Task:
Organizations have distinct structures and cultures that influence their direction and how an organization reacts to change. Over the past few years as the growth in the organization has brought new success, it has also meant that some employees have felt that they have lost a closeness that is frequently associated with small companies.
You hear comments about losing that family feeling and you can hear undercurrents of fear about the anticipated growth bringing even more changes. The addition of the new plant, new product line and new production technology will all mean significant changes to the UPI culture. You know that not only will individuals resist change, parts or all of the organization will push back against changes if not properly framed.
The director would like to meet with you to discuss any possible resistance to the change that may originate from your organization's culture and structure to the planned changes.
Prepare a report that you will use to inform your director on the types of resistance to change that can come from different structures and cultures. Include proper APA formatting.
1. Reflect on the types of resistance to change that can come from organizational structure or culture, and offer some suggestions on how to decrease the resistance.
2. Recommend specific interventions that UPI can use to help the organization through the coming changes.
Case Scenario:
You are the newly promoted Manufacturing Coordinator, reporting directly to the Director of Operations at Universal Products, International (UPI) a medium sized manufacturer of high-end consumer electronics components. You have several years of increasing responsibility in UPI, working your way up from a production team member to this new position with supervisory responsibilities. You have spent several years as a member of an Organizational Culture (OC) team that has reviewed organizational issues. This is a team composed of volunteers from across the company. This group makes recommendations for improvements that address employee morale and safety. Membership on the OC is for two years. Your term expired last year and you have been looking for ways to continue to contribute to improving the organizational culture.
You have been taking courses at CTU for the past few years and are nearing your degree completion. You have studied leadership, finance, accounting and other business administration courses that provide you with a working understanding of UPI structure and the core business competencies of the company. You applied for your new position and were promoted to help move the organization toward a more collaborative and participative culture. Your new supervisor is responsible for all manufacturing related departments. He reports to the VP of Operations and her area of responsibility is all company operations. Her peers are the Vice Presidents of Finance, IT, HR, Marketing, and Supply Chain Management. They all report to the company President.
The company has grown from 50 employees to over 300 hundred in the past four years. You have been part of this dramatic growth and have watched the company struggle with changes in reporting relationships, additions of new layers of management and adding several new product lines. UPI is poised for another large growth with the development of a new electronic component that will make portable video players more efficient.
The company is anticipating adding another 150 employees and opening a new production facility across town on a parcel of land that UPI recently purchased. This will mean that your department will have employees in two locations for the first time.
In addition to your regular tasks, your supervisor has asked you to serve on a project staff team that was formed to work out the changes that will be necessary as the new plant comes online. Other project staff will include your peers in other departments. This project team must be up and ready to make recommendations on changes within the next 90 days in preparation for how the two plant facilities will interact. In addition, this team can expect that the directors will routinely delegate other new projects and initiatives to discuss and submit recommendations.
You also will maintain your new responsibilities for a staff of 8 employees who coordinate production scheduling and coordinate with the two HR generalists that are physically located in the operations department but report to the HR department.
To be successful in this new assignment, you will need to apply what you know about organizations, their structures, change management, and how individuals work within organizations.