MANG6091 : Leading an Ethical Business : Managing Organizational Chang

 What are the key issues that this case raises for managing organisational change?

Answer: 

Leading an Ethical Business: Dilmah Tea

This case study presents key issues that the management needs to embrace as they pursue change.  Organizational change requires a strategy for it to happen and it is the role of the management to lead employees to achieve the required change. For an organization strategy to work, people should work as a team led by a good manager. The case study of Dilmah Tea informs that organizational change is something that can be achieved, through good leadership. Good leadership can be achieved through team work that is led by the best leader. It takes the efforts of an effective and transformational leader-manager to realize organizational change. Therefore, this case study presents some key issues for managing organizational change.

One key issues presented here is corporate values. For organizational change to be achieved the organization must have corporate values to its vision and mission.  The vision and mission act as a framework where the organization should operate within. Based on the case study, Dilmah Tea has some key pillars, which are a reflection of the values of its organizational culture. The six pillar model of Dilmah Tea, include integrity, ethics, tradition, quality, customer, responsibility and sustainability. The examination of Waddell, et al, on organizational change: Development and transformation puts emphasis on environment of change.  According to the author the environment could sometimes be chaotic, but if managers and change agents build a coalition they can realize their goals. Due to that, Dilmah Tea appears to use corporate values that support its change environment. When employees observe or exercise these corporate values like integrity, ethics, responsibilities and sustainability, the change environment looks friendly. Thus, Dilmah Tea case appears to inform that the managers and change agents need to ensure that the environment in which change should be implemented needs to be friendly and coalition-like. Coalition-like means that employees and all stakeholders need should collaborate for the realization of change.

The corporate value like sustainability can still be looked into separately. Dilmah Tea case presents sustainability as an important global issue that any business seeking change must observe. According to the case study, sustainability is linked to human well-being and poverty reduction outcomes. To managing change, this case study argues that the change should be able to solve the problems like poverty in the society. Research shows that when implementing sustainability the human well-being should be incorporated. Therefore, this case study educates that when change agents pursue organizational change, they need to assess how positively it shall impact people. The person in this case is not only the consumers, but also the employees. The employee interests must be taken into account when pursuing change.

Also, the case study underscores the relevance of leadership when managing organizational change. For an organizational change to be implemented, leadership must be effective. Dilmah Tea case suggests that ethical leadership should be the one to be considered to manage change. The ethical leadership is centered on social responsibility. Ethical leadership can be used to form employee ethical climate perceptions that subsequently impact the production. Change is generally not easy, and resistance is likely to occur from employees opposed to the change. However, this case presents a different angle in which organizational change can be managed. It suggests that exercising ethical leadership enables the organization to integrate its corporate social responsibility into the change. Social responsibility as a concept believes that the organizations have a responsibility to other stakeholders like employees, and customers apart from shareholders. Hence, this case informs that when an organization considers ethical leadership it will look at ways of integrates it into social responsibility, which gives it a competitive advantage.

The Dilmah Tea case also wants organizations to manage organizational change by business success and social responsibility. In the case, it is clear that when businesses use social responsibility to manage and implement their organizational change, they have to commit to it. Committing to social responsibility is one a business strategy, and if properly implemented a business stands to be profitable and success both in the short-term and long-term. Social responsibility in essence gives a business a competitive advantage. Hence, going forward businesses need to manage their organizational strategy by tying business success to social responsibility.

All in all, to manage change the organizations should embrace ethical leadership in sales and production. In this case, the change agents should ask themselves, if their production as well as sales meet the desires of ethical consumers. The consumers of today are keen on ethical practices of the businesses, and therefore when implementing changes the organization need to consider the ethical expectations of its customers. Notably, a business that engages in unethical practices is not likely to get the support of stakeholders. But, those businesses that conduct themselves ethically are easily embraced as well as supported by the consumers. Ideally, the case study presents organizational change as a simple concept, in the event the change agents realize that the importance of embracing ethical leadership, ethical principles as well as social responsibility. These three aspects are the ones that make the change environment friendly, supported and energetic enough to carry out the change. Thus, any other organization that considers organizational change needs to first assess its corporate values, social responsibility, ethical leadership as well as ethical principles as a basis for creating a favorable change environment.

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