Organisational Analysis
There are constant economic, political, and socio-cultural changes occurring rapidly globally. These changes make it necessary for organisations to modify their operational processes to ensure alignment with the dynamic external forces. According to Voehl and Harrington (2016, p. 92), change management refers to those approaches and frameworks which affect organisational processes by changing individual behaviour. The ultimate goal of change management is to improve organisational performance through the alteration of organisational processes. During organisational change, concrete leadership is essential to ensure that the change process does not stagnate. In an economy of increasing globalisation, transparency, government regulations, competition, and industrial requirements, change management and leadership is crucial for the survival of a company (Todenby, 2015)
Organisational Analysis
The company’s primary leadership strategy is based on the top-down approach. The departmental hierarchy shows the director followed by the head of distribution and two levels of senior managers, junior managers, and technical support. Every manager is encouraged to focus on achieving departmental goals in their niche without much cooperation from other managers. The decision-making process is made at the top hierarchies, and decisions passed down for implementation in a vertical structure. The management has the ultimate power to make decisions regardless of employee opinion. In addition to this, there are clear policies on employee’s roles and duties in the organisation.
Furthermore, strict compliance with organisational practices and achievement of objectives is rewarded. The management also conducts regular annual appraisals to evaluate and set new organisational goals. Moreover, the need for change has caused confusion and opposition, especially due to the lack of cross-functional collaboration.
According to Hayes (2014 p. 4), the open systems theory gives a framework where organisations are viewed as a system comprised of interrelated components in a larger and stronger system. These systems are interdependent. This interdependence and its alignment influence the long-term survival of the systems and the entire organisation. These systems should work in a streamlined manner to ensure that one system does not destabilise the other. This interdependency and alignment are essential during change since it enables all systems to adopt a harmonised change strategy and its implementation. In this organisation, there is no cross-functional operation, and different branches in a department operate independently. This operational strategy can be used to imply that the organisation does not also have interdepartmental cooperation. This organisational structure goes against the open systems model and has resulted in subsequent failure to implement change.
According to Hayes (2014 p. 309-311), Oakland developed Oakland’s figure of eight change frameworks, which can be used as a template to assess whether early preparation and future planning on how the change will be implemented can make the process successful. The framework provides a comprehensive approach, which can be used by change leaders to determine the organisational readiness for change and implementation. Using this approach, an organisation should identify the need for change and provide the leadership, direction, and planning to ensure successful change. In this case study, the management does not appear to have planned the change effectively. The director and head of distribution do not have a comprehensive plan for change, and this has left the branch managers confused and adopting differing strategies. This lack of planning shows that the department has not followed the framework, and only the need for change has been identified without providing leadership, direction, and planning.
Hayes (2014, p.26) presents several three-stage models for the process model of change. These models focus on defining the organisations present and future, managing the change transition, maintaining, and updating change. The models give priority to strategies which will be instrumental in ensuring that a company successfully implements change. The models emphasize on developing relationships between the change managers and employees, implementing and maintaining change (Collyer, 2015 p. 55). This model has seven basic principles for change, which start by recognising the need for change, diagnosing what needs to be changed, planning interventions to ensure change, implementing plans and a review for change, maintaining change, managing people, and learning. In this case study, the department has failed to follow the provisions in the process model of change. There is a poor diagnosis, implementation, people management, and relationships between the change leaders and employees.
The voluntarist approach rejects the notion that managers are powerless and that these individuals determine the direction that an organisation takes. According to the strategic choice framework, managers can make choices by challenging the idea that there is an ideal organisational structure or a single best way to manage organisational change. The framework further recognises that organisational effectiveness is determined by the quality of strategic decisions made by leaders. When the decision-making body makes informed and quality decisions, the organisation is bound to improve on efficiency. The approach further emphasizes that managers may intervene in the change process and have a positive or negative effect on the process (Brunes, 2017 p. 323-349; Hayes, 2014 p. 86-87). The organisational structure of the national utility company has aspects similar to the voluntarist approach and the strategic choice framework. In this organisation, the managers have the ultimate power in decision-making and are responsible for making and implementing all decisions. In this company, the managers also intervene in the change process. However, the intervention by managers of this department affects the department negatively since the change process is unsuccessful. It is therefore clear that the organisation’s change process follows the voluntarist view of change.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
One of the major strengths of this organisation that may help in implementing change is that the organisation provides learning opportunities for its workforce. Managers are engaged in mandatory internal training and encouraged to pursue undergraduate and master’s programs externally to improve managerial and leadership skills. These skills are essential in giving the leaders the capacity to effectively navigate and implement change within an organisation (Birasnav, Ragnekar, and Dalpati, 2011). In addition to this, staff undertakes internal and external training to improve their capacity and competence. This training, when coupled with effective leadership, will ensure efficient change management and improved organisational performance.
In addition to this, the organisation has a strong corporate social responsibility policy on areas related to engagement with internal and external stakeholders and engaging with the community on energy-related issues. This decision to develop strategic objectives around corporate social responsibility is advantageous to the organisation since it ensures that the changes are economically and environmentally sustainable and fully supported by the community, thereby making the change process easier and successful. Furthermore, there is a clear demarcation of roles for all employees. Line managers do weekly workload planning with teamwork encouraged where necessary. This system of planning makes it easier to implement change since the role of every employee is broken down into specific actions needed, thereby eliminating confusion and making change implementation easier.
Moreover, the organisation has a bureaucratic structure with a top-down approach where decisions are strategically made by top management informed by operational managers and passed down the hierarchy for implementation. This system of decision-making is simple and efficient since it does not require much consultation among different leaders. The structure is effective and saves on time, which is necessary for change management. The structure is also used in solving disputes that may arise during the transition period, thereby ensuring quick solutions. Besides, there are annual appraisals for staff, which ensures performance and provides additional training where necessary. Further awards are provided for employees who conform to organisational standards and policies, thereby creating a highly competent and disciplined workforce. When implemented correctly, these organisational strengths ensure effective change leadership and implementation, making the process a success.
Weaknesses
One of the major weaknesses of this organisation is in its leadership structure. Effective leaders are those leaders who direct organisational change while influencing others to accomplish objectives that improve external and internal performance. According to the process models of change, change leaders should be able to create positive relationships with those involved and affected by change for change to be effective. In addition to this, the organisation has failed at creating a conducive environment for leaders and employees. It, therefore, becomes hard for these individuals to interact and cultivate these relationships, which would be otherwise beneficial. The organisational hierarchy, decision-making process, and office settings are designed to create a clear line between the employees and the leaders, thereby making it hard to develop interpersonal relationships, which are necessary for change implementation. Furthermore, the voluntarist view of change management also provides leaders with the power to intervene in the change process. However, the departmental managers are unable to utilise this power to improve the efficiency of change implementation since they implement differing changes leading to confusion and overall failure of the process.
In addition to this, the organisational and leadership structures in the organisation does not involve the employees in decision-making. There is also a low level of consultation between employees and the management as all major decisions are made by senior management and passed down through the hierarchy to employees. In addition to this, the management may disregard employee opinion even when they are right. This disregard is because the management is only interested in maintaining a status quo and power. This leadership style is bureaucratic and may feel authoritative to employees leading to feelings of having imposed policies by the management of the employees (Joris, 2014). This employee attitude creates a weakness in the system, which leads to employees opposing the policies initiated by management without proper consultation, thereby leading to failure of the change process.
The organisation also has a weakness in that there is no cross-functional working. Despite having effective people management tools such as training for both employees and leaders, the department is unable to implement organisational change. This failure may be blamed on the lack of interdepartmental and intradepartmental cooperation. These factors are essential to change management. This lack of cooperation has led to managers implementing different variations of changes since there lacks a central system to moderate, harmonise, and monitor the change being implemented. The lack of cooperation also makes it hard to implement change in an organisation or department, and this divisiveness may be a major factor in strengthening the capability of employees to oppose change.
In addition to this, the organisation holds cross-organizational meetings every quarter. These meetings involve all organisational leaders and cover the performance of the entire organisation. The meetings do not provide adequate time to discuss the relevant issues and provide solutions and may leave leaders confused in the right direction to take in solving problems or managing change. The lack of a forum for leaders to interact and discuss comprehensively the problems facing them and the organisational direction may be a major weakness for the organisation leading to failure in change leadership and management.
Moreover, the leaders and managers of change are unable to learn from mistakes and improve to avoid inefficiencies in change implementation. One of the reasons for this weakness is that change was not necessary for the past. The organisation had been running smoothly until the introduction of new regulatory standards by external regulators. According to Hayes (2014, p. 36), Leaders should be able to use a single loop or double loop learning to detect problems and providing appropriate modifications to ensure efficiency in the change process. The inability of leaders to learn and provide corrective adjustments is thus a major weakness for the organisation at all leadership levels.
There are also other weaknesses in the organisation, such as the self-interest by managers. The organisation encourages and rewards managers who accomplish their departmental objectives with bonuses. This incentive may drive managers to be competitive to the extent of deliberately declining to cooperate with other managers in projects that may affect their progress in achieving objectives and overall success (Trkman, 2010). This factor, therefore, becomes a major weakness affecting organisational performance for the whole organisation.
In addition to this, issues such as lack of flexible working arrangements and a disconnection policy different from that of other organisations may hinder the organisation’s ability to implement change.
Recommendations
The successful implementation of change in the department will result in receiving a £ 15 million incentive for achieving customer service targets and a £ 30 million fine if the target is not met. Penalties up to £ 2 million will be levied on the department if it fails to demonstrate effective policies on ethical practice. It is, therefore, crucial for the organization to successfully implement change to meet regulatory requirements and avoid penalties. The recommendations for this organisation to improve its practice include changing its leadership structure, decision-making process, utilise available technology, implementing appropriate frameworks for change and improving leaders. The following is an action plan for the implementation of these recommendations.
Action Plan
Short term actions
One of the easiest ways to improve performance in the short term is to utilise existing technology in implementing change. The employees are currently allocated tasks through handheld electronic devices to ease the process and ensure fairness. These devices should be used by change managers to implement change on a gradual level by breaking down change and assigning each employee their roles individually to make the process easier. This change can be implemented within two months, thereby making it more effective.
Medium term actions
The most effective way of attaining successful organisational change is by ensuring that change managers and leaders are well equipped with the knowledge to implement it. Despite having trained the leaders, it is evident that they lack the necessary skills to lead, manage, and implement change. These managers should be taken through a short and comprehensive training on how to manage change which will ensure they can apply knowledge and skills to meet change requirements. By the end of the training, managers should be able to plan, execute, monitor, and control the processes of change (Anderson and Anderson, 2010 p. 55). In addition to this, the organisational decision-making process should be modified. The current process is bureaucratic, and this has led to opposition and failure of change. The decision-making process should be inclusive of employees and low-level managers since this is the group that implements all policies (Linke and Zerfass, 2011). The inclusion of these groups will also eliminate opposition and ensure effective policies are developed, thereby avoiding the current state of confusion resulting from a lack of consistent change policies. These two recommendations can be implemented within 3 and 6 months, thereby improving organisational performance.
Long term actions
The organisational does not encourage cross-functional working or interdepartmental cooperation. Different branches in a department make decisions separately with minimum cooperation. In addition to this, different departments only interact during quarterly meetings, which leads to an imbalance in the development and implementation of policies (Lapointe and Vandenberghe, 2015). The organization should establish monthly meetings for all organisational leaders, especially during the transition period, where consistency is critical. The organisation should also encourage cooperation between departments and between different branches in a department to ensure effective change leadership and management. In addition to this, the organisation should change the communication structure within the organisation and its departments. The systems approach to organisational communication should be adopted. This approach utilises feedback and organizational interactions between staff and management. This approach also uses analytical models to give avenues useful in understanding complex organizational issues, all while remaining within established regulations (Jaaron and Backhouse, 2017).
Moreover, the organisation should utilise appropriate change management frameworks and models. According to Oakland’s figure of eight frameworks, an organisation has to identify the need for change and allocate the necessary leadership and planning for change to be effective. The absence of one of these factors leads to an unsuccessful change process, which is undesirable for any organisation. The organisation should thus identify a suitable change model or framework and allocate the necessary resources, financial, time, and human resources to implement it (Voet, Kuiepers, and Groeneveld, 2015).
Conclusion
Change management is a process that incorporates organisational tools to guide individuals in making successful transitions. Change has to be triggered by the need for change. In this organisation, change is responsively triggered by a shift in regulations, making it necessary to align with external regulations. There are numerous models and frameworks that an organisation can use to manage, lead and implement change; however, it is essential to plan and allocate the necessary resources to the change process to ensure an efficient transition. Before implementing change, all stakeholders should be well informed of the process to ensure support and reduce confusion, inefficiency, and opposition. In a dynamic and highly competitive business environment, organisations must keep evolving to ensure they remain competitive, adjust to market forces, and conform with regulations.