Australian electronics market

Change Management

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Executive Summary

Change management is an essential part of a company that is in transition. RSEC is one such company, which has taken the path of acquiring another company. The company as such has expanded and in the process faced more difficulties especially in managing key departments of both companies. Dealing with the two markets and managing them at the same, time has been a challenge to the business. The difficulties have arisen in the sense that it has decided to change its previous decentralization strategy, and now it is adopting centralisation of most of its functions, which include customer’s service, logistics, and sales among others. As such, the company, which was in past thriving, has not taken a dip in its productive as employees have become demoralized by the mismanagement of the change management in regarding centralisation of the branches’ functions. The increasing complaints from customers speak volumes on the performance of the company the company was quite a successful company, but now the performance is low due to the sudden changes in the company structure and management. As such, it is important to take care of the problems facing the company before they get out of hand and affect the company totally. The change management should thus be handled efficiently as a result, which will enable the business to get its operations back to normal (Murthy, 2007). Change managers need to carry out the change process in an efficient manner considering the internal factors and external events. Coming up with change management process that is inclusive of the employees’ wish will go a long way in ensuring the success of the change management process. As such, the company needs to start the change process from the employees and the respective managers while ensuring that the communication channels are effective to ensure the success of the change process (Thompson et al., 2014).

Table of contents

Introduction

Rapid analysis electronic components is a company dealing with electronics and has made an acquisition of EBF, which is an electronics company also. RSEC as c company has developed over time and established itself successful in the Australian electronics market. After acquiring EBF, the company decided to come with abrupt changes in the organization, which affects its whole structure. The company had previously been operating with the respective branches having autonomy over their business activities. EBF as an electronics company was operating using the centralized model and it was still successful in its business ventures. The two companies were thus operating using different structures in carrying out their business operations. The acquisitions have made the company to copy EBF in the sense of centralizing all its operations in Sidney and one office. The centralisation has come at the cost of its productivity as more employees have left the company and opted for other employments. Such alterations in the company’s structure have those proved disastrous for the company in managing its business operations and those of the acquisition (McCalman, 2016).

The centralisation came about by integrating customer service, logistics, and sales. The company has been doing well with decentralization, but the abrupt change made by the company through the change manager who is the business systems managers has led to considerable alterations in the company’s structure and a complete overhaul of business operations especially those regarding customer service. Change management is a complex process, which needs an elaborate plan to deal with the different change issues taking place (Green, 2007). As a leader, the change manager has not been able to note on the problems affecting the business both externally and internally.

The management has further contributed to the various problems arising from the change process by putting more pressure on the business systems manager and thus made the team move at a speedier rate without taking into consideration the problems arising from a disgruntled workforce. As a result, the changes brought about by the company have led to disastrous results which if not addressed will lead to reduced productivity, which will affect the company business adversely (Harrington, 2006). Some of the employees have refused to be part of the change process and even resigned leaving the company to seek for quick replacements who are not cognizant of their duties.

Some of the workers have maintained the status quo and sustained a low morale together with dissatisfaction arising from the stressful conditions. The remaining staff has either been in the excess especially in replacing the vacant positions. The myriad changes due to the centralisation of activities have brought about problems that have even led to low morale among the employees. However, both businesses had done well using separate structures and business operations especially those of centralization and decentralization the problem arose when all the functions were to be centralized after the acquisition. As such the centralization of business processes has to be done cleverly to ensure that the companies do not suffered less productivity and eventual losses especially losing out on the market share.

Analysis

Problem Identification/Case Issues

The integration of the various roles involving customer service, logistics and sales and the relocation of the respective staff to the headquarters of EBF has brought about many problems in the company. Overcrowding has been one of the problems. More people are put in the headquarters together with those of the acquired company without dealing with the spacing of the workers. The replacement workers need training which has not been given by the company but which is being done by the employees who are in the same department. As such the workers are overworked in dealing with training the workers on what to do and doing their daily tasks. The significant changes have affected many of the company’s employees particularly as it has created dissatisfaction in the way it was carried out. As such, the problems that can be identified are related to employee dissatisfaction. The change has brought about massive relocations in the workplace, and the company has had to deal with sackings and workers leaving their jobs due to changes that they are not accustomed to. The employee’s opinions have not been taken into consideration, and this has led to conflicting interests between the management and the workers (Raineri, 2011). The communications channels in the organization are not effective since most of the workers and managers at the respective stations have seen problems regarding centralisation of their workers while the change manager has not seen them and has reported the change process as successful to the management. Another problem arises whereby the permanent staff devotes more of their time acclimatizing the replacement staff while at the same time lacking enough time to work on their daily workloads. Such instances have added more strain on their work together with increased absenteeism, decreased job satisfaction, and an increased stressful environment as a result. Such a stressful environment reduces the productivity of the workers, which further affects the overall performance of the company.

Problem Analysis and Justification

As such, the problem affecting the company is dire and needs to be dealt with promptly to mend the broken brand image of the company. The company as of now needs to deal with the various dissatisfying working conditions and bring employees on board to understand the change process. Dissatisfied employees are a danger to the progress of a company, and the signs have started showing since more employees are not working at their optimal best (Senior, 2016). Since the problems are yet to be noticed by the management because of lack of information from the change manager who does not know what is happening in the respective company stations, the problem is, therefore, grievous.

The communication between the various managers and the change management team has not been efficient and therefore contributed a lot to the problems arising from the drastic changes. Customer complaints just show the problems on the surface, but the problem stems from the lack of an effective change management process. More employees are thus not performing up to par because of the different changes that have taken place without their inclusion in the change management. The business systems manager has not consulted widely among the employees and made them part of the change process leading to the present debacle. As such, the change management team has not effectively considered all people in the change process. Change, in this case, has been imposed on them. Those who were resistant were left to seek work elsewhere, and the others had to deal with the additional workload. It is important for the company to deal with the different issues arising in the business to prevent adverse results primarily from the discontented workforce.

Alternative Solutions

Since the company has begun, the change process and the problems have not been noticed by the management it is important for the company to listen to the employees and the change manager work at various solutions to ensure a harmonious working environment. Another solution will be to maintain decentralization since it was working before. The original RSEC will thus continue operating in a decentralized manner and thus prevent the workforce from having to train the replacement workers, which may consume more money and time that would have been used productively by the workforce. Training and development of the workforce need to take place whereby the company organization seminars and workshops to help the new workforce to understand their position in the company about logistics; the customer is service and sales among others. Another solution is to increase the morale of the workforce, which is now very low (Jones & Recardo, 2013). The training and development will reduce the strain on the workers training the replacement staff and will further ensure that they perform their duties without any stress. Apart from educating the employees on the change process, the company needs to motivate them and make them feel like part of the change process. Such a strategy will increase morale and enable the employees to work towards meeting the set objective of the organization.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the company focus on its structure and its employees. Considering the opinions of the employees will help, the company to progress will be little opposition. Employees form part of the company’s most valuable assets and therefore their opinion should be greatly valued. People issues are important in the change management process and therefore should be considered by the change manager (Lewin, 2007). They should be taken by the management as part of the change process and the occupy ensure that they make them feel that their opinion matters. Such a participatory workforce will help make the change process run smoothly and further increase the success of the changes the company is planning.

It is further recommended that the business resort to a decentralized structure that was previously practiced in the various branches. Decentralisation has worked for the company in the past and thus resorting to such a measure will reduce the issues facing the company. The company should further improve on the communication channels and ensure that important information is passed to the management promptly. Since the human resources know most of the information about the difficulties and problems arising channels should be improved in, which communication can reach the change manager and then the management.

Implementation

How change is carried out in an organization is quite important since it determines whether the company will succeed in the end. Since the management has given the change manager, who is the business systems manager the mandate to carry out the various changes it is important to the change manager to have a clear vision that will set out the change process clearly. Since communication is a problem which has to be tackled first. All managers should report any issues affecting them at their respective workstations especially those involving the employees concerned. Communication is the most important aspect of the change process. The changes taking place should be communicated to the employees and managers in this case of RSEC. The company, in this instance, has embarked on the role integrating various departments. In this case, it should consider the spacing and prevent any overcrowding at the EBF company headquarters.

The company should start by educating the various employees on the changes taking place and the new roles they are to play (Cameron & Green, 2004). The staff and managers need to understand the change, roles, or placements while at the same time figure out why the company is making the changes. The business systems manager should thus consult with the workers and take them through the whole process of change to ensure that they understand the different aspects of change (Gerth, 2013). As such, the change manager should have a clear vision that considers people issues, and that has clear communications to ensure effectiveness in carrying it out.

References

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2004). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of organizational change. London: Kogan Page.

Gerth, C. (2013). Business process models: Change management. Berlin: Springer.

Green, M. (2007). Change management masterclass: A step by step guide to successful change management. London: Kogan Page.

Harrington, H. J. (2006). Change management excellence: The art of excelling in change management. Chico, Calif: Paton Press.

Jones, D. J., & Recardo, R. J. (2013). Leading and implementing business change management: Making change stick in the contemporary organization. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Lewin, D. (2011). Change management. London: Henry Stewart Talks.

McCalman, J., Paton, R., & Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: A guide to effective implementation.

Murthy, C. S. V. (2007). Change management. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House Pvt. Ltd.

Raineri, A. B. (March 01, 2011). Change management practices: Impact on perceived change results. Journal of Business Research, 64, 3, 266-272.

Senior, B. (2016). Organizational Change. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Thompson, J. L., Scott, J. M., & Martin, F. (2014). Strategic management: Awareness and change. Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.