Business Strategy of Forestry Commission - Assignment Example

Business Strategy Table of Contents Introduction 3 Forestry Commission 4 Task 5 Task 2 7 Task 3 9 Task 4 11 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 13 Introduction In the present world of today, ‘change’ is presumed to be the only constant word. As the business environment is experiencing major shifts in almost all the sectors, change with time has been the key towards the sustainable growth of any and every organization. With major developments in the field of information technology and that of the communication process, the terms of trade have experienced paradigm shift. The increasing effect of globalization along with that of the communication revolution with internet has made the world a really small place to live in, just with the reach of few clicks of the mouse. In such changing environment, it is must for the organizations and the institutions to have enough flexibility and adaptability within the policies and procedures of such bodies so that the changing terms can be easily inculcated. Such flexibility and adaptability has become the key for the sustainable growth and development of the organizations and institutions. Forestry Commission Forestry Commission was established in England in the year of 1919 through the passing of the Forestry Act. The prime reason of the establishment of such Commission was aimed at supplying the much required timbers that were in scarcity in those years because of the industrial revolution and the First World War. The government of England speculated another war in the near future and thought it was necessary to have proper supply of timber. The secondary reason of the formation of such Commission was to ensure employment in the rural economy because of the changed political equations and also to provide employment to the soldiers those have just returned from the war. Therefore, to serve so many of the objectives the Forestry Commission was formulated which till recently was under the control of the ex-army men and more importantly followed the organizational structure similar to that of the military. The structure was essentially a top-down one with much emphasis on the features like chain of command and order from the top. Task 1 With the changing times, the role of the Forestry Commission also experienced paradigm shift. The department of the government that came in to existence for the purpose of timber production and rural employment was pressed by the government in the 70s and 80s to inculcate organizational efficiency like other departments of the government. The Forestry Commission also had certain internal conflicts. There was a clear difference among the organizational hierarchy resulting in ‘them’ and ‘us’. Those who were the field persons never had enough opportunities to go high up the organizational structure. Also they had certain grievances like they were paid weekly in cash where as those on the management were paid on monthly basis through bank accounts. These factors can be viewed as the internal reasons for initiating change in the age old department. But there were certain other factors too that facilitated change in the way of running the Commission. Among many such facilitators of change, the most prominent was that of the declaration of the Kyoto Protocol. According to the resolution, governments cannot any more cut trees for the commercial purpose. The role of the government underwent complete change after the international meeting. As per the decisions, the governments had to perform more accountable role towards the society and have to initiate the changing role of conserving of forests instead of cutting them incessantly. So, now the Forestry Commission, being a government department, had to think of ways of generating revenue for them in some other way. Along with such directive by the government, also there was another bad news for the Commission. During the year of 1996 – 1997, the international price of the timber fell considerably. The reason for such fall in price was thought to be the oversupply of the product in the East European nations. Consequently, the felling of trees for the purpose of commerce had to be almost stopped as it was not serving any purpose of organizational resources. These were the external factors of change for the Forestry Commission. With such implications for changing terms, the department had to enforce major shifts in its way of running it. The onus lied upon the Forestry Commission to ensure that the forests become a place of recreation and health. The way of running the department had to be changed because public access to the forests was long over dew. And now to make it a medium of recreation, the access to the public has to be provided. Also, the department had to work in close proximity with the society and the conservators and so such hierarchical approach would not have worked any more. All the factors acted as the catalysts for change in the Forestry Commission. Task 2 The above discussion suggests that a major change was the need of the time for the Forestry Commission. For the purpose, David Bills was appointed as the director of the Commission. The government was so engrossed with the fact of initiating change within the Commission that they did not appoint any civil servant for the top position rather opted for the private forester. As David Bills initiated the responsibilities of the Commission, he found the morale of the workforce to be astonishing low. Also, the employees were against any sort of further changes within the department. This was because of the reason that just before the new director came to the department, government initiated many of the changes which were more of compelling in nature as the government was quite worried for the resources of the Forestry Commission. As David Bills took over the responsibilities, as a visionary, he well understood the crux of the problem in initiating any abrupt change and for the purpose he backed many of the programs that were directed to make the required changes in a slower but participative form. Some of such programs were as follows: Unification – The new director initiated measures to unite the organizational structure and get rid of the previous culture of ‘them & us’. In order to do so, Davis Bills tried to have informal conversation with the different levels of employees and after doing so for three years, he initiated an election in which majority voted for unification of the hierarchy. The unification led to the field workers, perceived as lower strata, eligible for the higher order if they have the qualification. Leadership Program – The new director also initiated many of the schemes like leadership drives. Under the leadership of David Bills, around 250 to 300 leaders were chosen from the senior level management and middle level management and special seminars and workshops were conducted to make them feel the changing business scenario. This measure helped a lot as because the selected leaders could go back to the organization and report the newer way of doing things. Connect – Connect was a series of workshops that were conducted by the management of the Forestry Commission to discuss the issues that were necessary to be done in the changing times. The workshops were voluntary in nature but experienced immense involvement of the staff. The reason for such positive rush was that of the success of the leadership programme. As some of the executives observed that the managers those were not selected for the leadership programme, thought this workshop to be the medium to upgrade themselves and be a party to the ongoing change. The VSPC Programme – The leadership of David Bills brought much deep insights to the working of the Forestry Commission. Another example of such insight was the Valuing and Supporting People Change. Many of the previous employees were offered with voluntary retirement schemes. Though such schemes did cost the Commission considerable amount at that point of time but it proved to be a right decision in the long run. Also, such a decision of shedding of the older employees helped to reduce the workforce and provided opportunity to recruit newer brains. Task 3 Culture has always played an important role with respect to the change management. Culture can again be of two types namely the internal culture (the culture that is present within the organization) and the external culture (the anticipated culture of the external stakeholders). Like other organization, The Forestry Commission too experienced major changes in its culture in the way of its change management. In the pre – David Bills era, the Commission has always emphasized upon the public sector values and ethos. As most of the employees of the Commission were from the army, therefore there was strict discipline in place along with the top-down hierarchy. Like army, it was much bureaucratic and it was perceived that the seniors have the best of the ideas. The organization was thoroughly conservative and it was ritual to work for long hours and saying always ‘yes’ to one’s boss. The grapevine was strong and the employees were always found to criticize the management. The power structure was high and it was often depended upon the relation with the head quarters. There were typical control of allocation of resources and budgets. The organizational structure was that of command and control like that of military. Under the leadership of David Bills major changes that were initiated in the Forestry Commission were also evident in the cultural front of the organization. The Commission became more outward looking and innovative. It learnt to celebrate success and also to balance between the personal and the professional life. Among the other important changes, the prominent were the flexibility, responsiveness and the adaptability initiated within the organization. The internal network of the organization became more open and accessible with the features like shared decision making. The communication within the internal process improved by great extend and due emphasis was put on the essential facts like innovation and recognition. Therefore, with such openness and shared values inculcated in the culture, the organization was bound to make positive move towards successful change management. Task 4 There is no particular insight in the case study about the allocation of resources after the successful initiation of the change management. But from the success of change in the Forestry Commission, it can be easily assessed that the department of the government can easily take care of the required resources by it unlike, that of previous requirements. In fact, the requirements of efficiency in the allocation of resources have been one of the major catalysts of change. The change management has definitely been effective in this case of Forestry Commission. The efficient leadership of David Bills has tremendous contribution towards the success of such effective change. The success of the change management can be witnessed in both inside factors as well as outside attributes of the organization. Externally, the Forestry Commission now does not solely depend upon the timber production but also initiates recreational activities, wild life and picnic within the periphery of the forest to increase its revenue along with initiating environmental projects. Internally, the employees of the department are high on morale much different from the time when David Bills initiated responsibilities. Also, the employees are happy as the organization has become more adaptable and flexible and the employees perceive that it recognizes their efforts much more in the newer system. Conclusion In order to align with the changing times; the organizations of today must remain adaptable and flexible. To take advantage of the dynamic business environments, the organizations should necessarily have effective and efficient change management tools in place. The very activity of change is an ongoing process. If one observes carefully, he or she can find that there is no particular start or end of change. As and when, the dynamics of business gets modified; the organization should also initiate change measures so that the sustainable growth and development can be carried forward without much worry. Bibliography McCann, A. 2003. The Forestry Commission: Cultural Change to Deliver a New Strategy. [Pdf]. Read More