ShoeMark Company Limited - Case Study Example

Organizational Development and Change Name Course Name and Code Date Introduction In Australia, there has been a great tendency of associating good industrial relations with a lack of organized or overt conflict. Invariably, such a kind of attitude or tendency has implied that the performance of any given Industrial Relations Manager in any company in the country has been ultimately been ascertained or measured through the level to which such a manager is capable of achieving an industrially peaceful and stable work environment. The achievement of such objectives by the managers cannot be regarded as being an un-vital objective. Despite of that, a greater premium has now been placed on the ability of such managers in achieving flexibility as opposed to only stability of such companies and also being capable of achieving the construction of a work environment through which the employees are both willing and committed to contribute positively towards the productive development of the business. Currently, it has been well established and recognized that one of the most vital roles of management lies in the motivation of individuals not only to come to their place of work and stay with the organization but also in the willingness of sharing their insights and knowledge into the process needs and the products of the organization (Lafortune, 2009). ShoeMark Company Limited The case study of ShoeMark Company Limited has raised numerous issues despite of the company having little history of industrial disturbances. However, the main problem of the company lay in the fact that it had an employee turnover of more than 100% and its average annual level of absenteeism of slightly under 5% among its production of employees. The costings, as ascertained and determined the Personnel Officer was known to have placed the total the general financial burden of the form of withdrawal behaviour of such employees to more than $1.5 million per year. ShoeMark Company Limited was a medium-sized business enterprise that has slightly fewer than 500 workers. Most of the company’s employees were women most of who had young families. The company manufactures men’s and women’s casual shoes and fashion, which were mostly manufactured according to the needs of the retailers’ orders (Cummings, et al, 2009). ShoeMark’s products were specifically targeted at the market’s lower end and they were therefore advertised using a slogan “tailored to suit your needs”. The employees had little pride either in the company or in the products that the company manufactured and as result of poor motivation and lack of job satisfaction at their place of work, the employees often opt at intentionally opting themselves at the place of work while other employees leave the company in search of greener pastures. Despite of that, another problem emerged in the fact that the company’s management was observed as being authoritarian while the production methods that were termed as being “Taylorised” did not do a lot to ensure that there was an encouraging of the use of skills, developed or creation of job satisfaction among the employees. However, the introduction of the “Just-in-time” or JIT indicated that there were some signs of lower absenteeism, turnover and an increase in job satisfaction among some of the employees who worked under such a multi-skilled and more participative approach. This case study clearly indicates that ShoeMark Company is capable of doing better so long as the company is ready to adopt an effective change/development plan and process. ShoeMark Company should be provided with a comprehensive plan for both organizational development and change in any given organization. Based on the above problems facing ShoeMark Company, it is important to ascertain the company’s visible overt and covert aspects. Overt aspects of the company comprise of its structures, goals, designs, procedures, roles, rewards and performance measures while the company’s covert aspects include it hidden aspects that include the company’s cultures, attitudes, satisfaction, affects, values, group sentiments, power and interpersonal relationships among the employees. To ensure that the above problems facing ShoeMark Company limited are well handled, then I as the company’s Organizational Consultant, will strongly advise intervention through three different ways. The first intervention will be done through the impersonal level, the second one will be balanced and will be done at the role level while the last level will be done at the deep end and it will be done at the interpersonal level. How I will Approach this change task as the Consultant of the Company In order to avoid the problems of absenteeism , high employee turnover and other problems facing ShoeMark Company Limited is facing, then I as a the organization’s change agent will seek a way of ensuring how change can be triggered through various forces both from the outside or external environment and from within the company itself. I will therefore ascertain how continuous change can be used in the clarification of the change notion and be capable of appreciating the importance of how a realistic vision is capable of driving the change effort in the company. As the organization’s Consultant, I will therefore advice the management of the company to look at the best ways through which its employees can become satisfied with their jobs through motivation so that they can increase the company’s production. I will also ensure that the changes I plan to transform ShoeMark Company are not hurried but instead, they should be accomplished and embedded over time to ensure that they cannot bring conflicts between the employees and the top management of the company (Yaeger, et al, 2009). The Processes of Planned Change and How to Create Readiness and Interventions As the organization’s Consultant, I intend to initiate changes in ShoeMark Company through using several procedural policies aimed at ensuring such changes are done smoothly and transitionally. For instance, I plan to increase the promoting forces of the company while I make all possible efforts to ensure that the current situation in which there is a high rate of turnover and absenteeism among the employees of the company is unfreezed. While keeping up the company’s promoting forces, I will also aim at ensuring that such changes are effected in the desired direction and situation of the company through not only reducing the resisting forces but also in the monitoring of any resisting forces (Flanagan, 1995). How I will handle communication and Readiness as the organization’ change Agent As the organization Consultant and change agent, I will be required to highlight the importance of communication in effecting change in the organization to not only the top management of ShoeMark Company but also to its employees as well. As a result, I will be required to use both monologist and dialogist strategies to ensure that all the company’s stakeholders become aware of the problems that have been hindering ShoeMark Company Limited from achieving its full potential. In addition, I will also be tasked with the responsibility of explaining to the company’s top management on how the role of politics and power can be applied in the management of the company to transform and change it towards the best. As a change agent of the organization, I will also be tasked with the responsibility of explaining to all the ShoeMark’s stakeholders that the development of the organization, change and eventual success cannot only be the responsibility of the company managers alone, but rather, it should be a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders of the organization. The role of the narrative in the interpretation of the change context should be appreciated and given high priority by all and sundry so as the company realizes success. As a means of communication, storytelling should be widely used in the company as a means of narrating both organizational and job situations and in enhancing ShoeMark’s social construction of the changes or reforms. The use of narrative is very important in bringing out changes in the organization since it plays a great role in the construction of the social contexts. Readiness in ShoeMark will better be ascertained through the use of four quadrants whereby in the first quadrant, there is partial readiness that is based on the high capability for changing which is accompanied with low urgency. In the second quadrant, there is also a lack of readiness that is based on the low capability for change, which is also coupled through low urgency. In the third quadrant, there is partial readiness that is based on the low capability for transforming or changing which is also coupled through high urgency and lastly in the last and fourth quadrant, there is full readiness, which will be based on the high capability for changing coupled with a high urgency. Evaluation of the Change effort and the Learning from Unanticipated outcomes Being the change agent of the ShoeMark Company, I will ensure that the change effort in the company is gradually done through numerous stages of action research. Which will include among others jointly establishing a problem and the problems that are related to it, collection and analysis of the data, data interpretation, discussion of possible solutions, implementation and the taking of appropriate action, evaluation of consequences regarding a specific action and learning and co-learning. Readiness implies the ability of the company and its related stakeholders’ ability to quickly adapt and implement the much needed change so as to transform it towards achieving greater success in its operations. Readiness in ShoeMark company can be enhanced through the educating the stakeholders on the importance of embracing changes in the organization so as increase its production. Communication is a vital tool in ensuring that ShoeMark Company quickly adapts to the changes aimed at making it cope with the numerous problems that it faces (OECD, 2009). Gap analysis should also be used in order to highlight any differences that exist between the actual performance and the desired performance. This is attributed to the fact that Gap analysis is vital for the articulation of the change message through highlighting any existing difference between both the actual and desired states and performance. The organizational development and change for ShoeMark Company will be based on the sense making and organizing that will be achieved through talk. Sense making in the company should be developed through the interpretation of specific or particular breakdowns and disruptions in the company. Organization of ShoeMark’s development and change will therefore comprise of the enactments, selections and ultimate maintenance of the options available in the company. The implementation of any possible changes in ShoeMark as a company will ultimately lead to the enactment of a new order regarding the general situation of the company. In order to implement changes aimed at transforming ShoeMark Company towards achieving its best, then i will apply both retrospective sense making and prospective sense giving in order to achieve the positive changes in the organization. In retrospective sense making, i will interpret some of the plausible stories or things regarding what people in ShoeMark have done in the past in order to make conclusive recommendations on what needs to be done about the present situation. This will greatly help me in avoiding the repeat of past mistakes, which have contributed towards the failure of the organization. On the other hand, i will also apply prospective sense-giving since it will greatly help me in designing readiness through helping individuals in the organization to construct the plausible organization’s plausible images regarding what they could be carrying out in the organization (DiClemente, 2006). Conclusion In conclusion, it can well be ascertained form the case study above that any company is capable of succeeding so long as the relevant or proper plan for the organizational development and change is adopted. Proper acts of interventions by agents of change or consultant can bring significant change and befits towards the organization so long as such people have adopted well proven strategies aimed at bringing positive changes towards such organizations. It has also been well ascertained that communication plays a very vital part in the facilitation of such interventions so that an organization can embrace change to drive it to higher levels of production. The success of any given development plan for change is highly dependent on the cooperation that all the stakeholders input in it. References Cummings, T. et al. (2009). Organizational Development and Change. New York: Cengage Learning. DiClemente, C. (2006). Addiction and Change. London: MacMillan Publishers Flanagan, N. (1995). Planning for Change...New York: Combat Poverty Agency. Lafortune, L. (2009). Guide for Accompanying Change. New York: PUQ. OECD (2009). Integrating Climate Change Adaption into Development. New York: OECD Publishing. Yaeger, T, et al. (2009). Strategic Organization Development. New York: IAP. Read More