MGT540 Management of Change - Leadership and Engaging Members
Task
You can choose to complete this assessment in a group or on your own. There are two options: option A is a group-based task and option B is an individual task. Your facilitator will advise you of the arrangements for making your selection.
Option A Group task
In this option you will be allocated to a working group of three people (there may also be some groups of four, depending on the number of people who take this option). You will working together to develop recommendations on managing resistance to change in the Lakeland Wonders case. The total mark awarded will be applied uniformly to each group member. If a group member does not participate fully in the task from the beginning of the work process, s/he will be awarded a lower mark, or zero for the whole task.
Each group is asked to develop two principles of ethical change management that should be applied to the management of change. The principles should be applicable to most change situations that a manager may face, and they should be grounded in the change management literature.
Next, the group must select two of managers in the Lakeland Wonders case from the following choices.
- Mark Dawson, Senior VP of Operations
- Jerry Silistro, Sales
- Barry Quince, Design Director
For your selected managers, you must:
(i) Identify whether each of the managers is resisting the change that Cheryl Hailstrom is seeking to make. Your choices must be justified, to relevant change management studies.
(ii) Critique the response/s of Cheryl Hailstrom towards each of the managers, using relevant change literature and the principles identified by the group.
(iii) Recommend no more than three measures that can be taken by Cheryl to manage the evident resistance that you have found, with reference to relevant change management studies. The measures must show that the principles of ethical change management that were developed by the group are being applied.
Option B – individual task
This is an alternative option for completing this assessment on your own. Your facilitator will advise you of the arrangements to select either option A or option B.
You must first develop two principles of ethical change management that should be applied to the management of change. The principles should be applicable to most change situations that a manager may face, and they should be grounded in the change management literature.
Next, you must analyse the behaviour of Mark Dawson, Senior VP of Operations, as follows.
(i) Identify whether Mark Dawson is resisting the change that Cheryl Hailstrom is seeking to make. Your choice must be justified, to relevant change management studies.
(ii) Critique the response of Cheryl Hailstrom towards Mark Dawson, using relevant change management literature and the principles that you formed earlier
(iii) Recommend no more than three measures that can be taken by Cheryl to manage the evident resistance that you have found, to relevant change management studies. The measures must show that the principles of ethical change management that you developed are being applied.
Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcomes:
- be able to identify, analyse and critically evaluate resistance to organisational change from a range of positions.
- be able to analyse and assess the ethical nature of organisational change.
Answer
Management of Change
Introduction
Over the years, the change and transformation in organizations’ management have become the key features in business success. Despite Change in organizations being rare (Meaney and Pung, 2008), the organizations require constant adaption to change to stay competitive in the market (Balogun and Hailey, 2008)
To cope with this changes, companies require constant innovations to best approaches to organizations change management. The success of major change initiatives research carried out by Center survey rated at about 55 percent (Strategy& Katzenbach, 2013). The low success rate is as a result of resistance to change by the employees used to their culture (Ford et al., 2008). Installation of new approaches to change is a great way to invest in an organization’s operation improvement system.
Principle of leading with culture and anchoring new approaches
More often, companies view the culture as a previous legacy which requires transformation from. They find themselves focused on the organization’s decision making and fundamental process change that they forget to view their employees as human beings with strong emotional attachments to their adopted culture. Or do they see culture as informal and easy to adapt to without significant investment of attention? The managers of organizations enacting change should focus on utilizing the company’s existing culture, making the most out of it. In the recruitment of potential employees, thorough background research should be carried out, making ethics an essential basis for hire. After the hiring process, continuous training on ethics should be carried out. While implementing change, managers should tap into how people work, think, and in their feelings to boost the positive outcome of the shift being performed. In addition to that, managers should implement cultures that align with the change thus attracting the attention of individuals. Promotions and future rewards of employees should be based on ethical practices to maintain high ethical organizations’ standards. To sustain the ethical cultures of a company, organizations need continuous maintenance.
Principle of starting with top leadership and engaging members
Successful change initiative programs begin with a strong, successful top executive that ensure everyone is on-board with changes and implementations to be made. For changes made to be sustained, constant communication and engagement of company members are a requirement. Managers have a significant effect on maintaining an organization’s ethical standards. It is essential for the top management to embrace ethical behaviors to be looked up to and mimicked by the rest of the company members. Change should be made when unethical managers are realized, and discipline is implemented to grow the company.
Organizations should develop realistic and straightforward visions that guide the company to maintain ethical standards. When top management embraces proper moral conducts, it promotes not only general ethical awareness but also helps engaged employees to understand ways of making appropriate ethical decisions in their area of work. In making decisions affecting the company, managers should engage fellow employees to get their opinion and work together to change implementation. Often, changes without employees’ involvement result in resistance or minimal positive results.
Analysis
Analysis of the Behavior of Mark Dawson, Senior VP of Operations
Mark Dawson is resisting the change of moving manufacturing off-shore that Cheryl Hilstrom seeks to make. Cheryl’s push for reform comes out strong the perception of pushing for this change to develop recognition for herself without considering Mark Dawson’s opinion. Organizational Change is realized through inclusivity (Viljoen, 2015). Katz & Miller (2012), stipulate that “while in an inclusive organization there is a recognition that talent and ideas reside at all levels and within all people.” When a new executive comes in place, they implement a new plan without consulting the rest of the team. This often fails as people ignore the change knowing there is a probability of a new leader coming in after and implementing a new plan (Pollak, 2015). Mark Lawson is not impressed with the top down change being made that only makes sense to the Chief Executive Officer. There is a need to engage every member of a company in the decision-making process.
A Critique of the Response of Cheryl Hailstorm towards Mark Dawson
Cheryl feels that moving to offshore business is the best approach for the company’s growth and development. The principle of leading with culture and anchoring new approaches is applicable in this case as the company lacks a culture of positivism as evidenced by Mark Dawson’s resistance to change. Cheryl believes that Mark is in a better position of helping transform the company by implementing specific objectives considering Mark has worked in the company for more than fourteen years. Cheryl’s responses towards Mark are persuasive and authoritative at the same time both of which employ the characteristics of leadership (Flanagan, 2015). She tries to convince Mark that her new strategy is viable. By saying “I don’t think you understand. To meet our targets, we need to get Bull’s Eye on board…” she sounds authoritative. According to Fox (2017), direct, transformational, servant, participative, and authoritative leadership styles influence the outcomes of any business. The manner in which Cheryl is both authoritative and persuasive implies that her leadership approach brings about a new culture of positivism but also lead to the innovation of new strategies that contribute to competitive advantage.
The principle of starting with top leadership and engaging members is also highly applicable in this case because the new CEO has laid down business objectives before approaching other members. Cheryl has shown the significant commitment that portrays servant leadership. In a conversation between Mark and Cheryl, Mark points out the at some point while Cheryl was at Kids&Company she viewed Lakeland as a great company, and he wanted to know what was different now. Cheryl responded by pointing out that her objectives were different then. The response provided by the new CEO sounds critical and strategic, and that justifies the principle of starting with top leadership. Since employees create a good source of ideas, it is essential to involve them in the decision-making process (Anderson, 2018). Cheryl involved Mark in the decision making process hence making her a good leader.
Recommendation for Management of Organizational Resistance
The resistance can be addressed by involving the non-supporters in key roles, creating “win-win” situations, and creating personal rapport (Alsher, 2016). By establishing a personal rapport, the new CEO gets to understand the individual frames and reference of employees like Mark who seem resistance to transformation/change. The affinity will help the CEO adjust her strategies to suit the preferences of her teammates while still upholding the vision of the company. Having a ‘win-win’ situation makes everyone work towards set objectives since they believe they all have something to gain out of their commitment. Through a ‘win-win’ situation, the principle of starting with top leadership and engaging members gets accounted for since members are involved in change. The ‘win-win’ situation helps create a feeling of cooperation (Kass, 2018). The position also reduces chances of conflict and unresolved anger and can be achieved by first defining the problem, coming up with possible solutions and evaluating them, deciding on the best solution, determining the mode of implementation, and finally assessing the impact of the solution (Kass, 2018). Creating a personal rapport can be perceived to uphold the Principle of leading with culture and anchoring new approaches since the CEO attempts to understand the underlying culture. Assigning key roles to non-supporters supports the principle of starting with top leadership and engaging members. Involving non-supporters makes them feel like a part of the organization, and this keeps them motivated since humans are always known to seek a sense of belonging (Day, 2011; Ricketts & Ricketts, 2010).
References
Alsher, P. (2016, April 28). 9 Effective Tactics for Managing Resistance to Change: Do What Works. Retrieved from https://www.imaworldwide.com/blog/9-effective-tactics-for-managing-resistance-to-change-do-what-works
Anderson, C. (2018, June 29). The Advantages of Employee Involvement in Decision Making. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-employee-involvement-decision-making-18264.html
Balogun, J. and Hope Hailey, V. (2008), Exploring Strategic Change, Prentice Hall, London.
Day, A. (2011). Believing in belonging: Belief and social identity in the modern world. Oxford University Press.
Flanagan, J. (2015, July 12). Recognizing Different Leadership Styles in the Work Place. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recognizing-different-leadership-styles-work-place-jerry-flanagan/
Ford, J.D., Ford, L.W. and D’Amelio, A. (2008), “Resistance to change: the rest of the story”. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 362-77.
Fox, M. (2017, November 16). 5 Types of Leadership Styles That Influence Business Outcomes. Retrieved from https://ideas.bkconnection.com/5-types-of-leadership-styles-that-influence-business-outcomes
Kass, A. (2018). The Benefits of Negotiating a Win-Win. Retrieved from https://www.gosmartlife.com/marriage-intelligence-blog/bid/107326/the-benefits-of-negotiating-a-win-win
Katz, J. H., & Miller, F. A. (2012). Inclusion: The HOW for the next organizational breakthrough. Practicing Social Change, 5, 16-22.
Meaney, M. and Pung, C. (2008), “McKinsey global results: creating organizationalTransformations”, the McKinsey Quarterly, August, pp. 1-7.
Pollak, L. (2015). Becoming the boss: New rules for the next generation of leaders. Harper Collins Publishers.
Ricketts, C., & Ricketts, J. (2010). Leadership: Personal development and career success. Nelson Education.
Strategy& Katzenbach, (2013), Center Survey
Viljoen, R. (2015). Inclusive organizational transformation: An African perspective on human niches and diversity of thought. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
