MSM DF5

Change Management

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A change initiative that failed in a previous working environment that I have worked for was implementation of automation technology. The company was an internet retailer offering a wide range of products and services through its e-commerce website. The automation initiative was triggered by the need to increase efficiency in customer services by automating some of the roles that were previously done by humans such as receiving customers and issuing of invoices as well as inventory management. Doing these tasks manually required a lot of effort and would take up a lot of human resources.

The initiative was incremental. It aimed at to continuously keep on evolving to ultimately achieve a complete automation where any business process that can be automated will be automated. As part of increasing efficiency and productivity, the initiative sought to reduce production cost by reducing the cost of labor since some of the automated roles would no longer require human input unless there is a technical failure. However, the typical response to the change initiative was proactive. The initiative was an attempt to make changes into the business operations in order to capitalize on future opportunities as well as to create a competitive advantage. One of the indictors used to assess whether or not the organization was effective in relation to the proposed change was efficiency and productivity. The organization was looking for ways in which it can improve on efficiency and productivity so that it can compete effectively in the industry. Consumer needs and demands are constantly evolving and with technology, they have become more impatient and they want fast and efficient services. Therefore, automation of processes was a promising way to ensure that consumer demands are met. The right infrastructure and financial resources were available to support the implementation of the initiative.

Several sources of information were available to assess the current state of the organization before the change was initiated. First the company assessed the organizational culture to evaluate how well it would support the implementation of the initiative that is the compatibility of the initiative with the organizational culture (Hayes, 2018). The company also assessed the impacts the initiative would have on efficiency, productivity, cost of production and organizational structure. The company also assessed whether it had enough financial resources to support the implementation of the change (Hayes, 2018). Important information that would have been assessed was stakeholders’ reaction to the initiative. This would provide substantial information regarding employees and other stakeholders’ perception regarding the implementation of the initiative and how well it would be implemented.

According to the Leader-Member Exchange Theory, leaders should develop high quality relationships with their subordinates so that the subordinates are engaged in decision making process and can give their opinions regarding what they think is best for organization (Hayes, 2018). The company to do better if it focused on automating processes to increase efficiency and productivity rather than focusing on cutting human labor. The initiative failed because the leaders did not engage employees, which made nearly all stakeholders not to support the initiative.

The initiative failed for a number of reasons. First, all employees apart of leaders in senior most position were afraid they would lose their jobs once the automation process begins and thus they were more resistant to the change. Furthermore, the top management did not have a strong relationship with employees. Their main focus was to capitalize on profits even if it took them to fire all employees and automate all activities. However, the company could not be fully automated and thus it needed human labor input. Employees were reluctant to the change because they knew that the initiative would take their jobs.

References

Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.