Organisational Change

MKT320: Managing Change

Assessment: 1

Submitted to: Tom Denigan

Date: 5th April 2013

\Submitted By: TanjinurRahmanMeem

Student ID: 11441906

Table of Contents

Introduction

Organisational Change

Organisation Background

Context of the Change at Dell Computers

Justification regarding the selected Change Example

Reason for Organisational Change within Dell

Role of Change Agent in facilitating change

Conclusion

References

Introduction

The aims of this assignment are to address the context of change with the help of a change example of an organisation. For doing this assessment, the company selected is Dell Computers, which successfully changed its traditional supply chain. The assignment describes organisational change, company background and context of change, justifications related to selected change example, use of theories to understand change and support the information, identification and discussion of role of change agent in facilitating the change in Dell Computers, along with conclusion.

Organisational Change

Organisational change pertains the change that impact the way work is performed as well as a company staff. Changes can be structural, cultural, roles related; technological etc. Different writers portray organisational change in different ways, but there are at least three ways generally used to conceptualise the idea of organisational change. Initially, writers believe in describing its character, second they discuss about its extent, and third they talk about its causes, which in turn help in conceptualising organisational change. Character means describing the properties or nature of change in companies with the help of different models or Metaphors (Pasmore et. al., 2010).

Extent of change refers to a specific type of change and level of change, which may also be understood with different available illustrations. A third way to define organisational change is to identify its causes. Here, factors or drivers causing change to occur are determined, which are classified in two broad causes. Change emerging as a result of environmental factors known as emergent change, and change planned by organisations people, known as planned change. Identification of character, extent of change, and causes are significant to define organisational change.

Organisation Background

For completing the given tasks and related assessments, an organisation selected is Dell Computers. The company change example is the “restructuring of its supply-chain with the use of e-commerce and IT”. Dell Computers is a leading American multinational computer technology corporation situated in United States. The company formulates, sells, fixes, and supports computers and associated products and services (Ayers, 2010). The company operates as one of the biggest technological corporations throughout the world.

From the time of its initiation, the company has attained immense success and growth with the help of increasing its customer base as well as through significant mergers and acquisitions. The company being operating in number of countries of the world operate with an extensive supply chain. At present, it is famous for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce, mostly because of direct-sales model and its "build-to-order" or "configure to order" manufacturing approach.

Previously company used to operate on traditional manufacturing model, but with increasing competition, it became difficult or it to hold inventory in warehouses as personal computer industry is highly dynamic and may become obsolete overnight. With large and complex supply chain, it also becomes essential for the company to improve its profits and customer service in comparison to its competition. With extensive expansion in different parts of the world, supply chain became complex and difficult to be managed manually. So, the company management decided to restructure its supply chain and implement this change in an effective manner to attain a competitive edge.

Context of the Change at Dell Computers

For developing an understanding of the context of change undertaken by the company it is vital to identify its character, extent, and causes. In accordance to Kurt Lewain, the organisational change undertaken by Dell is a movement from one stable or equilibrium point to another stable equilibrium point. This change also involves three step process of unfreezing (reducing the forces), moving (shifting supply chain activity to innovation), and refreezing (setting or fixing the organisation at a new equilibrium point) (Burke, Lake & Paine, 2008).

In accordance to the table provided by Levy and Merry (1986), the extent of change of Dell Supply chain is second-order change, because it is multi-dimensional, multi-level, radical change including a paradigmatic shift from traditional supply chain model. As per Linda S. Ackerman, the extent of change is transformational change as it brought a radical shift in company’s supply chain and manufacturing (Chapman, 2002). The cause of this change is planned but undertook to keep ahead of competition. The company management decided to change its supply chain with an aim to make it more innovative and deal with long supply chain complexities (Burnes, 2004). The factors forced company to change supply chain were complex supply chain, increasing complexities to manage it manually, use of technologies by competitors, concern for future performance etc.

Justification regarding the selected Change Example

The selected example of change of Dell computers Supply-chain is significant to explore various aspects of the organisational change 1) Diagnosis; 2) Change intervention and 3) Evaluation and institutionalisation. The change done in company’s supply chain was not sudden and planned by its management as well as undertaken in different phases, which provides a significant base to explore all change management aspects. The process used by the company to change its supply-chain would assist in evaluating different phases of organisational change in the context of this company. All aspects analyzed in terms of Dell supply chain restricting would assist in understanding how diagnosis is done, change intervention used, and evaluation and institutionalisation of change.

Dell example is an example of technology change, which is critical at present for almost all organisations. Today, without e-commerce and IT, it is difficult for companies to attain success, thus this example is selected for this study. With an analysis of this change example of Dell Computers, other would also become able to understand how a technology change can be initiated, executed, and implemented successfully in the context of organisational change (Epstein, 2004). The example includes all essential characteristic, extent, and causes, which defines an organisational change. The change was really successful and directed the company towards considerable innovations in its supply-chain, which is a reason of its selection (Pasmore et. al., 2010).

Reason for Organisational Change within Dell

With increasing competition from its competitors, the company find it difficult to maintain its position in long run, and this was the key reason of adopting a change. Changes related to large-scale system-wide changes are known as second order change. Smaller and incremental homeostatic changes are known as first-order changes. With the help of this metaphor and evaluating Dell change example, it is evident that the change adopted was second order change with an aim to implement large scale system-wide changes. The company adopted this change through its system, which in turn means that the company were worried about its long-term future instead of short-term position (Hill & Jones, 2007).

In accordance to Linda S. Ackerman (Chapman, 2002), an extent of change can be developmental, transitional, and transformational. The change undertaken by Dell was transformation as per this approach because it brought a radical shift or reorganized company’s supply chain thoroughly (Chapman, 2002). The change was driven by environmental forces, but was planned as the company could have operates without restructuring its supply-chain, but then it would not have been able to attain future sustainability. With increasing competition and uncertainty of company’s future sustainability, its management planned to change its supply chain, so it can be said that the change was planned and reason behind this was to attain significant position in long run.

Role of Change Agent in facilitating change

Facilitating a change is not easy, and this is the reason companies employ change agent as employed by Dell for managing planned change. Change agent are the one employed internally within the company and confront themselves fulfilling different competing roles, attain a balance, attend employees emotional needs as well as senior management’s expectations. Change agent employed by Dell was engaged in consultation with the company implementing change (Helms-Mills, Dye & Mills, 2008). In addition, he also helped in clarifying the organisational issue to develop a clear understanding, which in turn helped in effective working of planned change efforts. Subsequent to developing clear understanding, the company change agent also decided the relevant client or team interested in change with required experience. As well, he also selected an OD practitioner specialized in particular areas of change needed (Pasmore et. al., 2010).

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion, it is evident that the change example selected is appropriate as it has character, extent, and causes. The change example would be beneficial to complete the assessment 2 and 3, as it includes a planned change with different phases, which would help in understanding the overall process of organisational change. Assessment 2 and 3 are related to developing an understanding of key phases of change management process, which would be easy to describe with the selection of Dell change management example.

References

Ayers, J.B. (2010).Handbook of Supply Chain Management (2nd edition). India: CRC Press.

Burke, W.W., Lake, D.G. & Paine, J.W. (2008).Organization Change: A Comprehensive Reader. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Burnes, B. (2004). Emergent change and planned change – competitors or allies?The case of XYZ construction.International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24 (9), pp.886 – 902.

Chapman, J.A. (2002). A framework for transformational change in organisations.Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23 (1), pp.16 – 25.

Epstein, M.J. (2004). Implementing Ecommerce Strategies. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Helms-Mills, J., Dye, K. & Mills, A.J. (2008).Understanding Organizational Change.London: Routledge.

Hill, C.W.L. & Jones, G.R. (2007).Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach (8th edition). USA: Cengage Learning.

Pasmore, W.A. et al. (2010).Research in Organizational Change and Development. USA: Emerald Group Publishing.

Waddell, D. M., Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2011).Organisational change: Development and transformation. (Asia Pacific 4th Ed.) Melbourne, Cengage Learning.

TanjinurRahmanMeem 11441906Page 1