Work Integrated Project Managing Change - Edward Harry - Case Study Example

Running Header: Managing Change Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 2 Internal and external drivers 4 Change perspective 6 Theories of change 7 Choices and constraints 7 Approaches (theories and models) 9 Strategic planning tools 9 Limitations and recommendations 10 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction In the business world, change is unavoidable and pervasive. It is therefore important for organizations to be able to manage this change. Managers must be able to identify the major drivers of change in the business world and the major drivers of change within their own organizations so that they can manage these changes effectively. When undergoing changes, there are many things that can go wrong during the process. These things might be caused by inadequate resources, slowness in responding to environmental changes, lack of motivation, engrained systems and institutionalized ideas among others. According to Andrew (95, 510), in some instances, changes can be so rapid and in other instances, it can be very slow. In both instances, an organization needs to plan how to effectively and proactively respond to these changes. The best way that organizations can plan to manage change is by using a strategic approach which involves putting up structures that will enable the said organizations to be aware of the occurrence of these changes. Once aware, organizations should be able to influence and motivate the behaviors of their staff such that they can all work towards managing and embracing the forthcoming changes. The organizations should also be committed to acquiring and deploying adequate resources that are required to drive and manage change within them. These resources must include human resources, physical resources and financial resources. It is the responsibility of the management to psychologically prepare their staff for expected changes. This preparation is necessary because change brings about a lot of reactions, both positive and negative. These reactions may include fear, anxiety and curiosity among others. Preparing the staff will help them to overcome the effects of change. It will also reduce the number of employees who resist positive changes and address their concerns since they will have been prepared for the changes. Ed Harry is a chain of menswear, based in Adelaide, Australia. The store was first opened in 1932 in Adelaide as a menswear store by Edward Harry’s father. Edward Harry joined his father in business in 1971 and the business has seen rapid expansion due to his efforts, especially in the 1990s. The current proprietor of the business, Neil Brine, bought it in 1993. The clothing chain has a total of 130 retail stores across the regional and metropolitan areas across Australia. This means that the company has employed a considerably large number of personnel who are responsible for representing it at different levels and various capacities. Significant reconstruction processes have been taking place within the organization with the aim of stabilizing the business by growing its future options. There has been a difficult retail environment over the past few years which has added a lot of pressure to the process of change, especially when it comes to funding these changes across all areas of the business, Ford (2008, 365). Internal and external drivers At Ed Harry clothing company, there are both internal and external drivers of change. An interview with one of the managers at the business revealed that one of the internal drivers of change at Ed Harry is employee morale. Even though the company has faced some tough times in the past few months, the employees’ morale has remained high since the company always did a good job at motivating its employees. Some of the incentives used included attractive compensation packages, benefits and a favorable work environment. The employees have been involved in the business and have been made to feel part of it. This has managed to make them stick to the company even in hard times. The employees have been able to initiate positive changes and to handle changes brought about by the competitive retail environment, Hardy (2005, 58). As mentioned by Lawrence (2004, 118), another internal driver of change within Ed Harry has been its management systems. With the competitive retail environment being experienced, the business has had to ensure that it has an effective administration that will be able to keep up with this environment. The administration has been able to bring about positive changes within the organization that are in line with the current market trends. With a new administration, there has been a change in leadership values and philosophies. Performance issues within the organization have also brought changes internally. The organization has faced stiff competition from other upcoming companies such as the Lowes Ltd. The success of the other competitors has made Ed Harry to appear as though it is not performing. The financial stability and management within Ed Harry has also contributed to driving changes within the business. The company has had new administrators who have been able to manage its finances well and save a lot of funds for the company. Even though not fully adequate, these funds have been used to drive major changes within the business. There have also been external factors that have driven change within Ed Harry. External factors include all situations and events that are outside the company’s control but are still responsible for bringing changes. One external factor that has driven change within Ed Harry is the competition that it has received from other companies. An American Company, Lowes Ltd, has brought stiff competition to the clothing industry in Australia. They have moved to Australia with high quality products that are really popular among customers with a keen taste of style. This has forced Ed Harry to change the way it does a lot of things. For it to remain in business and keep up with its competitors, it has had to make several changes. These include a change in its administration. Change has also been brought about by the status of customers. The market for clothing has drastically changed. Today, more and more young people are fashion conscious and they are willing to pay large sums of money for nothing but the best. That is why the management at Ed Harry has phased out two of their brands. This is because it wants to target a much younger generation of contemporary fashion conscious men, Leana (2000, 193). Emerging social trends have also been responsible for initiating changes within Ed Harry. The idea to change the target market and focus on attracting the young men is brought about by changes in the societal trends. This has brought about new markets for the company and it has embraced these changes positively by responding to them appropriately, Macri (2002, 295). Change perspective According to Nemeth (2001, 50), there are varied perspectives driving the people who initiate the changes at Ed Harry. An interview with a senior manager at the business revealed that the company is making changes mainly because of competition. With the coming of Lowes Ltd to the market, competition has become very stiff. That is why Ed Harry used the strategy of phasing out some of its products so that it can focus on other products that it is sure of winning the market with. The two brands that have been phased out by Ed Harry were the ones that had been faced by direct competition from the products of Lowes Ltd. That is why Ed Harry opted to change its strategy by focusing on products that it will use to dominate the market. The people initiating these changes at Ed Harry have considered the option of concentrating only on products that they are sure will help the company to dominate the market. Instead of spending a lot of time and effort competing with other top brands, the company has decided to use its strong points. Some of the assumptions that these initiators of change have been making are that they are the only ones who will continue to produce the kind of clothing that they do. By phasing out certain designs because of competition, they assume that the brands they are focusing on will not be met by competition. They assume that they will remain the ones who dominate the market with the products that they remain with. The company assumes that no other company will bring competition to the products that they are remaining with. This is a very risky assumption because it may end up phasing all its products out because any business is bound to phase competition during its lifetime. The company should focus on making its products more competitive and not removing them from the market, Phillips (2000, 30). Theories of change In regard to the theories of change, Ed Harry has focused on the external environment when initiating changes. The business has employed strategic and thoughtful planning, and sensitive implementation of these plans. There have been numerous consultations at various levels within the organization which has seen the involvement of all the parties that will be affected by the changes. The change strategy that was adopted by Ed Harry was long term. This is because it took a total period of 2 years to strategize and implement. The process incorporated all the workers at Ed Harry, regardless of their position. Everyone at Ed Harry was involved in the identification of the products that the company should keep and promote. After this stage, the entire Ed Harry team was involved in working towards the promotion of their current renewed brands. The brands that had been phased out would then be sold out to prospective buyers so that the company does not incur any losses. Choices and constraints When choosing which change strategy to apply, the business had to grapple with various factors. One of them was to decide which products to phase out and which ones to promote. This was a tough decision to make because all the products brought the company a lot of profit. During this process, there were a lot of challenges and constraints that were faced by the business. Some of these constraints include time taken to strategize and implement the changes, the personnel involved in the changes and the amount of money put in to implement the changes. The manager noted that the changes took over 2 years to plan for and to implement. This is quite a long time considering that the organization needed to remain in business and make profits during this period. Another constraint was in terms of the personnel needed to implement the changes that were intended to take place. All the staff needed to be involved in the process by taking their views, opinions and suggestions into consideration. This consumed a lot of time because the every employee has their own varied opinion concerning the changes. Coordinating such a process is not an easy task because everyone needs to be heard or seen as important. According to the manager, the entire team at Ed Harry was involved in making these changes. In such a scenario, disagreements and differences in opinion are bound to hinder the process. Another constraint was the finances that had to be put into implementing the changes. Selling out the two products until they were completely phased out was not an easy task. It required a lot of marketing strategies to be employed. It also requires that the business advertise and promote its products so that people can become aware of them and actually buy them. Also, marketing and promoting the current new brands required the company to use a lot of finances. The company, especially the marketing department, incurred a lot of high costs in promoting and marketing its products, Piderit (2000, 790). Approaches (theories and models) A demonstration of the theories and strategies used by Ed Harry to develop, manage and implement change shows that the organization took a long term view in planning for the changes and the ways to implement them. The strategy use by the organization is the analytical stream. This approach took a period of two years which saw the organization carefully planning to cope with the changes. The implications of the changes were critically analyzed and the organization sought to understand them first before implementing them. This strategy is usually referred to as the academic oriented strategy because it places emphasis on the use of detailed plans. Strategic planning tools Ed Harry used several strategic planning tools to implement these changes. The competitive forces model was used to give the business a clear direction. It identified who its main competition was and based it changes on that. Ed Harry focused on product differentiation by identifying its unique products and choosing to promote them over the rest. It also let go of the products that it considered were under threat from the Lowes Ltd, its main competition. Ed Harry also employed specialization by focus in the sense that it specialized on certain products and left out others. The products that it felt were it strong points were highly promoted and marketed to the clients. All the efforts of the business were directed towards the promotion of the current renewed brands while the old products were strategically phased out. Before the changes were made, the structure of the industry was carefully analyzed so that the company could determine which strategy to employ among the range of strategies it had at hand. Ed Harry analyzed its competition and decided to focus on products that it knows it had beaten the other companies with. Instead of starting a war with its rivals like most companies would have done when faced with such a scenario, Ed Harry chose the opposite path. This was to get rid of its weak points by phasing out the products that did not do so well and only focusing on its best products. It sought to changing its target market and promoting products that would attract their new target market. The new target market was young modern men who were fashion conscious. Limitations and recommendations As mentioned by Schalk (98, 160), some of the limitations of the change interventions include the financial limitations, time limitations and personnel. To deal with shortage of funds, the company can look for external sources of funds to help implement changes that it is sure will bring back profits. A recommendation to deal with problems from the workers is to prepare them psychologically for the changes so that they can embrace them positively. To deal with time limitations, Ed Harry can resort to proper planning for future changes to ensure that it can predict changes that are likely to occur in future and deal with them accordingly. Conclusion In conclusion, whether changes are brought about by internal or external drivers, they are still bound to occur. It is up to organizations to be aware of these changes and prepare themselves to handle them. They must be cognizant of any form of change and prepare to respond to it in the most appropriate way. With the competitive and tough business world, managing change is a sure way that a company can be assured of remaining in business. Companies should be willing and flexible to adapt to changes and they should be able to implement both rapid and slow changes. The ability to predict changes that may arise in future puts a company so many steps ahead of the others because it can prepare to manage these changes. Ed Harry has realized the importance of managing change and it is taking all the necessary steps to ensure that change is being handled in the best possible way. References Andrew, H. and Poole, M. 1995. Explaining Development and Change In Organizations. Academy of Management Review 20 (3): 510-540. Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W. and D'Amelio, A. 2008. "Resistance to change: the rest of the story", Academy of Management Review 33: 362-377. Hardy, C., Lawrence, T. B., & Grant, D. 2005. Discourse and collaboration: The role of conversations and collective identity. Academy of Management Review 30(1): 58. Lawrence, T. B. 2004. Rituals and resistance: Membership dynamics in professional fields. Human Relations 57(2): 115-143. Leadership & Organization Development Journal 19 (3): 157-163. Leana, C. R. and Barry, B. 2000. “Stability and Change as Simultaneous Experiences in Macri, D. M., Tagliaventi, M. R. and Bertolotti, F. 2002, "A grounded theory for resistance to change in a small organization." Journal of Organizational Change Management 15: 292-310. Nemeth, C. J., Connell, J. B., Rogers, J. D. and Brown, K. S. 2001. "Improving decision making by means of dissent." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 31: 48-58. Organizational Life.” Academy of Management Review. 25 (4): 753-759. Phillips, N., Lawrence, T. B., & Hardy, C. 2000. Inter-organizational collaboration and the dynamics of institutional fields. Journal of Management Studies 37(1): 23-43. Piderit, S. K. 2000. "Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change." Academy of Management Review 25: 783-794. Schalk, R., Campbell, J.W. and Freese, C. 1998. “Change and employee behaviour.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 19 (3): 157-163. Read More