Culture, Conflict, and the Effects of Process Adaptation in a Company - Case Study Example

CULTURE, CONFLICT, AND THE EFFECTS OF PROCESS ADAPTATION IN A GROWING ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY Lisa Koehler MGMT 6620 Date of Submission: 1. Case setting: The Company 1.1. Introduction Imagine making a difference in your work by being an in an organization which makes a difference in the lives of the next generation leaders. Working somewhere you can develop your strengths and develop professionally while you boldly live your values through your career. This is the history of the organization’s beliefs, values and decisions making that were all centered around. The company’s culture had been established since its inception. Shifting culture precedes the changing behavior and performance amongst the organization’s employees. Changing culture may come with trust issues for subordinates and all those around you. The opportunity below presents itself for improved business model, but only if the cultural paradigms can be addressed effectively. In this case, the organization is private faith-based company. It has existed for over hundred years. Faith-Based Organization X specializes in faith-based academics. The organization was undergoing major paradigm shifts in the culture as well as divisional subcultures because of altering business models within each division. Under the new leadership of the vice-president, leading two divisions, there were concerns on matters including management and decision making. Employees were expected to accommodate changes with grace. This resulted to change in the company’s culture mode. The main reason for this was the uncomfortable expectations of the management, requiring employees to accommodate the change. Therefore, the drastic expectation of change was hard to be accommodated by the employees. I worked for the organization in a span of three years, where I performed two roles. I began by leading a division as a director. After some time, I was transferred into a training role. The report of this personal case study will be through the eyes of the director role I played while in the organization. A typical director role consists of developing and leading strategic initiatives, talent development and process improvements. There are also many decisions that are made at the director level. A director must be the team leader and he/she must be able to initiate and implement new ideas. The director must ensure the mission; vision and goals of the company must be met accordingly. (Sinclair, 1998) 1.2. Company Structure The company structure consisted of the following chart drawn below: The division consists of players as illustrated in the following diagram; the roles of the players are outlined as well as their names. Company structure chart The chart above displays the current structure of the company during my tenure in the company as a director. This structure was the new organizational structure in the company during my period of work in the discussed organization. The above division shifted in culture over the past year. This change was brought about by the appointment of the new Vice President, Mr. Ron. Mr. Ron had been working in the organization for over two decades in various roles. He had a huge influence with Human Resources and Senior Leadership. He played the political game well by setting up regular meetings with the Chief Operating Officer and head of Human Resources. Mr. Ron knew the essence and ways of playing company politics. He knew the people to befriend at the required time. Mr. Ron knew how to play smart. (Hegarty, 1964) 2. Events and Decisions 2.1. New Appointments The division was losing more money than it was bringing in. This led to the appointment of Mr. Ron as the new Vice President. Mr. Ron was promoted to turn the division into a profitable area. After starting his new position, Mr. Ron immediately looked at the budget and eliminated frivolous spending (fancy pens, markers, flavored coffee, notebooks, heaters, snacks, etc.) and implemented check and balances for spending any money. This led to petty money saving as well as he controlled money wastage in the division. This was all in the effort of saving. The subsequent deed the new Vice- President took was he replaced some positions with interns. During this time, there were not a lot of interactions with the Ron and the staff. The culture and attitude of the staff members towards Mr. Ron shifted for the worse. This was due to lack of communication. In every organization, communication is an important aspect. A breech of communication would result to internal misunderstanding and conflict. (Bovée et al, 2011) As Mr. Ron continued his mission to make the division profitable, the division felt strained and they started to operate on an individual level versus as a team. This was brought about by the culture change. Each staff member preferred working in isolation and this led to the gradual loss of team building spirit. Most of the staff was clueless on the changes and ultimate goal of the company. Mr. Ron made many personal changes on the company’s profile. The staff members did not find out about the changes until after sometime. The changes Mr. Ron brought about were for the improvement of the company. Mr. Ron later on promoted an individual contributor, Ms. Tabitha, as one of the company’s administrators. As rumors went about the company that Mr. Ron had a history with her. It was said that Ms. Tabitha and Mr. Ron knew each other by the fact that Ms. Tabitha was his intern during her induction in the company. Mr. Ron next hired a Director, Ms. Lisa, to help alleviate some of his direct reports. After a short time, Ms. Tabitha was promoted to the position of a project manager. Ms. Tanya was promoted to the position of an assistant Vice- President after a short while as well. These two appointments prompted the fact that Mr. Ron disregarded hiring ethics code. (Audi, 2009) The training and quality control areas were assigned directly to Ms. Lisa. Ms. Lisa was a new staff. Being new to the organization, she came in with operations, training and leadership experience as an individual contributor, low and mid-level manager. She spent a month listening and evaluating the behaviors and processes of other staff. Ms. Lisa continued the evaluation process she implemented by asking questions and getting the employees input on processes and behavior. 2.2. The Root of the Story During the employment interview, Ms. Lisa told the hiring manager, she knew where she wanted to be, she did not care what prompted her to get there what matters is she wanted to get what she desired. The drive and ambition made her get the job. The job was to take two divisions from a family-oriented culture to a business model that would make the organization cost efficient through effective processes and eliminating waste while still being family friendly and not changing their beliefs. Ms. Lisa’s first couple of months was spent getting to know the team individually and understanding processes and protocols. More specifically, she wanted to understand individual strengths and processes. She also spent a good amount of time comprehending the culture, both past and present. During these first couple of months, Mr. Ron spent a lot of time letting Ms. Lisa know what was wrong with the processes as well as each team member’s history, faults and some strengths. At the same time, Ms. Tabitha, Mr. Ron’s Project Manager, was more than willing to share the same information on the employees and processes. It was during these first couple of months that Ms. Lisa really looked at processes. Based on many discussions with her managers and front line staff, a couple of processes needed to change. Ms. Lisa and the staff worked together in the proper implementation of the new processes. They did a pilot test and found the staff to have ownership and empowerment with the new way. During the pilot test they altered steps based on desired outcomes. ( Holbeche, 1998) Ms. Erica, Lisa’s manager, documented the new process. The document ended up being a five page checklist. A checklist condensed request was made, but Ms. Erica said that it could not be condensed any further. Ms. Lisa touched on the process change during a one-on-one meeting. Mr. Ron did not want the process change. He insisted that the process change was not a necessity and based his arguments on the company’s profit process. Ms. Tabitha had put forth the new process and Mr. Ron wanted me to work it out with her on whether we move forward or not. Ms. Lisa scheduled a meeting with Ms. Tabitha and discussed the findings and productivity increase. Ms. Tabitha said she did not see it as being beneficial for the clients. Ms. Lisa explained that the process showed an increase in client satisfaction. Ms. Tabitha said she did not see enough documentation to support the change; therefore Mr. Ron did not support the change as well. 3. Case Ending With Ms. Tabitha and Mr. Ron not supporting the new change in client satisfaction and saying that the new ideas were not beneficial to the clients was very discouraging to Ms. Lisa. A fact that must be considered is Ms. Lisa had spent a lot of time organizing, evaluating and reconsidering better options. Although there was less support of paperwork documentation, the administrators would have heard Ms. Lisa’s opinions. As Ms. Erica’s manager and the employee’s director, what should Ms. Lisa do to help Mr. Ron and Ms. Tabitha understand that the proposed process change could make a major difference in the division? Furthermore, what could Ms. Lisa do to demonstrate to the division that their efforts were appreciated? References Audi, R. (2009). Business ethics and ethical business. New York: Oxford University Press. Bovée, C. L., & Scribner, J. (2011). Business communication essentials (2nd Canadian ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada. Hegarty, E. J. (1964). How to succeed in company politics; the strategy of executive success. New York: McGraw-Hill. Holbeche, L. (1998). Motivating people in lean organizations. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Sinclair, A. (1998). Doing leadership differently: gender, power, and sexuality in a changing business culture. Victoria, Australia: Melbourne University Press. Read More