Homework: Judge the Multidimensional Aspects of Implementing Organizational Change
Length: 5 to 7 pages.
Rome, Inc., a new fast-growing party planning company, started with five employees at one location. Today, the company has grown to 40 full-time and 26 part-time employees at seven locations throughout the state. Freelance employees are hired when needed, especially during the holiday and wedding seasons. Nearly 70 percent of the full-time employees are in the millennial generation and actively use social media, including when they are at work. Customers have started to make comments about what they have seen on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Listed below are a few examples:
I. Some employees have uploaded photos of other employees drinking at a bar.
II. Another complaint from a customer was that an employee publicly posted sensitive personal information about the customer's 17-year-old child after the teenager refused to go on a date with the employee.
III. There have been posts about the company's financial performance complaining that, while the company is making good money, the company is still paying some employees the minimum-wage hourly rate.
IV. Finally, when an employee could not change their vacation because they had done so twice and there was no one to cover for them, the employee labeled the company as unfriendly to working parents and shared it on numerous social media sites.
The company leadership is baffled and decided to talk with the company's attorney about the situation. Leadership did not want to punish the staff or violate their rights, but they also had to find a way to protect the company and its reputation. The attorney suggested implementing a social media policy. The owners drafted a social media policy that was approved by the attorney. Employees were notified that the policy was coming. A number of the employees do not believe the company has the right to tell them what to put on their personal social media accounts. Another group, who do not use social media, are not concerned about the upcoming policy; while a group of more seasoned employees wants HR to move forward with the policy, so they can get back to the work of the business.
Task
Assuming you are a leader in the case study company, use Lewin's force field analysis as a tool to help you determine if you will move forward with the social media policy, make changes to the policy before moving forward, or not implement the policy at all.
Begin by researching information related to social media policies and the National Labor Relations Act as it applies to employee rights.
Now, thinking about the pros and cons of a social media policy for your organization, complete the force-field analysis by using the template in the following manner:
I. Explain your proposal for the change to implement an organizational social media policy.
II. Identify those forces for the change and defend the most important benefits this change will deliver.
III. Identify the forces against the change. Explain any resistance, and then defend your response. Then, determine the costs and risks involved in the change.
IV. Rate each force (1-lowest impact to 5-highest impact). This will help you goal determine how much influence each force has on the change.
V. Make a decision! If you plan to move forward, the next step is to create an action plan, which needs to weaken or remove, restraining forces or strengthen driving forces so that they increase the ‘net' force for a successful change. Provide a rationale based on your decision.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.