Organizational Change in the Merger Organization - Assignment Example

Running Header: Organizational Change in the Merger Organization Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code Date of Submission: Abstract This report found out that organizational change in the merger organization is an important step to stay on float. Australian government has promised to assist employers to pay employees who are disadvantaged (the homeless, Indigenous, disabled, disoriented youths and other disadvantaged groups) and it will do so only after such organizations are outcome driven rather than block based funded. Recommendation for the organization to prevent closure is that it should train, coach and mentor employees from the two companies that merged instead of hiring new employees. Conclusion for this new challenge is to find a way to make all employees adapt to change in order to keep their jobs and also help many disadvantaged people in Australia instead of lose government funds and only help the disabled who are part of a wider range of disadvantaged group in Australia. Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 2 Observations 3 Nature and Need for Organizational Change 4 Discussion 7 Strategies for Organizational Change 7 Planning Strategy 8 Leadership Strategy 8 Communication 9 Competency Building 9 Strategy of Sustenance 10 Challenges that the Change Team Face Might 10 Recommendations on How to Effectively Manage Change Process 11 Conclusion 12 REFERENCES 13 Organizational Change Introduction Australian Government included additional finance assistance in their budget to help companies that will employ people with disability or long term unemployment acquire new jobs. This was indicated in Budget from 2011 to 2012 on May 10th this year (Kelly 2011, p. 293). This is a good development for both employers and people who are disabled or have been jobless for a substantially long period of time. The new development however contains a policy that will require many companies to change their task processes so as to benefit. The Australian government will assist employers by including wage financial support of $3, 000 to help employers create employment opportunities for a minimum of fifteen hours per week for the disabled and people in need of employment (Kelly 2011, p. 293). The government will fund such programs based on outcomes rather than block funding. Many companies that hire disable people receive block funds which will change the entire organization process. Employers who are willing to employ people with disability, indigenous non-English speaking Aborigines, the homeless, youths and other disadvantage groups in Australia will not only receive financial backing in 2012 but also a motivation fee of $2, 000 per every person employed under Support Wage System (Kelly 2011, p. 293). This motivation fee is only given to eligible employers who have employed a disadvantaged person for at least twenty six weeks. THESIS STATEMENT: This report will discuss the nature and need for change, the strategies for change, challenges faced by managers and also strategies to manage the change process effectively. Observations Nature and Need for Organizational Change Work in Recovery was merged with a medium Labour Hire organization to form a single organization that will incorporate Australian government’s policy of hiring disadvantaged groups. Previously, Work in Recovery was an organization that first started as a small organization that employs a few disabled people within Churchill Victoria. It then expanded into three branches namely; Moe, Traralgon and Morewell. This organization operates on a block fund base where resources are given to the company despite of employees’ efforts. The organization has been in the market for ten years during which local communities have gained trust in the processes provided. Labour Hire organization in Melbourne has not been in the market for such a long time but it is one of the few successful companies that focus on outcomes. The merger between the two companies into one has enabled Mark (CEO) to incorporate new ideas so as to receive adequate outcome based funding. Without successful outcomes, the company will lose government funding and it will be forced to fold. The merger company will also have to change its operation and organization culture to help a wider range of disadvantaged people in Australia. Disabled people who want to work are only part of the disadvantaged group but there are homeless people, disoriented youths, people in work rehabilitation, Indigenous people, non-English speaking people and people from very poor families who need employment to stay out of trouble. Companies that have been employing disabled people will now need new strategies to maintain their financial stability by employing all disadvantaged people and also incorporating new changes in the company. Employees will be the first people to resist change because of their organization culture and also due to uninformed benefits of change. New technologies are being invented to make work easier and also faster. These new technologies need to be incorporated into the merger company and employees trained to operate these systems. One important accounting and HR system upgrade is changing Telstra to Optus according to the new CEO’s recommendation because he has been working in an outcome based successful organization. Australian government has indicated that it will help finance organizations that employ disadvantaged groups (Kelly 2011, p. 293). The merger organization needs to incorporate new skills and knowledge to deal with a wider range of clients’ needs and life goals. Disabled people were catered for by Work in Recovery while Mark’s Labour Hire organization dealt with a wider group of disadvantaged group. This merger will have people who have required skills and those who do not. The government will fund organizations that help all disadvantaged groups hence the new merger will either hire new need to train existing employees and also expand its work force by hiring new people with required skills. There should also be a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of 10 clients of disadvantaged people placed per month for each support worker for the 26 week employment outcome. This is in contrary to the prevailing two clients per month for one support worker placed for long term employment. As a merger, the organization will have access to a larger group of disadvantaged people to help obtain employment as compared to only helping the disabled. This also means that the organization will be receiving a larger amount of funding based on outcomes. Another important change is the long term support provided to few clients. This change will enable many people to obtain work within a short period of time and be independent to make their own choices regarding their social and economic status. Those clients who need special attention should only have an extended two weeks support after the required 26 weeks and this should be approved by the CEO to enable the organization to help others and also stay on float. The current society is moving to a new era of performance based jobs in big corporations that help individuals to achieve personal goals. There should be a change from paying staff under Industrial Award to employees’ performance contract where each employee is required to work towards achieving certain organizational and personal goals. The number of hours will also be changed to achieve tasks set for a successful business. The prevailing required work time is 37 hours a week but a slight increase of three hours to 40 hours a week will surely improve the standards of clients’, organization and also employees. Work in Recovery had an employee performance review made after every business year. This can make employees redundant because 12 months is such a long time to actually note what employees were doing with their time. A new form of monthly performance review will ensure that each employee is alert on the tasks at hand with key objectives in mind (Kelly 2011, p. 293). When the two organizations were merging, there are some job positions in the two organizations that were similar. For example the positions in administrative department have duplicate staff. The required change is to reorganize these positions in order to maintain competent employees and relocate those who cannot fully perform as required. Discussion Strategies for Organizational Change Strategies for organizational change only occur after both employees and the Board in the merger organization have changed their attitude towards the new approach and system. Change can only occur after people’s attitude have changed and new systems implemented, this also means that there are some things will be eliminated or added in the organization (Dunphy 2011). Below is a flow chart that represents the strategies of change initiation, implementation and finally the expected outcomes for the merger organization. Three distinct strategies of change that will successfully ensure employees have embraced organizational change are plan (understanding the organization), lead (leadership buy-in, communication and competency building) and finally sustain (sustenance) (Rhodes & Garrick 2001). Planning Strategy When planning for the change in the organization, there should be a thorough understanding of the organization. This means that sub-cultures of different branches should be studied, stakeholders should be identified and analyzed because these are the few people who can resist change and make sure that it nothing is changed (Lewis 2011, p. 200). An effective communication plan and strategy should be established. This is the point where change strategy and charter is established to enable the change to be implemented in future. Change management should be constituted in order to achieve a successful outcome. Leadership Strategy Leadership as a change strategy is very important because employees and stakeholders need somebody who can show them the right path into achieving key objectives in the organization. Leadership buy-in is composed of conducting change contract workshops for employees and stakeholders. The new CEO and operations manager of the merger organization should develop a connection with all employees. Change management should be oriented on the tasks require for a successful change and also incredible outcomes. As leaders, both Mark the CEO and Samantha, the operations manager should actually try and connect with their employees as a team in order to achieve what the board requires as successful outcomes. Leadership strategy also means assessing risks that can be caused by people who refuse to adapt to change. This is very important in the company because change means a new challenge in the organization and also in employees’ lives because they will all be introduced to new systems and exposed to many people who need their help (Hopkins et al. 2004). Communication The best way to make all employees agree with new ideas is to communicate with them on a personal level. This means that leaders should develop and deliver communications. While talking to employees, leaders should take time to listen to what the employee have to say about organizational change and why they do not appreciate it. This form of communication should be tracked and also monitored to check if it the most appropriate method (ITHAKA 1999). The leaders should occasionally disagree and give evidence of the reasons why change is important in a constant changing environment. Other forms of communications can also be used to get employees on the side of organizational change. Employees can be promised income increase after training because it means that new skills require extensive working. Competency Building Competency building is giving employees the ability to perform required tasks in the direction of key objectives in the organization. This means that Mark and Samantha will retain both employees from the two companies before they merged into one. These employees will then be trained, coached and mentored by professionals with the intention of making them of high value to the organization. Training also assesses the needs of employees and managers and also the impact of this change to the organization (Langfield-Smith & Chenhall 2002). Here, a needs analysis is carried out to find out outcomes of change in employees’ performance. Enhancement of training, coaching and also mentoring should be done for all employees including managers. As the CEO suggested, the organization should be changed in redeployed of work positions because the administrative department is comprised of people with similar jobs who can be useful in other departments in the same organization. Expenditure has to be approved by the CEO with the help of an independent certified accountant or solicitor to avoid embezzlement of funds. Strategy of Sustenance Sustenance means that all employees who perform well under the new system should be nourished and motivated with end of year bonuses and also occasional office parties. There should however be an elimination of rewarding specific few employees because this will be seen as biasness (Morgan & Zeffane 2003). Employees who are outstanding in work performance should however be recognized and this will be a motivation for other employees to improve their services. A feedback mechanism from employees should be put into place to know what to improve or eliminate (Kelly 2011, p. 293). Resolution of issues raised by employees, clients and managers should be resolved while keeping in mind the parties involved. The previous system had a different performance expectation but the new system requires that the performance management be reconsidered because expectations are high and different. A change team of managers should help to institutionalize this organizational change effectively. Challenges that the Change Team Face Might One of the major challenges that managers who are the change team will face is resistant to change. This comes from employees who have spent ten years to work in the same jobs with the same rules and regulations (Terry et al. 1999). Organization Culture is also another form of challenge that most employees will hold on to for a very long period of time. Work in Recover was an organization that only helped few people in the community because of disabilities caused during accidents or birth defects. This corporate culture has ensured that the community trusts the organization will continue to guide clients for the rest of their lives while working. Business capacity is another challenged that might hinder organizational change. If the resources are very limited, then training and new systems will not be financed. Time is also a factor when change is expected because training and hiring needs to be done while the business is still operational (Terry et al. 1999). Recommendations on How to Effectively Manage Change Process Employees who are severely resistant to the organizational change will require personal coaching and mentoring. This is done to show employees that the global market community is in constant change and they will achieve great career and personal goals rather than become obsolete in a changing world (Terry et al. 1999). Corporate culture can be incorporated into the change but when this culture is hindering organization improvement, employees should be advised on the need to change corporate culture to keep the organization in the market so as to help a wider range of disadvantaged groups in Australia (Burgess & Skill 2001). The Board should set aside funds for employee training in the organization’s premises rather than send their employees to expensive learning institutions. The new technologies are items and software that should be bought to successfully facilitate change. Third world countries sell computers, company phones and software at much cheaper prices than developed countries. These technologies are the same as those in developed countries and the Board can send two managers to compared prices and make purchases. Motivation and sustenance should always be carried out in the organization and this means that laptops and private van are part of the package of good performance in contrary to Mark’s (CEO) sentiment. Giving employees free gifts at the end of each year will also motive employees (Terry et al. 1999). End of year parties or bonuses are meant to retain employees and this will be of great significance especially when the employees have been trained to work in the new work environment (Kelly 2011, p. 293). Conclusion Australian government has changed the employment system of disadvantaged people in Australia. This development has been included in 2011-2012 National Budget to cater for people who are disabled, people who have been unemployed for long periods, non-English speakers, Indigenous, disoriented youths and other disadvantaged group. This is an important step towards economic and individual growth for Australia. Companies that will hire disadvantaged people will receive financial backing and they will also be given a motivation fee per each employed disadvantaged person. Many companies will be forced to change their operations and tasks in order to get outcome based funding as compared to block based funding. Outcome based funding ensures that employees’ performance is manifested in the number of disadvantaged people employed. This will also lead to a rise in Australian economy because many people will be contributing to the national economy and also making a difference in their lives. Organizational change is very important because the modern society is affected by new ideas, policies and technologies that make the world a better place than before. REFERENCES Burgess, John & Julia Connell S 2001, Training and Workforce Restructuring in Australia: An Overview. International Journal of Employment Studies, Vol. 9, no. 1. pp. 1-24. Dunphy C. Dexter. 2011, Transformational and Coercive Strategies for Planned Organizational Change: Beyond the O.D. Model 2011, Organizational Studies, Vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 78-89. Garrick, John & Rhodes, Carl 2001, Economic metaphors and working knowledge: enter the 'cogito-economic' subject. Human Resource Development International, Volume 5, No. 4, pp. 67-78. Hopkins. K, Sleet, D. A. Gielen, C. A & Trifiletti, B. L, 2004, Behavioral and social sciences theories and models: are they used in unintentional injury prevention research? Health Education Research, Volume 20, No. 3, pp. 298-307. ITHAKA. 1999. ‘Organizational innovation and Organizational Change.’ Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 25, pp. 597-622. Kelly, P 2011, The March of Patriots: The Struggle for Modern Australia. Melbourne Publishing. Melbourne, pp. 293. Langfield-Smith, Kim & Chenhall, Robert. 2002. ‘Factors influencing the role of management accounting in the development of performance measures within organizational change programs’. Management Accounting Research, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 361-386. Lewis, L. K. 2011, Organizational Change: Creating Change Through Strategic Communication, Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, pp. 256. Morgan, David & Zeffane, R 2003. Employee involvement, organizational change and trust in management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. Volume 14, no. 1, pp. 55-75. Terry, D., Victor & Sartori, G 1999, Employee adjustment to an organizational merger: stress, coping and intergroup differences, Journal of General Psychology, Vol.12 no 2, pp. 105- 122. Read More