student 1 week 5 response

Week Five Discussion Fawziyah

Margot,

It is great to hear that you are making progress on the acquisition of the new product line. Per your request, I have included my responses to your questions.

1. Understanding the Need for Innovation

Employees need to understand the need for Smithfield to continue to be innovative because growth is stimulated by innovation (Lumen Learning, Types of Innovation, n.d.). By remaining innovative, Smithfield’s employees are encouraged to produce original and creative work. The work and ideas generated can help the company with differentiating your products and sharpening your competitive advantage (Lumen Learning, Organizational Benefits of Innovation, n.d.).

2. Significant "Noise" factors

Credibility, Denotation and Connotation and Information Overload are some factors that are likely to interfere with the launch of this new product line.

Credibility is important because the reputation of whoever delivers this announcement will impact how Smithfield employees decode it (Lumen Learning, Credibility, n.d.). For example if the deliverer has a reputation at Smithfield for laying off their team members, employees are likely to interpret this acquisition as a move that will negatively affect their jobs rather than one that will create a culture of innovation. Not only would this impact employees levels of motivation, it can reduce the number of employees and reduce morale.

Next, it is useful for you to consider denotation and connotation when delivering this announcement because of the vast number of regions that Smithfield has employees in (UMGC, 2021). Denotation and connotation of words used in the announcement can impact how employees interpret it because it can cause confusion((Lumen Learning, Denotation and Connotation, n.d.). For example, your employees in Germany can denote a phrase differently from the deliverer intended. Reducing instances that allow for confusion to arise will ensure that all employees decode the same thesis of this announcement.

It is also important to be aware of information overload when crafting this announcement because it can not only introduce confusion, but it can also cause distraction (Lumen Learning, Information Overload, n.d.). It is logical to assume that of the 21,000 employees at Smithfield, there is variety in how long each employee has been at the company (UMGC, 2021). For example, employee X might not understand how innovation will impact their specific role at Smithfield, or employee Y might not know what an acquisition means because they are a 16 yr old part time worker in one of your retail stores! Using this to anticipate the questions and level of understanding of each employee will maximize the chances of them decoding it accurately.

3. Obstacles to the Acceptance of Change

Fear of change in the work, fear of change in how work is completed, and fear of loss of their job are obstacles that might make it difficult for employees to support the new product launch (Lumen Learning, Understanding Change Management, n.d.).

If Smithfield employees' fear of change in the work they do that stems from this acquisition is not eliminated, it can cause confusion and reduce morale. When employees are worried that their tasks are going to change, they might find it difficult to continue to excel at them or might start looking for new roles outside of the company. You want to ensure that you assuage this fear by clearly explaining the changes that WILL take place, and the resources you will be providing to keep them ontrack.

Additionally, if Smithfield employees begin to fear that their jobs are not secure, this can really impact the new product launch. Because you need these employees to implement the changes, you want to ensure that they are confident in the security of their jobs.

Finally, make sure to eliminate the fear of change in how work is completed by emphasizing resources you will be providing to employees to take them through that change. Clearly communicating and training employees is a great way to eliminate this obstacle.

4. An Effective Change Management Technique

The change management technique I’d recommend to you would be to ensure that your communication (about the announcement, and through the integration of the new line) is excellent. I recommend this because it will allow you to protect your change efforts from being unsuccessful (Lumen Learning, Managing Change, n.d.). Working on making all communications to employees regarding this change will also leave no room for inaccurate interpretation, and confusion.

5. Possible Decision-making Oversight

As a group, one oversight that the Smithfield’s board might make in the launch of this new product line is allowing anchoring bias to impact this decision. According to Lumen Learning, Anchoring, this bias might make decision makers, like the board, fixate on the original information about the launch and ignore any new information (n.d.). From your note, it sounds like you and the board have a clear reason for acquiring this company. You should ensure that the group considers and carefully analyzes every new information you receive about the new acquisition so that you are not susceptible to this bias.

References

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Principles of Management. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

University of Maryland Global Campus. (2021). BMGT 364 – Week 5Discussion in BMGT 364. Case Study Scenario shared in UMGC BMGT 364 online classroom, archived at https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/547071/Home