Salchester Arts and Cultural Centre - Essay Example

Case Study: Salchester Arts and Cultural Centre (SACC) Table of contents Introduction Page 3 2. Effective and efficient communication :Page 4 3. Individuals or groups that may resistant to the changes : Page 7 4. Performance Management System and the new Leadership Development Program : Page 9 a. Performance Management System : Page 9 b. Leadership Development Program : Page 11 5. Conclusions/Recommendations : Page 13 6. References : Page 14 Introduction The Salchester Arts and Cultural Centre (SACC) was a theatre complex which have been renovated, decorated and refurbished recently by its owner Bernard, in order to make it more suitable to the changing needs of its diverse customers. House special rooms for music, theatre groups, a small coffee bar and a book shop were added to the existing theatre complex to make it more exciting for the visitors. With its new name, the reputation of the SACC has grown and attracts customers and visitors from all the surrounding towns and villages and even attracts people from South London and it became the town’s foremost attraction and a very important source of employment. The Town Council decided to create an Advisory Board to guide and promote the activities of SACC because of the huge gathering of public there. Two Town Councilors, the vice Chancellor of the local University, the CEO of the large electronics company, a representative of SACC’s Bank, 2 local media celebrities, the president of the local Chamber of Commerce and two representatives from the theatre were the council members. Along with growth, problems also started to creep in as the local residents started to complain about the activities that Bernard introduced as they suspected that Bernard had raised the profile of the town through new activities and the interests of the local community had been ignored. As an Employer, the centre had grown significantly and now it employs 60 full-time and 120 part-time employees as well using the university students as temporary employees when special events are held. Moreover, the centre struggled to find a replacement for the retiring Bernard. Former Director of a large Cultural and Performing Arts Centre in Chicago, Calvin Spacey became the Artistic and Managing Director of SACC later. This report explains the change management and leadership policies Calvin should adopt in order to steer SACC out of trouble. Effective and efficient communication “Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level”(Change management, 2010). SACC is growing rapidly and a new leader has already taken charge. Under such circumstances, changes should be happened in SACC both from individual and organizational level. The essence of any Change Management Policy is ‘effective and efficient communication. Internal and external communication is necessary for an organization to send the messages to the employees and the community and also to receive messages from the community and employees. To convey the business philosophies both to the employees and to the society, the organization should develop effective channels of communication. No organization can successfully operate in a society if it neglects the needs of the society. Consistent communication through different channels like speaking, writing, video, training, focus groups, bulletin boards, etc can bring more changes in SACC. Calvin should realize that majority of the problems faced by SACC is due to the lack of communication between the management and the employees and the management and the community. Bernard failed to convince the community about the needs of the changes he implemented in SACC and subsequently the local residents around the SACC started to develop suspicion over the activities of Bernard and SACC. Calvin’s first task is to convince the locals about the needs of the changes happening in SACC. Calvin can meet the community or local leaders in order to convince them about the needs of the changes. Moreover he can speak to the locals through bulletin boards in order to educate them about the needs of the changes. Major occupational groups in SACC were the, Personnel Officer, Finance Director, the Catering Manger and the Marketing Director. These people dictate their departments even though they were efficient and nobody has any doubt about their abilities. For example, the Chief Personnel officer, Mrs Brown, who has just been awarded CIPD membership, and her two full-time and two part-time assistants have managed all these personnel issues for the last 5 years from a small office at the back of the theatre. Same way all the other department heads were also operating with limited facilities and in an unprofessional manner. Calvin should convince these power houses of SACC first in order to gain power and authority. For that purpose, Calvin should conduct separate meetings with these department heads and employees specifically to educate them about the needs of changes. Apart from the residents, the employees of SACC were also causing problems to the smooth functioning of SACC. Accountability of the employees in organizational matters was limited during the Bernard era which forced the SACC employees to do things as they like. The above culture cannot be allowed further in SACC and for that purpose; Calvin should convey the change message properly to each and every employee. The SACC employees should generate a feeling that the new management is tougher than the previous management and their silly excuses and lazy attitudes may not work further. Calvin should call all the employees individually and should speak to all of them privately. Moreover, his frequent visits will motivate the employees further to enhance their productivity. Calvin can promote some of the loyal and hard working employees for the supervisory post in order to control the activities more effectively. The irresponsible functioning of the employees caused problems to SACC earlier during Bernard era for completing the projects in time within the budget. Calvin should clearly educate the employees that organizational needs are as important as their personal needs especially when the global business climate is not so good. Instant communication is the core of effective change management. Some mangers have the habit of delaying decisions when they are not sure of the outcomes of their decisions. But such tactics will not help change management. Employees should get immediate response to their activities. Rewards and punishments should be given as quickly as possible in order to educate the employee about the consequences of their behavior or actions. The employee and the community doubts should be clarified adequately and for that purpose, they should be given adequate time to ask questions or to request clarifications. The vision and mission of the change management should be conveyed properly before implementing it. Calvin should realize that an effective communication is always bidirectional. Here employees and the local community are at one side and Calvin should be at the other side. Calvin should reveal his projects to the community and the employees and he can ask their opinions. If the opinions or concerns were genuine, he can accept it; otherwise he can explain the reasons for rejecting it. “Leaders need to listen. Avoid defensiveness, excuse-making, and answers that are given too quickly. Act with thoughtfulness. Communication should be proactive. If the rumor mill is already in action, the organization has waited too long to communicate” (Heathfield, 2010a). It is difficult to prevent rumors in an in an organization. The best way of tackling rumors is to prevent it before it actually occurs. If the management fails to communicate properly in time, rumors can easily creep in. Some leaders have the misconception that their role is to advice subordinates always rather than listening them. In fact a leader should give equal priority to both. Leaders can make mistakes easily and in the absence of feedbacks from the subordinates, they will not realize it and the organization will move in a wrong direction. Calvin should adopt a mixture of democratic and autocratic leadership style while communicating with the employees. Such a mixed approach will help Calvin to deal the employees individually based on their peculiar characteristics. Individuals or groups that may resistant to the changes Organizational changes normally create mixed reactions among the employees. Some of them might accept the changes, some others may resist the changes and a third segment of employees may keep a neutral approach. Calvin should handle all the three segments of employees effectively in order to implement the changes effectively. For that purpose Calvin need to devise different strategies. As mentioned earlier, the major occupational groups in SACC were the, Personnel Officer, Finance Director, the Catering Manger and the Marketing Director. These people control their departments as they like as Bernard has given them enough freedom because of his over burden. The above power segments will definitely resist any attempts made by Calvin to distribute the power more evenly in the organization. Calvin’s change management may cease their monopoly and their authorities could be reduced. For example, it is impossible for Calvin to allow the Personnel Officer or the Finance Director to function without any control. Apart from centralized control these department functions needed to be distributed evenly to the employees under the supervision of some middle level managers. It is difficult to anticipate that either a Personnel Officer or a Finance Director might be able to control all the activities in their departments effectively without having the assistance from some middle managers. It should be noted that even in normal situation, goal conflict exists between firm (owners) and its employees, but the magnitude and intensity of this conflict is very low and so it is hidden, we call this ‘goal difference’, and both parties (firm & employees) accept each other’s goals. In a strategic and major change program, firms alter their goals, which result in shifting and increasing their focus towards new goals. The shift in focus and increased commitment of firm towards attaining its new goals, increase the magnitude and intensity of goal conflict and it become very difficult for both parties (firm & employees) to accept each other’s goals (Khan and Rehman, n. d) Calvin’s efforts to implement certain changes in SACC might demand some extra efforts from the employees. Under normal circumstances, no employee would like to increase their duties and responsibilities. On the other hand, if they feel that the changes might give them more benefits, they will be ready to accept the changes. So Calvin’s initial task is to educate the employees about the possible benefits as part of the implementation of the proposed changes in SACC. In short, Calvin should never treat the employees who resist his changes, as enemies. Calvin should recognize that the employee resistance to organizational changes is inevitable and keeping prejudices or biases while dealing with such employees might damage the interests of the organization further. Performance Management System and the new Leadership Development Program Performance Management System Because of the one man show performed by Bernard, SACC failed to implement any scientific management systems in any of the departments in SACC. HRM issues were very much complicated so that some very well-qualified applicants had recently turned down offers for the job of Catering Manager because of the poor level of benefits, training and prospects of future advancement in the centre. There was no clear employment or personal development policy in any of the commercial occupations – Finance, Marketing, and Catering- within SACC. No single aspect of a Performance Management System had been systematically introduced even though appraisals had taken place and SMART Goal-setting techniques had been discussed in SACC. Performance management system can increase “efficiency, decreases cost or enhances quality confers immediate competitive advantage on its creator and sets a standard for the rest of the industry to follow” (Performance management guide for businesses, 2006). Even though SACC has grown considerably, its image as an employer has not grown significantly. Poor training, retention strategies along with ambiguity in career prospects and lack of benefits contributed heavily to the bad reputation of SACC as an employer. Modern employees are more focused on their career prospects rather than the immediate gains. Many of the employees are hesitant in joining an organization, if it offers more salary at the time of joining, but fail to offer adequate career prospects. It is impossible for an organization to survive in the current business climate by the utilization of local talents alone. In a theatre complex like SACC, people from different countries can also visit. Under such circumstances, keeping a diverse workforce is necessary for SACC in order to attract more tourists towards their organization. A well formulated performance management plan should; Define the purpose of the job, job duties, and responsibilities, Define performance goals with measurable outcomes, Define the priority of each job responsibility and goal, Define performance standards for key components of the job, Hold interim discussions and provide feedback about employee performance, preferably daily, summarized and discussed, at least, quarterly, Maintain a record of performance through critical incident reports, Provide the opportunity for broader feedback, Use a 360 degree performance feedback system that incorporates feedback from the employees peers, customers, and people who may report to him, Develop and administer a coaching and improvement plan if the employee is not meeting expectations (Heathfield, 2010b) Currently, departmental functions in SACC are messed up with most of the employees don’t have proper idea about their duties and responsibilities. Moreover, the employees are unaware of the changing behaviors of the customers or the modern management techniques. Only with the help of training programs, employees can be educated about the changing trends in global business climate, changing consumer behavior and the challenges faced by SACC in business. Performance management plan will help Calvin to ensure that SACC goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. It can also help Calvin to focus more on the performance of SACC; as a whole, as a department, as an employee, as a processes etc. it can also help SACC to grow sales, reduce costs, reduce time taken for projects etc. Leadership Development programs Along with performance management system, leadership development programs also necessary in SACC in order to improve the capabilities of the employees. It is difficult to anticipate that all the people lead or mange certain things equally well. At the same time through training and development strategies, leadership skills can be improved. Leadership is a complex task which requires some times skills, sometimes intelligence and sometimes the backing of scientific principles. It requires intelligence, patience, temperament, analytical skills, management skills, authority, power etc. According to Harvard professor, Abraham Zalensik there are two kinds of leaders; once born and twice born (Evans, n. d, p.26). In other words, some leaders have inborn traits of leadership whereas some others need to develop the leadership qualities. When a leader with inborn traits undergoes leadership development training, he will become a twice born leader as the training may further enhance his leadership capabilities. On the other hand, people without inherited traits of leadership can become once born leaders with the help of training. In any case, leadership training will definitely add something to the existing capabilities of the employee. Simply put, leadership development is an effort that enhances the learners capacity to lead oneself, other individuals, groups and organizations. A critical skill for leaders is the ability to manage their own learning -- the highly motivated, self-directed reader can gain a great deal of learning and other results from using the guidelines and materials in this library topic (Leadership Development Planning, n. d) Calvin should realize that his subordinates are of two types; those who like their work and those who dislike their work. Barnett (2010) has mentioned about theory X and theory Y in order to classify the employees into two different categories. Theory X is about the workers who dislike their work whereas Theory Y is about the workers who like their work (Barnett, 2010). Some of the SACC employees may dislike their work because of their inherited traits (Theory X) and they will always try to avoid hard work which will create problems to Calvin. Instead of using power or punishment, it is better to provide them proper training in order to improve their leadership, management and professional skills and thereby reducing their dissatisfaction up to certain extent. Most of the employees exhibit dissatisfaction over their work because of their lack of skills or knowledge with respect to the work. There are many prominent leadership and management theories like Contingency Theory, Situational Leadership Theory, Leader-Member Exchange Theory etc for the effective management of the human resources in SACC like organizations. In my opinion, situational leadership theory seems to be more appropriate for SACC. Majority of the leading organizations in the world are currently using situational leadership in order to lead their organization towards success. Situational leadership is a leadership style which reacts differently based on the situations. In other words, predefined principles of leadership or management are not important in situational leadership. It concentrates mainly on the situation for taking appropriate decision rather than anything else. Calvin should try to implement situational leadership in SACC. Employees and the local community should never feel that Calvin is performing against their interests. Calvin should never be motivated by prejudices or biases, but he should always react according to the situations. Calvin should realize that an employee failed in one situation might succeed in another situation. If Calvin visualize a failed employee as an absolute failure, that employee will never get recognition from Calvin even if he perform well o another occasion. Under such circumstances the employee frustrations would increase his productivity could be affected. On the other hand, if an employee is treated based on the merits of his actions, rather than his past histories, he will always be motivated. Conclusions/Recommendations SACC needs a complete restructuring in order to make it capable of meeting the challenges raised by the recent business climate. Both the local residents and the employees have many concerns about the current functioning and future prospects of SACC and it is the duty of the newly appointed CEO Calvin to settle such issues. Many of the departments in SACC are currently monopolized by the department heads and it is impossible for SACC to continue in this manner. Interdepartmental coordination is very less in SACC and most of the departments and employees function in their own ways in the absence of proper supervision. Calvin should communicate properly through different channels to the public and to the employees in order to make them aware of the company’s current weaknesses and the possible solutions to overcome these weaknesses. Performance management systems and leadership development programs should be implemented in SACC in order to exploit the productivity of the employees more effectively. References 1. Barnett, T. (2010). Theory X and Theory Y. [Online], Available at: Encyclopedia of Management http://www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/theory-x-theory-y, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 2. Change management,(2010), [Online], Available at: http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci799426,00.html , [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 3. Evans, M.H., (n. d,), Leadership, [Online], Available at: http://www.exinfm.com/training/pdfiles/course18.pdf, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 4. Heathfield, S.M. (2010a), Communication in Change Management Communication Is Key in Change Management, [Online], Available at: http://humanresources.about.com/od/changemanagement/a/change_lessons2.htm, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 5. Heathfield, S.M. (2010b), Performance Management Process Checklist, [Online], Available at: http://humanresources.about.com/od/performancemanagement/a/perfmgmt.htm, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 6. Khan, K. & Rehman, M., (n. d), Employee resistance towards organizational change, [Online], Available at: http://www.projectsparadise.com/employees-resistance- organizational-change/, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 7. Leadership Development Planning, (n. d), [Online], Available at: http://managementhelp.org/ldr_dev/ldr_dev.htm, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] 8. Performance management guide for businesses, (2006), [Online], Available at: http://www.performancemanagementguide.com/, [Accessed 20 August, 2010] Read More