Short and Long-Term Management Changes - Assignment Example

Managing change: Introduction Change is often inevitable in the management of any organization. Organizations exist within societies; in fact, the society is a fundamental factor that influences the operations of the organization owing to the fact that organizations draw their human resource from the society, which also constitutes their markets. This implies that any social or cultural change in the society influences the operations of the organization. An effective management must therefore synchronize the operations of the organization to the changes occurring in the society in order to maintain relevance (Stroh Northcraft & Neale, 2002). In most cases, a market leader should develop effective strategies to make it an influencer of the changes in the society. An organization that influences social and cultural changes in the society safeguards its market share. Organizations influence changes in the society through effective corporate social responsibility strategies as the analysis of Nike Inc. below portrays. The management of Nike Inc., an American multinational business that prides itself in the design, manufacture and sale of footwear, has realized that the company continues to lose its market share owing to its ineffective management strategies and reluctance in embracing change. The management admits that the company does not engage in appropriate corporate social responsibility investing thereby making it difficult for the company to influence the society. The attempts of the management to develop visions for the brand, they created highly ambitious visions that the company may not achieve. This threatens the survival of the company, which continually faces heightened competition from other leading global brand. The company must therefore formulate and implement radical but equally strategic change especially in corporate responsibility in order to cushion the company from eminent annihilation. The theory of change, a methodology that explains extensive preparation, participation and assessment of organizations in implementing social change, provides for realistic operational components that managers must consider when implementing social changes. The organization must have both short and long-term goals for the changes before mapping ways of achieving such goals. Infused with the various management theories, the two seek to map out the appropriate strategies of introducing change within the society thereby defining appropriate corporate responsibility activities that will help revitalize the company’s global market. Most of such changes are radical that will restructure the operation of the company possibly increasing the operating capital owing to the evident social changes. As explained earlier, organizations must always appreciate the influence of social and cultural change in the society and if possible, the organization should influence the change through effective marketing. Nike Inc. had minimal influence on the social change occurring globally furthermore, the company did not change most of its operational and management strategies despite the rapidly society. Before long, the company had lost its market share owing to its negative reputation coupled with intense competition as several other players invaded the market with effective strategies. Corporate social responsibility is a fundamental management component in the contemporary society that ensures that an orgaisation maintains legal, ethical and international values of operations. Appreciation of ethical values in the operation of a company ensures that a company maintains appropriate principles without necessary causing harm to the society. The same applies to the legal and international norms of production both of which seek to protect the society from the infiltration of negative values by profit driven capitalists. As the case portrays, Nike had sustained unethical operations in its manufacturing plants in India and China among many other countries with lower labor costs. Sustaining such inhumane operations especially at a time that the fair trade proponents were fostering their campaigns to the global levels definitely would affect the company’s market share. Fair trade is a social movement that discourages the consumption of products manufactured in inhumane ways. Proponents of fair trade maintain that the raw materials existence in a society must help develop the society (Funnell & Rogers, 2011). This implies that companies exploiting such resources must develop the societies by curbing child labor and exploitation of laborers among many other vices. Such proponents carry out radical campaigns against products manufactured unethically and have therefore succeeded in decreasing the market share of Nike among other companies employing unethical operational principles. Additionally, the contemporary consumer is conscious of the environment. The manifestation of global warming resulting from increased emission of carbon by manufacturing plants among many other environmentally degrading operations is a major concern to consumers globally. Companies must therefore maintain appropriate operations and champion the conservation of the environment in order to remedy the effects of global warming that continue to terrorize people all over the world. Nike maintained its operations oblivious of the effects its operations had on the environment. Environmental management extends beyond the emission of carbon into the environment and includes the company’s waste management in its manufacturing plants and the sustainability of the materials the company uses in manufacturing its shoes. Additionally environmental pollution agents such as noise are equally vital in ensuring sustainability of the operations of a company. Nike’s immediate corporate responsibility undertakings must strive to rebrand the company and its products with the view of positioning them as ethically manufactured products. The company must abolish previous unethical operations and exploitation of its laborers. Such an undertaking will definitely increase the company’s operating capital but will secure the company’s dwindling market share. The company should also carry out extensive investment in the preservation of the environment alongside many other companies had envisioned such ethical operations. The conservation of the environment is a primary objective of any company that will help position the company appropriately in the market. conservation of the environment and the maintenance of ethical manufacturing strategies are two vital corporate responsibilities that the company must undertake both of which are likely to inflate the company’s operating capital but will help position the company strategically alongside other players in the market thereby enhancing its attempt to regain its market share. Systems theory of management explains that a company operates like a system with myriad components all of which must function in tandem in order for the company to realize profitability. Nike is a system with myriad elements in the form of departments key among which include administration, marketing and production departments. Each of the above departments must operate as a unified whole for the company to sustain effective operations. The company has manufacturing plants in Asia while its largest markets are in the United States and in Europe. Outsourcing is an effective strategy in management that minimizes the cost of manufacturing while increasing the company’s profits. However, such strategies have succeeded in portraying the company as exploitative thereby suffering from the campaigns by the fair trade proponents. The company must map out its operations with the view of countering the smear campaigns by the proponents and rebrand itself before positioning its products alongside many others in the market. The management acknowledges the need for the company to maintain ethical manufacturing procedures. This makes corporate responsibility a fundamental feature of both marketing and production as the company seeks to improve its reputation thereby improving its market shares. The company must uphold ethical production standards by setting up new plants that will value their employees and develop a conducive working environment for such employee. The company must avoid child labor and ensure the appropriateness of the raw materials it uses in manufacturing its products. This may increase the cost of production but it will improve the company’s market share even if the company should increase the cost of its product owing to the quality and uniqueness of product design that the company has developed before. Social corporate responsibility is an effective way of marketing that do not only earn the company a positive reputation thus increased brand awareness but fosters economic growth thereby expanding the market (Visser, Matten, Pohl & Nick, 2008). Nike should identify appropriate ventures and invest in developing the society especially in the regions where it has its manufacturing plants. Among the possible investment, opportunities include the development of schools and the provision of scholarships to the bright children in such regions. This way, Nike will develop the regions thereby increasing the purchasing power in the regions thus extending the market. Furthermore, beneficiaries of such projects develop lifelong attachment with the companies and are likely to become the company’s most loyal customers. Besides the above possibilities, social corporate responsibility initiatives increase the reputation of a product and provide the company with an effective opportunity to advert its products thereby improving its brand awareness. Most companies have foundations as part of their marketing departments. The foundations run myriad social corporate development initiatives some of which the global media such as the CNN and BBC among many others highlight freely owing to their humanitarian objectives. Such provide the companies with unparalleled global marketing that increases both the reputation and the brand awareness of a company and its products. The fact that Nike had suffered from negative reputation in the past requires that the company roll out extensive and effective social corporate responsive investing with the view of improving its reputation within the shortest time possible in order for the company to safeguard its interests in the global market. The company risks obliteration from the market owing to the negative reputation of its products. The management must abolish the highly ambitious plans and begin cleaning up their operations. As explained earlier, the environmental is a major social concern to both consumers and the authorities alike. Different governments including China and the United States have instituted policies that seek to curb the increased pollution in the modern society. Nike must therefore employ effective technologies that curb the emission of carbon in order to reposition itself. The company must run appropriate programs that will rebrand the company. Brand awareness and the reputation of a company are two essential features of advertisement and public relations that influence the performance of a company especially on a global market. Nike targets an elite market. This requires the company to carry out effective operations possible branding its products as fair trade products in order to win the market share the company lost since the development of the radical social movement. Contingency theory on the other hand provides managers with realistic view to operational and marketing problems facing a company. The theory asserts that managers must consider the specific features of a problem thereby developing effective strategies of overcoming the problem. Nike is facing a major marketing problem. Luckily, the marketing department has determined the source of the problem. The managers must therefore develop appropriate and realistic short term and long-term goals in order to revitalize the company’s profits. The marketing department should for example develop a foundation, as is the case with many other companies in order to manage the company’s corporate responsibility initiatives. In a summary, Nike Inc. has lost a substantial percentage of its market share owing to its failure to carry out appropriate social responsive investing. The company must therefore strive to counter the effects of the negative publicity the company suffered in the past and the loss of its market necessitated by the rise of competition in the global market. The management must develop appropriate and realistic visions thereby developing effective short term and long-term goals to guide the operations of the company into the future. Among the most realistic strategies is to infuse social responsive investing as part of the company’s marketing department. This will increase the company’s operating capital, however the strategy is a vital change in the management of corporations in the contemporary society that will place Nike at a vintage point thereby making the company influence the social and cultural change in the society thus its market. References Funnell, S. & Rogers, P. (2011). Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Stroh, L. K., Northcraft, G. B., & Neale, M. A. (2002). Organizational behavior: A management challenge. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Visser, W., Matten, M. Pohl & Nick, T. (eds.) (2008). The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility. New York: Wiley. Read More