Managing Organizational Change - Essay Example

The paper "Managing Organizational Change" is a good example of an essay on management. Managing an organization is very challenging especially in large companies with operations globally and a huge employee base. Huge companies usually face the problem of huge expenditure and ineffectiveness which leads to inefficient operations contributing to financial losses. In such situations, change management is necessary to bring the company back to optimal operation levels.

Overview

The company being analyzed in this essay has faced many problems including increased operating expenses, high staff turnover, and inefficient management. As a result, the company has procured an external consultant to advise the company on how to handle the major issues facing the company. From an interview conducted by the job enrichment grouped several problems were raised by the employees. Most of the problems revolved around workflow design with the organizational structure being complicated to improve employee motivation. This organization has centralized its operations with major decisions and most of the activities being approved from the headquarters. All the queries and financial services were handled back in the headquarters in the United States. Customer queries took long to resolve and functional units were incapable of handling customer queries. Due to a lot of inefficiency and time delays in responding to customer requests productivity reduced and overhead operating costs shot up (Jeffrey, 2008).

            Several factors that needed change were addressed after employee grievances were taken in by the management. The management resolved to handle customer issues as a priority and specific jobs were realigned for better customer delivery. Moreover, operations around markets and regions were regrouped while job quality measurements were introduced. However, these measures marked an improved customer satisfaction it did little to improve the morale of the staff. As a consultant, after assessing the problems that faced this organization, it is recommended that production and organizational structure should be changed (Miller, 2010). Production in this organization is plagued by a lack of communication and job co-ordination. There is acrimony between the management and the other staff since instructions are not communicated properly to every staff member using the proper channels. The improvement in the production of this organization is very important since it will have a big impact on improving job quality. Staff should be adequately trained to handle customer queries and service requests (Elliot, 2009).

            The biggest problem facing this organization is the business structure that the organization operates on. This organization’s operations are centralized and its vast size/operations do not allow for a huge organization to be managed in this manner. The strategy that could be used to address the problem of centralization is for the organization to undertake change management (Jeffrey, 2008). The organization should change its operational strategy and decentralize its operations for better management of its regional units. Decentralization has the advantage of increasing productivity since decisions are made faster and co-ordination is easier compared to a centralized unit. Handling customer complaints and employee grievances is easier in a decentralized unit and especially in the financial section where finances will be handled easily. The answer to most of the issues facing this organization lies in decentralization and this is the most important change management strategy that should be employed (Elliot, 2009).

Conclusion

Change management is necessary for turning around and increasing the operations of an organization. Huge organizations enjoy the benefits of economies of scale but sometimes due to their size, operational costs might escalate because of inefficiency. Therefore, change management is necessary for fixing problems facing such organizations and the process involves restructuring the company either through decentralization or mergers.