Essay Sample on Organisational Change Management

Blue Marina is seen to have been once a very successful restaurant. Being located in a mall creates very great exposure to the target market for the foods it offers. However, with time, we see that there have been quite some issues that have arisen from the management system that had been initially put in place. As it can be seen, Blue Marinas main target was to maximize efficiency and reduce the turnaround times: orders must be swiftly relayed to the table within 15 minutes, even during peak hours the intended outcomes being consistency and both customer service and daily sales targets. We see, however, that within a few years of being in functionality, this target started to lag behind. The restaurant began to deteriorate in performance.

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`Internal Factors that affected the decision for change were mostly brought about by the personnel (Dachler & Wilpert, 1978, p.209). It has been renowned that the staff has not been able to perform as well as they used to. This happens to be as a result of lack of coordination among the staff in the restaurant. It has been observed that the staff in the kitchen and the waiting staff are not able to appropriately systematize themselves to maximize their efficiency (Dachler & Wilpert, 1978, p.209). For this reason, it has been observed that customers have to wait for really long to get served.

Due to the lack of coordination mentioned above among the members of staff in the restaurant, we see a consequent delay in service. For this reason, Blue Marina has lost quite a couple of customers in the past few years. It has been observed that there has appeared quite a decrease in the profits (Ertrurk, 2008, p.463). Alarmingly, losses have been registered in the restaurant thus portraying the dire need for change. These observations thus made the new manager decided that any new staff members will have to go through induction in order to ensure that they are well trained for the job in order to offer the desired quality of service (Ertrurk, 2008, p.463).

The external factor that has driven to this change is the competition that has evidently been created by the pub and the two new restaurants in the mall. For this reason we see the decision to make Blue Marina a chain restaurant such that regardless of the competition at the current mall, the branch at the Harbour and 5 miles away in the north of the city (Ertrurk, 2008, p.463). This change strategy seeks to counter the competition.

Analysis of the nature of change

Blue Marina is undergoing serious changes both in its management and its operations. As we see the change that is taking place at Blue Marina is mainly internal organizational change (Ertrurk, 2008, p.463). It is evident that there are various factors both internal and external that have affected this change that is being caused by the new management. Internal organizational change occurs in many different forms, this are, mergers, restructuring, technological advancements, process enhancements, changing customer demands and new product lines (Ertrurk, 2008, p.463). These have been clearly observed in the change description that is proposed for Blue Marina Restaurant.

There is also proof of structural change in Blue Marina. This is when there are alterations in the organizational structure of a company due to internal or external factors that affect how the entire company is thus run. The structural changes in an organization mean the hierarchical structures in an organization, the chain of command or the management system. From the beginning, we see that the previous manager stepped down and let Marcello, his son, take over. This is a change of management system and also affected the command of the restaurant. This qualifies as a structural change that took place in Blue Marina (Elving, 1990, p.130). Moreover, the fact that the restaurant is made a chain of restaurants means that there will be a different organizational structure and the manager will be the overall head of all the restaurants while there will be branch managers. This is an alteration of the structure.

There is also evidence of strategic change in Blue Marina (Elving, 1990, p.130). This is the change that mainly involves the change of the overall purpose, goals, and the entire mission of the company. It is a complete opposite of how the business usually does business originally. The external environment of a company is what usually mainly affects the decision for business strategy (Elving, 1990, p.130). In this case, the strategic management of the Blue Marina restaurant has been affected by the customer needs and the competition that has arisen. In our scenario, we see that Blue Marina has changed to a chain restaurant; this is a complete upheaval of what the restaurant initially was. We also see that the restaurant now aims at having partnerships with other organizations in the mall; this was something that was in initially not in the business strategy. This is clear evidence that Blue Marina has undergone structural change (Elving, 1990, p.130).

The final type of change that has been experienced in Blue Marina is the people changes. These are changes that are directed towards making the performance skills of the personnel better (Elving, 1990, p.130). In addition to this the change aims to improve the attitudes, behavior and loyalty of the personnel to the organization. This is also designed to improve interpersonal relationships inside the organization (Elving, 1990, p.130). It is evident that there is people change in Blue Marina. This is revealed by the way in which new employees are to receive induction before they start working at the restaurant. This is aimed at improving the skills of the workers so that they are in turn able to deliver quality services. In addition to this we see that induction is mostly done by older employees thus improving interpersonal relationships among the employees in the organization (Eilam and Shamir, 2005, p. 420). This is thus a clear indication of people changes in Blue Marina.

Employee reactions

Employees are bound to react to changes in an organization in which they work. It is a most common response for them to resist the change and have negative responses to it. However, sometimes, employees may have positive responses to change (Eilam and Shamir, 2005, p. 420). We see that Blue Marina wants to adopt new strategies for its activities and its organization. There are various ways in which the employees of Blue Marina may choose to react. These are as follows:

Fear

Fear is the default response among people to change. Employees at Blue Marina may experience fear immediately they hear about the changes in the organization (Eilam and Shamir, 2005, p. 420). The fear among employees is usually manifested in the form of various questions. These are like: job security, satisfaction, demotion or pay cuts (Eilam and Shamir, 2005, p. 420). Workers may fear that they may be demoted from their positions or receive less pay as a result of a change in Blue Marina. Sometimes the fear may become very intense such that some employees may face psychological issues as a result of the change (Eilam and Shamir, 2005, p. 420). These may include panic and the belief that they are not capable of manifesting the change in the expected design.

Anger

Due to organizational changes there might be changes in the status quo of some of the employees in Blue Marina. An example of this is if one of the regular employees of the first Blue Marina restaurant is made a branch manager, and thus their previous colleagues are forced to take command and instructions from them (Bordia & Horman, 2004, p.209). This may make some employees very anger. This anger may be repressed or shown one time in the form of quitting. Frustration may also arise from this anger. In this case, employees may even start to question the leadership of the company, especially in this case that the company is under a new manager. Gossip and backstabbing can occur that may sabotage the change efforts especially if this anger is ignored (Bordia & Horman, 2004, p. 508).

Ambivalence

Even though some employees may be adverse to the change, not all will have negative responses to the change (Bordia and Horman, 2004, p. 508). Some employees may be neutral to the change. These are the employees who should the change manage to be successful; they are willingly going to participate. These employees are those that are quite flexible, in case of a failure of the change they are not quite affected in any way. They are quite comfortable with whatever happens in the company. These employees mainly portray a sense of detachment from the company.

Enthusiasm

Some employees may not have any problem with the change in Blue Marina. They might warmly embrace the change (Bordia and Horman, 2004, p. 508). This is usually mainly because this group of people sees an opportunity for them that may result from the change. They might also perceive the change as a natural next step of life for them. Others may simply be enthusiastic for the change because they understand that the change is a requirement for the survival of the Blue Marina (Bordia and Horman, 2004, p. 508). This is mainly as a result of loyalty. The manager of Blue Marina should acknowledge this type of employee and allocate some of the change management tasks to the supportive employees (Bordia and Horman, 2004, p. 508). They can positively influence the change of Blue Marina Restaurant.

Recommendations on change management and execution

Implementation of change in an organization such as Blue Marina is not an easy process. It requires skill and the appropriate skill to ensure that the change is properly implemented. These are some of the recommendations for proper implementation of the changes that are aimed at for Blue Marina:

The administration should be aggressively involved in the change management (Jim, 1999, p.56). The management should show open support for these changes for the employees to gain confidence in the modifications that are being put into practice in the restaurant. The initial owner of the company should also make a statement in support of the change to boost the confidence of the employees in the new ideas and strategies (Jim, 1999, p.56). The employees thus develop a comfort level when they see the new and old management supporting the process.

There ought to be a good basis for the change (Jim, 1999, p.59). A case for the change should be made. It can be a result of data collection or, in this case, a diagram of a flow chart of the profits of Blue Marina over the years. It can also be a customer satisfaction survey, customer comment cards, and business targets owing to a strategic planning session or budget pressures. This will enable everyone who is not directly involved in the decision for the change to understand and support the decision for the change. It will thus be easier to implement the change due to lack of opposition (Jim, 1999, p.59).

Employees should be involved in the change at some level (Jim, 1999, p.59). The organizational change needs to be explained and communicated to the employees especially on how it affects their jobs. In whatever way, whether changing a work process, improving customer satisfaction or finding ways to reduce costs, employees have the experiences that can benefit the change planning and implementation process. Employees are the closest to the process and, for this reason, it is important that they understand the reasons behind the change and participates in creating the new process.

The change should be communicated (Beer &Nohria, 2000, p. 141). It is the responsibility of the organization to communicate the change to the employees. When there is poor communication, a rumour may s...