by bad attitude and behavior observed at Heinz. This was only rectified after Widdows created new organizational structure and brought in senior managers to improve the behavior and attitude of the employees. Symbols were manifested by complex organization structure which lacked middle level managers. In this arrangement, there was strained relationship by employees and top management; employees were not involved in the decision making. Restructuring of the structure breath a new lease of life into employees who were now involved in creating a new culture of “a great place to work”. Key forces for and against change Forces for change From the cultural web, forces for change include the paradigm, organization structure, symbols, myths and stories, rites and routines, and symbolic aspects. For instance, looking at the paradigm, the Heinz was characterized by low morale, conflict and employees’ turnover (Graetz et al., 2010, p.61). As such, paradigm itself was a force which created the need for change. Organization structure was another force in that it was complex and had no clear roles and responsibilities. The complex organization structure has an ineffective communication channel. Jacobides (2007, p.458) claims that in a complex structure decisions also take a long time to take effect. Widdows changed to matrix structure with middle level managers being brought in to improve the behavior and attitude, and even improve the relationship between employees and employers. Rites and routines mainly behavior and attitude towards one another and people outside the company was wanting, an aspect which called for change. Widdows finally changed it by nurturing and supporting employees so as to improve their relationship. Myth and stories portrayed an organization which had potential due to expansion which had already started long before the end of world war. On the other hand, there was a story of employee’s conflict, low morale, employee’s turnover, lack of respect between managers. The stories were good for the company, but the attitude, low morale, trust and disrespect shown by employees and managers had to be improved to realize that potential. Forces against change Critical comparison of the cultural web and Heinz organizational culture demonstrates that there were some forces which were against changes consisting of control systems and power structure. Stoltzfus, Stohl & Seibold (2011, p.6) argue that normally when change is created, employees are set to oppose it due to fear of unknown, lost of control, loss of job and lack of rewards among others. While aiming at putting control to cost of operation and role duplication, Widdows reduced salaried staff by 25 percent. This was going to be met with resistance from people who were laid-off. Another element that could have been against the change is power structure. Organization restructuring and shake-up could entail elimination or addition of some managerial duties (Stoltzfus, Stohl & Seibold (2011, p.11). In the new power structure, middle level managers were brought in reducing the power of senior managers. Senior managers could have resisted reorganization which reduces their status and power they had already enjoying in the company. Stoltzfus, Stohl & Seibold (2011, p.7) state that humans are social creatures with habits and may get it hard to discard their behavioral routines which the management thinks is inappropriate. People enjoy their comfort zones by ongoing routine responsibility patterns. Managers thus resist cultural and cultural changes that compel them outside their comfort zone and need investing energy and longer time and learning new task blueprints (Bligh, 2006, p.496). Key strength of the new culture The new culture ushered in by Widdows is referred to as “a great place to work” (Graetz et al., 2010, p.62). This culture has enormous strength to improve the performance of an organization. The new culture creates employee’s involvement, motivate employees, reduces employee’s turnover and enhances managers’ respects towards one another. Graetz et al., (2010, p.62) contends that in the new culture, all the employees were asked to define what “a great place to work” means to them so as to create a culture where every person’s view is considered and respected. In that manner, employees feel valued by the management. The new culture also motivates players and reduces turnover. It created a nurturing and support program which will realize potential in employees and make it of great importance (Beerel, 2009). It also created work-life balance which would ease pressure off employees in juggling between office work and family chores. If a person continues working at their place of work but do not enjoy the work therefore happiness and satisfaction cannot be realized. Developing a professional setting in which employees understand what to anticipate and their roles is critical to workforce retention and performance, including organization general success (Beerel, 2009). New form of culture is in fact an investment that is worth making. Aspect of the organization that need to be monitored and sustained. With business changes taking place so first, most managers would be forced to change organization culture quite often. However, if the organization is flexible such as the one at Heinz Australasian, there would be no need to change it but just to monitor and sustain it. The culture is built on trust and respect which makes it even more effective. What need to be monitored and sustained is the company values and commitment in workforce to ensure the firm does not slide back to its ancient ways of operations (Graetz et al., 2010, p.62). This can be done by creating a proper communication channel within the company. Beerel (2009) argues that communication must be effective because poor communication results to rumors and resistant to change. Organizational communication is considered a significant element of a self-categorization practice that assists in defining the uniqueness or brand of a company and to build a society spirit that suits into organizational prerequisites (Stoltzfus, Stohl & Seibold, 2011). In this way, Heinz management is assured of reinforcing and maintaining a new culture “a great place to work” to make it stay as a drive force towards the future. Continuous training is also important to implementation of the new culture. Stoltzfus, Stohl& Seibold (2011) training ensures that new employees coming into the organization are integrated into the values and culture of the company. Sun Microsystems Principles of best practices that are portrayed in Sun Microsystems Environment improvement in terms of conservation is one of the best practices used by companies as a sustainable strategy to prolong their business (Smith & Sharicz, 2011, p.75). Sun Microsystems is one of such companies that have developed best practices referred to as “open works” to environmental risks within the company and beyond. Best practices demonstrated by this company include dumping PCs in preference of “thin clients”, employee were organized into groups to enhance, eco-responsibility and redesigning floor space and move managers to core of building and offer window seats, encourage video conference and computer-mediated communication and reduce air travels, and save power by increasing operating temperatures from 3-5 within the data centers Graetz et al., 2010, p.106). Thin clients are computers which operate by getting files kept on the central remote server as opposed to in-built drive (Graetz, 2010, p.106). Eco-responsible employees can help in energy conservation by switching off unnecessary air conditioning and lights. Generally, all these best practices are geared towards environmental conservation and improvement. Smith & Sharicz, (2011, p.81) asserts that conserving and improving environment brings in more clients especially the ones from the new rising market segment called Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS). Carbon reduction is thus relevant to the organizational environment in every market for businesses dedicated to raising profits and building client loyalty and goodwill. Gains Sun Microsystems should expect from the changes When improvement of the environment is done, various gains are often realized by the company more on in terms of energy conservation and operation cost reduction (Franchetti & Apul, 2013). In the Sun Microsystems perspectives, the company was able to conserve power in the adoption of thin clients. Usually, thin clients operate on 4 watts as opposed to more than 100 the company used to operate on. In 2002, the company set a target to reduce carbon emission by 20 percent within that period up to 2012 (Graetz et al. 2010, p.106). That target was realized in 2007 earlier than expected. The redesigning of the space floor is now yielding an employee-desk ration from 1 to 1.3. According to Graetz et al. (2010), data center operation temperatures have also been able to reduce carbon footprint by 6%. Such actions have resulted to reduction of carbon emission in the air. Hence the company reduced the risk of global warming, which does not affect the current generation but also the future. The company has also gained from their workgroups aimed at creating eco-responsibility. The company has been able to boost its image as an organization that does not just care about the profit but also the social welfare of the society (Smith & Sharicz, 2011, p.81). Sun Microsystems has enhanced its performance because of acquiring new clients as a result of good image and as an eco-friendly company and reputation for the sustainability, due to fact that Sun was feted by Forbes magazine in 2007 as the greenest firm in the globe (Graetz et al., 2010). Why this can be copied by other companies The best practices undertaken by Sun Microsystems can be embraced by not electronic companies, but all the big companies operating today. Such aspect can emulated as part of corporate social responsibility. Smith & Sharicz (2011, p.74) state that environment improvement can be used as a sustainable approach to increase economic growth while also improving the social aspect such quality life of the society. Using thin client is viable and means that companies can be used to conserve energy for future use. In the long-term perspective, the company adopting thin client is able more than 96 watts of power in every machine they use. As such, the management will cut cost of operation in particular that of power. The money can be used in other projects. Another way of reducing gas emissions into the atmosphere is the adoption of video conferencing to talk to its employees in other countries and even its customers (Graetz et al., 2010, p.106). It is this way that it will not just be conserving the environment, but also reducing cost of operation as well as enjoying the fruits of technology. Getting employees into teams to embrace eco-responsibility is positive for most companies because it points out to the customer and society that the company actually cares about their social life (Smith & Sharicz, 2011, p.77). In so doing, they will win more customers to their business and improve their performance. References Beerel, A. (2009). Leadership and Change Management. SAGE Publications Ltd. Bligh, M. C. (2006). Surviving Post-merger ‘Culture Clash’: Can Cultural Leadership Lessen the Casualties? Leadership, 2, 395 - 426. Graetz, F., Rimmer, M., Smith, A., & Lawrence, A. (2010). Managing Organizational Change, 3rd Australasian edition. Milton, Qld: John Wiley & Sons. Franchetti, M., & Apul, D. (2013). Carbon footprint analysis: concepts, methods, implementation, and case studies. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis. Jacobides., M. G. (2007). The inherent limits of organizational structure and the unfulfilled role of hierarchy: Lessons from a near-war. Organization Science, 18, 3, 455-477. Stoltzfus, K,, Stohl, C., & Seibold, D.R. (2011). Managing organizational change: paradoxical problems, solutions, and consequences. Journal of organizational change management, 24, 3-23. Smith, P.A.C., & Sharicz, C. (2011). The shift needed for sustainability. The Learning Organization. 18 (1), 73-86. . Read More