Organizational Change

Discussion and Review Questions

1. Why is diagnosis so vital in organizational change programs?

        In every organization there are always a situation in which the organization must decide to have something to change but first the manager must recognize first which thing is malfunctioning, they must diagnose the problem and identify relevant alternative techniques to solve the problem. The manager himself must be wise and intelligent in solving the problems that the organization faces. After the manager recognize the problems he can also ask for help from his employees to solve the problem. Together they must diagnose the source of the problem, reason and solution just like the scientific method but they must always remember that in diagnostic process must stress the use of precise and reliable information.

     Another is diagnosis is vital in organizational change programs because it make the program to be successful in implementing intervention so that the employees would not resists and the organization will be productive. 

       2. Explain the concept of organizational intervention and why any particular management or organization change can be considered an intervention.


     Intervention is a specific action that a change agent takes to focus the change process.  Although the term has a generally used meaning, it has a specific meaning in the context of organizational development where it refers to a formal activity. Management must determine which alternative is most likely to produce the desired outcome, whether it be improvement in skills, attitudes, behavior, or structure. The literature of organization development recognizes that different interventions have different effects on organization, group, and individuals. 

     Management or organization change can be considered an intervention when they focus on a particular or determine which alternative is most likely to produce the desired outcome and change it into a better process for the organization as well as for the employees.

3.   Might some managers attempt to implement a particular intervention, such as TQM,    without first diagnosing whether the intervention would be appropriate for their organization's problems?  

I think no,implementing without diagnosing will cause the organization to fall down, just like the saying think twice!. Every decision in an organization must be plan or diagnose first so that the implementation will give positive reaction to the company.

4. Why it is important for manager to reduce the resistance to change exhibited or covertly practiced by employees?

     Manager must be aware of every organizational change that he will be implementing, it might trigger rational and irrational emotional reactions because of the uncertainty involved. As a manager or leader of an organization it is important that we know how to reduce the instances that our employees would resist, because the resistance of our employees might cause low quality of our product if they sabotage us, employees might form a labor union inside your organization and make a rally, employees can also give our secret formula, strategy, recipe, methods to our competitors and the worst thing that can happen is they will resign and we will loose a good and productive employees.

     We managers must always consider not only for the betterment of our company or organization but also for the betterment of our employees. It is very important that manager must know to reduce the resistance to change by our employees, we can use different methods to decrease the employees resistance to change just like:

• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Negotiation and agreement
• Manipulation and cooperation
• Explicit and implicit coercion

5.  Evaluate the ethical issues associated with downsizing an organization by reducing its labor force to increase the organization's long-run chance of survival: What other ethical issues can you identify in the practice of organizational development as you understand it thus far?

                                                                                                                                                          

     Downsizing is not always negative one. For me downsizing can also be positive in a way the it can serve as the key to survival of the company,just like in our government the MMDA they have  to lay-off their employees (contractual) to save money so that they can surpass their declining budget each year. If the only means of survival is downsizing we have to consider it. It's better to loose some employees than to loose the whole company.

6. Management must remain committed to the effort throughout all it's steps, from diagnosing to evaluation.

    In an organizational change it start with the diagnosing to the evaluation. The organizatonal change model shows the steps that the manager must to be successful in every plan, activity, project and changes that he will do. Following this steps our company will surely be successful and will give satisfaction in every members of our organization. every steps in an organizational change is an evolutionary process, we can't achieve the change that we want in just a split of seconds we have to wait. 

7. How is the appreciative inquiry approach to organizational change different from a problem-solving method?

     Appreciative inquiry involves a method for bringing about positive change. AI proposes that organization and individual are creative  enough to develop programs, relationships, and behaviors that address success, personal growth , and fulfillment. AI uses the art and practice of asking probing questions that can strengthen an individual or an organization's ability to anticipate,seize and initiate positive potential while in Problem-solving method focuses in the improving of our critical skill, visual skill and our logical skills but not our creativity. Problem solving might also practice individual or an organization's ability but can not give us to develop program, relationship and behavioral fulfillment just like appreciative inquiry.

8. What would be the characteristics of an organization or situation for which the use of reason would be an effective approach for managing change?Are such organizations and situations relatively rare?

     I think the situation of this organization would give positive outlook and satisfaction towards the employees, they would not resist to the organizational changes in their organization because the management would always give reasons to everything that happen, all of the questions of the employees would be answered. But I think in the real world this situation may not be so possible since the nature of the managers or the leaders of a company is always dictating another is  they always direct the employees on what they have to do.

9. Explain the difficulties that your would encounter in attempting to obtain diagnostic information from members of two groups that believe they're competing for scarce resources.

      I think that would be a hard work for me, interviewing that two groups might cause real and major headache. Since both of them believe that they're competing to each other for the sake of scarce resources, I think they would both deceive each other by giving me false or not reliable  information fearing that the information might help the other group.

10. Explain why a change program should be evaluated and why such an evaluation i so difficult to conduct.

      The evaluation of each change programs  helps the organization to determine the things that is malfunctioning and things that need to be change to more productive and effective. Evaluation would be difficult to conduct if the people in the organization is not cooperating, another if the resources is limited and last if the evaluation is only conducted in a limited area.

Evaluation in the change programs need the cooperation of the people who are part of the organization so that all the scope of the organization would be included and the result of the evaluation would be accurate.

Taking It to the Net

 

1. Highlight the most dramatic behavior, structure, work desiogn, and process changes reflected for the five companies.

Fortune 500

                                      Rank                                                      Company/Organization                      

                                       1                                                                Wal- Mart Stores                           

                                       2                                                                Exxon Mobil                                 

                                       3                                                                Chevron

                                       4                                                                General Electric

                                       5                                                                Bank of America Corp.

1. Wal-Mart managed to lift revenues, on top of a big increase in 2008, by attracting bargain-hungry customers from competitors with remodeled stores and inexpensive private-label goods, offering everything from frozen pizza to patio furniture in one stop.
2. Exxon Mobil - the company drilled 45 new wells last year and hit pay dirt on nearly two-thirds of them.
3. Chevron - with prices for crude oil and natural gas off sharply from their recent highs, revenue at the oil giant tumbled 37%, from $265 billion to $167 billion.
4. General Electric - the house that Jack built ended 2009 by selling a controlling stake in its NBC Universal entertainment unit to Comcast, a deal that valued the new entity at $37 billion.
5.  Bank of Ameri Corp. -say this about Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan: He certainly knows how to talk the talk. In his letter to shareholders, Moynihan went out of his way to thank U.S. taxpayers for making $45 billion in TARP funds available.

 2. In retracting the history of your selected firms,are there more dramatic changes reflected in teh most recent five-year period or in earlier period?

1. Wal-Mart Store - Staring down the barrel of brutal fourth-quarter retail forecasts, CEO Lee Scott dramatically cut prices on 15,000 items - including popular toys and electronics - by 20% more than usual to lure holiday shoppers.

      2. Exxon Mobil - The oil giant made a big bet on the domestic natural gas market late last year buying     Texas-based XTO Energy for $41 billion. But refining and exploration remain its backbone.

      

     3. Chevron -  has a heavy exposure to high-acid crude, particularly its deep-water projects in the U.K. If the government forces it to start processing the high-cost oil, Chevron may opt to cede its drilling rights, a move that would result in a sizeable charge against earnings

     4. General Electric - Investors largely shrugged off the deal, but as concerns over its finance unit begin to fade -- and talk of a dividend increase start to heat up -- GE stock lately has been on a tear.

    5. Bank of America -  wasn't hit quite as hard by the credit crisis as other financial institutions in 2007. But it did have the misfortune of taking a $2 billion stake in Countrywide, the nation's biggest subprime lender, in August.

3. Do you  of your selected firms have or report on an organizational change task force?

• Wal-Mart Stores              
• Chevron                    = This firm doesn't have any organizational chage task force
• General Electric
• Bank of America Corp.

• Exxon Mobil - This company is alreading making products that drive modern transportation, power cities, lubricate industry and provide petrochemical building blocks that lead to thousands of consumer.goods.

Case for Analysis  

Bayer's Major Changes in One Plant

Discussion Questions

1.  What type of change(s) occured at Bayer? 

          Before the acquisistion of Beyer's, the palnt had changed ownership three times and the workplace seemed to have dissolved, the plant manager post had been vacant for a while. Morale among workers plummeted and job security became a running joke. Line managers had worries of their own , not the least of which was ramping up to Beyer's exoectation for a 24-hours per day, 7 days per week but soon the HR manager realized that employees needed to be involved at the heart of any turnaround. The HR manager selected 93 employees at random to participate in sThe Beyer's plant had change ownership three times and the workforce seemed to have dissolved fast, plant manager post had been vacant for a while, morale among workers plummeted and job security became a running joke, aside fromeven focus group meeting to get a clear indication of what is going on at the plant, workers noted several positive workplace attributes, such as pay and benefits, in their feedback. 

Until the company became employee centered wherein the employees himself could share his suggestions and ideas for the success of the company.

2. What type of employee reistance did Bayer have to address?

     Before the acquisition of the of Beyer the management style at the facility was top-down rather than collaborative and reactive instead of proactive. Knowing that Myerstown employees were skeptical of new management programs because of past failures, plant manager John O'Neil and the HR team addressed workers at all-employees meeting about the first initiative developing a site strategy and goals.

3. What are the positive and negative lessons learned from how to change was handled at Beyers?

     Positive and Negative Lessons

          The lesson that we can learned fron teh story of Beyer is don't shoulder a big problem alone, learn to ask help pr advice from other people, as an organization we should work as a team. We should learn how to hear and accept the oppions, suggestions, ideas,problems, issues, questions from our collgues, employees and subordinates so that when we want to make changes they would not resist.