Affecting_Change

Affecting Change Run the Leadership in Action simulation found on your Resources page. Describe the established methods of control and the current cultures of the department and the organization. Then, make a specific recommendation for restructuring the department that would improve the culture while empowering employees. Within the recommendation, describe which management practices would be most effective and why. Additionally explain how the size and new structure could affect the organization as well as individuals, groups, and teams, and the future of the company. Write the recommendation using APA format and limited it to 1,750 words. Organizational change thrives to the degree that employees within the organization, themselves change. Change management requires comprehension of how employees change because organizational change is based on changes in each employee. As organizations move toward flatter structures and knowledge-based management in a world of increasing competition and globalization, command-and-control styles of leadership are becoming things of the past. Today’s leaders need to look closely at what motivates their workforce, how they need to provide favorable working conditions, and to involve and empower employees to achieve organizational objectives. To be effective leaders they also need to understand the informal rules of communication that exists alongside formal structures within organizations and how these rules impact work processes. S & F the parent company, a tele-shopping and mail order network is influenced by industry forecasts and an internal desire to change. It creates a new e-tailing division S & F Online, which is to be its Strategic Business Unit SBU--a divisional structure where employees are grouped around geographical areas, products/services, or clients. S & F Online is an example of a client structure. It has employees grouped into two teams. The six member web development team reports to the Project Manager--PM and the three member logistics team reports to the Logistics Manager--LM. A Marketing Manager--MM serves as coordinator of product lines, marketing budgets and promotional activities. Both LM and PM report to the MM. The MM in turn reports to the COO. The first challenge for the COO is to overcome the challenge of the organizational restructure and establishing a good working relationship with its division leaders. According the scenario, as a method of control, Mr. Argyle has enormous influence over his team and good rapport with colleagues. As a result, Argyle’s team developed a sense of commitment and loyalty due to his leadership. The commitment is “a person who internally agrees with a decision from the agent [Argyle] and makes a great effort to carry out the request or implement the decision effectively.” (Yukl, 2006) Furthermore, Argyle’s leadership consummated internalization to his team. A strong commitment to support and implement proposals influences the team due to its desirable and correct relation to their values and beliefs (Yukl, 2006). Organizational culture is described by Robbins and Judge as a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations- a key characteristics that the organization values. (Robbins and Judge, 2007) Additionally, Robbins and Judge annotated the essence of an organization’s culture into the following seven primary characteristics: (a) Innovation and risk taking- level of employees’ titration to risks and innovative capability, (b) Attention to detail- level of exhibiting precision, analysis, and attention to detail; (c) Outcome orientation- level of focusing on results vice techniques and processes by management, (d) People orientation- level of consideration by management on the impact of a decision to its people, (e) Team orientation- level of work activities centered on team vice individuals, (f) Aggressiveness- level of employee proactive and competitive spirit, (g) Stability- level of maintaining the tradition vice growth (Robbins and Judge, 2007). The current structure of S&F resembles a Functional Structure. This type structure organizes employees around specific knowledge or resources. This can be seen by how S&F is currently divided into the following workforce product divisions: Web development team, a logistic team, and a marketing team. The project manager of S&F is currently responsible handling the web operations team, who currently has six members. This team is responsible for maintaining online sales, comprising the website and handling the online payments. The program manager is also in charge to work closely with the logistic manager who has three members in the logistic team. The logistic team is in charge of all the orders, customer support, and delivery operations and must report all the order fulfillments status to the marketing manager. The marketing manager is in charge of coordinating project lines, marketing budgets, and all promotional items. As both a manager and an expert programmer, all the managers have a lot of skills that they can share with their team. They are responsible for setting goals, coaching their team, holding meetings, and hiring or layoffs. They can even delegate some of their personal tasks to their team, if they like. I believe that their success will be measured according to four attributes: project cost (measured in person-days), success meeting the goals you set for the team, your team's attitude during the project, and your ability to complete your personal tasks. Leadership for a Changing World views leadership as a relational process that is social and collective in nature. It belongs not only to an individual but also to a community. People come together to pursue change. They develop a shared vision of how the world should look. They make sense of their experiences, make decisions and take action. Leadership happens when people construct meaning in action in the context of a group’s work to accomplish a common purpose. Leadership in Action is a business simulation that helps participants understands the challenges they face when they are given power to accomplish a task. Even though power is a taboo topic for many people, it is what sets the leader apart from others in the organization. Studies show that effective leaders understand and have a need to have power. More important they know how to use it to accomplish their goals. But using power effectively is not an easy task. There are many challenges that, if not met, will create disastrous results for individuals and the organization. “An organization’s structure is a means to help management achieve its objectives which is derived from the organization’s overall strategy” (Robbins and Judge, 2007). Along with strategic change comes also a change in the structure of an organization to support the change. In the S & F scenario, the organization’s organizational structure closely emulated the mechanistic model. Robbins and Judge describe this model as high in specialization, rigid departmentalization, a clear chain of command, narrow spans of control, centralization, and high formalization (Robbins and Judge, 2007). The COO recommended taking action into transforming S & F Online into an organization structure that follows an organic model. “This model will be similar to a boundary less organization that is flat and uses cross-hierarchical and cross-functional teams. It will have low formalization, possesses a comprehensive information network, and involves high participation in decision making” (Robbins and Judge, 2007). A successful organization is incumbent upon its ability to ensure leadership and management keeps up with the management techniques and developing management skills to improve the operation of an organization and obtain productivity and profitability (The Small Business Company, 2008). A part of effective management practice is to ensure proper employment of the organization’s staff; ensuring they receive proper training and equipment necessary to accomplish their tasks. Furthermore, employees require mentorship, embracing the organization’s culture as a “way of life.” Effective management should always include fostering innovation to all employees. Employees take ownership in their work processes and are always the subject matter experts who are closest to having contact with their customers. Goal setting is an intricate part of ensuring that projects will endure success and longevity. In this present case it has been previously mentioned that fear of potential lay-offs due to the implementation of a new system will impact the existing employee’s jobs. Performance, skill set of employees, and communication are contributing factors that may also affect the existing employee’s jobs as well. A goal that would alleviate the employees’ stressors and ensure job security would be parallel learning system. Parallel learning system would provide the employees an opportunity to continue to use the old system while being trained for the new system. Gradually employees would learn the new system while still using the old which would not jeopardize their jobs. The training process would provide all employees an opportunity to learn the new system. Performance should not be a factor if proper training is held and employees are mastered the capabilities of the new system. There would be some instances whereas glitches will take place and employees will have some delays in operating the system but nothing that would cause a huge problem or a loss in revenue. S & F is at the forefront of undergoing change management along with organizational restructuring. Leadership’s primary responsibility is to visualize the company’s end state and encompass this vision to all employees. Employees will have natural resistance to change management and the status quo. However, what is more important is how leadership will paint a picture of success to the employees’ mind. Leadership includes not just the vision, but the capability of employing his or her resources-- the people who take care of the work. SandF will find efficiency once restructured into a more organic organization. Workers will be more efficient at accomplishing tasks and communication between elements will be more efficient, as the traditional chain of command no longer applies to this new structure. Last, effective management keeps the people in mind at all times; assuring a cradle-to-grave responsibility to its workforce. References Robbins, S., and Judge, T. (2007). Organizational behavior.Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall. The Small Business Company(2008). Effective management practices. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from Business.Gov.NZ Web site: http://www.business.govt.nz/Content/Published/Managing-a-business/Effective-management-practices.aspx University of Phoenix(2008). University of phoenix online class. Retrieved November 10, 2008, from Human Relations and Organizational Behavior Web site: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/vendors/tata/sims/hrob/change_management/hrob_change_management_frame.html Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in organization. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.