Running head: CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 1
Consulting Proposal #2
Student’s Name
BMAL 504 – Leading Organizational Change
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 2
Author’s Note
Definition of Project:
This proposal seeks to identify the importance of organizational change in communica-
tion for the McKesson Pharmaceutical Distribution Company (MPDC), the client company that
procured consultancy services from our company following their issues with corporate commu-
nication. For the employees to engage in more impactful communication, policies, organizational
culture, and values will change. Similar to the case study of the Price Waterhouse Coopers
(PWC), one of the crucial elements for organizational change will be employee engagement,
which was evident during the 1998 merger in PWC staff members, James Shaw and Amy Mid-
dleburg.
MPDC is a company that encourages diversity, and appreciation of every employee’s
thoughts. Following the response of employees in MPDC, some staff members have noticed that
there is a problem with the company’s professional communication. Fuller, Heijne-Penninga, Ka-
mans, Vuuren, de Jong and Wolfensberger (2018) believe that professional communication in-
cludes handling social media conversations, saving corporate data accurately in a safe and acces-
sible manner, and engaging in healthy multicultural interactions in the company.
Next, organizational leaders will be an essential contributor to the expected organiza-
tional change at MPDC. According to Shvindina (2017), even though a task group develops a
great strategic plan for change, they require their leader’s validation and support for the program
to be implemented. Leaders are the executive decision-makers in an organization, and more often
than not, their word is final. Research on 8241 employees by Heide, von Platen, Simonsson, and
Falkheimer (2018), found that 36% of the participants were disengaged and dissatisfied at work
because their leaders did not encourage effective professional communication among them and
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 3
their colleagues at their workplaces. 36% is a significant number considering that it constitutes
over a third of the total number of employees in an organization. For the proposed change in the
organizational communication at MPDC, leaders will play a significant role if they would sup-
port the proposal and the project after that.
Diagnosis of the current situation:
In 1998, Shaw and Amy developed an active and clear strategic proposal and plan which
expanded the scope of the definition of success for the company at the time. Amy and Shaw
believed that change was necessary because PWC would be privileged to have more loyal clients
and employees, faceless criticism by regulators and non-governmental institutions, and have an
increase in the financial gains and operations of the company (Jick & Peiper, 2010). In the
current proposal, the consulting company expands the scope of success to include
communication, which is an essential contributor to organization success as described by Fuller
et al. (2018). There will be notable positive changes in the company if the proposal is accepted.
First, social media platforms are technological innovations that widen the communication
among people all over the world by making it time and cost-efficient to communicate with
people even overseas. Maecker, Barrot and Becker (2016) assert that over 100,000 companies
engage in active interactions with consumers of their products and services, and their future
clients through trained and professional social media communication managers and specialists
and these companies get substantial feedback through these conversations. Currently, the social
media platforms of the company are inactive; hence, there is a lack of the much needed and
useful feedback from the consumers of the MPDC’s services. If the proposal is accepted, in the
future, communication staff members will be trained in handling the company’s social media
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 4
platforms professionally, for the company to get the valuable feedback from its clients in a cost
and time-effective way.
Secondly, most of the staff members admit that they have problems with accessing data
saved by their colleagues who are on leave, or those who left the company. Human
miscalculation and disorganized corporate data lead to altered information of the company, such
as false financial figures (Broman & Woo, 2017). Currently, some spreadsheets used by MPDC
employees have empty cells, inconsistent information such as date formats and irregular
formatting of data entry cells. Some are not backed up correctly, and some are in files that cannot
be accessed by other people or they are saved with names that are only known to particular
employees. After the training, the staff members will know how to save information correctly, it
will be easier to access files even in the absence of the responsible employee, and staff members
will know how to enter data with minimal or no errors. Besides, the information will be easily
readable and sensible to anyone.
Lastly, since the labor force at MPDC is diverse, employees need to know how to engage
in effective multicultural interactions in the company. Currently, employees do not have diversity
management skills since they lack knowledge about how to relate and communicate with
workmates who are dissimilar to them. Most of them unconsciously utilize the glass ceiling
effect which Sharma and Kaur (2019) describe as the situation where women and minority
groups in the organization lack equal opportunities as the men or majority group. In future, if
team members learn how to engage in professional multicultural interactions in MPDC, the
benefits of diversity will be more evident. For example, there will be a large pool of ideas from
the underutilized employees hindered by the glass ceiling effect.
Recommendations:
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 5
1. MPDC Leaders should set an example to their team members by engaging in professional
communication. They will be impactful player-coaches who will lead the whole MPDC team
to the desired organizational change.
2. There is a need for active learning for team members in MPDC to learn professional
communication. The action group leaders should focus on training a considerable number of
employees of not more than 20 group members in the specific departments which include
social media, data and diversity management. The action groups may meet for 2-4 times a
week, depending on the most convenient time for most of the chosen group members.
3. The chosen and trained employees will train their colleagues in the areas discussed in the
action learning groups.
4. The action learning group members should learn team identification which, according to
Reis and Puente-Palacios (2019) is the appreciation of being associated with others in a
group. They will learn that they are not fighting each other, but working together towards a
common goal.
5. There could be different coaches to train specific groups in the mentioned areas. Schalk
and Landeta (2017) recommend that leaders should evaluate the situation before appointing
an internal or external coach because there are times when one is more effective compared to
the other.
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 6
6. There should be an award for MPDC Teams which show considerable changes for them
to motivate other individuals and teams to engage in professional communication.
Implementation Plan:
The implementation plan’s targets are to see that MPDC staff members will know how to
engage in productive professional communication methods, promptly as described in the
recommendations. If the client company, MPDC accepts the proposal, the project will run for
seven months, followed by an evaluation of the effectiveness of the plan.
Role Name Contact Time Frame
Consultant in-charge 7 Months
Project Manager 7 Months
Coach #1- Social Media coach 7 Months
Coach #2- Data Entry coach 7 Months
Coach #3- Diversity management
coach
7 Months
(Source: Author, 2020)
Summary:
Based on the case study of PWC, a consulting company, our company which is also a
consultancy company can learn some of the perspectives of change necessary for the
development of our clients’ organizations. Most global consultancy companies like PWC have a
significant impact on the business sector in the world because many national and international
companies consult them on organizational change. They can improve or decrease the consistency
of companies in conducting environmentally-friendly practices and how they can become
socially responsible in the communities that they serve (Jick & Peiper, 2010). In my view, these
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 7
companies also provide different strategies on how client organizations can improve their
cultures, to increase their productivity in all sectors.
Communication, in my opinion, plays a crucial role in determining the success of a
business. The proposal outlines a clear explanation of the needful change in MPDC’s
communication culture. How the social media, corporate data and multicultural interactions are
handled in the company limit the effectiveness of the company. As the consultant, I found that
MPDC employees need training in the management of the company’s social media accounts,
storage of data in an accessible way and appreciation of their dissimilar workmates. I
recommend that there should be at most three action learning coaches, each for one aspect of the
program. However, if one can handle two or more areas, it would not alter the implementation of
the suggested plan. I chose a limit of 20 for the action groups because if the number is too large,
it may be difficult and time-consuming to conduct action learning since all members must speak
during the sessions.
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 8
Also, I think seven months is enough time for the average adult to learn a new technique.
The implementation plan given is straightforward and sums up the roles of each key personnel in
the proposed program. If the project is well implemented, there will be improved, open and
honest communication in MPDC. Moreover, value judging and prejudice, which may adversely
affect the contribution of downgraded experts in the company, will be decreased through team
identification. Hopefully, the proposal will increase the level of success of MPDC.
References
Broman, K., & Woo, K. (2017). Data Organization in Spreadsheets. The American Statisti-
cian, 72(1), 1-10. doi:10.1080/00031305.2017.1375989
Fuller, M., Heijne-Penninga, M., Kamans, E., van Vuuren, M., de Jong, M., & Wolfensberger, M.
(2018). Identifying competence characteristics for excellent communication
professionals. Journal Of Communication Management, 22(2), 233-252.
doi:10.1108/jcom-07-2016-0051
Heide, M., von Platen, S., Simonsson, C., & Falkheimer, J. (2018). Expanding the Scope of
Strategic Communication: Towards a Holistic Understanding of Organizational
Complexity. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4), 452-468.
doi:10.1080/1553118x.2018.1456434
Jick, T., & Peiper, M. (2010). Managing Change: Cases and Concepts (3rd ed., pp. 462-474).
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maecker, O., Barrot, C., & Becker, J. (2016). The effect of social media interactions on customer
relationship management. Business Research, 9(1), 133-155. doi:10.1007/s40685-016-
0027-6
CONSULTING PROPOSAL #2 9
Reis, D., & Puente-Palacios, K. (2019). Team effectiveness: the predictive role of team
identity. RAUSP Management Journal, 54(2), 141-153. doi:10.1108/rausp-07-2018-0046
Schalk, M., & Landeta, J. (2017). Internal versus external executive coaching. Coaching: An In-
ternational Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 10(2), 140-156.
doi:10.1080/17521882.2017.1310120
Sharma, S., & Kaur, R. (2019). Glass Ceiling for Women and Work Engagement: The Moderat-
ing Effect of Marital Status. FIIB Business Review, 8(2), 132-146.
doi:10.1177/2319714519845770
Shvindina, H. (2017). Leadership as a driver for organizational change. Business Ethics And
Leadership, 1(1), 74-82. doi:10.21272/bel.2017.1-09
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